Support For Farms In Trouble
As tobacco quotas continue to decline, commodity prices refuse to rise, and debt loads keep mounting, many farmers around the state are experiencing financial difficulties as never before. Top-notch growers and managers, who have borrowed money and repaid their debts on time their entire lives, are suddenly facing cash flow problems with no realistic hope of repayment. These problems can be difficult to discuss with your banker or other members of your local community, as no one wants to admit that their operation is in a difficult situation. RAFI, through Farm Plan Advocates, provides a discreet, confidential counseling and advice service for growers trying to assess their financial options and escape their burden of debt.

Funded through foundation grants, Farm Plan Advocates offers a range of no-cost services for farm families. They take an individualized, whole-farm approach to assistance and debt relief. They will sit down with you, go over your books and financial records with you as you choose, and discuss your family priorities. Areas of possible interest include debt restructuring, lender relations, federal program eligibility, appeals of adverse decisions, and bankruptcy.

Farm Plan Advocates' goal is to be certain that farmers are aware of all of the options available to them, from financial relief to conservation programs to planning for new enterprises. Whether your question is how to pass the farm along to your children, how to shield your family members from the debt accumulated in the farming operation, or how to rebuild the farm to credit worthiness, Farm Plan Advocates can give you an honest, objective, experienced assessment of your particular situation. All conversations are discreet and confidential.

If you or someone you know could benefit from the services of Farm Plan Advocates, email RAFI-USA at info@rafiusa.org or call Benny Bunting at 252-798-1235.

tobacco COMMUNITIES REINVESTMENT FUND

Over the past three years, the Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund, with financial support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Duke Endowment, and RAFI-USA individual donors, has supported 17 cost-share projects to develop new or existing farm enterprises. A summary of the progress of each of these projects is included below. If you would like more detail on any of the projects, please contact RAFI or the individual farmers directly.

Mark began his project in 1998 with 8 acres of coastal bermuda grass and 4 acres of alfalfa. He bought a square-baler midsummer and began square baling that hay. He is now up to 50 acres of coastal bermuda and 6 acres of alfalfa. He square baled 24 acres of the coastal and all 6 acres of the alfalfa, while round-baling the rest due to a shortage of time and some untimely rain. He's also doing some custom baling of wheat straw for a neighbor. In addition, he has begun experimenting with other grains, planting 2 acres of oats to cut green for hay and 6 acres of oats for the grain, which he bagged and sold to the same people that bought the hay.

Royce began growing produce for the first time in 1998, investing in irrigation equipment to keep his long green cucumbers alive through the hot summer. The following year, he switched to pickling cucumbers, preferring the more flexible quality standards and lower production costs of the processing market. This year, he is growing both fresh and pickling cucumbers.

"I had planned to add bell peppers and sweet corn, but I didn't want to spread myself too thin," said Royce. "Produce is different; one insect bite out of that long green cucumber and it's cattle feed. Also, with the cuts in tobacco quota, the sweet corn market seemed saturated last year.

Since he was new to the world of produce, Royce relied heavily on the expertise of others to get started. "Bill Jester of Cooperative Extension was a big help; he was always available and quick to come out to the farm for any questions. Johnny Raiford of Seven Springs, the President of the NC Vegetable Growers Association, was a big help in leading me to production and marketing assistance."

Greg is creating a full service equine facility. When complete, this will include 50 fenced acres, coastal bermuda grass, a barn and riding rings for boarding and training horses, and cutting a series of riding trails for recreation. "We are looking to do more of our farming activities right here at home," Greg comments. "People trying to make it completely on field crops are having to expand on more and more rented land, which means that they have to ride all over the county tending large acreage."

"Our primary activities at the equine facility so far have been breaking horses for other people and selling hay. One thing I like about horses is that there are so many different markets associated with them," Greg says. "Between boarding, breaking, riding lessons, breeding, tack shop, feed, and grooming, there's always something new to learn. Also, it spreads out my risk much better."

"Putting up the barn and riding rings probably took about 120 man hours of labor, and the Reinvestment Fund was only a small portion of what we've spent so far. But the Fund motivated us to go ahead with it."

Erwin has been growing some seed beans for six years, but the lack of on-farm storage capacity left him at the mercy of the current marketplace. "I took alook at average monthly soybean prices over the course of the year, and I saw that I could make a bit more money just by letting them sit in my bins until prices rose in the summertime. When I put that together with growing certified seed, I knew that I could increase my bottom line by taking more control over my product and marketing than just going the conventional route. With no more government controls over production, there's only one direction that regular soybean prices could go, and there wasn't a whole lot of profit in beans to start out with."

Erwin bought 2 used grain bins to store soybean for certified seed sales in spring 1998, had a cement foundation poured, and hired a contractor to disassemble and reassemble the bins. He stored soybeans in the bins from the fall 1998 harvest, and sold the beans at a premium this spring. He is now storing wheat in one of the bins through the summer; he plans to sell the wheat in October, at which point he'll begin storing this fall's beans.

"There's nothing that fancy about this project," Erwin admits, "but every little bit counts at this point."

