Soper Farms Phase II Plan

Overture

Without the hand of man getting in the way, nature very effectively creates, balances and evolves. It does so with all life forms interacting together. As farmers we have a choice between manipulating nature and managing nature in our pursuit to feed ourselves.

 

Our current farming model has evolved over many years onto a path of manipulation using GMO seeds and oil-based fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides as substitutes to nature’s abundant ability to nourish. As we’ve learned, this path, however well intentioned, has had a debilitating impact on our environment, our soil and the water upon which our farms depend.  The plan that we are buildiing today follows the restovative path to manage nature as a partner so we too may create, balance and evolve.

Our Goal

Our goal is to identify the components necessary to launch a livestock and vegetable operation starting from scratch.  We seek to establish a schedule and sequence of events … from first spade in the ground to production and delivery.  The final outcome of this effort will be a business plan with all the rational, data and associated costs with which to make a “go forward” decision. Key to this plan is the market conditions and opportunities that will guide our commitment of resources.

The ground we are focused on is named Walnut 22 (160 acres) and Emmetsburg 1 (100 acres). If the business plan resulting from our work is accepted, the clock for this project starts in September 2010.

The Sites

Walnut 22 is near the West Fork of the Des Moines River about 6 miles north and west of Emmetsburg, Iowa.  This 160-acre quarter section is accessible from a maintained county gravel road and a private dirt road. The sandy nature of this ground requires irrigation for corn & beans. It seems well suited for pasture and, because of its sandy soil, good also for growing vegetables.

Farm	Current Operator	Acres	CSR	Est. Market Value	Est. Value
Walnut 22	Herke	160	44.8	$3,000/Gross Acre	$480,000

Emmetsburg 1 has the tenant’s own irrigation gear on this sandy ground.  It is about 3 miles northwest of Emmetsburg, Iowa.  Access is from a county maintained gravel road. The ground is split in two parts by a diagonal RR track.

Farm	Current Operator	Acres	CSR	Est. Market Value	Est. Value.
Emmetsburg 1	Herke	100	38.5	$2,160/Gross Acre	$216,000

 

 

Soil Development

In all cases we are creating a soil farm upon which all things in this plan depend. This is a high priority.  The plan needs to describe strategies and their cost for N-P-K balance and growth in the soil and the development of micronutrients that will result in the highest quality of our food products. Questions to answer:

Q. What are the best legumes to encourage growth?

Q. What are the weed abatement strategies?

Q. How might the irrigator accelerate pasture development?

Q. When can livestock be put into this new pasture?

Farming Practices

While targeting organic certification, we are to look “beyond organics” into farming practices such as biodynamics to support both livestock and vegetable farming. Permaculture design of the farm is another process to consider.  These choices may not be an either/or choice but a hybrid of the two as they apply to this ground. With a farming practice model in mind, it will guide us towards understanding the equipment, staff and facilities needed on site and our time scales to get into production.

Infrastructure

The only infrastructure on Walnut 22 is a center pivot irrigator. The intention is to use this for delivering water and other potential uses such as pulling animal shelters.  Using the water to accelerate pasture development is the primary goal.

This diagram is a proposed layout of Walnut 22. The blue areas labeled A¹, B¹, are the grazing paddocks under the irrigator. The numbers from 1 to 16 in the A and B paddocks determines the rotation order. Eight water tanks are needed to support all paddocks. The farm infrastructure is laid out on the periphery of the irrigator. Movable electric fencing is suggested.

Questions to be addressed include:

Q. Is this proposed grazing cycle practical?

Q. What are the best rotation intervals?

Q. Assuming livestock go into the plan first and vegetables second, what kind of structures are necessary?

Q. How should these be laid out?

Q. How do all the buildings integrate together?

Q. What about human waste management?

Q. Access to clean water at all buildings?

Q. Internal roads?

Q. What about power (grid, solar, wind)?

Q. Movable electric fencing?

Q. Plumbing from center pivot wellhead to 8 tanks?

Emmetsburg 1 has a center pivot irrigator on the east half of the ground. The current tenant owns the irrigator.  There appears to be a well head on the west half of the ground but there is no irrigator on it at this time.

Markets

Walnut 22 & Emmetsburg 1 are within 6 miles of Emmetsburg located in Northwest Iowa (A). Looking to markets within a four-hour footprint of Emmetsburg are urban centers including Sioux City, Omaha, Des Moines, Iowa City, and Minneapolis.

