Success by Growing Nuts: Bruce Haley, the Owner of Haley Farms, is a Leading Pecan Producer Achieved through Hard Work and Savvy Business Decisions

Bruce’s family has always been closely connected to farming and to the church. His father used to grow alfalfa and cotton on their farm just outside of Roswell, New Mexico. He learned a strong work ethic on the farm, and how to work ethically in church. After high school, he attended the Technical Vocational Institute in Albuquerque and received a degree in architecture and civil engineering. Shortly thereafter, he took a job working in a Uranium mine as a survey party chief. “I really loved the work, but didn’t care for the people I was working around.”

One weekend while visiting his family back in Roswell, Bruce joked with his father about being hired back onto the farm. “The next day, my dad called and offered me a job. So I turned in my notice and we moved back to Roswell.” Bruce’s dad had discouraged all six sons from working on the farm because it can be such a difficult job. “The only reason I really considered coming back was because my father began to plant pecan trees. I saw the real potential in that market, and besides, I was always allergic to alfalfa!”

Bruce recognized potential areas of growth in the business and marketing side of the orchard soon after his father hired him. In the early ’80s Bruce asked him if he could begin managing the farm himself in exchange for 20% of the gross revenue brought in by pecan sales.

Bruce had a slew of new ideas; one of the most profitable was to contract their specialized equipment to other farmers and/or others with pecan trees. “We began to notice that our trees were crowding each other so we bought a tree-spade capable of transplanting entire full-grown trees at a time, then contracted the equipment out to other farms so they could do the same thing. People with just one or two trees wanted to harvest as many pecans as possible so we contracted our tree-shaking machines out to them. It was a good deal; we helped them and they helped us.” He also helped growers with just a few trees by setting up a buying station where people in the community could sell their pecans to him.

Unfortunately, Bruce’s adroitly handled business deals and out-of-the-box savvy for utilizing his assets-including international expansion-could not save him from one thing all farmers must battle: the weather. “It is possible to have a hail storm that completely destroys the crop that you have invested tons of money in. When farming cotton, you could just replant and start over, but you can’t do that with trees; you are taking care of next year’s harvest.” Having late or early freezes can affect the trees’ output as well. There have been years when the farm barely brought in 60,000 pounds of pecans, and those when they harvested as much as 800,000. “We just pray to God and accept whatever He sends us. We can’t put pecans on the trees; He does that. So if He sends a freeze and destroys our crop this year, then He will take care of us some other way.”

Ironically, hail is something that Haley Farms is best equipped to deal with. Bruce and his father engineered a unique system that releases sound bursts into the atmosphere designed to break up hail pieces before they reach the ground. “We aren’t exactly sure how effective the hail cannons are, but it makes us feel good to hear them popping out in the field whenever the weather is bad.” They’re also well equipped to conduct effective business by engineering strong relationships: “I live by the motto that if both people come away from a deal with a smile, then it’s a good deal, but if one side feels cheated, you should go back to the negotiating table until everyone is happy.”

If you ever have the privilege of cracking open a Haley Farms or Mountain States pecan for yourself, chances are good that you’ll also leave the table with a smile.