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Participants at a field day hosted by the Thomas
Jefferson Agricultural Institute in Columbia, Mo., learn more about buckwheat at an
educational program stimulating networking among producers trying new enterprises.
– Photo by Ellie Gardner |
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When farmers diversify, they create opportunities for their communities to
benefit. One way is grower to grower: Teaming up to market alternative crops
can spread the workload, while co-buying seed or equipment can lower costs.
Sharing knowledge, farm to farm, can enhance crop performance. Some farmers
even share labor.
Sustaining communities
The concept can be right and the timing can be perfect, but without community
buy-in, Ron Doetch doubts that agricultural innovations will be adopted.
Indeed, in Midwestern communities where a “small-grains initiative,”
coordinated in Wisconsin and Illinois by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
(MFAI), persuaded a single grower to include oats, barley or wheat in his former
corn/beans rotation, that grower remained a solo adopter several years later.
But where several growers supported one another in diversifying from corn/beans
– like in DeKalb, Ill., and Burlington, Wis., – the concept of adding
small grains crept, then leapt, from farm to farm.
At MFAI, executive director Doetch believes that community buy-in was grounded
in intensive and extensive field demonstrations of alternative crops, such as
hard red winter wheat, which produces a baking-quality flour. Interest grew
among farmers who had previously raised soft white wheat. At the same time,
private elevator operators perked up because demand for hard red winter wheat
is greatest in the Midwest and eastern U.S.
“Midwest farmers have a logistical advantage over the western Kansas
farmers” where the wheat traditionally had been grown, Doetch said, and
now enjoy a premium price from the elevators. “Now they’re outbidding
each other to buy these farmers’ wheat.”
A farmer-researcher-industry coalition has created a web site <www.oatlink.com>
that disseminates information to growers and links them with handlers and processors
of value-added grains.
“Diversifying crops diversifies opportunities for communities,”
said Doetch. Not only does it spark new businesses, it keeps more agricultural
dollars at home. For many crops like wheat, for example, seed can be grown locally.
Cleaning, warehousing and distributing can all be done locally, too.
A crop that’s harvested at a time when money isn’t normally rolling
in can also put “a little jingle” into growers’ – and
their towns’ – pockets, Doetch notes. While the initiative’s
Wisconsin and Illinois producers are loathe to spend anticipated corn or soybean
dollars until their operating loans are repaid in fall, their mid-summer wheat
earnings buy discretionary items and maybe even a short family vacation while
school is still out. “I always say that July money is worth a lot more
than other money,” said Doetch.
Also Consider High-Value Specialty
Crops...
While many alternative crops fit well into rotations with traditional commodity
crops, high-value specialty crops fit particular farm niches.
Specialty crops have a higher potential return per acre than commodity crops,
but their intensive labor and management requirements usually restrict them
to small acreages. They can be a good option for both small-scale producers
and for larger farmers who can make time for them, however a number of them
are perishable, needing special handling, storage and transportation and even
more marketing.
Examples of high-value specialty crops include mushrooms, garlic, medicinal
plants, nuts, woody ornamentals, cut flowers, native wildflower seed, and herbs
and botanicals. Rare or unusual fruit and vegetable varieties often are considered
specialty crops and may bring a higher price than more common horticultural
crops.
Garlic Growers Share the Work and the Fun
Sometimes, effective cooperation simply involves another two or three growers.
In Sussex County, N.J., garlic grower Richard Sisti decided to start “share-cropping”
with other garlic growers to share laborious planting and harvesting and to
consolidate the specialty crops for market efficiencies.
“The time saved by using the share-cropping model was immense,”
said Sisti. At his farm, 4,400 cloves were planted in just four to five hours;
at another, 84 pounds were put in the ground in four half-days. “The biggest
time savings is that you’ve committed to doing one thing at one time;
you put the time into it and it’s done.” By the project’s
second year, two farmers were sharing a mechanical planter.
Harvests are split evenly among the share-croppers, with some garlic saved
for seed and some contributed to a Sussex County Master Gardener program that
makes garlic braids, swags and 15-pound wreaths.
These value-added items earned raves at the first Garden State Garlic Gathering
– an event that Sisti and fellow organizers will expand to two days to
accommodate spillover crowds of garlic aficionados. At the gatherings, garlic
growers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania sell their garlic, seed and vinegar.
They also encourage other farmers to try growing the crop and fill the shopping
bags of excited consumers willing to pay six times more than they do at the
supermarket.
A support-and-discussion group, web site and newsletter – all intended
to help growers “avoid the pitfalls of working in isolation”
– are being readied for launch. “When you’re working
by yourself, you spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel,”
Sisti said. Working together has even attracted a buyer for the
group’s garlic curls or scapes – flowering stems of
the garlic plant that are snapped off for stir-frying, sauteing
and adding to pesto.
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