Mike Brautovich has his degree in horticulture.  He has worked with Pride of San Juan since January 2004.  Before that he has managed many greenhouses.  He also has a great deal of experience in field production and has been managing field production for many years.

Pride of San Juan first heard of about the water quality regulations and upcoming Short Course through the Regional Water Quality Control Board.  They knew immediately that they had to participate because they manage so many properties.  Pride of San Juan is the largest grower in the watershed – they manage over 7,000 acres in San Benito County and Yuma Arizona.  They have 500 acres of greenhouses as well.  Pride of San Juan believes in being very pro-active so, when they learned that taking this class was what they needed to do, they did it. 

Since the Short Course, they have put together one general Farm Plan that takes into account how things change with the seasons and the characteristics of each property.  They work hard to stay on top of their operations!

Since they took the class, they have installed a lot of water quality best management practices.   They now drip-irrigate all the rows that are by a waterway and they have rearranged the furrows so that the water cannot easily flow into the creek.  They manage their pesticide exposure by treating pests with spot pesticide only where they need them, not on the entire field.  They also have planted cover crops in some of the fields.

When their new building was built, they installed a “grit separator”.  All of the wastewater from the property is plumbed into the grit separator.  The big stuff is screened out of the water so that they can reuse the water in the fields as irrigation water without clogging the irrigation system.

One of the biggest improvements was in the greenhouse area.  When they relocated the greenhouses, they put a new system in that collects all rain water and run off and redirects it down to cement pads.  The water that is collected then can be reused it in the fields for irrigation.  When they relocated, they had the opportunity to do this and thought it would be a good investment and a good idea and it has worked out well for them.  They are reusing all of the excess water on the farm - everything from rain water to waste water.

Since Mike has taken the Short Course, he has shared the information that he learned with his workers.  They are working with him to improve the Pride of San Juan systems and are on the cutting edge in their efficient reuse of water.