Tehachapi's Seed Crop

This week I found an article in a 1957 copy of the Tehachapi News that had reprinted an article from the Fresno Bee in my mom’s files.

The article was written by Leo Dollar, following a tour he took of the Tehachapi Valley’s seed industry. At that time Tehachapi was certified as one of the primary seedgrowing areas in the United States.

Dollar wrote “This little mountain community, snugly bedded in a cool valley 4,000 feet above the San Joaquin Valley, is demonstrating for the agricultural world the old saying that good things come in small packages.” (I am always amazed by the view of big city journalists who visited East Kern back then and thought of us all as “not big.”) Dollar went on to say that Tehachapi had a near perfect climate for seed growing and had become known as the nation’s seed capital and as the “cradle of high quality range grass, alfalfa, and sugar beet seed.”

Growers in the “hill country basin” said that nature had given them a distinct edge over other growers in the valley districts down below.

He attributed this to cool mountain air, low annual rainfall, and isolation by a 35 mile wide belt of hilly cattle range, which protected the area from contact with common commercial fields of the varieties of their seed crop, preventing contamination.

Don Carroll, one of the leaders of the seed industry in the area, spoke for most of the other growers when he said “If we did not have the special geographical advantages we enjoy here, we would probably not be in the seed industry.”

He added that the growers usually did not get good seed for alfalfa until the second year. “But we get high yields and with our isolation we are assured clean seed fields, so it is a profitable business.”

Carroll went on to say that he had taken yields of 1,400 pounds of alfalfa seeds per acre from Ranger alfalfa on his Grand Oaks Ranch. Yields in Maricopa, Fresno County, and other areas of the San Joaquin Valley were only able to produce 700 to 1,000 pounds per acre.

The Tehachapi area seed was registered and certified to be used for seeding cattle grazing lands, which would promise high yields. Growers in 1957 planned to produce 125,000 pounds of grass seed. In addition to alfalfa, fescue, orchard, and Marion Blue were also grown.

Because the seed crop was very delicate when harvested, (it could break when touched) the growers developed different ways to harvest it. They cut the mature grass when green and windrowed it for drying .They then picked it up with a giant vacuum machine and blew it into trailers and then hauled it to the threshing machine at a central point in the field.

Some ranchers in the Tehachapi Valley turned to seed growing instead of cattle. They worked with the “Conservation Service” to show them how to prevent the water from running down the hills where the grass was grown and to conserve water.

The growers also worked with the University of California and the county farm advisers to assist them with finding the best fertilizer for the grass seeds to get the best seed yield. Growers also worked to prepare the fields and some fields were in preparation for two years.

Tehachapi residents have seen many crops grown then their fertile valley, including sugar beets, turf, fruit orchards, including pears, peaches, and apples, and other crops. But probably no one in 1957 could imagine that Tehachapi would become a successful wine destination, with vineyards dotting Cummings Valley and some other spots along Highline Road.

Who would have thought one could grow wine grapes in Tehachapi? The seed fields are gone; some orchards remain, but wine grapes?

People come from near and far to sample and drink the wines at several tasting rooms and enjoy the cooler weather in the hills near the wineries. Most offer venues for weddings and other special events, and are a great weekend place to visit.

Stay tuned – who knows what else the valley will produce in the future!