Closer local markets are much smaller and include Spencer (pop. 10,500) and a major tourist area, Lake Okoboji with a large summer vacation population.

Cattle Processing Facilities

Livestock processing facilities will be necessary. In some cases that could include custom plants, mobile on-site and FDA approved processing facilities. These need to be identified and the economics of each studied. In addition to selling meat, other specialty meat products like sausages should be considered.

Cattle Genetics and Herd Development

In all cases, the target is to produce Prime or Choice quality beef only. There are a number of approaches to the cattle plan to be considered. Alone or in combination, these include finishing grass-fed animals brought in from outside and/or developing our own herd.  As herd development implies a longer-term strategy, the two may be used in combination at the beginning. For herd development and growing a cow/calf operation, genetics are a key to success.  There may also be an opportunity to sell premier breeding livestock to other beef operations.  All forms of breeding should be considered.

Livestock Rotation and Herd Size

Open for study is a livestock rotation that would include cattle for meat production and could also include sheep or goats followed by chickens. The size of these herds compared to the pasture ground available is important.

Sales, Marketing & Branding

This business plan will include the details of selling and marketing Soper Farms products within the distribution footprint of four hours shown previously. Options include CSAs, wholesale to grocery stores and restaurants, Soper Farms storefront, farmer’s markets, etc. 

Renewable Energy

Wind and solar power can provide this farm with cash flow benefits and long-term income, reduce on-site energy costs, while mitigating global climate-change. This farm will have a renewable energy plan to farm the wind and sun as well as livestock and vegetables. In addition, opportunities to pursue the creation and use of bio fuels are to be considered.

An example to study is Wyn Evans from Pembrokeshire West Wales who runs a mixed farm of 170 acres, has been trying to reduce his dependency on fossil fuels since 1977. He has installed an anaerobic digester, a wind turbine, solar panels and a ground-sourced heat pump. He has sought wherever possible to replace diesel with his own electricity. Instead of using his tractor to spread slurry, he pumps it from the digester onto nearby fields. He’s replaced his tractor-driven irrigation system with an electric one, and set up a new system for drying hay indoors, which means he has to turn it in the field only once. Whatever else he does is likely to produce smaller savings. But these innovations have reduced his use of diesel by only around 25%.

Vegetables

We have an opportunity to create an integrated farm that leverages the natural interdependence between animals and vegetation. Having both vegetables and meat to sell leverages our brand and can attracts customers by offering more choice.

To be studied is both field vegetable crops and hoop house vegetable crops for an extended season of growing and selling. The business plan will determine the size of the opportunity and the scale necessary to meet the opportunity. From this, facilities, staffing and rollout plans can be proposed.

Added Value

One key element to the success of many organic/local/sustainable farms has been adding value to their crops and selling as directly to the consumer as possible. Hermannsdorffer Farms in Germany are a prime example of this. In addition to the hog meat and vegetables they also add value by making sausages, beer, bread and go so far as to serve prepared meals to diners visiting their farm. They also have their own retail store that features their products as well as other organic products.

Building a restaurant and/or a commercial kitchen in which to prepare added value products will be studied. 

Legal & Insurance

As this plan studies selling food direct to the consumer it raises the need for legal structures and insurance that typically go beyond what is normal for our current practice of raising commodity crops and then selling them to brokers and manufacturers. Examples include:

Livestock – Because of food safety laws and the litigious environment we live in today, it will be necessary to shelter SFI assets from potential law suits. Having separate incorporated legal entities should be considered. An example of one structure is Soper Farms Inc. (who owns the farm and operational assets) and raises livestock under contract to Soper Farms Marketing, Inc. who owns the livestock and sells the meat products on to the public. To fund Soper Farms Marketing, Inc. Soper Farms Inc. could make a loan SFMI and be in control of the revenue and profits.

Farmer’s Markets Insurance – Most farmer’s markets require the seller to have liability insurance. Sometimes these policies are hard to get and can be expensive for a small farmer. The few claims that do occur usually are tied to accidents like a tent blowing over and causing damage and not food safety.

Challenges in Planning

The choices we may follow will be numerous offering multiple opportunities in each area. This is a big subject to cover. Just imagine the complexity of the industrial food enterprise beginning at the farm to wholesalers, to manufacturers to distributors to outlets from grocery stores to restaurants and institutions. What we are planning is a microcosm of this. Every effort will be made to keep this plan within a reasonable scope, leaving future opportunities to unfold over time.

