Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/681909
46 JUNE 2016 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com LAST BITE More Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg Suzanne Niemann grower / Yakima, Washington age / 23 crops / Apples, cherries business / Horticultural researcher for Allan Brothers Inc. family background / Suzanne's love of agriculture grew out of her interest in the sciences. She is the daughter of Joe and Marti Niemann, and she is working to apply research to improve fruit from the fi eld to the consumer. " " " " How did you get your start? I'd always grown up enjoying the science part of nature. I was involved in 4-H, and I was always interested in sustainable agriculture. I pursued my undergrad degree at Washington State University, then obtained my master's degree in horticulture. One of the reasons why I think agriculture is so inspiring for me is — it's meteorology, it's geology, it's chemistry, biology, botany — it's all these different sciences together, and all in one industry and career. It's agriculture, that's all it is. So being able to combine all of those fi elds into my job, my career, is just a dream come true. Describe your job as a horticulturist? My role is in assisting precision agriculture because there's a lot of things like irrigation fertilizer management, pruning trials, that no matter what research is available, we still need to be able to apply it to each growing environment. For Allan Brothers, we have orchards from Naches, Mattawa, Pasco that all have different soil types, so knowing how research can fi t our particular orchards, climate, etc., that's how my role in the company can be infl uential. I can spend my time looking at the nitty-gritty details of growing instead of trying to master everyday operations. What do you enjoy about your job? The work I do changes constantly. Sometimes I'm in the warehouse with quality control, some- times I'm in the fi eld making applications or check- ing fruit. Let alone there's the statistical side of it, where I'm gathering all of the data, putting it into a computer and learning what the numbers are telling me. I can go back to people in upper-management and explain, "We did these trials, this is what we saw, then we can do something different, or maybe do the same thing." What are some of your goals? Some of the long-term goals would be looking at organics and sustainable agriculture. Is organics really sustainable or can we grow conventionally and still be sustainable using less inputs and hav- ing better practices for our environment? I'm also really interested in improving our quality control data that we take at the warehouses. I'd really like to better fi ne-tune our QC practices and our stor- age protocol. In this industry, there's always new things to learn and always new things to gain. " What I do is really dynamic and that's just the fruit side of my job. PLAY goodfruit.com/yg scan to watch the interview www.gslong.com SPONSORED BY by TJ Mullinax More from this interview and other Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg.