Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/317955
According to a re- cent Hoover Institute poll of 1,000 Californians, strengthening the econ- omy and improving the job situation topped their pri- ority list. While the state's job market may still seem bleak to most, there are unique workforce short- ages that are yielding high- wage regional career op- portunities. Agriculture and food manufacturing is one of California's largest indus- tries, now grossing more than $44 billion a year, which generates at least $100 billion in related eco- nomic activity. In 2012, ag- riculture employed more than 400,000 Californians. There are currently more than 80,500 farms and ranches in the state, cover- ing some 25.4 million acres of land. With the world pop- ulation expected to grow by a few billion in 35 years, California's agriculture in- dustry is expected to ex- pand considerably to meet increased demand. This is great news for California, and the agri- culturally-rich central and northern regions of the state, but there is just one problem: currently there are not enough special- ized agricultural workers to meet this growing de- mand, according to Greg O'Sullivan, deputy sector navigator of agriculture, water and environmental technology for Doing What Matters For Jobs and the Economy, a workforce pro- gram created by the Cali- fornia Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. "Most people think agri- culture is all farmers and ranchers, but there are more than 200 high-wage professional or specialized jobs such as crop and soil scientists, veterinarians, microbiologists, irriga- tion or bioprocessing engi- neers, environmental ana- lysts, commodity traders and business managers," said O'Sullivan. "Unfortu- nately, many of those ex- isting workers are retiring soon, and right now there is little awareness about these great career oppor- tunities." O'Sullivan is responsible for California's far north region including Shasta, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Plumas, Si- erra, Tehama, Lassen, Mo- doc, Siskiyou and Trinity counties . O'Sullivan has been working in these coun- ties the past year to de- velop education programs that address each area's top workforce shortages. Some of the occupations in high demand of workers right now include pest con- trol advisors, food safety of- ficers, farm managers and food manufacturing first- line production and opera- tion supervisors, which all earn annual salaries start- ing at $40,000. "Butte College, Lassen College, Shasta College, and College of the Siskiy- ous are all developing new agriculture curriculum in interesting water and agri- science subjects that we hope will inspire students to enter the field and be- come their foundation for a certificate or degree." Butte College in Oroville, is working on developing an online weed science course and lab that will fulfill one of the required courses to become a pest control ad- visor. Discussions are also underway to make the weed science lab mobile, which will make it avail- able to students at other regional community col- leges. Butte College cur- rently offers associate de- grees, transferable credits and certificate programs in agriculture business, agri- culture science, environ- mental studies, environ- mental horticulture and mechanized agriculture. In Susanville, Lassen College recently began working with a major ir- rigation company to build new curriculum around ir- rigation management and water conservation. Since the beginning of the year, faculty at College of the Siskiyous have been in the process of bringing back several introductory agriculture courses that were deactivated several years ago. This past fall, Shasta College was the first to launch a full-scale pest control advisor prepara- tion program that will al- low students to become li- censed PCAs in about two years. EDUCATION Ag ri cu lt ur e is becoming popular career choice in state For years I have heard and read about the Asphalt Cowboys Pancake Break- fast in Redding during ro- deo week, and wanted to go. But, it was always hay- ing time, shipping to the mountains, checking on the cattle and Bill and I could never get away. It was on my bucket list, and that is where it stayed until Irene Fuller and Carol Enos said, "let's go to the pancake breakfast." The crowds were just as large as television and the Record Searchlight re- ported. This year there were between 10,500 (newspaper report) and 11,000 (report from the As- phalt Cowboy who made the pancake batter) that en- joyed a stack of three pan- cakes, a sausage patty, milk or orange juice and lots of coffee for $5. I was told they started feeding the crowd at 5 a.m. and there were still peo- ple getting a plate of food at 10 a.m. There were men in the yellow shirts with green lettering, plus mem- bers of service clubs and lo- cal celebrities cooking and serving. The coffee was made in the 40-gallon bean pots, and there were at least four pots. Had always thought they were a group of bearded old men who loved to shoot straw hats with their guns at the end of the Red Bluff Round Up parade. I didn't realize they are really a se- rious group of civic minded men. In 1952 Sheriff John Balma went to the busi- ness folks and wanted help promoting the rodeo. The group put on the first Top Hand dinner, and the fol- lowing year the Asphalt Cowboys were formed with 15 business men. They are deputized by the Shasta County Sheriff, and are the Disaster Feeding Unit in Northern California with tables and chairs for 2,000 people plus the equipment to feed large numbers of people. Last year for the Viola or Manton fire (not sure which one he mentioned) they were called out at noon, and meat was