Carbon Farming

Carbon Farming Field Report

H. Soper

November 4, 2009

Could soil hold the most promise to combat climate change?

On Friday, October 30^th 2009 a group of about 40 gathered in the equipment shed at Toto Ranch located in the hills overlooking the beaches of Northern California near San Gregorio, California.  These pictures only begin to capture the beauty of this place.

Toto Ranch’s 952 acres of rolling hills is a grass-fed livestock operation and just this year was put under the protection of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST). That easement limits the property’s development potential so as to protect natural resources including critical wildlife habitat, important watershed land and panoramic views of the San Gregorio and Tunitas Creek valleys.

Hosted by the non-profit group, Conexions, we gathered for this workshop to learn from Darren Doherty about “Carbon Farming”. It included pasture soil development, Keyline farming principles and the use of a Yeoman’s Plow as part of a field demonstration.

Darren is a permaculturalist who has practiced, preached and consulted carbon farming for over 15 years having designed and developed over 1,100 properties worldwide.  To his question, “Could soil hold the most promise to combat climate change?” the answer is a resounding YES … and farmers hold the keys because soil represents the largest carbon sink in the world over which we have control. 

“How much carbon is in soil?” Darren explained “soil with 5% organic matter to one foot of depth and a bulk density of 1.2 g/cm3 has about a ¼ inch of pure carbon in it … 35 times the amount causing global warming”. Imagine if grain farmers practiced cover cropping and livestock producers used rotational grazing, how improved our climate would be.  To reverse global warming a significant portion of carbon has to remain in the soil in a stable form.

Darren’s focus in this workshop was on grazing with some examples as to grazing practices to work towards.

1: Grazing “tall” yields a more developed root system as shown in these examples:

2: Afternoon Grazing increases forage sugar. Afternoon grass has 37% more sugar than morning grass.  This peaks about 6:00pm. As pointed out by a dairy farmer, “We jumped five pounds of milk per cow per day when we began restricting morning grazing and strip grazing from mid-day onward.” Does this suggest the best time of day to move your mob.

3: Spring grazing - Lewellyn Manske, Dickinson Center, University of North Dakota was quoted saying that spring grazing begins in the fall. Light defoliation (25% to 33%) allows translocation of above ground sugar to root systems to be exuded immediately after the bite.  This stimulates root-zone microorganisms, including AMF which then solubolize N, P and other nutrients for re-growth.  The effect apparently lasts the entire season and overall biomass production increases 40 to 70%. The take home lesson:  Don’t graze a chunk of pasture this fall, let it go into winter with full standing cover. In the spring, graze it lightly after 3 ½ leaf and see what happens.  You won’t go back!

Keypoints and Keylines

Prior to our field demonstration of a Yeoman’s Plow we learned about Keyline farming practices to which the use of a Yeoman’s Plow (similar to zone tillage). The Keyline is a permaculture farming technique used for water management. According to permaculture literature, Keyline integrates terraces, ponds and cultivation techniques with the natural landscape to infiltrate water into the soil efficiently and hold it on the land as long as possible. In order to truly work with nature, implementing a Keyline system requires careful observation and assessment of a site. Carbon sequestration is also an important by-product of using a Yeoman’s Keyline Plow.

To have a Keyline you need two key points.  A key point on a field is the point where a ridge stops going up and begins to slope down.  At that intersection between up and down is a key point. On the other side of this depression in the landscape where the valley stops going up is another key point. Drawing a line between these two key points creates your Keyline. I apologize for this poor description and perhaps this graphic will better explain.

 Here is another graphic explaining Keyline cultivation.

As you can see, Keyline cultivation is not the “standard” practice most often used of ridgeline cultivation. This graphic compares ridgeline cultivation versus Keyline cultivation.

 

When using a Yeoman’s Plow for pasture subsoil development permaculture practices recommend following the Keyline. It isn’t my goal to teach Keyline Farming but to plant the seed for the reader to explore. Here are some resources.

http://www.Keyline.com.au

http://www.soilandhealth.org.au

http://www.permaculture.org.au

http://www.holisticmanagement.org

http://www.oaecwater.org

http://www.permaculture.biz

The Idea Behind Subsoiling Pasture

The goal in subsoiling is to repeatedly create ideal conditions for plant growth and aerobic soil organisms to convert subsoil to topsoil. By using a tool such as the Yeoman’s Plow or similar implement, the soil is mechanically loosened to increase water absorption capacity, aeration and allow the rhizosphere (root zone) to successively penetrate deeper. As a result, subsoil is converted to topsoil as plant rhizosperes extend further into it, bringing attendant biology and metabolic by-products with it.  Roots exudate and sloughed-off roots serve as carbon sources.

