Pinch any entrepreneur and they will tell you about how hard it is to launch a company, but you know what’s even harder? Handing that business down through the generations and keeping it successful and in the family, but that is just what the Billings family have done for more than a century with their California almond orchard. Matt Billings, the fourth generation to farm their land, is keeping the entrepreneurial legacy alive with AYO Almondmilk Yogurt, an enterprise launched in 2019 to capitalize on the general movement toward plant-based foods.
Farming is a tough way to make a living, requiring lots of physical labor and keen business skills, plus dealing with the challenges of nature ranging from flood to drought (California and the rest of the western US suffering a sustained mega-drought currently), insects, and the risk of depleting your own soil. Climate change undoubtedly complicates it even more. We asked Matt Billings about his farming legacy, his almond milk yogurt endeavor, and how his orchard copes with the current drought.
Grit Daily: Plant-based milks, including almond milk, have displaced a lot of the market for cows milk. How do you see the market for AYO Almondmilk Yogurt?
Matt Billings: Consumers all over the country have told us that they love our almond milk yogurt. Our goal was to make a yogurt that tasted amazing and highlighted our organic almonds. We do not see AYO Yogurt as a dairy substitute. We roast our almonds and have spent significant time in product development to ensure that our yogurt has pleasant distinctive almond flavor notes when you taste it. We feel we have created a product that is delicious, nutritious and stands on its own.
Grit Daily: Agriculture in the Central Valley relies on irrigation, most of which comes from federal water projects. How are you coping with the drought?
Matt Billings: Our irrigation districts have invested heavily in local groundwater banking. Similar to a “savings account” we “bank” or percolate water into the subsurface ground water during wet years and this allows us to use it during dry years.
Efficient water use and conservation has been, and always will be, important to our farmers in California. We as individual farmers have also invested in micro irrigation “drip” that allows us to apply just the amount the tree needs and no more. This used in conjunction with soil moisture monitoring and tree stress measurements allows us to precisely irrigate to the trees exact needs.
Grit Daily: How is your own groundwater supply?
Matt Billings: As with everyone’s in the state the drought has had a negative impact on groundwater levels. With the implementation of SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) we as a state have a clear path to sustainable groundwater by 2040.
Grit Daily: I understand you are serious about improving soil health. What do you think of regenerative agriculture?
Matt Billings: Many of our farming practices follow Regenerative agriculture practices except being a permanent crop rotation is difficult because an almond orchard lives up to 3 decades. We do minimal tilling and are strong proponents of composting. We believe that compost is one of the number one things we can do to improve soil health. We have recently been doing work to bring our orchards to either net zero carbon or negative carbon emissions.
Grit Daily: Is that well enough defined to become a certified program, like organic agriculture has been certified for many years now?
Matt Billings: I am not sure. I will leave that up to the experts.
Grit Daily: For many years I’ve been keenly interested in biochar, both for soil rejuvenation and for carbon sequestration. Are you familiar with biochar? Have you experimented with it?
Matt Billings: Yes we are familiar with it. We have not used it yet. But on a neighboring property a company is building a biochar facility and we are keen to try it once it is in production. We constantly monitor advancements in agricultural practices that will make our orchards more sustainable and efficient. Our family has been farming in California for four generations and taking care of the land that we farm on is part of our family values.
Matt Billings: Consumers all over the country have told us that they love our almond milk yogurt. Our goal was to make a yogurt that tasted amazing and highlighted our organic almonds. We do not see AYO Yogurt as a dairy substitute. We roast our almonds and have spent significant time in product development to ensure that our yogurt has pleasant distinctive almond flavor notes when you taste it. We feel we have created a product that is delicious, nutritious and stands on its own.
