January 2005

How will you fund your retirement? asks Hoard’s Dairyman (Jan. ’05). The article offers a number of tips, including, “Don’t rely on farm income alone. . . . . Don’t rely solely on Social Security as a big chunk of retirement income in years ahead. . . . Start early, but it’s never too late. . . . Consider today’s tax consequences. . . . Pick a plan or plans (the article includes a chart comparing traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, and SIMPLE IRA).” The author notes, “The plans outlined above are the vehicles you use to set up a retirement plan. How you invest that money—how you drive that vehicle—is another question. . . . For all the plans, you can put the money in savings accounts, money markets, bonds or bond funds, stocks or mutual funds, insurance annuities, or in any combination of the above. . . . With all of the choices and consequences, it’s best to get professional advice to review your current retirement plans or to help you set up a new one. . . . Financial advisors generally charge one of three ways—a fee for their service, a commission on sales of investments, or a percentage of assets.”

All In The Family (American Vegetable Grower, Jan. ’05) discusses the need for clear communication on the family-run farm. “Family meetings are a critical aspect to any small farming business. . . . If communication is the most important tool, miscommunication can be the most destructive.” Tips are offered to make the most of family farm meetings. Some tips include: Plan your meetings ahead of time; Address issues in a timely manner and don’t ignore the difficult issues; Keep minutes and record decisions; Make family relationships a priority.” Read the complete article at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3869/is_200501/ai_n9473987.

Selling to Chefs is the Marketing feature in American Vegetable Grower (Jan. ’05). The author, a Delaware grower who produces “more than 100 varieties of produce on about 3 acres” targets his marketing efforts toward “upscale restaurants in the Delaware beach resort area.” He say, “We have limited our client lineup to 12 because we do all the harvesting, delivering, bookkeeping, and marketing ourselves.” His tips for selling to chefs include making sales calls “mid afternoon, mid week” with a prior phone call and study of the restaurant’s menu. “Pricing of a premium-quality product can be challenging,” he notes. He “found that a price somewhere between wholesale and retail is fair and attractive to our customers.” Read the complete article at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3869/is_200501/ai_n9473956.

Get creative with retirement income strategies recommends an article in Digger (Oregon Assn of Nurseries, Jan. ’05). “One of the biggest struggles many retirees face, and you may have to deal with, is how to create a secure, guaranteed income stream that allows you to live the lifestyle you have dreamed of and at the same time protect yourself from running out of money. . . . The concept here is to take enough assets out of the growth mode to create a secure income stream for 10 years or so. . . . This allows you to let the remaining invested assets grow over a longer period of time without subjecting yourself to the emotional roller coaster of the market’s ups and downs. . . . There are numerous combinations and options available to you to achieve security and control over your retirement income. . . . You may want to consider using a financial professional to analyze your situation and to help you design and implement a creative strategy that will work for you.”

Working with Teens (Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Assn News, Jan. ’05). “The pool of smart, imaginative, hard-working young people that want to do a good gob are out there. We have the opportunity to have working for us future doctors, lawyers, and engineer…teens with smarts. To be honest, the pool of available adult workers out there doesn’t often include the cream of the crop. By giving teens challenging tasks, making them feel valuable, showing them respect, you will be developing a valuable asset. . . . Like all employees, they need supervision, they need discipline, and they need to know what is expected of them. Once you can establish mutual respect with your teen workers, you will discover a very valuable asset.”

Study urges water conservation on farms. “A growing population coupled with diminishing fresh water supplies should force major changes in the way the world’s farmers water their crops in the coming decades, a recent study recommends. Since agriculture uses about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water every year, farming should be the focus of intense conservation efforts, said David Pimentel, a professor at Cornell University and primary author of the study published in the October issue of the journal BioScience. . . . Adding to the problem in the United States is a population shift from rainfall-rich areas like the Northeast to warmer, drier areas in the South and Southwest. Pimentel sees a potential shift back to areas like the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast where agriculture is sustained mostly by rainfall, not irrigation. ‘This is why I’d like to see us protect any agricultural land in the Northeast, because we’re going to need it in the future,’ Pimentel said.” (Source: Mark Johnson, Associated Press, Jan. 10, ’05, on the internet at http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/01/10/
study_urges_water_conservation_on_farms/)

PDAs add efficiency to farm operations is a front page feature in The Fruit Growers News (Jan. ’05). A Michigan grower “has been using Palm Pilots to keep track of picking records for four years. Bardenhagen hires about 50 laborers to harvest his 15 acres of strawberries, 25 acres of sweet cherries, 20 acres of tart cherries and 5 acres of Balaton cherries.” Over the years he had tried using tickets, punch cards and a portable electronic time clock, but there were problems with all these systems. “That’s when Bardenhagen’s son, Steve, suggested he use a personal digital assistant (PDA) for piece-rate record keeping. Bardenhagen purchased a Palm Pilot IIIxe for around $200. Then Steve, who also is a computer programmer, wrote the data collection software for the Palm Pilot and a Windows application to summarize ticket data and import and export data to and from the payroll and accounting software. . . . ‘It’s a bit of a challenge to write software for Palm Pilots, but there are programmers who are willing to help, Bardenhagen said. ‘If farmers want the software to be custom made, and don’t have the advantage of a son like mine, they could purchase the software from a company like T3 Technologies,’ he said.” Read the complete article at http://www.fruitgrowersnews.com/pages/arts.php?ns=26. (T3 Technologies website is www.t3tracking.com)

The Berry Best is featured in Growing (Jan. ’05). “Nourse Farms, Inc. is a nursery and small fruit grower in Whately, Mass. that has grown into a national leader by testing and producing new and better options for the small fruit industry. Nourse Farms offers a selection of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, currants and gooseberries . . . . The farm uses virus-indexing, ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) testing and tissue culture propagation to ensure superior quality of their nursery stock. . . . Today the Nourses sell over 20 million plants a year throughout the United States, with some plants shipped to Europe and South America. . . . Nourse Farms sales used to be 75 percent berries and 25 percent plants. Now the plant business accounts for 90 percent of sales.” More information is available at the Nourse Farms website, http://www.noursefarms.com/.