This picture shows the mechanics of a subsoiler.

In action the plow first cuts the grass with a disc followed by the shank that can be set at variable depths.

  The distance between shanks can be adjusted. After the first pass over the field it is advised that the soil be given a chance to benefit for a while before a second pass is made going down the middle of the previous path.  Because this tool is used less frequently for subsoiling purposes (this needn’t be done regularly) it makes a good implement to share with neighboring farms.

It was an excellent workshop on a gorgeous ranch, both leaving me inspired. Let me leave you with these parting thoughts:

“If we don’t take care of soil which is only the first 5 centimeters on this earth’s surface, our lives are condemned” - Dirt the Movie

A handful of soil holds tens of billions of microorganisms …  that is unless farmers have dumped herbicides and insecticides on it while tilling these critical carbon sequesters to death.

A third of our topsoil has been lost in the past 100 years due to industrial farming practices.

Rapidly increasing Soil Organic Matter is the most important job in the world, and only farmers can do it … and should be paid to do it.

Humans have relocated 50 – 80 % of the organic carbon once in topsoil to the atmosphere in the last 150 years … no wonder we have a climate problem today.

“The nation that destroys its topsoil destroys itself.” - Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

Pete's Greens - Vermont

Earlier this year I planned a road trip to visit numerous organic farms that sat along or near the same parallel as Emmetsburg (43.1°). This was important because of similar daylight. Sunlight is the primary determinant to plant growth. Growth slows when there is 10 hours or less of sunlight/day. So the trick is to get your plants started early enough so they are close to maturity by that date in winter. Vermont is at the 45th parallel similar to Emmetsburg. This would give me an indication as to what vegetables could be grown at our latitude as daylight has a significant affect on plant's growing season. Running on a tight schedule, I crossed the country from east to mid west. The following field report covers my first visit with Pete Johnson in Craftsbury, Vermont and his organic enterprise, "Pete's Greens".

Field Report

Pete’s Greens, Craftsbury, Vermont,

April 9, 2009 - H. Soper

Uncle Hunter sent me an article from the Christian Science Monitor about a this organic farmer, Pete Johnson, who had an organic vegetable farm in Craftsbury, Vermont. What surprised me was that Pete was growing lots of vegetables in the dead of winter, in a sparsely populated area and selling out everything he could grow.

Craftsbury and Emmetsburg are within approximately one degree latitude of each other (Emmetsburg: 43.1° and Craftsbury: 44.6°) thereby getting the same amount of sunlight year-round. I know how cold Iowa winters can be and I wanted to know how Pete could do this. Was it possible Soper Farms could do so as well?

On my way to Pete’s I stopped in Montpelier (state capital of Vermont with about 8,000 population) to get directions to Craftsbury. The folks at the Coffee Corner were very helpful with directions.

As I made my way up into the hills I noticed that the ground was not Iowa-class … a lot of exposed granite with thin layers of soil scattered about.

When I found Pete he was at work on a chilly day, doing what farmers do.

This is what one of his hoop houses looks like from the outside. He has 4 this size.

The one below he calls his “head house” because a permanent building is attached where they prepare seedlings.

It is farm HQ. Inside the head house I met with Pete’s partner, Meg

  and their chief maintenance person, Steve.

This is a view from inside of the head house looking out into the high wall hoop house itself where they start seedlings and get an early start on spring veggies.

Their source for hoop houses is from a Canadian company, Harnois (nice name ditch think?). This hoop tunnel runs 45’ x 144’ and is double layered. The layers are kept separated by a small fan that blows air between then. The logic goes that for every layer on a hoop house you move your site one agricultural zone south. With exception of this head house tunnel, Pete’s other hoop houses are all movable and measure 35’ x 200’.

A hoop house is permanently mounted on a rail and can be pulled forward or backwards across the ground by a tractor. This is done at intervals in the planting season. The ground outside is prepared and fortified organically. When the time comes, it is planted and the hoop house pulled over it and into place. This exposes the previous ground to the elements which helps purify the soil with direct sun and freezing temperatures that prevent harmful bacteria that can establish itself in a permanent green house.

 
In the head house Pete and Steve make their own potting soil to start their seedlings. This is less expensive and their plants do better. Pete’s Greens is a certified organic farm. Meg pointed out that you don’t need to use organic manure for mulch on organic vegetables … there just isn’t enough around and organic animal farms will use their organic manure for their own fields. Pete is planning to start raising his own organic animals (chickens, pigs & cows) next year for both the manure and the products.

