With farmland prices sagging and new irrigation rules coming, diversified farmer Michael Vander Dussen didn’t hesitate to spend $1.4 million for 321 acres in west Fresno County, as an insurance policy of sorts.
Vander Dussen admits he isn’t as interested in the land as much as its access to water. He recently planted a field of pistachio trees nearby, and he wants to make sure they survive.
“What I want to do is preserve the ability to continue to irrigate those young trees,” Vander Dussen said. “So I will use some of that water.”
The state is in the process of implementing new water rules called the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The goal is to protect groundwater supplies by preventing over-pumping. As part of that, groundwater sustainability agencies have been formed in the high and medium priority basins to ensure the plan is being followed.
Vander Dussen said both properties are in the same GSA, groundwater sustainability agency. And he intends to fallow a portion of the new property that is located west of Raisin City and south of Kerman. The farm used to grow Ruby Seedless grapes.
The Fresno Bee has started tracking these types of agriculture land sales using an AI tool that we developed to more efficiently share this news with you. Bee journalists use their reporting and writing skills to create the stories. The tool alerted us to Vander Dussen’s purchase.
Vander Dussen is the owner of Standard Cattle LLC, a company that specializes in raising dairy replacement heifers. But he also grows wheat, corn and hay. He’s added pistachios to his mix of crops, as a way to spread his risk.
“Diversification is a necessity these days because of the ebb and flow of commodity prices,” he said. “It’s feast or famine sometimes.”
Helping farmers like Vander Dussen expand their holdings is the declining value of farmland in parts of Fresno County. Farms with poor-performing crops and only groundwater wells for irrigation have seen the biggest drop in value.
Vander Dussen said the farm he recently purchased was valued at about $4,500 an acre. At the peak of California’s almond planting boom, that same land might have sold for $15,000 to $20,000 an acre.
“This is the new norm right now,” Vander Dussen said.