Life Lessons from a Career in Agriculture

As owner of ValleyAg Consulting Services since 2010, Tracy Miller works with growers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. His agricultural pedigree is long and impressive. Although he grew up on a family farm and helped his father’s cling peach operation at a young age, his future career course wasn’t cemented until he helped his mother tend to their family garden.“Every morning, I would wake up and run out to the garden, to check to see if anything happened,” Miller said. “It was probably about a week later that you would start to see the ground break and the plant would start to push up.  That was so fascinating to me, that here’s this little seed that appeared dead and dry. There was life in it, and it burst forth…It was a real opportunity to see a crop from start to finish… it began to make me fascinated with how plants grow. It’s really a miracle of life.”Miller is a proponent of growing strategies that improve soil health, provide strong plants and improved returns for growers. He’s bullish on new technology, including micronutrients and bio-stimulants, to help get there.