JW Lemons

Member at Large

About…

JW Lemons developed a passion for agriculture at a young age while farming small apple orchards. After serving the country, he graduated from Washington State University with degrees in agriculture production and harvest and post-harvest. Lemons has over 25 years of successful sales, marketing, product management, business development and consulting on diversified agriculture production. Lemons currently works as a National Agronomist for SQM, consulting for the United States and Canada. He is passionate about writing and teaching others and has taught junior college courses on the side.

Q+A

What is a typical day in the life of a CCA?

“It’s like asking what the weather is going to be like next year. Our days are really diverse and many times very challenging. Some people play a specific role, some people do the same thing every day or repeatedly. Others may wear a different hat on each field visit or each grower that we’re helping. We can be called to increase irrigation water management efficiency on one given meeting. Later that day, we might be reviewing a nitrogen budget plan for them or writing a fertilizer program for multiple crops. Other times we might be sampling soil or tissues.”

How has the industry evolved or changed?

“One of the big things and something I’m passionate about is that we are finally recognizing the growing importance of quality of our fruits, vegetable and grains and not just the quantity. It’s not enough now that we can grow more potatoes or more almonds, now we have to have almonds that are nutritionally better for us and citrus that has better juice and nutrient quality.”