Farm Indiana East | April 2013

April 2013 | Section A

FAMILY FARMS

“Born too soon” At 85, Hancock County farmer Kenny Phares has seen it all

By Robin Winzenread Fritz | photos by tom russo

H

aving lived, farmed and raised a family in northwestern Hancock County for the past 85 years, Kenny Phares has experienced a great many changes in the Hoosier heartland firsthand.

“Tractors were first coming into play when I was a boy,” says Kenny, while sitting at the dining room table with his son and farming partner, Jeff Phares. “I’ve seen it change from manual to automation to high tech. I’ve seen farming go from a way of life to big business.”

But while the times and technology have changed, one thing has remained fairly constant in his life. It’s a 74-year-old dairy barn, and it stands just north of the home he has shared with Wilma, his wife of 59 years, since the 1970s.

Kenny grew up near that barn and the farm he now calls home, not far from the small community of Mohawk. As a child in the 1930s, he watched huckster wagons bring produce to area families.

When cash was short, people could barter and trade. “You could trade eggs for groceries right in front of the house in the 1930s,” Kenny says.

The nearby barn was built by the Milky Way Guernsey Farm in 1939 and 1940 specifically as a dairy operation. At the time, the large block barn included 18 milking stanchions and a pump house.

After its completion, the son of the family who owned the dairy was drafted into World War II, providing Kenny with an opportunity. For the next three years, from age 15 to 17, he helped out in the dairy barn.

“My wages were $15 a week,” he says.

“At that time there were three groceries in Mohawk, and we sold them fresh raw milk that

TOP: Kenny Phares stands by the first tractor he bought, a 1953 McCormack Farmall purchased for $4,500. MIDDLE: Jeff Phares and his father, Kenny, inside their office.

Bottom: Jeff, right, along with his son-in-law, Jeff Addison, closes the front of the storage barn on the Phares farm moments after receiving a shipment of feed corn.

was bottled by hand in that barn. Probably a third of each quart was cream.

“I never dreamed I would ever own it,” says Kenny about the barn that his brother, Gerald, eventually bought. The brothers later swapped properties, and Kenny became the owner of the barn. “I certainly never dreamed it while I worked there.”

So unique is the block barn that a family friend stumbled upon a watercolor painting of it by a local artist in nearby Greenfield and purchased it for the family as a gift. It now hangs proudly in the dining room of Kenny and Wilma’s home, a beautiful reminder of a special piece of Indiana’s agricultural history.

Kenny’s father died at the age of 43, an event that propelled Kenny and his brother into a life of farming. As the oldest of four, Kenny took charge of his mother’s property.

“But, really,” adds son, Jeff, “he and his brother, they started with next to nothing.”

Kenny rented his first farm in 1948, but his plans were put on hold when he was drafted into the Korean War in 1950. Fortunately for Kenny, neighbor Elbert Griffith promised to help farm the land during his two-year absence. “He told me, you’ll have something to come back to,” see phares on page a2

A2

Farm Indiana // april 2013

King of the Crop Lloyd Arthur knows firsthand that farming is a risky business

By Robin Winzenread Fritz

W Phares

“The engines were loud, and you spent all day on the tractor with the sun beating down on you and your head turned like continued from page A1 this,” Kenny adds, turning his head over says Kenny. Now, 61 years later, Kenny’s his right shoulder as he did time and time granddaughter lives on that same property again while pulling a plow or a picker in that her grandfather rented. those earlier years. “The stack was right After his return, word eventually spread here,” he says, indicating the area next to that Kenny was a diligent, careful and amhis ear, “and it was loud.” bitious young man, and people began to Pointing to the hearing aid in his right ask him if he would cash rent their ground. ear, he smiles. “I was just born too soon.”

“I’ve been lucky and blessed, but it also gets The 1980s, Kenny says, were a struggle. back to a work ethic and moral character “The ’80s took a lot of people out (of farmand perseverance,” explains Kenny. “Extra ing),” he says. “Interest shot up to 15 percent or more. It was just killing small business in the 1980s.”

“Dad was always in touch with what was going on,” Jeff says. “He was “There were no herbicides, there always a sharp manager. He studied was no commercial nitrogen. what others were doing, and if it There were no dryers. There was looked like it would work, he wasn’t no air conditioning, no cabs. afraid to try it. He managed to work You were just eating dust.” through the tough times without get —Kenny Phares ting behind.”

Today, the Phares family owns roughly 1,500 acres and cash rents an additional 1,500 in Hancock County. effort pays off. When people see you do While retired from the bulk of farming, the little things, like always shutting your Kenny still keeps busy as his son, Jeff, and garage door or keeping the weeds mowed, Jeff’s son-in-law, Jeff Addison, oversee the then they know they can trust you to look day-to-day operations. after their land.”

“I’m just hanging around now,” Kenny Looking back, the 1960s and 1970s stand explains. “Every farm needs a good gofer.” out as Kenny’s favorite farming decades.

While he has seen both good times and “You could still buy a truck or a car for bad, when asked about the future of farmabout $5,000 in those days,” he says. “There ing, Kenny frowns slightly. “I feel sympathy were some profitable years in the 1970s.” for a young person who wants to get into During those same years, he raised livefarming these days because I just don’t know stock and crops, including corn, wheat, oats how they’ll get started,” he answers. “If they and hay. Soybeans were only just beginning don’t know someone or if they don’t have the to make a dent in the Hoosier farm market. means or if it isn’t already in the family, I just Kenny also witnessed huge advances in don’t know how they would get started.” FI technology during those years. “It was a big era of change in terms of machinery,” he says. Before those advances, corn was picked still on the cob, and there was no way to dry it, says Kenny.

Before the 1960s and ’70s, “you would just leave it in the fields,” says Kenny. “We didn’t have those self-propelled combines that pick it and shell it.

“There were no herbicides, there was no commercial nitrogen. There were no dryers.

There was no air conditioning, no cabs. You were just eating dust,” he says.

TOP: Kenny Phares with a photo of the farm he purchased back in 1956, which had more than 140 acres. Phares started farming right out of high school. Right: Jeff Addison inside one of the Phares grain bins.

hen storms threaten, many Hoosier farmers turn their eyes anxiously to the sky, but none more so than Lloyd Arthur. A farm of roughly 1,200 acres in crops and 1,400 hogs is reason enough to worry, but when you add in Arthur’s responsibilities as a crop insurance agent, it’s clear that rough weather weighs heavily on his mind.

“Last year, everyone had a claim,” he says.

A full-time, fourth-generation farmer since 2001 — with a fifth generation hopefully waiting in the wings in sons Evan, 9, and Nash, 4 — Arthur and his wife, Angie, raise genetic pig breeding stock in Hancock County for PIC North America of Hendersonville, Tenn. “We sell breeding stock to other producers,” says Arthur. “I’ve been around hogs all my life.”

Additionally, he and his family farm approximately 1,200 acres of mostly corn, which they feed to their hogs. As a result, he doesn’t sell his corn but, instead, is a buyer.

“In a typical year with 1,200 acres of corn we should be able to produce 85 percent to 90 percent of our corn usage,” says Arthur. “Last year, it was about three months’ (worth) … that’s about 25 percent,” he added, referencing the drought.

As a crop insurance agent for Diversified Crop Insurance of Jackson, Ill., and as a full-time farmer, Arthur is keenly aware that farming, in general, is a risky business. From pest infestations to grain bin dryer fires to adverse weather ranging from damaging winds to flooding, annual farming revenues can swing widely. As a result, Hoosier farmers are often “not in a position to not have it (crop insurance),” he says.

In fact, one of the best advantages of crop insurance, according to Arthur, is peace of mind.

With adequate crop insurance, farmers can focus on work rather than fret about a multitude of possible disasters that could spell financial ruin.

Today’s modern-day crop insurance has its roots in the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era when the combination of economic woes and natural disasters hit American farmers hard. The Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) was created

by Congress in 1938 to manage the program, but it was actually treated as an experiment until 1980 when Congress passed the Federal Crop Insurance Act. It expanded the program to include additional crops and other areas of the country previously excluded. The act was further reformed in 1994, ushering in a period of rapid growth of insured acreage. By 1998, 180 million acres of plant crops — representing two-thirds of total planted acres in the country, valued at roughly $28 billion — were covered by insurance, more than triple the number of acres insured just 10 years earlier.

The objective of crop insurance is to protect farmers from economic losses caused by everything from a steep drop in crop prices to the inability to plant due to adverse weather, such as late frosts, hail and drought. A variety of insurance products are available to farmers, says Arthur, depending on what they grow, where they grow it and what kind of coverage they need.

Land in Indiana is insured on a county-bycounty, crop-by-crop and practice-by-practice (irrigation versus non-irrigation) basis. When considering crop revenue insurance — the most popular form of crop insurance, according to Arthur — it’s an all or nothing proposition within a county, which means if a farmer decides to insure his cropland in Hancock County, that farmer has to insure it all.

“Whether you farm one acre or a thousand acres in that county, you have to insure it all,” says Arthur. He added, however, that if that same farmer also farms land in another county, he isn’t required to insure it even though he has taken out policies in another county. “Again, it’s a county by county choice,” he explains.

The specific aim of crop revenue insurance is to protect farmers from fluctuating revenues. A fair price for the crop is determined in advance in the spring when the policy is purchased and, should the actual crop fail to obtain that predetermined spring price at market, the farmer receives a payout for the difference. For a slight premium increase, a fall price option can also be purchased, enabling the farmer to receive a potentially larger payout.

“Let’s say the price in the spring was set at $5.68 like last year,” says Arthur, “and you have the option of taking the spring price with the fall price option, and the fall price was $7.50. So — to give you an easy math problem here — let’s say you, as a farmer, have 147 bushels of APH, your actual production history averaged over 10 years.

You bought 85 percent insurance so that’s a 125-bushel-per-acre guarantee. So, in the spring, you’re at that 125 bushels, and if you take it times $5.68, then $710 per acre is your guarantee. Well, then in the fall the price went up to $7.50, so now you take that 125 bushels times $7.50 so instead of that $710 an acre, it’s now $937.50 an acre.

“That’s the advantage of doing the spring price and the fall price,” he explains.

Given the variety of crops grown in Indiana across a wide number of counties and the many coverage options available, crop insurance can be confusing. For this reason, many farmers choose to work with experienced crop insurance agents like Arthur when considering a policy. As an agent licensed in Indiana, he is happy to make recommendations regarding coverage.

As with any insurance policy, Arthur suggests that farmers weigh the cost of premiums against possible damages that might occur without insurance. To help with the decision-making process, he is also happy to work with farmers to create a risk management plan, which takes into account a variety of factors, such as debt load, risk appetite and banking requirements.

He also cautions that smart record-keeping is key to crop insurance. At a minimum, farmers should keep their settlement sheets when selling grain and — if, like him, they don’t sell their grain — they should also keep grain bin measurements, grain load logs and details from any combine monitoring.

Arthur sells a wide variety of crop insurance, noting that, “as an agent, you want to be able to sell everything. It’s like Walmart selling diapers but not baby formula,” he says. “You want to be able to offer everything.”

When not watching the sky, feeding hogs or pricing premiums, Arthur and Angie spend their time following equally agrarian pursuits, including showing their prized pigs, raising short-horn cattle and showing quarter horses. Son Evan is looking forward to his first year of 4-H. “I’m not sure if Mom and Dad’s not more excited than him,” Arthur says, with a laugh. Evan recently competed at the National Junior Swine Association’s southeast regional competition in Georgia.

“He did very well, and he doesn’t know how well he did, actually,” says his proud father. “He won his class in the open show.” FI

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Farm Indiana // april 2013

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EDITOR’S NOTE april 2013

A4 Farm succession A5 The Pence administration A6 Small farm conference A7 Riley Park tire service profile A8 Record keeping B1 David Schwartzkopf B2 18 on the Square B3 Food safety B4 Indiana's agritourism B6 Indiana Wine Fair B7 Organic certification B8 Farm briefs

Comments, story ideas and suggestions should be sent to Sherri Lynn Dugger, The Republic, 333 Second St., Columbus, IN 47201, call (812) 379-5608 or email farmindiana@hnenewspapers.com.

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©2013 by Home News Enterprises.

All rights reserved.

Reproduction of stories, photographs and advertisements without permission is prohibited.

» You don’t know me.

And I don’t know you. But it’s high time we met.

I, Sherri Dugger, have been an editor for Home News Enterprises since July 2009. Thanks to my position here, I’ve had the chance to get to know people all over Indianapolis and, really, throughout the state.

I’ve written and edited stories that interested and inspired me. Over the years, because of my work, I’ve grown as an editor. I’ve also, as we all do, changed in some more personal ways.

A few years ago, I very haphazardly began a love affair with backyard gardening. My first garden was small and successful, with crispy, crunchy green beans, plump tomatoes and sun-ripened yellow squash as my rewards. The second year, the garden grew. I added pepper plants, here. More varieties of tomato plants, there. And a patch of sweet potato plants in the back, for good measure. This past summer, the garden grew again, to as large as my city lot would allow: 1,600 square feet. I had multiples and varieties and weeds, more weeds than I could handle.

But spending hours in the sun, pulling those weeds, connected me back to the earth in ways I’d never imagined before. I found peace out there and quiet, wind-swept moments of happiness. Not to mention the good taste that came from all that was growing.

With each garden, I’ve grown, too, right along with my plants. I’ve learned about dirt and disease and plant pests and nature. I’ve honed in on what works well and what doesn’t in our Hoosier soils. And I’ve learned that I want to know more. My husband and I recently purchased a hundred-year-old farmhouse with acreage attached in Shelby County, and you can bet my garden’s going to double, triple or maybe even quadruple in size. I hope my knowledge does, too.

So when a south-central version of Farm Indiana first saw print here at Home News, you can imagine how quickly — and irreversibly — it caught my attention.

As a budding gardener and an aspiring small-time farmer, I wanted to be involved. Regularly, I would volunteer my services to Doug Showalter, who was managing Farm Indiana from the start. He would throw me a story assignment here or there and allow me the opportunity to get to know the farmers and growers in our state. I was thrilled with each new assignment. Every interview and every conversation I had, it seemed, taught me some bit of information that I could put toward my own growing efforts. Each story also introduced me to folks who inspired me, the Hoosiers who had paved the way for my newfound obsessions.

As luck would have it, things around the Home News offices changed one day. My boss, Chuck Wells, called me into his office to announce that I would be taking over editing for Farm Indiana. It was tough, I tell you, to keep from jumping out of my seat.

And now, just a few months into my new gig, we’re starting a second — Eastern — version of the same product. Throughout these monthly editions of Farm Indiana, which will cover Hancock, Shelby, south Madison, Henry and Rush counties, we will offer the news and views of Indiana’s farming world; we will profile local families and their homesteads; and we will showcase businesses, equipment and technological advances in the trade. But — as I have also told the readers of our south-central version — I want this publication to be so much more.

Over the coming months — and years, I hope — I aim to make Farm Indiana a publication made just for you. I want it to accurately reflect and celebrate your lives, your lifestyles and your passions. And, I guess, if I’m to be honest, I’m hoping there’s a little something in it for me. As I edit these stories and interview some of you myself, I’m going to be paying close attention. I’m convinced, you see, that each of you can teach me a thing or two (or three).

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Farm Indiana // april 2013

succession

Family farms should be businesses first

By Richard Isenhour

H

Cindy Ramsey agrees. er bio doesn’t describe her as a pacifist, but “It was good to learn the secrets to running a successJolene Brown is dedicated to eliminating ful family farming business,” says Ramsey who, with her fighting — on the way to the funeral home. husband, Phil, and sons, James and Joseph, operates the The author, speaker and active partner in an eastern Ramsey family farm in Shelby County. “We’ve been operatIowa corn and soybean farm is on a personal mising as a family-first business, and the seminar taught us the sion to help family farmers improve productivity and importance of shifting to a business-first operation. profitability while preserving relationships.

We actually have four children, but only two Recently, she shared her message with who are involved in the farm business. about 75 people gathered for a dayWe needed to learn what we should be long seminar at Indiana Downs in “Probably one of the doing as we prepare to pass along Shelbyville. Her audience represented important lessons we learned the farm to the next generation.” a variety of farming operations in The Ramseys raise a variety of Johnson, Shelby, Rush, Fayette, at the seminar was we need crops, including soybeans and Union, Franklin, Decatur and to conduct formal meetings wheat. They’re also involved in Bartholomew counties, all eager rather than just talking the day-to-day operations of to learn her secrets to working about things in the shop or Ramsey Farms AG, a full-service the farm with family members. at the kitchen table. Good farm drainage and excavating She was joined on the program by communication is key.” company founded by their eldest Ken Roney, lawyer, accountant and son, James. In addition to specialboard member of the Central Indi—Cindy Ramsey izing in farm drainage systems, the ana Academy of Finance, who reviewed company also offers open ditch cleaning, legal tools and strategies farmers can use land clearing, fence row removal and demolition. to make sure their wishes are met after they die.