Some Berry Simple Ad and PR Tips are offered in The Strawberry Grower (Jan. ’05). A handout at the 2004 Southeast Strawberry Expo offered these tips: do your marketing homework; prepare a business plan; set a budget; develop a message; be creative; implement consistency; buy reasonable advertising; plan to involve people; plan PR activities; cross promote; track your progress; and, evaluate your success.”

Publication helps families plan farm transfer (The New Jersey Farmer, Jan. 1, ’05). The New Jersey State Agriculture Development Committee has released a new publication, “Transferring the Family Farm: What Worked, What Didn’t for 10 New Jersey Families.” “The book offers real-life profiles of families who describe their successes and challenges, as well as what they learned and what resources proved valuable, as they planned for and undertook the transfer of their land and agricultural operations. The publication is available on the SADC web site, http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/sadc/farmowners.htm or by contacting the Farm Link Program at 609-984-2504.

Pickin’ & Grinnin’ (Green Profit, Jan. ’05) reports, “PYO’s come in out of the rain. . . . pick-your-owns from Weaver’s Farm Market in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, to Secrett’s Garden Centre in southwest England have found they can fend off foul weather and extend their picking season.” The article discusses how Weaver and Secrett have covered strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and even cherries with high tunnels. “Both operations use 14-ft. tall structures by British manufacturer Haygrove tunnels. . . . A big difference between American and British operations is the ever-present risk of a late snow in much of the United States. English tunnel-growers get a bigger jump on the season, warming up soil or growing medium, and encouraging earlier flowering and fruiting. American growers must be prepared to peel open the roof at any time, negating that gain, because the tunnels are not built to take much of a snow load. The main gains here are greatly increased quality, higher yields and a slight-but-significant late-season extension.”

Prompt cooling reduces postharvest strawberry decay reports Hort Technology (Jan-Mar ’05). Research conducted cooperatively by researchers at the University of Florida and Vairão Agricultural Experiment Station, Portugal, shows “prompt cooling reduces incidence and severity of decay caused by Botrytis cinerea and Rhizopus stolonifer in strawberry.” For this research, “Delays in initiating the cooling of freshly harvested ‘Chandler’ strawberries . . . were compared with prompt cooling to determine how such handling affected development of postharvest decays during subsequent storage and marketing. . . . For non-inoculated fruit, prompt cooling reduced the incidence of decay by an average of 25% and the decay severity by ~24%.” The article summary concludes by noting, “Although prompt cooling is important for minimizing postharvest decay in strawberries, temperature management alone may not sufficiently control postharvest decay when decay pressure is high.” The complete article is available for purchase at the HortTech website.

Attack of the Mummy! (Farming, Jan. ’05) by Vern Grubinger notes, “Mummy berry is one of the most serious diseases of blueberries in the Northeast. . . . It’s important to understand the rather complicated life cycle of this fungus if you want to keep it under control. . . . Early identification and ongoing management of the disease are important.” The article discusses the primary and secondary infection phases of the fungus and details cultural practices that can help. The complete article is available on the University of Vermont website at http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/mummyberry.html.

When Lifting - Look up! Chin up! An article titled “Farm Safety Resolutions” by George Cook appears in the January edition of Farming. Cook recommends the following resolutions for this years: develop a farm safety plan; avoid working alone; use appropriate personal protective equipment; make tractor safety a priority; place an emphasis on health and respect the limitations of the mind and body; and his final tip: When Lifting - Look up! Chin up! Cook says, “A simple step, taught by a physical therapist during a recent training exercise for our local rescue squad, could prevent a great many lifting injuries. It is really too simple. When lifting an object, once you’ve grabbed hold, instead of looking down at the item, look up with your chin up. . . . As soon as you look up, the arch changes, your back is much straighter, and you will be lifting more with your legs, less with your back.”

Strawberry Cultivars for Matted-Row Production (Vegetable and Small Fruit Gazette, Jan. ’05). “In 2002, a strawberry cultivar trial was established at the PSU Horticulture Research Farm at Rock Springs, PA to evaluate some of the newer cultivars appearing on the market. Two years of yield data and three years of observations are completed.” The cultivars evaluated include: L’Amour, Clancy, Ovation, Evangeline, Cabot, Darselect, and Eros.” Read the evaluations at http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/extension/vegcrops/vegetable_gazette/
2005/jan2005.htm#strawberry.

Selling Your Produce to Restaurants (Vegetable and Small Fruit Gazette, Jan. ’05). “ . . . diners, chain restaurants and ethnic food restaurants use a lot of produce, but most get their supply from large-scale distributors. These establishments often use food that is already washed, chopped, and prepared, ready to cook with as little labor as possible. They need a consistent supply all year-round, and might not be very receptive to your attempts to do business with them. . . . Despite these obstacles, it is worth talking to the people in charge, and this is the time of year to get the conversation started. You could offer them features that the large distributors can’t, like better taste and quality or homegrown marketing appeal.” The article gives advice on how to work with local restaurants to develop a market for your produce. Read the complete article at http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/extension/vegcrops/vegetable_gazette/2005/jan2005.htm#selling

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