“The data we were organizing will help produce better fruit growing — which plots of land are going to produce apples more efficiently, and whether certain plots of land would do better with Fujis or Granny Smiths.” — Kevin Chetwynd ’22
“I’d never seen a farm at all,” Chetwynd
The greatest challenge proved to be
The data will make a difference in
agrees. “He wanted to know if I wanted
going through with the internships
traditional orchard management,
to take on a very different experience
during the worsening COVID-19
Bringolf says. “After 30 years, trees stop
in a different part of the country. When
epidemic. Washington had been one of
producing at the level we want,” she
you’re seeing fields more than an office,
the first hotspots of the coronavirus
notes, adding that the expiration date
it’s definitely something you don’t
outbreak in the early spring. The student
happened not long ago with a group
expect as a management major.”
crew likely became the first Nichols
of Granny Smith trees. “We pulled all
interns to undergo a two-week onsite
of the trees from the ground, installed
In heading to Washington state, the
quarantine as part of the more than six
a new trellis and irrigation system, and
three selected students would be
weeks they spent at the farm, from
planted Granny Smiths, Honey Crisps,
following in the footsteps of Jackson,
mid-May to the end of June. Their
and Galas.”
who launched his career back east
presence also represented the exception
at a Big Eight accounting firm before
rather than the rule in the age of COVID.
Based on the data-driven system, those
heading west to Washington and
Girard points to three or four Nichols
decisions can come earlier — and with
starting his own practice. It was there
classmates whose scheduled internships
more informed solutions. “We’re hoping
in 1982, at age 35, that he joined forces
were cancelled. “It was hard for a lot of
it will tell us how well our blocks are
with a client who wanted to plant an
people,” he says. “I have a friend who
producing, as we get data points that
apple orchard. Jackson took over the
had a great internship at Disney World
help determine the level of production
business by himself five years later.
in Florida and lost it.”
in each block compared to the level of financial return,” Bringolf predicts.
Not that there wasn’t some worry
The house set aside for Girard and his
about how the interns would transition
mates allowed them to quarantine and
Growers traditionally have had to rely
to farm work. “My dad definitely had
hit the ground running at the same
more on their judgement. The staff of
a concern,” admits Bringolf. “He said,
time. “We had to gather the physical
Royal Bluff Orchards plans to use both
‘These kids are not going to know what
paperwork of apple sales and revenue
data and their own assessments, a leap
to do!’ But after we sat down with them,
and transfer it to the new program,”
forward not lost on Girard. “It provides
we didn’t get the sense that they were
Chavez notes.
concrete evidence to review what were
city kids who wouldn’t understand small town life.”
educated guesses in the past,” he says. That meant amassing and coding the information in each “pack out report”
Chetwynd also gets the bigger picture.
from the frequent shipments of apples
“The data we were organizing will help
to one of five packing houses that
produce better fruit growing — which
Royal Bluff Orchards uses. The coding
plots of land are going to produce
included the different sizes, varieties,
apples more efficiently, and whether
prices per pound, and which of the 37
certain plots of land would do better
blocks — or land plots in the orchards —
with Fujis or Granny Smiths.”
produced the apples.
alumni.nichols.edu
l Nichols College Magazine
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