“Because of the many things we have going on,” Cindy “Our goal was to get people thinking about passing the says, “probably one of the important lessons we learned farm business to the next generation and to inform them at the seminar was we need to conduct formal meetabout some of the new laws on estate planning,” says Mark ings rather than just talking about things in the shop Bacon, director of Indiana Farm Bureau’s District 8, which or at the kitchen table. Good communication is key.” hosted the event. “I believe the day was a great success.”

COMMON MISTAKES

FAMILIES MAKE Jolene Brown stressed that members of a family farm often forget that sound business practices and “transitional management” must be based on more than emotion, assumptions, tradition and genetics. When this happens, she added, the result is what she called the “top 10 stupid things families do to break up their farm operations.” They are:

Assuming all genetic relationships equal good working relationships. “Acceptance in a family is unconditional,” she said. “Acceptance in a business, however, is conditional; it is not a birthright.”

1

Believing the business can financially support any and all family members who want to work together.

“What is your estimated cost of living (residence, health care, insurance) for each family unit?” she asked. “Does your cash flow match the estimate?”

2

Assuming others should and will change — not me. “We sometimes forget,” she noted, “that compromising independence was a choice.”

3

Presuming a conversation is a contract.

“There are a number of things a good business has clarified in writing,” Brown said. These include division of profits, the budget and cash flow, return on investment and the management structure.

4

Believing “mind reading” is an acceptable form of communica-

5

tion. Brown suggested drafting a contract to communicate clear expectations of each member of the team.

“This means we help each other out, support each other and get along. Issues will not be ignored, but addressed in a business-like manner. Everyone must be a good team member.”

Failing to build communication skills and meeting tools when times are good so they’ll be in place when times get tough. “Use daily interactions for exchanging information, coordination and to show appreciation,” Brown suggested.

6

After years of meeting with farmers at similar settings, as well as around the kitchen table, Brown shared with the recent gathering what she calls “the top 10 mistakes that break up a family business.” (See sidebar.)

“These are based on the most prevalent and repeated behaviors learned from working with family (farm) businesses,” Brown said. “The overall problem is that most choose, by default or intentionally, to become a ‘family-first business,’ not a ‘business-first family.’ People in agriculture are superior at production (weeds, feeds, breeds, seeds, money and marketing) and have had little education, exposure and practice with the ‘human side’ or people skills needed to lead or manage a multigenerational or family business. Then habit and tradition become the status quo.

“You should make a conscious decision to do the family right by doing the business right,” she said. “That means hiring well, choosing a leader who will keep the agreed-upon mission and goals in the forefront, coach for specific jobs with standards and cheer on the team and fire if necessary; getting things in writing, including a code of conduct, business overview, managing-people chart and contract for communications; working with an advisory council to perform at a high level of business professionalism while the council has the best interest of the business and individuals in the business at heart.

“Doing these things will help prevent many of the daily aggravations of a family business and save fighting on the way to the funeral home.” FI

“Use meetings for including synergistic decision making and legal requirements.”

Ignoring in-laws and off-site family. “Decide the role of the spouse in the business before putting the ring on the finger,” she said wryly.

7

Forgetting common courtesy. “We often treat strangers on the street with more courtesy than family members,” Brown lamented.

8

Having no legal and discussed estate plan, manage-

9

ment- and ownershiptransfer plan or buysell agreement. Brown urged the gathering to prepare a list of details others will need to know, including the location of important documents, investments, insurance, deed and property titles.

Neglecting vital facts of “fair and equal,” paying cash for “emotional debts” and failing to celebrate. “What was the last thing you celebrated with your family business team?” she asked.

10

Farm Indiana // april 2013

A5

High Hopes

Since Gov. Mike Pence took a seat in his new office, farmers across the state are optimistic that the new administration will help them sustain their strong role in Indiana’s economic vitality By barney quick

T

he Hoosier state ranks eighth among the nation’s agricultural exporters, a position it has held for years.

Maintaining this status requires an awareness of trends not only within the state, but nationally and internationally as well, and the new administration under Gov. Mike Pence has set a clear intent to maintain and build the state’s status and influence.

The agricultural section of the governor’s roadmap for Indiana outlines “attracting new investment in Indiana, with emphasis on manufacturing, agriculture, life sciences and logistics.” The major areas of focus will be the opening of new markets for the state’s agricultural products, creation of an agricultural innovation corridor, making Indiana’s agricultural tax structure more competitive, and the development of an agricultural curriculum in the state’s schools.

Implementation begins with the appointment of Gina Sheets as Indiana State Department of Agriculture’s new director.

Sheets, a Clinton County farmer, brings to her position a strong economic development background; she most recently served as director of economic development and international trade for the ISDA. Her experience in that capacity familiarized her with the many partners in the educational and business realms on whom she’ll be relying as implementation plans take shape.

The push to open new markets builds on the state’s already established international presence. “We’re very global,” says Sheets. She cites the department’s relationship with the Food Export Association of the Midwest USA, as well as its exhibits at several recent international trade shows as proof of its strong presence outside the state and country.

The ISDA sponsored a 20-by-30-foot booth with six kiosks at the world’s largest produce show, the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit, held last October in Anaheim, Calif. “Not every state was there,” Sheets says of the show. ISDA also participated in two other trade shows, and the Pence administration intends to further cultivate national and regional relationships through these shows, as well as fostering international trade. The

Mike Pence, surrounded by his wife, Karen Pence, left, Randy Fry, Jim Lucas and Luke Messer, speaks from the back of his Big Red Truck during a campaign stop at Lee's Ready Mix and Trucking in North Vernon in 2012.

“I feel really good about being able to work with communities individually and look at how they can come together.”

—gina sheets, director, Indiana department of agriculture

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department has had an open program manager position devoted to international trade that Sheets plans to fill.

The idea for an agricultural innovation corridor, a network of university and commercial researchers, is still in the planning stages, and the department is gathering input as to the shape it will take. “I feel really good about being able to work with communities individually and look at how they can come together for Indiana’s betterment,” says Sheets, regarding ISDA’s role in the corridor’s creation.

The Pence administration also intends to find a permanent solution to the way farmland’s soil productivity affects its value and hence its property tax assessment. The latest formula for calculating soil productivity factors that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided could raise farmland property taxes as much as 18.5 percent this year, as estimated by the Legislative Services Agency.

In 2012, the Indiana General Assembly postponed the new formula’s implementation to avoid this tax increase. Still, no reliable, long-term means of establishing the relationship between soil productivity and the agricultural property tax rate exists. The Pence roadmap makes clear that finding a workable formula is a priority.

Regarding the development of an agricultural curriculum, Sheets says that the Indiana Education Roundtable, a group consisting of teachers and administrators, business and civic leaders, and state legislators, is “looking at how to take FFA involvement to the next level.”

Another recently created set of bodies, the Indiana Works Councils, will be a key element in the curriculum effort. The councils will be regional entities composed of employers and educators tasked with evaluating and, where it is warranted, developing educational programs suited to the economic activity of particular areas around the state. The governor’s plan calls for agricultural representation on these councils.

All in all, Sheets is confident about the role and direction of the new administration. “We have good people out in the field, as well as good partners,” she says. FI

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Farm Indiana // april 2013

“Small farms are actually growing,” Lange Reding told an audience attending a “Beans and Grains on a Small Scale” seminar. “It’s the new deal.”

But with that said, she cautioned small producers to think carefully about their ultimate destination before getting started in the spring.

“If you don’t have your market secure, don’t put a seed in the ground until you know where you’re going with it,” Lange Reding said.

Ultimately, success and efficiency were the conference’s dual spines, showing small farmers through a variety of ways and means how to capitalize on the growing movement for locally sourced and natural foods; how to define, refine and expand their markets; how to cultivate and harvest their products wisely; and how to sell efficiently.

The small farm demographic is the fastest-growing segment of Indiana’s farm sector, said Steve Engleking, Purdue extension educator for LaGrange County and Indiana Small Farms coordinator.

“I’m very excited and extremely pleased with the turnout,” Engleking said. “Our primary goal is for the creation of a statewide small farm culture or network, and I feel we made good progress towards that outcome, but time will tell.”

With about 250 in attendance for its inaugural outing, Engleking said the conference also succeeded in bringing people together to celebrate small farms and by jim mayfield | photos by jim & Donna mayfield their contribution to Indiana’s economy. “I feel we were able to accomplish a bit of this as well,” he said.

Eli Robb, a young farmer who owns Fullhand Farm in Perkinsville, northeast of Noblesville, said the conference timing was well-received on two fronts.