In the summer of 1997, Jack bought a used cooling unit and shell. He hired a contractor to install the refrigeration unit inside the shell near his produce stand. The following winter, he built a 40 by 50 foot shelter for the produce stand. "At present, the shelter is open-sided, though we are considering the option of closing it in at some point in the future," says Jack. "Since the stand is only open in the hot summer months at present, we figure that the breeze from an open-air design is more important than keeping the warmth in during colder months."

"Installing refrigeration keeps my corn and strawberries at their highest quality on hot days," Jack continues. "This allows me to look at a variety of local markets, since I have that freshness advantage over out-of-state competition. Before we got the cooler, sweet corn, strawberries, and cabbage could only last about 6 hours on hot days. If we couldn't sell it the day we picked it, it was hog feed. Now, the post-harvest life span of these items is 3 to 7 days. If I have a few days where our harvest exceeds our drive-up customers, I can put items in the cooler and look to sell to local groceries or other produce outlets around the area. The whole thing reduced my stress level with regards to the weather."

Located in a rapidly developing area of Wake County, the farm on which Lemuel planned his project now has an uncertain future. With new housing projects surrounding the property, family members are considering a possible sale of the farm.

Since he will be unable to bring kids out to see the farm, Lemuel is now working on taking his educational message directly to the schools. He is developing a slide show presentation to take to classrooms, youth groups, and other organizations interested in learning about the past, present, and future of agriculture in Wake County.

"I'm disappointed that I won't be able to bring people out to the farm to see animals and crops in person, but the development pressures that have altered this project make the message more important than ever," says Lemuel. "People need to know where their food is coming from."

Billy had a grader dig out two ponds in the spring of 1999, with one slated for brim and the other for bass. After the paths were cleared and the ponds treated to eliminate weeds and balance the pH, Hurricane Floyd hit, wiping out one pond and flooding the other. He is in the process of rebuilding and hopes to have one pond stocked with brim this summer, with the first harvest planned for 2001. He is also looking at planting fruit trees around the ponds.

After clearing, leveling, and drainage work, Billy installed a trellising system and planted 250 grapevines on his 1.1 acre vineyard this past spring. He has also converted an old tobacco shed to a packhouse for the fruit and fish, once his harvest begins.

"I'm enjoying establishing these new enterprises, though the storms have been a difficult setback, both in terms of time and money," says Billy. "There's always something new to learn. I've already been getting people stopping by asking when grapes and fish will be ready, so I think I'm on the right track."

The market opened in the spring of 1999. It is given direction by a 15 member advisory committee, which consists of a diversity of interested growers and community leaders from Whiteville and across the county. The market is supported by many downtown Whiteville businesses and churches as a stimulus to local economic development and community cooperation. The market received financial assistance to plan, develop, and promote the market from a number of public and private sources. The Chamber of Commerce has donated the market site in a downtown parking lot. The County Health Department has also welcomed the market as a way to promote its 5-A-Day program, to encourage the use of WIC coupons for fresh healthy food, and to show its support for local farmers.

Extension agent Milton Parker has a long-term vision for growers in southeastern North Carolina, and the market is the first step. "Growers can start selling locally here in Whiteville. If they want to increase production, they can connect with the new state farmers' market in Lumberton. We're also working on a plan for a potential flash-freezing plant to expand processing and marketing options for a variety of local produce. In addition, the market can also offer ways for growers to make more use of their tobacco greenhouses, which sit empty for most of the year."

27 growers participated in the market the first year, and 5700 customers were counted by the market manager over the course of the year.

The Cooperative has been researching methods of disposing of on-farm swine and poultry mortalities, with an eye towards creating an end-product that could be sold as a pet food or fertilizer ingredient. The original concept was to have a grinder-mixer on each farm to preserve the product in a tank for later pick-up. Currently, it appears that on-farm freezer boxes will be more practical for storage.

The cooperative is still attempting to overcome two primary challenges. First, the storage technology that they are investigating has yet to receive approval as a disposal practice by the NCDA and USDA. Second, they are still looking for a buyer for their end-product.

"We've talked with alot of people," says S.L. Allen, "but we haven't found the perfect situation yet. We're still working at it."

"We grew 2/3 of an acre of vegetables using black plastic and drip irrigation," said Janice. "We also grew small amounts using black plastic and overhead irrigation, along with a few rows of late squash with drip and no plastic. This was mostly a year for experimentation, so we wanted to try a variety of combinations. I would estimate that we saw a 75 percent increase in yield, where we used both drip irrigation and plastic."

"Drip irrigation is especially valuable in a dry year. With last summer's drought conditions, we would have run our pond dry, if we weren't using drip irrigation. I found that plants would produce for longer on plastic than they do on bare ground, since we could keep a steady amount of moisture and warmth to the roots. This allowed us a constant supply of produce from Memorial to Labor Day. We also found that the plastic kept such good heat and wetness that most everything did as well direct seeding as transplanting. That will cut down on the cost of the starts that we have to buy, or the labor costs of starting plants in the greenhouse."

