Jesus Toro is seen with his bees. Photo contributed.

A nationwide grant to support farmers who are veterans has found its way to a Madera man — a former Marine on his journey to become a beekeeper.

Jesus Toro of Toro Apiaries was one of 100 farmer veterans across the country who received grants from the Farmer Veteran Coalition, funded by Fresno Madera Farm Credit, according to a press release.

The grants go directly to third-party vendors to fund a piece of equipment that will help them in their operations.

For Toro, his $5,000 grant went toward a trailer with which he can transport his forklift used to load and unload beehives during pollinating season.

“My goal is to have 1,000 hives within three years,” said Toro in the release. “The hives will go on my flatbed truck, but I needed the trailer to haul around the forklift. The $5,000 grant made that happen.”

He currently has 50 hives, each of them housing up to 40,000 bees.

Toro’s original plan was to become an engineer, but coinciding calculus and physics classes swayed him toward agriculture. It was at Fresno State where beekeeping and biology classes got him involved in the trade.

He had spent nearly five years at Camp Pendleton as a helicopter mechanic. Toro said he had learned about perseverance from his father and the military helped hone those skills. He has been in agriculture since he was 12 and old enough to pick tomatoes and raisins.

Toro didn’t take the traditional route to becoming a beekeeper, where most would apprentice with someone already established in the business. Instead, he learned everything he could from books, from YouTube and from his college professors whom he says he turns to regularly with questions.

He likes going out and working with his bees and he says when you do your job right, you get to see them grow.

While beekeeping and working with a fertilizer company, Toro will also soon begin his Master’s Degree where he will study the effects cover cropping and perennial agriculture have on pollinators. Toro said he doesn’t need a Master’s Degree to become a beekeeper, but he is doing it for his three kids — a daughter, nine, and two boys, four and five. His father always told him if we was given an opportunity to always take advantage of it, he said.

Ultimately, he said he wanted to buy land in southern Oregon so he can keep his bees there during the hottest parts of the year.

Fresno Madera Farm Credit is among several lenders nationwide who support the Farmer Veteran Coalition. Applicants must have an existing business and a business plan. They must also be willing to mentor other farmer veterans as well as provide progress reports.