On a crisp March morning in Danville, “It’s great,” Robb said. “Winter is a great time to get resmall was the big topic. charged and excited, and it’s nice to see some new people It’s not that the big things didn’t matter, but Hoofrom Purdue to recognize and support (small farms).” sier small farmers, livestock producers, specialty crop Engleking acknowledged the perception among growers and urban agriculture activists would be hard the state’s outlying small farmers that they fly bepressed to find more information concentrated in one low the radar and in the location than at the Purdue shadow of Indiana’s megaExtension Indiana Small producing operations, but Farm Conference at the Hensaid the conference was a dricks County Fairgrounds. significant step in changWith assistance from the ing that perception.

Indiana State Department “Purdue agriculture of Agriculture, the two-day has been supporting small event drilled down to the farms all along,” Englekspecific issues and concerns ing said. facing the state’s small farmIn addition to providing ers and producing operainformation on backyard tions with more than three fruit production and spedozen lecturers and presentcialty crops for high-end ers covering topics along restaurants, the conference five subject tracks. provided an excellent opIn all, the conference fea —Patty lange Reding portunity to network, attured classes and informatendees said. tion on marketing and proChristopher Fuchs, a cessing, livestock and crop Fayette county resident production, and small farm who said he was still deenergy and management ciding whether to become with specific topics ranga farmer, said the confering from good agricultural ence paid for itself in netpractices for food safety to working and contacts alone. “I went home last night the finer points of working with local utility companies and spent the night putting together all the contacts I when installing a renewable farm energy product. made,” he said on the Saturday morning of the event.

From specific to esoteric, the conference provided Vendors on hand to display goods and services were the state’s farmers with practical advice on how to make also pleased with the conference attendance and readytheir operations work. made target audience.

Patty Lange Reding, who farms Langeland Farms in Sonny Mosley, vice president of sales and marketing Decatur County with her four sons, considers herself to for Eason Horticultural Resources of Fort Wright, Ky., be a “big, small farmer or small, mid-sized farmer.” Either said traffic at the conference was tailor-made for enterway, her road passed both challenges and opportunities. prises like Eason’s.

“We’ve had very direct contact and have seen a lot of ABOVE: Joel Dufour of Earth Tools demonstrates people that are very interested in what we offer,” Mosley implements and hand tools. TOP: Anna said. “The rates here are very reasonable, and one sale Welch, left, and Patty Lange Reding lead will pay for it.” a discussion on small-scale farming.

Conference organizers have already set the date for next year’s event, which will return to the Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds and Conference Complex Feb. 28 through March 1. FI

It’s a Small World

The Indiana Small Farm Conference makes a big splash among specialty growers

“Small farms are actually growing. It’s the new deal.”

Farm Indiana // april 2013

All-season tires Riley Park Tire Service fields all manner of farmers’ calls

By Barney Quick | photos by tom russo

I

t might seem an odd comparison, but Jeff Helgason, owner of Riley Park Tire Service in Hancock County, believes his business is similar to the agriculture industry.

“In farming, you often find operations run by one family for several generations,” he explains. “My dad, Jim, started this place, and several of our employees have been here for many years.”

Such is the case with manager Jay Callahan, who handles the company’s farm accounts. Callahan’s employment with the business goes back four decades. He says that long associations within the company make for durable relationships with the area’s farmers. “I often go to events around here,” he says, “I meet people [in person whom] I know from having served them.”

The tire retailer derives its name from its location in Greenfield. Situated across Main Street from the city’s Riley Park, the company is housed in a building that was once a stop on the interurban train line. Tracks are still discernible in the concrete floor of the service area.

Riley Park Tire has occupied the structure since the company’s founding 50 years ago.

Serving farms has been part of the business since day one. Callahan says that while the business serves the farming community generally within a 100-mile radius, “We hate to say no,” so occasional sales do occur outside that general range. “We sent some combine tires to Pakistan once,” he recalls, noting that farmers in Russia, Mexico and Canada have contacted the Indiana shop on occasion as well.

In addition to fitting farm-owned machines with various types of tires, the company sells to some commercial accounts, which include Crop Production Services, Harvest Land Co-op, Shelby County Co-op and the Indiana Spray Center.

Answering the Call Changing tires is an occasional necessity, and Riley Park Tire has four service trucks, enabling the shop to change tires on large

farm machines in a timely fashion. Helgason stresses that attentive service is a key competitive edge in a business noted for thin margins in product sales.

“Tire durability is an area that the manufacturers have focused on, but that’s really in order to keep up with constant advances in crop genetics,” says Callahan.

He explains that breeding technology has produced stiffer stalks in row crops.

“They [stiffer stalks] can withstand adverse weather conditions better today, but they’re rougher on rubber. Stubble damage is a critical factor.”

Customers’ needs vary depending on the size of their operations. “If you have several fields throughout your county, you’ll be driving your sprayers over paved roads, and you’ll probably be coming to see us more often than will the smaller-scale farmer,” Callahan notes. “And if you are raising livestock in addition to row crops, you’ll have some additional types of equipment, such as

manure spreaders. We talk to the customer and let him tell us what his needs are. Then we give him some options.”

Callahan says there is far less standardization in the way farm tires are now sold versus when he entered the field. “There’s been a move to wider, low-compaction tires,” he says, “and new models for various types of equipment are constantly making for tire sizes we hadn’t heard of. There are various sizes of tires on one machine in some cases. We get stumped on something every day.”

“You’re always scrambling to find tires for new machines,” Helgason adds.

Conversations with customers and occasional visits to equipment dealers are key to staying abreast of such developments. “We’re buddies with a lot of dealers in the area,” Callahan says.

The supply chain for farm tires is a mix of direct shipping from manufacturers and purchases made through middle-level distributors. “We’re on the phone every day negotiating prices,” says Helgason. “With distributors, there’s some flexibility, although, of course, they have to make a profit, too. With the manufacturers, it’s basically cut and dried.”

Riley Park Tire also sells wheels. The challenge in this area is being able to provide wheels for old and even discontinued models of various machines. In some cases, they have to be customfabricated out of sheet metal. “They don’t look like the original wheels, but we make sure they’ll do the job,” Callahan says.

Though the shop places ads in a few trade publications, its marketing effort mainly consists of having a booth presence at events such as Greensburg’s Power of the Past and the Rushville Pioneer Steam Engine Show. In December the company participated in the Indiana-Illinois Farm and Outdoor Power Equipment Show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. “That led to a lot of calls,” Callahan says. “It was also a good opportunity to see the latest models of a lot of machinery.”

Throughout his career, he says, he has had the opportunity to witness the business savvy of farmers firsthand, as well as seeing their senses of stewardship over their resources.

“They’re not afraid to reinvest their profits,” he says. “They also have a lot of integrity. If you own, say, 5,000 acres and have $600 tied up in each acre, you have to do things right, and your word has to be good.”

Callahan tries to show that same integrity in the deals he makes. “When these farmers come up to me at fairs or shows and say hello, I feel good knowing I gave them good value and was part of their success,” he says. FI

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A8

Farm Indiana // april 2013

Good bookkeeping helps farmers plan for next season by jim mayfield

T

he fall harvest is in, the equipment stored in the bays and the checks are in the mail, but before the ground even freezes, next year’s decisions are here.

How did the farm do this year? What was your most cost-effective crop? Where does the farm stand financially? Did those Rhode Island Reds work out this year?

Those and many other questions about a farm’s financial health can be difficult to answer if most of the business records are wadded up in the glove compartment of the truck or shoved under the tractor seat.

Not that the extra paper won’t subdue unwanted vibrations, but it won’t help in the area of financial analysis, said Alan Miller, farm business management specialist for Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics.

Miller explained the details of farm record-keeping at the Purdue Extension Indiana Small Farm Conference on March 1 at the Hendricks County Fairgrounds.

Good farm records, like any business records, will help farmers plan and are necessary to obtain loans, lines of credit and other resources to protect the farm

and family. It also helps to “keep score,” which Miller said is always interesting when dealing with the economics of agriculture.

“One of the things that makes small farming businesses interesting is the metrics we use to keep score — yield per acre, lambs per ewe,” he said.

The best place to start is simply to develop and organize a filing system, the simpler the better. Learn the rules and regulations and establish routines, operating procedures and internal controls. “Establishing routines is really important,” Miller said. “Put everything in the same place every time.”

Pay close attention to what the Internal Revenue Service calls “source documents,” those records such as daily sales sheets, canceled checks, invoices and any other “kind of statement that comes from people we do business with,” as opposed to summaries and secondary documents, Miller said.

If you wish to use a computerized record and accounting system, make sure it gets a test drive before you purchase it.

Most important, Miller said, is keeping the recording current.

“Develop a habit of keeping the record system up to date from day one,” he said. “Don’t wait until year end.”

He cautioned against making numerous cash transactions and suggested doing most of the business through a bank account with notes on checks, receipts and deposit slips, and always using separate accounts for different business entities and personal finances.

“The bank account is the key in terms of internal control of the business,” he said.

Miller suggests recording transactions in chronological order, reconciling bank statements with record-keeping systems and checkbooks monthly, and at year-end taking inventory with a physical count and valuation.

Comprehensive records should also include depreciation schedules, a net worth/balance statement at least once a year on the same date each year and accrual-adjusted income to determine the operation’s net profit or loss.

Integrating all the information into one comprehensive farm management program is not yet at hand, Miller said. “It doesn’t exist.”

However, a fairly extensive directory of farm-related software and management programs can be found on the Alberta, Canada, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development website covering a variety of topics from agroelectronics and finances to nutrition/ration/fertilizer analysis at www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app68/agsoft.

Of course it’s one thing to assemble, organize and keep track of the truckloads of business paper a farm generates, but that’s only half the battle. “The important thing is that we actually use the information we collect,” he said. FI

In the archives Purdue University farm business management specialist Alan Miller said the following categories of documents should be included in a sound farm financial record system; however, the list is not all inclusive and should be tailored to suit specific operations.

• Bills paid • Income or receipts • Account books and inventories • Credit records • Tax records • Insurance • Business management

• Valuable records, such as wills, abstracts, deeds, bonds and stock certificates and important correspondence • Production records for crops, livestock, machinery and equipment, farm buildings, computers and office equipment, including manuals, documentation and other reference materials

inset: Alan Miller, farm business management specialist for Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics, discusses the intricacies of farm records and financial analysis. Photo by Jim Mayfield.

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Farm Indiana // april 2013

B1

April 2013 | Section B

FAMILY FARMS

David Schwartzkopf

Life Lessons Multitasking is nothing new for David Schwartzkopf

By Robin Winzenread Fritz | photos by josh marshall

D

avid Schwartzkopf is a busy man.

On the heels of a week-long vacation to Panama where he and his wife traveled the length of the namesake canal not once, but twice, he came home to a construction project that left a gaping hole in his backyard and an inside remodeling project, which has three rooms of his 19th-century home in southern Decatur County in total disarray.

“The kitchen is down to a microwave,” he says with a chuckle.

Add to that list of projects the roughly 1,300 acres he owns across three counties, his 23 Katahdin ewes, his recent college orientation and the three college classes he currently has under way at Indiana University Purdue University in Columbus. Schwartzkopf is a very busy man.

But after 74 years of calling central Indiana home along with Joann, his wife of 52 years, this semi-retired farmer wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s good to keep moving,” he says.

At an age when most people are content to cross items off their life lists, David is happily adding to his. Take, for instance, his current sheep project, the 23 Katahdin ewes. One parcel of recently purchased land included a section so overgrown it couldn’t be cleared with a mower for fear of damag-

ing a blade. Enter the sheep. While the ewes happily clear the land of weeds, they fatten up in the process — a tried-and-true method he has used in the past with Boer goats.

“I had plans to put 200 sheep on another farm,” he explains, his voice trailing off with a grin.

Whereas his current college career is fairly new, farming is not. “I planted my first cornfield when I was 13,” he says. “It was three and a half acres, and I planted it with a two-row planter.” Those first rows were planted on family land in the Columbus area where he and Joann would eventually live for roughly 40 years.

“I sowed the grass seed at East before there was a high school there,” he says, referencing Columbus East High School.

“We used to pasture cows between the high school and the house. When the

“I planted my first cornfield when I was 13.

It was three and a half acres, and I planted it with a two-row planter.”

—David Schwartzkopf

cattle would come up, we would open the gate, and they would walk right across McKinley Avenue to the barnyard.”

That love of land and farming planted a seed in David that nagged at him during his first attempt at college in the late 1950s. He tried studying liberal arts at Franklin College, but “learning things from books” didn’t come easy to him and “it wasn’t farming.

“I just wasn’t outside,” he adds.

After leaving school, he and Joann were “as poor as church mice” until a fortuitous interview over a Coca-Cola in a Hoosier diner landed him a job driving trucks for United Parcel Service. “At one time,” he says, “I had my CDL license and my hazmat.

I could haul anything.” It was the start of a 33-year career that would help him and Joann raise two daughters and help fund the start of his real love — farming.

Over the years, the Schwartzkopfs added to their land holdings, growing the original 113 acres in Columbus to 160 and adding parcels of land here and there in surrounding counties. Those land holdings have since grown to include 1,300 acres from as far south as the Muscatatuck River in Jennings County to more than 600 acres in Rush County near Carthage.

But as the acreage grew, the time it took to farm the land increased as well. Juggling hundreds of acres of crops while driving tractor-trailers full time for UPS took precious hours away from family, which by now included daughters Vicki, who died in a car accident in 1984, and Lesa.

Often David would return home from a full day of driving semis only to climb into a tractor and head out into the fields at night. “It was hard,” says Joann. “When he was home, the girls would just climb on him,” she recalls.

Because he had so many suc-

cessful years at UPS — including receiving a coveted award for 25 years of safe driving — David decided to retire from full-time farming in 1980. But his love of land never diminished, and he continued to buy parcels here and there, entering into a partnership with a neighbor to cash rent those acres.

“I’m the business partner,” he explains.

“And I get to play on his [the neighbor’s] toys.”

As for his newfound college career, it was sparked by one of his three grandsons, who commuted to IUPUC in a pickup with no heat. David offered to drive him to school and decided to take classes while he waited.

When his grandson transferred to IUPUI because of his major, David decided to enroll anyway and now plans to pursue an associate degree in business. Joann joined him for orientation in January, and when it came time for the students to introduce their parents, David pointed to his wife and said, “This is my mother’s daughter-in-law.”

“We like to make jokes,” he says.

“I even attended the parents’ meeting,” Joann says.

“Somewhere along the line, I always thought I’d get up to Purdue,” David says, adding that he and Joann had even thought about moving to the Lafayette area, but her job — with the Purdue Extension Agency in Decatur County — kept them firmly planted in the southern half of the state.

“I used to call it PU-C,” he says of the joint IU/Purdue campus he attends in Columbus, “but I never made it to Purdue. So now I call it IU-C since I’m in the business school.”

His lifelong desire to attend Purdue and his current project as a part-time IU student lead to the inevitable question, whom does he cheer for when the two teams meet on the basketball court?

For the briefest of moments, he hesitates before saying with a grin, “Well, I’m starting to root for IU.” FI

LEFT: Schwartzkopf in what he calls his "toy" tractor that he bought for small projects around the farm. RIGHT: He studies between classes at IUPUC.

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Farm Indiana // april 2013

Executive chef Joseph Martin of 18 on the Square in Shelbyville. below: Fried Green Tomatoes

“We try to buy as local as possible. I frequent roadside stands and farmers markets during the spring and summer months, where I choose the best the local [community] has to offer.”

— Executive chef Joseph Martin

In Southern

Shelbyville is a long way from coastal South Carolina, but if you catch a whiff from the kitchen at 18 on the Square, you’d never know it By caroline mosey | photos by tom russo

A

ptly named for its coveted position on the town’s historic square, 18 on the Square has been satisfying Southern-fried cravings for just under two years.

“We opened in June of 2011,” says Joseph Martin, executive chef. A native of Charleston, S.C., Martin became the choice to oversee the new restaurant’s kitchen from the beginning.

“At the time in Charleston, I was looking for the next step,” he says. “That next step ended up being to Shelbyville and my first executive chef title at 18 on the Square.”

The food is described as American, with a decidedly heavy South Carolina influence. While some menus tend to have a few Southern favorites listed here and there, this one is a top-to-bottom homage to the region. Martin infuses every dish with the bold flavors of his upbringing. “There is no way for a chef these days to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, so I rely on the type of food that reminds me of growing up,” he explains.“ (Everything) from the gravy that goes with the fried chicken to my grandmother’s pound cake to fresh sourdough bread. The mentality that everything is better cooked in a cast iron skillet seems to resonate strongly in the kitchen.”

And resonate it does. Guests are treated to dishes like fried green tomatoes with pepper jam, molasses-lacquered pork belly, and shrimp and grits with tasso ham gravy. And, of course, no Southern menu is complete without fried chicken, and the one here is composed

Homesteading

Recipe

To the Thawing Wind Anxious to get some veggies planted in your home garden? Check out these tips from Harvestland Farm Manager David Robb on plants that thrive in the cooler temps of early spring. Then let the planting begin. »Broccoli, cabbage and kale are frost-hardy plants that can be set out as soon as the soil can be worked. They can even take a hard freeze (temps in the teens). If temperatures should dip down into the single digits, cover your plants with a sheet just to be sure. Planting in a sheltered place out of wind is ideal, Robb says.

