An uncommon and hard-working breed, independent farmers face storms, drought, rocks, plant pests and equipment failure with dogged determination and endless patience. Most rise at dawn, toil seven days a week in all kinds of weather and rarely enjoy anything resembling a vacation.
For 22 years, Randy Jacobsen has been farming hay in the Santa Ynez Valley and selling it under his company banner, Jacobsen Hay & Feed. While his wife, Carla, runs the business office, Randy works the fields to bring in his prized forage mix of wheat, barley and grain hay, as well as crops of wheat (for seed and flour), alfalfa, and orchard grass.
“We’re the first people in the Valley to grow orchard grass,” Carla Jacobsen says. “Nobody else seems to be able to grow it here like we do. Our secret,” she adds with a smile, “is lots of farming experience.”
A complex proposition, growing hay requires advanced knowledge of seeding times, soil preparation, irrigation systems and mechanical repair. Equally critical is cutting the crop with seven rainless days in the forecast, letting it rest until it reaches optimum moisture levels and then getting it promptly baled.
“There’s so much that goes into it,” Carla says. “People don’t realize until they try to farm their own hay.
“The weather and God are your boss,” she adds. “Randy watches the Weather Channel every single day, because it all depends on the weather.”
With help from three employees—Jeff Hoj, Brandon Fisher and Andy Joughin—the Jacobsens do everything from seeding and cutting the hay, to raking, baling and hauling the stuff. They deliver truckloads to ranches across Santa Barbara County, as well as to small residential horse barns all over the Valley.
Since Carla started working in the office six years ago, business has grown by half ,and demand for their high quality grain and hay continues to rise.
“Randy grows the crop as naturally as possible,” Carla explains. “There’s some crop that has had no pesticide at all. Whenever he uses it, it’s as minimal as can be.
“He’s always farmed that way,” she continues, “because there’s not really a reason to use chemicals if you’re irrigating and cutting the hay right. Ours doesn’t say organic, but it is naturally, locally grown hay.”
To nourish the soil between crops, the Jacobsens take advantage of horse farms in the neighborhood by spreading manure on the fields. The compost not only enriches the earth throughout the winter months, it also serves as an efficient mulch base when planting time arrives.
Every year, the Jacobsens strive to produce enough hay to supply Valley needs, without having to supplement from other sources.
“The best thing about farming our own crop is knowing we’re selling quality hay,” Carla says.
“Some years are really bad years, others are good,” she continues, “and when you can see what you’ve done on the land, and you’ve baled the hay and everyone loves it, it’s really a nice feeling.”
Farming runs deep in Randy’s family tree. His grandfather, Martin, founded Jacobsen Dairy, off Baseline, in 1942. For 20 years prior to starting his own business, Randy helped his grandfather and father, Arnie, operate the dairy and cultivate 2500 acres of hay.
“Randy loves to farm, that’s his passion,” Carla declares. “He’s up at six, turning off water, pulling rocks out of the fields. He’ll bale hay sometimes until two in the morning. He loves it.
“He’s hoping to be able to leave the same lifestyle for his kids,” she adds, “to preserve what his grandpa and dad did for them.”
Farmers have always contended with the vagaries of weather and marauding critters, but the Jacobsens must deal with an even more ominous threat: the dwindling availability of arable land. In 2009 the couple farmed 1500 acres, but as large tracts of land have disappeared under vineyards and ranchettes, that number has fallen to 900.
“We lost the San Lorenzo farm ground and we had that for years,” Carla says. “Randy’s father was the original guy who leased it, and then it went to Randy. But they wanted so ,much money per acre, there’s no way a farmer can make a living.
“It’s hard,” she admits. “There’s not as much farm land, and that’s really sad for the Santa Ynez Valley, in my eyes. It’s all changed so much.”
To make up for lost acreage, the Jacobsens sometimes sharecrop, which means they farm a piece of property and then divvy up the resulting hay with the landowners. In fact, when new neighbors struggled to grow alfalfa on a 50-acre parcel nearby, the Jacobsens gladly took over the farming.
“When you lose something, something always comes back,” Carla says, explaining her hopeful take on the ebb and flow of available farm land.
“Randy was wanting to sell our twenty acres here and buy farm ground up north,” she continues, “but I’m hoping that doesn’t have to happen. We’re trying to preserve what we have here, but in another ten, twenty years, it’s going be really hard.”
For someone raised in Seal Beach, Carla has taken the organizing skills she learned as a wedding planner (a hat she still wears) and adapted remarkably well to farming life. She followed her grandmother (Solvang’s former postmaster) to the Valley in the late 1980s, married Randy in 2004 and has been running Jacobsen Hay & Feed ever since.
“I grew up on the beach and now I’m farming hay,” Carla laughs. “My office is ten feet from the hay field. We live in a hayfield. My grandma’s house is surrounded by wheat!”
The Jacobsens bought the land on which his grandfather’s old dairy still stands and built a house for their blended family five years ago. Randy’s aunt and mother, both Valley natives, live nearby (his father died in 2006), as do Carla’s mother and grandmother.
“I think what makes our business go so well is its history,” Carla muses, “and how long Randy and his family have been in the Valley. He’s so honest and he has good relationships with people who’ve bought hay from him for years and years and years.
“Even though the odds are against him,” she adds quietly, “he doesn’t want to let go of what his grandpa and dad started, because he has so much respect for what they did. He’s really trying to hold onto the land, the farming life and his family’s heritage, and that’s the best thing ever.”
INFORMATION: Jacobsen Hay & Feed is located at 3990 Baseline, Santa Ynez. For delivery (10-bale minimum), call 688-3081. On Saturdays, do-it-yourselfers can pick up hay at the barn and save a dollar a bale.
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