A Great Friend and Farmer Has Passed
It was announced recently that James Lloyd-Butler passed away on January 25. He was a great gentleman who loved learning, had a great love of family and was one of the best, if not the best farmers in Ventura County. He contributed significantly to the community in many ways, especially to share his love of agriculture. He was always ready to receive visitors to show how agriculture could be performed in harmony with the land. In 2018, he was recognized for his contribution to the avocado world with the following dedication from the California Avocado Society. I learned a lot from him. I, and many others, will miss him.
California Avocado Society
Award of Merit
To
Jim Lloyd-Butler
Our 2018 Award of Honor this year goes to a “first class person”, a “gracious host” and a “dream to work with”. Who is this gentleman? James Lloyd-Butler
Born here in 1925 and grew up on Rancho Santa Clara del Norte, which is one of the Mexican land grants in the Santa Clara Valley, the others being Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy, Sespe, Olivas and Camulos. This was a farm of mainly walnuts and barley, some of it leased out to others for farming. His father managed the farm. He worked on the farm in the summers and remembers harvesting Valencias for sale to C&H Market at 10 cents a dozen. Lemons were only planted in the 1930's. There were only a few avocado trees at the time, 5 having been donated by Louie the Ranch Foreman in the name of the 5 siblings growing up there. Jim went off to Oxnard High School, got embroiled in the navy, stationed in Saipan in 1945. Came back and did 2 years of college at St. Mary's in Moraga, then two years at Cal Poly San Dimas, Voorhis unit where he also attended some lectures at UC Riverside.
Then off to make his fortune, he worked for Jack Broome at Rancho Guadalasca, another Mexican land grant. There he was superintendent of row crops – sugar beets, peppers and canning tomatoes – from 1955 – 63. And he got married to Cynthia Marsh and soon there were two kids, Camilla and Tom. Fruitful years for Jim.
Then he stretched his legs with a bit of adventure into real estate, but soon went back to ranch management and then from 1970 -82 he worked agriculture through the Bank of A. Levy. The family farm was managed by Hoffman, Vance and Worthington with the supervision of his dad. At the time there were 3 ac of Zutano, 3 ac of Bacon and 6 ac of that new variety called Hass.
With the death of his father, he took over the ranch management. At the time there were still only a few avocados, mainly lemons. From the 1980's to the present the avocado acreage expanded from 20 to 110 acres, along with a similar amount of lemons. Now the avocados are a mix of Hass, GEM, Lamb Hass, Carmen, and SirPrize and is he ever a believer in pollinizers – Walter Hole, Zutano, Ettinger and Bacon. He's done high density and has been seriously pruning since 1995. He's worked with different rootstocks and has been a serious collaborator with the university, working with Mary Lu Arpaia, Mark Hoddle, Joe Morse, John Menge and others.
He has always surrounded himself with wise guys, people he consults. George Powers, the manager of the farm before he was born, Roger Edwards from Limoneira, Jack Broome of Oxnard, Bud Lee and Bob Burns from UC Coop Extension, Darrel Nelson, Roger Essick.
One of the worst decisions was to plant litchi and longans at my recommendation. They never fruited here.
Gordon Frankie, the UC Berkeley Bee Biologist, who has done work here, writes:
He has been a very generous person who has greatly helped us in researching the visitors to avocado flowers. He has shown considerable interest with all of our findings, and has always offered help from his workers for all the many ideas we have explored at his ranch. He also shows curiosity and a willingness to go beyond most growers in exploring the ways that we could try new ideas, for example, expanding the bee gardens to encourage more flower visitors.
I'd like you to join me in recognizing the wonderful works that Jim has made to our community.
The Pollination/Beneficial Insect Garden that Jim helped build.