»Soil should have plenty of organic matter, and you can supplement with alfalfa meal, a pinch of blood meal or a good compost. Water them after transplanting. Kale will grow and produce for you into December, as you harvest only the bottom leaves of the plant, so plant it somewhere that it can call home until then.

of no less than a half chicken, boneless, served with baked macaroni pie and bacon gravy.

In fact, the frying pan is where so many favorites originate: potato cakes, Brussels sprouts and even risotto achieve crispy perfection there. “Rustic fare hits home anywhere you go,” says Martin. “Every ingredient is looked at with love. We try to buy as local as possible. I frequent roadside stands and farmers markets during the spring and summer months, where I choose the best the local (community) 18 on the Square has to offer.”

18 Public Square 18 on the Square Shelbyville (317) 398-7373 is primarily a www.18onthesquare.com dinner-only destination, with the exception being a hearty brunch that’s served on Sundays. Morning specials like jumbo shrimp hash and banana pancakes with coconutmascarpone cream are on hand from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Sunday, all bearing Martin’s signature stamp.

“I’m a firm believer that someone can taste if the cooks love what they do,” he says. “I love what I do. With a multitude of choices out there for a dining experience, we are lucky every time someone breaches the threshold of our door and gives us an opportunity — or another — to cook for them. (We have) a nice atmosphere with food that makes you smile from the inside.” FI

»If you see white butterflies fluttering around your cabbage or broccoli patch, they are laying eggs, which hatch into worms that will eat your crop. Any good garden shop will carry BT (a natural and organically approved bacteria).

Cabbage and broccoli plants are for sale at the Harvestland Farm store at 6775 State Road 32, Anderson, (765) 635-5711, www.yourmarketgarden.org.

taste spuds

Carol Stover, owner of Carol’s Cornerstone Café in Greenfield, stays busy dishing up comforting classics to friends and neighbors. Here, she shares her recipe for chilled potato salad that begs to be taken along on your first spring picnic.

By caroline mosey

Carol’s Potato Salad 10 baking potatoes cooked, peeled and diced 6 farm fresh eggs cooked, peeled and diced 1 medium onion, diced 1 teaspoon yellow mustard 2 cups mayonnaise 1 cup pickle relish

Mix all ingredients and chill in refrigerator.

Carol’s Cornerstone Café, 301 E. Main St., Greenfield. (317) 467-9014

Farm Indiana // april 2013

On safe ground Indiana Department of Health pushes new food safety initiative for wholesale produce farms

A

A new initiative by the state of Indiana, created as a response to salmonella outbreaks associated with cantaloupes last year, is helping all wholesale produce farmers work toward food safety compliance with Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).

The motivation for imposing standardized food safety practices stems from federal action.

The Food and Drug Administration released its Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011 to regulate produce farms. The FDA’s Produce Safety Rule is currently open for public comment until the middle of May, according to Scott Gilliam, director of food protection at the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH).

After the new rule is adopted, it will be applied nationwide, and Indiana will eventually adopt it as a state rule. According to Gilliam, small farms will be allowed up to six years to become compliant.

He did not indicate how the size of the farm will be determined, but he did clarify that the term “wholesale” refers to producers who sell their product to someone other than the final consumer. Because farmers markets sell directly to the end user, Gilliam says the initiative should not affect market vendors, but a side initiative will be working with these farmers to encourage them to comply.

“Right now, all we’re trying to do is get growers registered in the system to figure out who is out there and who is doing what,” he says.

In the fall of 2012, Gilliam says, a college intern spent a semester with the ISDH compiling a list of producers. The registration efforts will begin with that list.

Gilliam says that if the state is aware of a farm that hasn’t registered, the ISDH will make a more deliberate effort to contact the owners and explain the purpose of the initiative.

“We will explain that it is for their best interest,” he says, noting that larger farms are embracing the concept of standardized food safety measures.

According to Gilliam, the new initiative begins with the creation of two food safety farm consultant positions that will focus on registering farmers and putting them in contact with training resources. The initiative will also include eventually getting all wholesale food producers to become third-party certified.

In response to the heightened concern for food safety, Gilliam says that it’s likely, in the future, retailers will not purchase from farmers who are not third-party certified. He believes that once the farms get this form of validation, retailers will feel that the product is safe to buy.

“We are not requiring that at this point,” he says.

“We are encouraging it.”

According to Gilliam, in 2012 one single farm destroyed the melon industry in Indiana. Because of an episode of contamination, he says none of the retailers would buy from Indiana. “That’s what we want to keep from happening again this year,” he says.

The purpose of the initiative is “to restore confidence and move ahead,” he adds. “Our focus this first year will be to focus on the low hanging fruit, the people who want to work with us. It is not intended to put anybody out of business.

It is intended to save their business.”

Earl and Barb Smith, owners of Blue River Natural Foods in Greenfield, have not attended any GAPs training, but they have heard about it through their extension agent. Barb leads the winter Harvest Market at the Hancock County 4-H Fairgrounds.

“I’ve heard a little bit about it [the initiative],” Barb says. Her first impression of the program, she adds, is that meeting the GAPs requirements may be too expensive for smaller farms.

“I can understand if people are purchasing large volumes of food, like for stores, there should be some

By Jenni L. Muncie-Sujan

practices that people should follow,” Earl says. His concern arises with the handling of the food once it leaves the farmer’s care.

“Once it leaves your farm, you don’t know how it is being handled,” he explains. “I don’t know if the middle handlers have inspectors or not. You may be as perfect and clean on your farms … but once it leaves your farm, you have no more control over the product.”

Weaver’s Produce owner Jeremy Weaver runs a 40acre farm in Needham. He is in the process of receiving the GAPs training.

According to Weaver, 90 percent of his farm’s business is in retail, but he wants to reach a larger audience, so he is looking toward wholesale foods. It was the desire to expand his business that motivated him to cooperate with other local farmers to form the Hoosier Harvest Market, a co-op of producers that

“I see it as beneficial for growers to provide a safe and reliable food to Indiana’s consumers. It’s not only our job to grow it, but our job to see that it is safe for the people to be eating.”

Jeremy Weaver, owner Weaver’s Produce

sell wholesale to restaurants, schools and individuals in the form of an online grocery store. Weaver and the coalition of farmers hope to have the new venture running by April 1.

“I’m just looking to expand the operation, and I see wholesale as the avenue to do that,” Weaver explains.

He heard about the food safety initiative at the Indiana Horticultural Congress in January. “I see it as beneficial for growers to provide a safe and reliable food to Indiana’s consumers,” he says. “It’s not only our job to grow it, but our job to see that it is safe for the people to be eating.”

Weaver’s understanding of the state plan: “I think that in the initial stages of this, it is basically a piece of paper to show that you have attended the classes,” he says. “They are wanting you to take what you learn in the class and actually apply it in your operation.

“The larger-scale guys that are selling to the large grocery chains, they are going to have to buckle down and get GAP-certified and get an audit,” he adds. “That is expensive for any farm, large or small. Right now, they are not requiring small operations to do anything like that.”

John Bonsett, the director of environmental health at the Johnson County Health Department, recognizes the frustration that local growers may feel and that they may view the initiative as government interference. “On the other hand,” he says, “I hope that they would look at us as an agency that is trying to improve their operations, so they can more readily sell their produce.”

Bonsett sees offering general education on proper handling of animal waste, use of fertilizer and chemical applications, keeping livestock, maintaining restrooms and hand-washing stations for workers, and storing produce safely as a partnership with produce farmers.

“It’s starting to be a big idea,” says Bonsett of the wholesale produce market, “and we want to make sure everything is as safe as can be when it gets to the consumer. We don’t want to be in anybody’s way. We just want to help them in the process.”

Though the initiative is still in its infancy, he says it “is something that we need because we are going to see more emphasis on locally grown produce.”

Gilliam says there are discussions in non-governmental associations about creating a growers association or consortium, which would have its own branding, so consumers could easily recognize which farms are certified.

Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension educator in Hancock County, says that the goal is to keep contamination outbreaks as close to zero as possible, focusing on the areas of soil, water, employee health and hygiene, and contact surfaces.

At this time, Ballard says the GAPs program offers training at various Purdue Extension locations throughout the state. He recommends growers attend the “GAPs from A to Z: Food Safety on Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Farms” one-day overview, though the overview is not the same as the GAPs certification.

A complete certification includes the development of a food safety plan, hiring a third-party auditor to audit and walk the farm to see where deficiencies are in the field and packing house, and obtaining a total food safety score. Currently, certification is only necessary if the farmer’s buyer requires that, says Ballard.

All in all, Gilliam says he is simply hoping growers will show they have gone through the GAPs training or that they plan to do it. “That is our focus for the year,” he says. “If we could accomplish that, it would be a huge success.” FI

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Farm Indiana // april 2013

AGRITOURISM compiled by ashley petry

While temperatures are rising, vines around Indiana are ripening. Travel the state to sample what several Hoosier growers are harvesting.

