Good Fruit Grower

46 MARCH 1, 2017 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com LAST BITE More Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg Dillon Luebber grower / Malaga, Washington age / 27 crops / Cherries, apples and pears business / Luebber Orchards family background / Dillon was raised southeast of Wenatchee, Washington, along the Columbia River by Jan and Fern Luebber. He obtained an economics degree with an emphasis in agriculture from Wenatchee Valley College and Washington State University and now works on the family farm and with Stemilt Growers on their fi eld staff. " " " " How did you get your start? Growing up with two older sisters working the farm, I had a general idea about what I wanted to do as a career. There was a block of cherries where we learned how to change hand lines. I graduated to riding the four-wheelers, then operating the tractors. To this day, my sisters are better at backing up a trailer than most of my guy friends, which is great. Over the years, I moved up and got a taste of managing the workers, crews and different job tasks. Some of the jobs I've done aren't that fun, but they've molded me into the character that I am today. What have you been learning about the industry? We're privileged to be in the growing region around Malaga, especially for cherries. We're trying new things, too. It's pretty cru- cial nowadays to know what the large farms are doing. Planting so many trees per acre combined with all of the trellis work is expensive. It helps you realize that you've got to ask yourself the questions like, should I grow certain apple varieties? Because there'll probably be another sport of that apple with better col- or in the future. Should I put in a trellis with a taller pole every other one so I can possibly do a netting of some sort in the future? As a small farmer, you can't afford that. It just doesn't fi nancially exist for smaller growers. My pockets aren't that deep. What challenges does your farm face? Areas we need to focus on for the future are centered on labor and weather risk factors. A lot of our densities in the cherry orchards are mostly 18 feet by 12 feet and of course 20 feet by 20 feet. I hope we can get more trees planted 6 feet by 14 feet in the ground. That'll be 518 trees to the acre, which will be pushing almost 8 tons to the acre and you've only got to grow 30 pounds per tree. Doing modifi cations like that will help protect yourself from a market standpoint and have an orchard that's attractive enough for pickers to work for you. What are you looking to do to modernize your farm? Some of the things we're looking into doing on our farm are more of the two-leader, down-the-row-style planting. It cuts your trees per acre in half, which is a huge cost sav- ings for us. With trellises, we're looking to go more vertical systems. Basically, we're starting to put in more pears and with more pears we're leaning toward Stefano Musacchi's bi-ax down the row — three or four wire, something simple. " This kind of job has its irreplaceable moments that you simply cannot get back in town. 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.

• Cover