My CalPoly Talk on the Cost and Returns of Conventional Strawberries on the Central Coast

Linked here is a beautifully assembled copy of my talk on our UCCE Cost and Return Study for Conventional Strawberries at the CalPoly Strawberry Center this past May.  Thank you Center Director Gerald Holmes for the invite and of course the students who are just a fabulous audience with plenty of interest and questions throughout.  Granted me almost the highest possible rating as a speaker as well!

I go into the various inputs of a conventional strawberry operation, both in content and cost and then outline the expected returns under various price and yield scenarios.  We definitely do our research, and it's a good piece of work with a lot of use for people.  

At the end, I reference the study to model return expectations with alternative systems, such as the "raised bed sterile substrate" system vetted by the Strawberry Commission, farming strawberries in Baja California and also a comparison to a conventional grower, who only two weeks previous to my presentation outlined the costs and returns of his own operation in Santa Maria.  And came out with numbers pretty close to our own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaDirBQ-iMw

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