Keith Nilmeier

Keith Nilmeier is the Energy and Transportation Chair on the FCFB Board of Directors

Keith Nilmeier, a fourth generation farmer in the Lone Star area, has grown up in Fresno County his entire life. His great-grandfather was one of four brothers who setteled in Fresno County in the 1880s as German immigrants from the Russian Volga River area. Here, they began working in a livery stable (a business where people boarded their horses overnight). Nilmeier’s great-grandfather eventually purchased his own stable, and some additional land in Fresno.

Farming in the Nilmeier family dates back more than a century. His great-grandfather started farming in the late-1800s, then his grandfather in the early-1900s, then his father, Glenn, through the 1940s. Because of tough times in the 1940s, his father left the farm went into the trucking, where he poured his heart and soul into a company called Kings County Truck Lines.

Meanwhile, Nilmeier was born and raised in Fresno until the fifth grade, when the family moved to the Lone Star area. At this time during the 1960s, his father went back into farming, running his own fruit packing business. He also ran a dry yard, which where he cut and dried fresh apricots, peaches and nectarines as the family business continued to grow.

During the development of the family farm, Nilmeier’s father remained an extremely loyal employee to Kings County Truck Lines and his boss, Manuel Mancebo, for more than 14 years. “He would go the extra mile to satisfy his boss,” Nilmeier said. When his father Glenn bought a truck of his own, he began to haul fresh fruit during harvest. Because the elder Nilmeier worked so hard for Mancebo, he was allowed to take off during harvest to do his own work, and return back when harvest was complete.

When his business started to become too large, Glenn Nilmeier left Kings County Truck Lines, and became a sub-hauler for his former employer.

“Going the extra mile has been a Nilmeier philosophy that has passed down from generation-to-generation,” Nilmeier said. “I don’t see this attitude as much in today’s culture.”

After attending Sanger High School, Keith Nilmeier attended Reedley College and received an associate’s degree while majoring in fruit science to become a fruit inspector. “I wanted to farm, but at that time, our business wasn’t quite big enough,” he said.

After college, though, Nilmeier found an opportunity to buy a couple of trucks at the end of the year to haul grapes during the fall harvest. When he was contracted to haul the grapes, Nilmeier’s father suggested that he get into harvesting since he was already hauling. His father loaned him the money to buy the equipment, and sure enough, he made enough money in the fall of 1972 in his first year as a commercial gondola grape harvester to pay his father back. He has not looked back since.

Today, the Nilmeier family operation has expanded to 500 acres, including 250 acres in which he personally oversees. They grow peaches, nectarines, Thompson seedless grapes, Zinfandel wine grapes and citrus. They also run 19 trucks that operate throughout California every day, with about half of those trucks hauling agricultural products.

“We have a full service operation,” Nilmeier said. “We haul product from the field, to storage facilities, to food distributions sites, and sometimes to the retail outlet itself.” They mostly haul bulk-oranges, grapes and peaches during peak harvest.

Farm Bureau Involvement

Nilmeier was recruited to be the Lone Star Center Chairman by Doris Halemeier and current Board member Ruby Hefly. That was almost 30 years ago. “As a family, every year, we use to help out at the Lone Star booth at the Fresno Fair, which introduced me to Farm Bureau. We need these types of social events to take members and groom them off into areas where they can utilize and enjoy their expertise.”

Nilmeier provides his expertise as the Energy and Transportation Chairman.

“Without energy and transportation, we can’t do anything in agriculture. Your crop will sit there and rot. We depend on energy and transportation every day to move our products.”

Nilmeier’s involvement both in the trucking business and as a farmer is a great asset to Farm Bureau, because he can interface with the California Trucking Association and Farm Bureau from both perspectives. “I believe there should be a strong relationship between the two organizations,” he said. “We fight a lot of the same fights.”

Off-the-farm life

Nilmeier has been married to Janice for 35 years. Janice works full-time within the family operation. They have three boys: Justin, 31, who works on the family operation; Raymond, 29, who operates trucks and lift cranes for United Rentals; and Kasey, 24, who is taking classes at Fresno City preparing to apply to pharmaceutical schools.

Nilmeier is heavily involved with the Edison Social Club. Many of its members are of the ancestry of the German and Italian immigrants who settled in the Sanger and Fresno areas. He is an accomplished chef, featuring gourmet dinners and homemade German and Italian sausage. He makes eight different varieties of specialty sausages.

On occasion, Nilmeier will hunt for elk and deer anywhere he can, including Colorado and Canada. He also enjoys pig hunting in the foothills, and likes to fish and camp at Pismo, Morro Bay and the foothills.

Like most long-time farmers of Fresno County, Nilmeier has seen some good years and some no-so-good years in agriculture, but his strong work ethic has remained consistent, allowing him to maintain a successful family business through the years.

“As farmers, we do what we have to do to get by in this business.”

Meet Your Board Members Profile: Ag Today, Jan 08

By: John Migliazzo