Back to their head house, you’ll see several tanks and a boiler.  They sometimes augment the temperature for both their seedlings (and chicks) by burning used vegetable oil gathered from nearby restaurants.  On Wednesdays when they do their CSA drop-offs they pick up the used cooking oil from restaurants, separate it in tanks and burn it in a modified boiler to heat both the head house and the ground under the attached hoop house. (see tanks below)

The boiler heats water that runs through the cement slab under the head house and through pipes in the ground under the attached hoop house for radiant heating. They don’t heat the air.  Their primary goal however is to not depend on resources that nature doesn’t offer on site.  The heating is for special conditions only. To help moderate the heat that can build up in a hoop house with only solar gain heating, there are vents that open and close in the ceiling.

About their markets, they have 200 CSA shareholders in winter, 300 in summer. Pete travels up to two hours away to Burlington and Montpelier. On their Wednesday route they also deliver to their wholesale accounts (restaurants, etc.) and twice a week they have a trucking company (Black River Produce) pick up and deliver to wholesale accounts as far away as Boston and New York.  They would like to stay more local but the demand is high.  They market directly to their CSA and wholesale accounts which is the responsibility of their CSA Manager.

 

Note – these distances are very similar to those between Emmetsburg and Sioux City and Minneapolis.  Local can include a pretty wide circle and be profitable.

 

In addition to their own products, their CSA manager is responsible for buying in locavor products (goat’s cheese, eggs, flour, barley, maple sugar, etc.) which they put in their CSA boxes. This is particularly handy in winter when vegetable choices are more limited. Another point of interest about their CSA shares, some but not all of the locavor products they get are organic and their customers don’t care. The customer seems to care most that it is fresh and supports local farmers who practice healthy organic farming practices … but are not certified. Hence the term “beyond organic”. Because all this food is local, the customer can always visit the farm which is hard to do when the veggies come from California, Arizona or Mexico.

Pete divides his “share” seasons in 4 parts (spring, summer, fall, winter). A share is purchased up front for the season and averages $44/week. Here in Palo Alto, California a share costs $27/week for a box from JP Organic Farm in Salinas and includes a dozen organic eggs.

Pete is also building a commercial kitchen so he can take excess crops and cook and freeze for distribution in his winter share that is dominated by root vegetables. As part of this commercial kitchen, the State of Vermont bought and offered a portable freezing machine that can freeze 600 lbs of anything per hour. To store the frozen products they have a large used trailer they insulated inside with 3 layers of used Styrofoam and sprayed insulation on the outside.
 

Note: If you are selling beef there are FDA regulations that cover meat processing plants. If you slaughter for sale in stores the plant needs to be FDA certified and supervised. If you slaughter just for yourself you can use a “custom” slaughter house where an individual owns the entire cow. If you slaughter on-farm you can sell through your CSA without FDA certification as CSAs are exempt. These regulations are in flux and these details need to be revisited.

An important part of their operation is their “wash house” where they wash all their veggies, box them and, for winter roots, store in a big walk-in cooler. I didn’t see the wash house. To add more diversity to their CSA shares for winter they built a separate room where they could put in shelves and grow shoots, radishes, etc. When the season closed they then took out the shelves and used the room for growing chicks until they are big enough to be finished outside. Enter the “roots & chicks” room with Meg.

Here are the chicks. These are standard commercial chicks that cost about $1/each. They are cheap to raise … it costs chicken feed (pun).

A work in progress – It is clear here at Pete’s Greens, that their business is a work in progress where they experiment, measure and grow. In all the farm visits I have made, I see no “template”, just a lot of flexibility depending on what area of organic farming the farmer prefers and their geographic and climate conditions. In every case, their business was growing.

Pete does about $1.5 million a year and he also enjoys the business side of this work. He plans to add cattle, pigs, chickens, more hoop houses with his current growth around 30%/year. Pete wants to grow it to about $5.0 million a year. His CSA customers provide him the cash-flow (they pay in advance) and there is no middle man. His biggest concentration of CSAs is not in Craftsbury but in Burlington and Montpelier, both hours away. His excess products he sells wholesale to restaurants and demand comes from as far away as Boston 207 miles away. That is farther than from Emmetsburg to Minneapolis at 200 miles away.

Let your imagination run with this opportunity for Soper Farms.