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KERN BUSINESS JOURNAL
June / July 2015
Technology impacting the farm industry By Beatris Espericueta Sanders
T
he story of Kern County agriculture dates back to the gold rush in 1848, where some settlers found a wealth of fertile soil south of San Francisco – richer than gold, a land full of reverence without apology. Early farmers learned quickly how to manage the water from the Kern River as it ripped though the Central Valley, watering the earliest crops like cotton, carrots and potatoes. Generation after generation, family farms have taught the next generation the most efficient ways to reap the land, maximizing high yields. As it was in the mid-1800s, agriculture remains an abundant economic industry for Kern County. In the last 20 years, many Kern County farming operations have pursued the most efficient tools to manage their farmland. As the technology boom peaked in the 1990s, growers also learned quickly how to use technology to benefit farming operations. Most recently, one of the most water-saving Beatris Espericueta Sanders technological contributions has been real-time soil moisture monitoring. This tool helps growers make irrigation decisions as it monitors depths from 6 to 60 inches deep into the soil. Growers can adjust water flow according to soil moisture, minimizing any water waste throughout their farming operations. Along the same lines as soil moisture monitoring, growers also are beginning to use technology on their agriculture water wells and booster pumps to ensure the most advanced pumping efficiency for irrigation. The water well monitoring devices measure the flow, pressure, standing and pumping levels, and power usage resulting in automated real-time costs per acre-foot. Lubricating oils for bearings and shaft oil can also be monitored real time so that if a pumping issue arises, the owner can be notified before expensive damage occurs; software is
available for organizing the data. By using these well monitors, growers are able to be more diligent with their energy usage on their farms, meanwhile practicing a cost-saving tool for their overall crop production. Another technology-advanced tool many growers have been using are tractors equipped with a GPS system for “hands-free guidance.” Often during the peak of the foggy season or night shifts, these GPS tractors can be guided hands-free by GPS to pull straighter rows when row cropping and/or developing orchards or surveying the land. GPS guidance has made vast improvements regarding buried drip irrigation that remains in the ground for multiple years for row cropping. GPS results in fewer passes across fields saving fuel used per acre, which reduces emissions and overall farming operation costs to the grower. Communication technology has changed farming practices as well. Up until 10 years ago, most communication was done via phone, radios and fax. Now with email and texting, the transfer of information and Internet-based services has streamlined the efficiencies of communication and information transfer. This is a major component to successful farming operations as we are able to do more productive work with less time input. Soon, agriculture may be on the brink of yet another technological cost-saving tool: agricultural drones. As drones become more of a topic of conversation throughout the U.S. military and even U.S. consumer delivery, agricultural minds are also dipping into the possibility of drones being used to survey land and advanced precision in pesticide spraying. It is very clear that the first settlers in the 1800s had a vision when they began to reap the fertile soil in Kern County, making it an agricultural paradise for generations to come. The determination that brought the first farmers here is the same determination that will keep future generations farming with more advanced efficiency and knowledge using a very important tool: technology.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KERN COUNTY FARM BUREAU
Kern County Farm Bureau’s “generational teaching.” — Beatris Espericueta Sanders is the executive director of the Kern County Farm Bureau and also daughter of a farming family in Shafter. She is a graduate of Northern Arizona University and spent five years working in New York City for the global financial consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
New law focuses on sick pay accrual By Jerry Pearson
Beginning July 1, employees who work in California for 30 days or more within a year will accrue sick pay, thanks to the Healthy Workplaces, Jerry Pearson Healthy Families Act of 2014. The act, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 10, applies to employers regardless of size, with only a few enumerated exceptions. Effective dates The employer’s obligation to provide paid sick leave under the law does not take effect until July 1. However, on Jan. 1, covered employers were required to: • Post in a conspicuous place at the workplace a poster containing various requirements under the law.
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Issue newly hired nonexempt employees an updated “Notice to Employee” (required under California Labor Code section 2810.5) that includes paid sick leave information.
paid sick time after working 30 days, the employee may not use it until the 90th day of employment. An employer may, at its discretion, lend paid sick leave to an employee in advance of accrual if “proper documentation” is maintained.
• An employer may set a minimum increment for the use of paid sick leave of no more than two hours.
• Employers are not required to pay out accrued but unused sick leave. However, if the employer uses a PTO policy, that PTO policy might be subject to payout • An employer may cap an employee’s under California law. If the employee annual use of paid sick leave to 24 is rehired within one year, the employee hours per year. Similarly, an employer is entitled to reinstatement of the accrued may choose to cap an employee’s annual but unused sick time. For additional information on the act, or to have your accrual of paid sick leave to 48 hours current sick leave or paid time off policy per year. reviewed to see if it complies with the requirements of the new law, contact an • Accrued sick leave shall carry over to • An employee who is exempt from the following year, although an employer employment law professional. overtime requirements is “deemed to work may limit an employee’s use of paid sick 40 hours per workweek” for purposes of days to 24 hours or three days in each — Jerry Pearson is a Partner at Young sick leave accrual unless the employee’s year of employment. No accrual or carry Wooldridge, LLP. He specializes in labor normal workweek is fewer than 40 hours. over is required if the full amount of leave and employment law and manages the firm’s is received at the beginning of each year. business department. • While an employee starts accruing Highlights • Employees who, on or after July 1, 2015, work in California “for 30 or more days within a year” are entitled to accrue paid sick leave at the rate of “not less than one hour per every 30 hours worked.” This means that a full-time employee working 40 hours per week could accrue up to 8.67 days of paid sick time per year.