Fiscalini, Lucas dairy families will enter Ag Hall of Fame
One of the dairy farms entering the Stanislaus County Agricultural Hall of Fame has won wide acclaim for its cheese. The other has a less public face but has played key roles in the industry and community.
Friday’s induction banquet will honor Fiscalini Cheese Co., supplied by the family’s cows northwest of Modesto, and the Lucas family farm, west of Turlock.
The 19th annual dinner, which is sold out, will raise money for the National Ag Science Center. The Modesto-based outfit is best known for a traveling laboratory that teaches junior high students about farm-related science.
The Lucas farm dates to 1938, when Tony Lucas started a small herd at Fulkerth and Morgan roads. His son Norman worked there as a boy and continued after his marriage to Freda DeHart in 1945. The couple will receive the honor at the Assyrian American Civic Club in Turlock.
Norman Lucas served in the Army from 1945 to 1947. He and Freda then started to build a farm that today has about 1,700 head of cattle, nearly 800 of them in milk production. They installed a modern milking barn in the late 1940s. They took part in the 1960s in creating a milk pricing system aimed at protecting producers from wide swings in the market.
They now run the farm with son Mike and grandsons Tom Lucas and Don Clark, along with eight employees. Part of the land grows hops and wheat for beer Tom makes under the Blaker Brewing label.
The Lucases have been involved in industry groups and in church, school and other activities in the area.
“Norman and Freda are … common-sense farmers who know and appreciate the value of hard work,” dairyman Wendel Trinkler said in a video to be shown at the induction. “… Their influence is endless.”
FISCALINI FAMILY
John Fiscalini in 1914 started a dairy farm on Kiernan Avenue that today is run by a grandson of the same name and his family. Since 2000, part of the milk has gone into cheeses that have won awards around the world.
The products are mostly cheddars in various flavors, including the new onion-chive and a seasonal pumpkin spice. The cheese-making carries on a tradition started by ancestors in Switzerland in the 1700s.
The cheese plant has 15 employees making about 400,000 pounds per year, but that could grow to 20 people and 500,000 pounds next year, fourth-generation owner Brian Fiscalini said Thursday. Another 25 work the farm.
Manure from the 2,800 or so cows goes into a digester where bacteria produce methane that is burned to generate electricity. The company also has water-conservation and other green practices.
More information about the National Ag Science Center is at www.agsciencecenter.org.
AG HALL OF FAME ROSTER
2016: Fiscalini dairy and cheese company, northwest of Modesto; Lucas dairy farm, west of Turlock
2015: Stanislaus Farm Supply, a cooperative based south of Ceres
2014: Save Mart Supermarkets, a major chain based in Modesto
2013: Ed Rocha and Rocha’s Valley Enterprises, an Oakdale-based trucking company
2012: Veterinary Service Inc., a Modesto-based distributor of livestock and pet care products
2011: Stanislaus Food Products, a tomato canner in Modesto
2010: Duarte Nursery, a Hughson-area supplier of trees and vines for commercial fruit and nut growers
2009: Dave Wilson Nursery, a supplier of fruit, nut and shade trees east of Hickman
2008: Flory Industries, a maker of nut-harvesting machinery in Salida
2007: Burchell Nursery, a supplier of fruit and nut trees near Oakdale
2006: Ratto Bros., a grower and packer of fresh produce west of Modesto
2005: A.L. Gilbert, a feed company in Oakdale and Keyes
2004: Ernie Gemperle, an egg producer in Turlock, and Floyd Zaiger, a tree-fruit breeder in Modesto
2003: Larry Carter, a former executive director of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau; Daniel, Mike, Tom and Earl Perez, growers of diverse crops on the West Side
2002: J.S. West & Cos., owners of egg, feed and other operations in the region
2001: Ernest and Julio Gallo, founders of E.&J. Gallo Winery in Modesto
2000: Mary and Bill Lyons Sr., owners of Mapes Ranch, west of Modesto; Max and Verda Foster, founders of the Foster Farms poultry and dairy enterprises
1999: Bill Ulm, a Modesto-area farmer and county supervisor; Rolland Starn, a Hughson-area farmer and county supervisor; Gertie Zehrung, a Hughson-area farmer involved in Ag in the Classroom
1998: Clare Berryhill, a Ceres-area farmer who served in the state Legislature and as California secretary of food and agriculture; Henry Voss, a Ceres-area farmer who also was state agriculture secretary; Richard Lyng of Modesto, who was U.S. and state agriculture secretary; Ann Veneman, a Modesto native who was U.S. and state agriculture secretary and executive director of UNICEF
This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Fiscalini, Lucas dairy families will enter Ag Hall of Fame."