cooking by 5 p.m. The membership ranges in age from 39 to 82 years. At present there are 36 men in the club, but char- tered for 40 by the sheriff. This year everyone had to grow beards before the ro- deo, reason why I thought they were old men. Tom Spade has been a member for 38 years, and he has made the pancake batter for 31 years. It took 119 bags of 25 pounds of dry batter mix starting at mid- night to make the 4,800 pounds of mixed batter. Asphalt Cowboys are es- pecially proud of their spe- cial day of rodeo for the 150 to 200 handicapped chil- dren that come to ride the horses, have their picture taken, wagon ride plus Pepsi Cola and ice cream. They used to go to the schools for this event, but now they bus the children to the rodeo grounds. By noon everything was cleaned up on all the streets, and you didn't know what a great break- fast had been served. Historicbarntour Saturday, daughter Ken- dra and I enjoyed the Fort Crook Historical Society of Fall River Mills Historic Barn Tour and BBQ in the Glenburn and Pittville ar- eas. There was the freshly painted red barns, and old barns with the boards rat- tling in the wind. We viewed 17 barns on the tour that were 100 years or older. Most had the ax marks on the inte- rior wood, and some barns built by Schneider had long round poles instead of square blocks of wood hold- ing up the roof and center of barn. If you are looking for an interesting drive, with items donated by the lo- cal families be sure to stop at the round barn and visit the Fort Crook Museum in Fall River Mills. Circle 7 Guest Ranch had two barns built in 1870- 1880 by Wm.T. Callison with hand-hewn logs se- cured with wooden pegs. A massive barn/building was built by Harry Horr in 1915-1920 for a sash and door factory of the Horr Lumber Co. Before electric- ity there was a huge boiler that ran the belts and pul- leys to run all the saws and equipment, and some are still seen overhead. In the southwest corner there was a store where paint, nails and hardware were sold. The Albaugh cow barn was built around 1907, and the cows were milked with a vacuum milking machine, with remnants of tubing along the wall, and gas lights are still in place. Milking stools and cow hobbles are still on the walls. The Albaugh horse barn was where the draft horses were harnessed. Loose hay was stored in this barn for the horses. The barn had been built in 1937 by Fred Schneider. Owl boxes are installed in each barn so the owl pel- lets can be harvested for scientific purposes. Four old barns were built at the site of the Crum Meat Co. There were the hay barns, granary, and horse barn. Some of the barns had feed racks on both sides and hay stor- age in the middle. The cat- tle were butchered at the Crum Slaughter Plant, and meat was sold at the local meat markets from Alturas to Redding. Sad news Tehama County Cattle- Women and members of the community were sad to learn that long time resi- dent of Red Bluff Una Jor- dan passed away this past week. She had been recog- nized as a CowBelle of the Year by the CattleWomen, and Grand Marshall of the Red Bluff Round Up Parade last year. A celebration of life is planned for June 19. More details later. JeanBartonhasbeenwriting her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbar- ton2013@gmail.com. JEAN BARTON Finally,scratchedoneoffmybucketlist COURTESYPHOTO Tom Spade has made the pancake batter for 31years at the Asphalt Cowboys Pancake Breakfast for about 11,000 people during the Redding Rodeo festivities. He started mixing batter at midnight for the 5a.m. breakfast start. COURTESY PHOTO Pictured are Claire Lester, Kegan Richard, Natalie Renfroe and Taylor Collins with their FFA advisor, Jenny Svejda. By Claire Lester Four Red Bluff FFA mem- bers headed to Shasta Col- lege May 9 for the 2014 Proj- ect Competition. Claire Lester and Kegan Richards were in the novice division and Natalie Renfroe and Taylor Collins competed in the advanced division. Lester presented about her dairy goat SAE project, Richards and Renfroe pre- sented about their steer SAE projects, and Collins pre- sented about her steer and Ride for Life SAE projects. To compete, FFA mem- bers had to place first or sec- ond at the local contest, held a few weeks before at Red- Bluff High School. Compet- itors drew a number to de- termine when they would present. Once called, con- testants went into a room with two judges experi- enced in the agriculture in- dustry and a student timer from Shasta College. Stu- dents had 10 minutes to pres- ent an in-depth PowerPoint about their projects.Judges and student timer could ask the contestant questions re- garding their project and evaluate their responses. Afterwards, a tri-tip lunch, prepared by Shasta College AG students and advisors, was served. For the Novice Division, Lester of Red Bluff won first and Red Bluff FFA won over- all high point team, with all Red Bluff contestants earn- ing the gold certificate. Red Bluff teams bring home gold for projects competition FFA First time attending Asphalt Cowboys' pancake breakfast "B ut te C ol le ge , La ss en Co ll eg e, S ha st a Co ll eg e, a nd Co ll eg e o f t he Si sk iy ou s a re all d ev el op in g new a gri cu lt ur e cu rri cu lu m in i nt er es ti ng wa te r a nd ag ris cienc e su bje ct s we h op e will i ns pi re st uden ts ." — G re g O 'S ul li va n w it h t he Do in g W ha t M at te rs F or J ob s an d t he E co no my p ro gr am STOVEJUNCTION The TheNorthState'spremiersupplierofstoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat9am-5pm• ClosedSun&Mon Now Carrying! GreenMountainGrills & Accessories Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties 365 S. 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