ProductsPacking
Staff
“I started working for Ralph Broetje in 1976. That first year I drove a tractor. The second year, I started doing irrigation work. I didn’t know anything about irrigation then, but Ralph worked side-by-side with me and I started learning. As the company expanded, Ralph would get the irrigation plans from an engineer and give them to me and I would start working on it.

Things went well, and Ralph recognized that I could do the job. So he assigned the job to me. It is a lot of responsibility, but Ralph takes a lot of risk in assigning people jobs and when he sees people grow he assigns more. It is a challenge for the workers to take on that responsibility and get the job done. This is a company that gives opportunities to the employees and those opportunities help the employees grow. That is what I have seen in the time that I have been here.
It takes everybody to produce a good quality product. In irrigation we follow a plan. If a block was irrigated in the morning, the next time we irrigate at night. With cherries, we pick until noon and then irrigate the rest of the day. As apple season comes up, we track the irrigation more, because the sun is hotter and the apples can’t get sunburned.
It is very gratifying to see the results of the work we have done during harvest. It is gratifying to see the apples on the trees, and how the irrigation and the pruning we did at the start of the year has helped them grow. “Everybody has different responsibilities, but we all have one goal: to grow the best apples. And if we don’t take care of it, how are we going to fill the new warehouse with apples?"

“My first job here was to pick apples, then do pruning and thinning. After about a year, I was asked to supervise the nursery for apple trees and supervise about five other people. I started working in the warehouse in 1996 and today I supervise the packing lines; I work with people and train them.
“I’ve liked working in the warehouse because there are more new things to learn; but I also like the orchard because I like nature. Seeing an apple tree come from the nursery and grow is very gratifying.

The opening of the new packing facility is very exciting. From when I first started until now, I have seen the company grow a lot. When I started, only about 150 people worked for the company. I still have my pay stubs from then. The checks were written by hand and there wasn’t an office so it was done in somebody’s house. So it is really exciting to be part of that growth.
I have three children, and they have had many opportunities here. Other companies do not offer the opportunities that are here. Their goal is to go to college.”