Roy Motter, a Brawley, Calif., farmer, is departing from the California Wheat Commission board after 28 years.

Motter, 76, retired from farming in 2023 after 40 years. He farmed on 2,500 acres in the Imperial Valley.

His latest three-year term ended in April.

“I don’t qualify any more, since I’m not growing wheat,” Motter told the Capital Press.

Motter primarily grew durum wheat, as about 15% of his total production. He primarily raised produce, such as lettuce and fresh-market onions.

He leased his farm ground and sold all his equipment.

“We didn’t have any younger people to come back and take over the farm,” he said. “Me and my two brothers in-law are in our 70s and it was time to call it quits.”

Motter is spending more time with family and playing golf.

The commission celebrated Motter during a recent board meeting.

National checkoff

Motter served as chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates, the overseas marketing arm for the industry, in 2015-2016.

He pushed for a national checkoff program similar to the dairy and soybean industries, to address consumer misconceptions on the domestic market.

“We were unsuccessful in those efforts, which I thought was not ideal,” he said. “Once you start trying to do consumer education, it’s quite expensive and we never have that much horsepower to attempt to do any of that.”

He recommends trying to diversify markets instead of selling bulk commodities.

“Generally, wheat’s wheat — red wheat, white wheat, durum wheat, and if it meets federal grades, that’s it,” he said. “There’s no market differentiation. That’s a weakness I think in the farming industry.”

Desert Durum

Motter helped establish Desert Durum, a trademarked variety of durum wheat raised under irrigation in California and Arizona, to capture more of the market value.

Most durum wheat is grown in northern-tier states and Canada. Before Desert Durum, a low-quality, high-yielding variety was developed for the desert southwest, mainly for cattle feed.

Several companies developed higher-quality varieties for pasta.

“The quality is less variable than the northern tier,” Motter said. “We don’t have the weather that they do.”

In 2024, Arizona produced nearly 172,000 metric tons and California produced nearly 66,000 metric tons of Desert Durum.

There was always demand, but Motter hoped to push Desert Durum to wheat mills, which are high-volume, low-margin operations.

“From a milling standpoint, it had a lot of advantages, but we never really got to the consumer to pool that demand,” he said.

Consumers would need to request Desert Durum in order for mills to buy it to make flour. That goes back to Motter’s national checkoff idea to promote particular varieties, he said.

‘Significant’ impact

Motter was a “unique” U.S. Wheat officer as a Desert Durum producer from an “important but rather small-volume wheat state,” U.S. Wheat president and CEO Vince Peterson said.

“From his background as an accountant, Roy was very focused on budget matters at first, but that evolved into a real enthusiasm for the broader export promotion activities that all of us on staff and customers really appreciated,” Peterson said.

“He and his wife Jackie traveled widely with the organization and his great sense of humor and fun made him a pleasure to work with,” Peterson said.

Motter’s impact has been “significant,” said Claudia Carter, California commission executive director.

“He had a great way to communicate not only with his fellow growers, but also customers,” she said. “He was very charismatic and unique. He brought enthusiasm and all the knowledge he had growing wheat. He was just an easy-going person that could come in a room full of people and have people laughing in a heartbeat.”

Motter encourages the next generation of growers to follow in his footsteps.

“Farmers pretty much have their heads down and are quite busy just doing the day-to-day farming, but particularly younger farmers need to get out and get involved,” he said.