Ah, spring. The trees unfurl their leaves, the tulips and daffodils push their colorful ways above ground, and Hoosier farmers sow the produce that will eventually find its way to our plates. What better time to reconnect with our farming heritage and support local farms in the process. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite Hoosier destinations for agritourism, which encompasses everything from you-pick farms to estate wineries.

• Best Road Trip With its wealth of watermelons and cantaloupes, Knox County has been dubbed the Melon Capital of the World. The local bounty is on display along U.S. 41 north of Vincennes, a stretch of road dotted with farm stands, apple orchards and plenty of old-fashioned roadside kitsch.

Pose for a photo with the giant peach at the Big Peach Market, snack on homemade pies at Apple Hill Orchard and browse the colorful produce at Prairie Acres Restaurant and Farm Market. Along the way, you’ll find plenty of other stops to tickle your taste buds. Big Peach Market: 7738 N. U.S. 41, Bruceville; (812) 324-2548; Apple Hill Orchard: 6235 N. Ford Road, Bruceville; (812) 324-9010; www.applehillorchard.webs. com; Prairie Acres Restaurant and Farm Market: 14387 Old Highway 41, Oaktown; (812) 745-3207; prairieacres.net

• Best Gourmet Experience » Tiny Roanoke seems like an odd place for one of the state’s best gourmet restaurants, but only in the middle of nowhere could Joseph Decuis create such an immersive experience. Overnight visitors check into the quaint Joseph Decuis Inn before touring the sustainable cattle farm, where the restaurant raises its own Kobe-style Wagyu beef.

Nearby are the award-winning restaurant and the Joseph Decuis Emporium, a shop carrying all-natural carry-out foods, fine wines and gourmet goodies from across the state. 191 N. Main St., Roanoke; (260) 672-1715; josephdecuis.com

Macadamia Nut-Crusted Sea Bass, left, and Wagyu Beef. Photos courtesy of Joseph Decuis.

• Best Conversation Starter

• Best Historic Destination

• Best Sensory Indulgence

The White Violet Center for Eco-justice, a ministry of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, focuses on the preservation, restoration and “reverent use” of natural resources. Free tours include visits with the alpaca herd and peeks at the organic farm and fiber arts facilities. You can even adopt an alpaca and pay it regular visits. Or work alongside the sisters on a multi-day volunteering vacation, where accommodations include both traditional guest houses and small hermitages made from recycled materials. 1 Sisters of Providence Road, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods; (812) 535-2930; spsmw.org/white-violet-center-for-eco-justice

Historic Prophetstown, a 125-acre working farm at Prophetstown State Park, has two goals: preserving old-fashioned agricultural methods and teaching children about the origins of their food. In addition to touring the 1920s farmhouse and watching blacksmithing demonstrations, visitors can assist with daily chores such as feeding the Belgian mares and milking the cows. 43534 Prophetstown Trail, Battle Ground; (765) 567-4700; prophetstown.org

The seventh-generation Stream Cliff Herb Farm has long specialized in fresh and dried culinary herbs, as well as flowers.

But instead of resting on its laurels, the farm has expanded in recent years, adding a winery and tearoom (where the chicken salad is, naturally, seasoned with the farm’s own rosemary and dill). If you can, snag a sought-after reservation for the tearoom’s Candlelight Dinners. Previous menus have included dishes such as rosemary pork loin and chicken breast in caper-tarragon cream sauce. 8225 S. County Road 90W, Commiskey; (812) 346-5859; streamclifffarm.com

Farm Indiana // april 2013

B5

A Little Closer to Home

Photos courtesy of Huber's Orchard Winery and Vineyard

No time to travel?

These down-on-thefarm experiences are right in your own backyard. Almost.

Conner Prairie, an interactive history park in Fishers, tells the story of Hoosier pioneers, most of whom were farmers.

Visitors can tour the historic Conner farmstead, interact with farm animals in the barn and even make a meal the old-fashioned way during the Hearthside Suppers program.

13400 Allisonville Road, Fishers; (317) 776-6006; connerprairie.org

• Best All-in-One Destination

A weekend at the Amish Acres Historic Farm and Heritage Resort can include a guided tour of the 1873 farmstead, a buggy ride around the 80-acre farm, cheese and wine tastings in a barn loft, and family-style dinners at the Restaurant Barn. Hopefully you’ll still have time to browse the shops for hand-made quilts and freshly baked pies. Lodging options include the 62-room Inn at Amish Acres and 66-room Nappanee Inn. Or head northeast to Shipshewana, another Amish community, where the small Farmstead Bed and Breakfast offers a true Amish farm experience — breakfast fit for a hard-working farmhand, but no electricity in sight.

Amish Acres: 1600 W. Market St., Nappanee; (800) 800-4942; amishacres.com; Farmstead Bed and Breakfast: 1300 N. Road 1000 W, Shipshewana; (260) 768-8086

Huber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyards has been farmed by the same family since 1843, and every generation has added its own touches. These days, the sprawling property houses the largest estate-bottled winery in Indiana, a new brandy distillery, a year-round farm market, a café and a children’s play area. You-pick options are available in season. Down the road is the Joe Huber Family Farm and Restaurant (no relation), which serves heaping platters of home-style food like country-fried chicken, honey ham, mashed potatoes and fresh baked biscuits. Huber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyards: 19816 Huber Road, Borden; (800) 345-9463; huberwinery.com; Joe Huber Family Farm and Restaurant: 2421 Engle Road, Starlight; (812) 923-5255; joehubers.com

• Best Destination Dairy

• Best Wild West Adventure

Located near Interstate 65 in northwest Indiana, Fair Oaks Farms is the perfect break on that long drive to or from Chicago — and also one of the state’s best-known agritourism destinations. Kids will enjoy the birthing barn, outdoor play area and interactive Dairy Adventure, which teaches about sustainable farming. Fair Oaks also offers tours and tastings at its cheese factory. Don’t miss the café, which serves the dairy’s signature grilled cheese sandwich. 856 N. Road 600E, Fair Oaks; (219) 394-2025; fofarms.com

The 400-acre Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve, which has a herd of more than 250 buffalo, offers daily tours, including an option to explore the preserve on horseback. With a bed-and-breakfast and café on site, the preserve offers meals ranging from buffalo sausage to Big Tatonka bison burgers. More adventurous visitors can stay in elevated safari tents, nestled in the same fields where the buffalo roam. 6975 N. Ray Road, Fremont; (260) 495-0137; wildwindsbuffalo.com FI

»

Photo courtesy of Conner Prairie

»

• Best Amish Getaway

Traders Point Creamery, an organic dairy farm on the outskirts of Zionsville, offers both guided and self-guided tours, which include visits to the milking parlor. The farm also offers cheese and ice cream tastings, weekly farmers markets and the unparalleled farm-to-fork Loft restaurant. 9101 Moore Road, Zionsville; (317) 733-1700; traderspointcreamery.com

Waterman’s Family Farm is known for its strawberries, tomatoes and corn, but you-pick options range throughout the season from peas to beets to salad greens to pumpkins. The latter are a popular choice during the annual Fall Harvest Festival, which offers hayrides, corn mazes and other autumn fun.

7010 E. Raymond St., Indianapolis; (317) 356-6995; 1100 N. Indiana 37, Greenwood; (317) 888-4189; www. watermansfamilyfarm.com

Photos courtesy of Fair Oaks Farms

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B6

Farm Indiana // april 2013

AGRITOURISM

A Fair of the Heartland By sherri dugger | photos courtesy of story inn

S

outhern Indiana is home to beautiful hills and vistas, slow winding roads, charming towns and dozens of highly touted wineries. Fitting, then, that the idea to create the Indiana Wine Fair came to Rick Hofstetter, owner of the quaint Story Inn in southern Indiana, over a glass of wine.

Eleven years ago, “I was sitting with a friend of mine—this guy was a hotel manager—and I suggested that it would be a good idea to invite vintners out to Story Inn to bring people together. He discouraged me from doing it. I went ahead and did it anyway, and the wine fair was born.”

The inaugural event was a “small potatoes deal,” Hofstetter recalls, but, even so, the success of the affair surprised him. Approximately 12 wineries were on hand to share their creations with guests. It was held indoors in the old mill on the property, he says, and “we had people waiting to get into the building.”

The second year Hofstetter says he got smart.

He moved the event outdoors to the barn, with individual wineries being housed under tents.

The second fair—which Hofstetter refers to as a “real event”—drew approximately 400 people.

