Colorado's Lone Mushroom Farm Relies on PacLease to Make Deliveries

If you grow mushrooms, you’re likely to have a farm in Oregon, Pennsylvania or Texas. Conditions there are great for growing mushrooms and since they’re at sea level, a mushroom’s best friend, compost and plenty of oxygen, are readily available.

But, what about growing mushrooms at 8,000 feet — well over one mile above sea level? Can’t be done? Think again.

Rakhra, the only mushroom grower in Colorado, is busily growing quality mushrooms in a climate that no other mushroom growers have dared to try. And it’s growing a lot of the edible fungus. In 2007, it produced 12 million pounds of white Agaricus bisporus or white button mushrooms.

Don Clair, controller for the Alamosa, Colorado-based company, said Rakhra’s success in growing and selling so many mushrooms comes in the ability to offer quality and fast deliveries.Rakhra was formed in 1981 when it bought out a mushroom grower who wasn’t making it. The new company felt it could turn things around and have a good market in the southwest. To combat the lack of oxygen, it built tunnels and bunkers to force air through compost.

The operation turns about 15,000 tons of straw each year into compost to grow the mushrooms. It takes about 230,000 pounds of straw and about 90 days to grow a single crop of mushrooms. The company grows about 130 crops annually. It has 10 acres under roof and surprisingly enough, winter is the best time for growing mushrooms because of the chimney affect.

The workweek never ends for employees at Rakhra. As Clair says, “Mushrooms wait for no one because once they’re picked, they can wilt and lose their flavor quickly.”

Every morning, 365 days a year, mushrooms are picked and loaded into trailers for deliveries to distribution centers throughout our region. The mushrooms, picked in the morning, will be in supermarkets tomorrow. It’s the ultimate in “just-in-time delivery.”

The company delivers its product (with the Rakhra brand) sliced, packaged and bulk, to a host of food distributors/stores, such as King Sooper, Safeway, Alliant Foodservice, Nobel Sysco. As mentioned, Clair says the key to the company’s success is quality and service.

Even though Agaricus mushrooms are already more than 70 percent water, they can absorb water like a sponge. They’re also one of the most perishable products around. To that end, Rakhra relies on its own fleet of trucks to get the mushrooms to market quickly. Rakhra leases 13 Kenworth W900Ls with 72-inch AeroCab sleepers, three 53-foot Utility trailers with refrigeration units, and three drop deck trailers through MHC Truck Leasing, the local PacLease franchise in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colo.

It also operates two company-owned flatbed trailers and 15 other company-owned refrigerated vans.

Clair says the key reason for leasing from PacLease is his company’s need for complete reliability.

“We rely on PacLease to provide us good equipment that’s spec’d well for our operation,” Clair says.

The 13 Kenworths are equipped with 475-hp engines, 13-speed overdrive transmissions, and tandem rear axles with a drive ratio of 3.55:1. Clair says the higher horsepower, the 13 speeds on the transmission instead of the standard nine, and the more powerful drive ratio give his drivers a more responsive truck that can handle the rugged terrain and mountain passes in Colorado. And the 72-inch sleepers have plenty of room for drivers to stretch out to get some sleep during rest periods.

PacLease handles the maintenance on the trucks and reefer units. If a truck or trailer ever has a problem on the road, PacLease is quickly there with repairs or a substitute vehicle. This is very critical as it means no spoilage and on-time deliveries. This can’t be understated. Clair says delivery slots are tightly scheduled, particularly since the company trucks backhaul soft drinks, beer, or potato chips on their return trip to Colorado.

“If we don’t show up at King’s at 4 in the morning, for example, we mess up their whole schedule and stores won’t get mushrooms, Clair says. A missed delivery would cost us more than $35,000 because at that point the mushrooms couldn’t be brought back to our facility and reshipped. They’re too perishable. While Rakhra routinely travels through Colorado, New Mexico and California, the company will make occasional runs to other states.

“For example, we had a load of mushrooms headed to Olympia (Washington) to help another grower who is short on product,” Clair says.