"With continued cuts in tobacco quota, we're seeing alot of farmers growing produce for the first time. This is flooding the wholesale market and dropping prices. Next year, we're going to rent out our stand on Highway 70 and begin selling produce here on the farm. Hopefully, the visibility of the stand has allowed us to develop a local reputation. "

"In July 1999, we built a new mini-greenhouse to start our tomato plants," says Kendall. "We seeded them in flats in August and moved them to 4 inch pots in September. Meanwhile, we began retrofitting our existing greenhouse for vegetable production. In October, we moved the plants to bags and into the big house.

"Our production stayed strong through May. I've been really pleased with the output, which was close to 12 pounds per plant; this was a target that older growers told me to shoot for. After the big increase in fuel costs this winter, we decided to convert to wood heat, since we have a good supply of timber in our woods. This water stove has been a big cost savings. We've been able to do virtually everything with family labor, between myself and my father, along with my mother and wife. It takes us an average of 35 hours a week altogether, though it was more during the start-up period.

"Marketing has gone well, at a number of small groceries and right here off the farm. I've found that if you always deliver a quality product and are honest about what you will do, everything works out fine. I was worried that the market might be flooded this year, but we've been able to maintain our price throughout."

The Bartleys converted an existing tobacco greenhouse to tomato production in August 1999. The crop was completed in January. The first year was split between tomatoes and peppers, and they have moved almost entirely to peppers this year due to the marketing opportunities, including the new Columbus County Community Farmers Market.

In addition to greenhouse vegetables, the Bartleys are raising sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, and butter beans in the field; much of this is under black plastic. They have also built two shellers to add value to the product.

"This project has completely changed the way we look at farming," says Jimmy. "Two years ago, we felt the only way to farm was to raise tobacco,corn, and soybeans. We now see there are a number of different things we can produce that will help us on the farm."

Randy has built a greenhouse to produce vegetable seedlings and high-end colored peppers that are currently being imported from Holland. After last year's storms wiped out his fall vegetable crops, he was set back in terms of time and finances, so he won't get his first crop in the greenhouse until next spring. In the meantime, Randy has bought several pea and bean shellers and is renovating an old tobacco barn for on-farm processing and sales of vegetables.

"With more people getting into produce and yields up due to black plastic, the bottom is falling out of the wholesale market. I'm looking for any angle I can take to find a piece of the market that's just mine."

"Once I started growing vegetables on a serious scale," Randy says, "I got out of tobacco and grains. The management required to grow high-quality vegetables is more than a full-time job, so I decided to jump in with both feet. It's running me ragged right now, but I can't tell you how nice it is not to have that mountain of debt hanging over my head all year long."

Ronnie has planted 83 acres of fescue, 10 acres of bermuda grass, and 10 acres of centipede grass. He's selling everything to landscapers and nurseries who buy it right off the farm, trucking it up to the Triangle to create "instant lawns" for the booming building market.

"Sod is very expensive to get started in and took a lot of research to know what I wanted to do, but I'm enjoying it," says Ronnie. "It takes my full attention, so I'm not doing any other farming. I wish I could say that I miss growing tobacco, but when I can take a Saturday off in July to go fishing with my family, I'm awfully glad to be in the sod business."

The Johnston County Goat Producers Association (JCGPA) is a newly formed group, working to improve goat production and marketing in the Greater Triangle area. Some of the members have been selling goats individually from the farm or at auction, but quantity and margins are minimal through these channels. At the urging of Cooperative Extension Agent Ron Hughes, the JCGPA is investigating the feasibility of forming a cooperative to add value to their goats through joint processing and marketing efforts. North Carolina A&T State University is currently conducting a survey of area restaurants, markets, and groceries for the JCGPA.

"It's encouraging to see these farmers willing to work together to improve their production and marketing," says Hughes. "Farmers are generally an independent bunch, so I'm impressed that they want to take this on."

"There are new groups of people moving into North Carolina. From immigrant groups who traditionally eat goat, to more affluent and health conscious consumers who are looking for a lower fat meat, there seems to be potential to sell more goat meat into our region," says Selma goat producer Leslie Averill. "If we don't take a look at this market, you can be sure that someone else will."

The market is in its second year of existence, and growers and customers are pleased with its progress. "With so many farmers taking up produce as a sideline to replace lost tobacco income," says grower director Dave Spahr, "this market provides an excellent outlet for a grower either to sell small quantities of a bumper crop or to be a regular yearlong fixture with a variety of items. Also, we want to encourage our growers to learn as much as they can about new innovations, so we've funded scholarships to the annual Vegetable Expo in Greensboro and a greenhouse tomato school in Mississippi."

The market is working closely with the Extension Service on establishing a permanent home for the market with new facilities that they're planning. To learn more, check out the market's website at: http://harnett.ces.state.nc.us/hort/farmersmarket.html

Ryan expanded his greenhouse tomato business by adding another house in August 1999. Since he had been growing tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse for two years, the Reinvestment Fund gave him the opportunity to supply the markets he had already developed. Ryan also had the opportunity to work with several other Reinvestment Fund projects, selling at the Harnett County Farmers Market and helping Kendall Hocutt get started in greenhouse tomatoes.

"This will never come close to replacing tobacco," says Ryan," but it is nice to have something profitable to fall back on during these times of quota cuts."