Coldwater Fresh's HUNDRED YEAR HISTORY

  Jonathan L. Rayner and his son Frank E. Rayner moved their farming operation from California to Arizona in 1913, one year after Arizona was signed into the Union. They purchased 200 acres of land from the Federal Government along the west bank of the Agua Fria (Coldwater) River – hence the Coldwater Fresh identity. 

  Sandy soil & abundant water bore red potatoes, dry onions, dry beans, & alfalfa for their dairy. Earle E. Rayner, second of eight children in Frank E. Rayner’s family, purchased a farm near Goodyear in 1946 and his three sons, Earle Junior, Ronald, & Robert incorporated their dairy animals, machinery, & land with their parents as A Tumbling T Ranches, Inc.

  Earle Sr passed away suddenly in 1968 at the age of 53. The brothers leased land in El Mirage, Waddell, Goodyear, Gila Bend and Willcox. They purchased land in Goodyear, Gila Bend and as far away as California’s Central Valley.  They have always been involved in the agricultural community and have worked strenuously to improve infrastructure and sustainability.

  Some land was suited to horticulture while the home farm with its saline water would only grow salt-tolerant crops such as cotton, wheat, barley, sorghum, and alfalfa. They also grew sugar beets for Spreckels sugar when their plant was operating from 1966 to 1982. A Tumbling T Ranches became a general partnership in 1982 and the brothers’ three sons were eventually added as partners. 

  In addition to a cattle feed lot, dairy, and cattle grazing, crops included cucumbers for two pickle canners in Phoenix, fresh red potatoes, dry onions, several types of peppers, cauliflower, and head lettuce, adding up to nearly 10,000 acres under management.  Ron Rayner spearheaded ATTR's cotton growing, now famed for growing some of the finest cotton in the southern US.

 Rayner family members also own a fifth of the Farmers Land Company Cotton Gin in Buckeye on 136 acres. The gin is an essential part of cotton production on land not suited to other crops.  

Ron served as President of the gin for 41 years.  During the harvesting season the gin runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just as its vertical farm will.

Ron Rayner is also a Director on the Board of Electrical District No. 8, and of the Buckeye Water Conservation & Drainage District.  He is an Advisor or Board Member on several water related organizations, a stakeholder advisory to USDA-ARS Arid Lands Research Center, and an advisor to the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture Extension Service.