LINDEN, Calif. — Kenny Watkins, a San Joaquin County rancher, also raises fruit, nuts — and awareness of the many problems facing California agriculture.

“I was raised on my grandparents’ cattle ranch, and the family also grew walnuts, peaches and cherries,” he said.

In the late 1980s, as he was finishing at Fresno State University, both sets of grandparents were set to retire.

“My brother, Andrew, and I formed a partnership and started to buy out the cow herds and farming their ground,” he said. “My kids are partners on the shorthorns, and we all work together when we need help caring for the herds.”

The brothers started out with mostly white-faced cows and now have an all-black cow herd that they use with a variety of bulls. They also have a small shorthorn herd that started as the children’s 4-H project.

The two also raise hay on the rolling hills and run the cows through on the stubble after harvesting the hay.

The ground that had been used to farm row crops and grain is now all planted to fruit and nut orchards.

In 2019, the San Joaquin-Stanislaus Cattlemen’s Association presented Kenny Watkins with its Cattleman of the Year award.

He is known for helping ranchers maneuver through the bureaucracy. He has been a liaison between ranchers and numerous government agencies, helping to find common sense solutions to many issues surrounding livestock, natural resources and public land management.

Kenny highlights problems hounding California’s ag business.

“I see the biggest challenge to California ag is the mounting regulations,” he said. “It has driven the cost of everything up beyond affordability.

“In the past, ag in the U.S. has been able to compete on the world markets because we can out-produce everyone else with higher yields using better irrigation, more science-based decisions and better genetics. While other countries have low wages, cheap inputs and subsidies, today the overreaching regulations in all parts of the supply chain just keeps compounding the cost of the products we use and the cost of our products when they get to the end user.”

Many believe that the cattle market is good right now but think about how many calves it took to buy a new pickup truck in 1973 compared to the present day, he said.

“So, how good is the cattle market?” he asked.