Annual Indiana wine event showcases the Hoosier state's offerings

And it continued to grow. By the third year, approximately 1,000 guests made their way to the Story Inn. More tents for wineries were added. By the fifth year, he says, approximately 4,000 showed.

Over the years, the fair has “maxed out at about 5,600 [guests],” he says. “That’s a lot of people.

These people come, and they are hungry. They need to use the restroom. There’s got to be parking.”

Over the years, the event’s host has fine-tuned the details. He has added more music, more food vendors, more parking at a nearby farm, a free shuttle bus service, which runs all day every 15 minutes from the courthouse in downtown Nashville to Story, and—of course—more wine.

The event has featured, on average, approximately 20 wineries each year, though Hofstetter expects to double that number this year. “Indiana has a little more than 70 wineries now,” he says. “When I started there were 24 wineries.”

The Indiana Wine Fair is now touted as the largest event of its kind to feature Indiana wines. Guests to the fair can sample the state’s finest reislings, malbecs and cabernets, and if they like what they taste they can purchase bottles to take home with them. Local food offerings are provided by onsite vendors, as well as by the Story Inn’s own restaurant, which requires advance reservations and fills up fast, Hofstetter says.

This year, several jazz groups will provide the entertainment.

And as for the event’s guests, “they’re a mature crowd with sophisticated palates, and they are here to sample and buy wine,” Hofstetter says.

“The wineries love that.”

What Hofstetter loves is the lesson he very quickly learned at his initial event 11 years ago. It’s a lesson that hits home each year with the passing of another successful wine fair. “I realized Indiana makes some very good wines,” he says. “We’re not a beer and Slim Jim state anymore.” FI

The 11th Annual Indiana Wine Fair WHEN: Saturday, April 27, rain or shine WHERE: The Story Inn, 6404 S. State Road 135, Story Tickets: $10-$20; must be 21 years or older to attend. The first 4,000 guests get a keepsake wine glass.

Information: www.indianawinefair.com

Farm Indiana // april 2013

B7

going organic

Becoming certified organic growers isn’t necessarily easy, but for these Indiana farmers, it’s worth it

By Sherri Dugger | photos by Aaron ferguson

Keith Uridel harvests a couple of peppers on his farm, Backyard Berry Plants, outside Nashville. He specializes in organically grown berry bushes.

K

eith Uridel and his wife, Aimee, have been farming their land in Nashville for the past 17 years, but it wasn’t until five years ago that they decided to apply for organic certification status. Growers of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries through their business, Backyard Berry Plants, the Brown County couple had been buying and growing organic products for years for themselves before deciding to become certified organic as growers.

The decision to switch was more to take advantage of the “advertising” that comes along with the certification, Keith says. “To be honest, if there’s a stranger who has never met you, they see that sticker and they know that you’re being accounted for,” he explains.

“People are looking for organic stuff. Consumers are the ones driving the change. Everything organic is going through the roof.”

Because demand for organic produce has steadily increased over recent years — according to the Organic Trade Association

The certification process Becoming organically certified takes a lot of work. There are several steps involved, and there are fees associated with nearly every step of the process. Growers must first compile an Organic System Plan, which is essentially a contract between the grower and the certifying agency that, if breached, can result in the denial or loss of certification.

In the plan, growers have to describe crop rotations, describe soil fertility management, list water quality practices, indicate weed and pest management plans, list all inputs, compost and manure ingredients and equipment used, save organic seed labels, describe record-keeping practices, contamination prevention practices and more.

Growers must then submit an application, which includes the completed Organic System Plan. Applications are then reviewed, on-site inspections are made (which can take up to six months, depending on the time of year and weather) and the inspection reports are reviewed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture before growers are notified of their certification status.

Annually, growers will need to update their Organic System Plans before their anniversary date, pay annual fees and go through the inspection and certification processes all over again.

(OTA), the organic industry grew by 9.5 percent overall in 2011 to reach $31.5 billion in sales, outpacing increases in comparable conventional food sales — Keith and Aimee felt the only way to reach these customers was through “being legally allowed to use that (certified organic label) as advertising,” he says. “That’s what we’re paying for, to let consumers know this product is safe. That certification is the first step in building trust.”

That trust comes from knowing the certification process takes vigilance to careful measures and practices, and it keeps growers accountable every year after the initial application process.

Local growers can apply for certification through smaller regional agencies, such as Indiana Certified Organic or the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association, or larger agencies, like the Midwest Organic Services Association, in Viroqua, Wis., and California Certified Organic Farmers, which offer international reach.

“Agencies contract with agents who are trained in organic certification,” Keith says of the process. “They interview us once or

twice a year, check our sales records, go through our books, inspect our farms and make sure there’s nothing that should be here that isn’t. My certifying agency gets their records looked at, and it cycles back to me. Everything has a paper trail.”

The process involves so much documentation, in fact, that Keith says he sometimes spends “more time doing paperwork than farming. You have to account for everything. Every seed, every plant we sell … it all has to be traceable.”

Welch family farm

Keith and Anna Welch live on a three-generation small family farm, where they built their home in 1997. Around that same time, “we decided that there was more to sitting on the porch and looking at lots of mowed space,” Anna says, and so they decided to try their hand at growing food. Their efforts started with installing 12 herb gardens and growing heirloom vegetables, but quickly expanded.

Soon they were growing barley and flax, and once Keith got a tractor, Anna says, he was hooked on farming. Now the couple harvests 12 acres of golden flax and buckwheat and 45 acres of black beans each year, and they have partnered with other area farmers to run Fields of Agape, LLC, a grain, seed and bean cooperative in central Indiana.

Becoming organically certified wasn’t such a difficult task for the couple when they applied in 2011. They had been growing their foods organically from the start, Anna says, out of necessity as much as desire. Both suffer from allergies and wanted to grow foods without chemicals to ease their symptoms. Anna, a former technical writer, had been journaling their efforts to expand their farm since they began growing food on their Carthage property.

So detailing their practices — a requirement of the certification application process — was already done.

“We have always been conscientious about maintaining good records,” Anna says. “That is how we continue to work toward profitability. I spend every spring compiling all that data, and it’s really beneficial. It’s like any other business. It’s beneficial to see your patterns and to know where to make changes, to see what worked and what didn’t. We found it to be painless, and we’re dedicated to it.”

Langeland Farms

Patty Lange Reding manages the Lange family farm, which dates back six generations to the 1800s when the Lange family came to Indiana as German immigrants. Conventional food is grown at Langeland Farms in Decatur County, and in 2000, Reding began making a transition to growing organic food, too.

She now farms more than 300 acres of certified organic crops.

Reding works cooperatively with the Welches’ Fields of Agape business, grows corn, wheat, small red beans, black beans, soy-

beans, spelt, popcorn and hay, and she also maintains a small herd of Angus-cross beef.

Reding says she began growing organic food to add value to her harvests, but that continuing the organic certification isn’t always easy.

“It takes constant vigilance to do all the necessary documentation,” she says. “And there is also that ever-present ‘peer pressure.’

Seeing a ‘clean’ field of conventional crop where herbicides are sprayed to control weeds next to one of my own where sometimes weeds grow bigger and more abundant than I’d like isn’t easy. It’s a challenge to keep weeds at bay.”

Maintaining the integrity of the organic process takes work. Organic growers must rotate their crops annually so that they don’t deplete their fields Fields of Agape of nutrients by growing the 8343 N. Rushville Road, Carthage same foods in the same spac765-914-0944 es each year. It is imperative www.fieldsofagape.com to fertilize the soil. There are approved organic fertilizers Patty Lange Reding for this.

3806 S. Road 350E, Greensburg “You cannot continually 812-663-9546 take nutrients out of the soil www.langelandfarms.com without putting something back,” Reding says.

Keith Uridel 3267 TC Steele Road, Nashville But remaining organic 812-988-0579 does have payoffs for the www.backyardberryplants.com farm, the farmer and the environment — as well as the customer. The overall health of the soil has improved since Reding began growing organically.

“If our soils are balanced/healthy, it stands to reason the plant tissues will be healthier, and a healthy plant is less likely to be attacked by insects, hence lowering the need for as much pesticide,” Reding posits. “I also believe the same theory holds true to ward off problems caused by some of the more recent funguses that are beginning to attack our crops.”

Reding says she’d like the environment to be “less subject to chemical input. I believe we have the capacity through research to make this happen. And yet, we also have industries that thrive on selling the chemical products, and they also do research. The goal is to feed a hungry world. Where the balance is remains to be seen.”

Balancing act

Smaller organic farmers are also searching for a balance between being able to grow their businesses while using limited resources and funding and little help. see organic on page B8

What does organic mean?

The United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program (NOP, www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/brochure.html) defines organic as follows:

Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.

Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineer-

ing; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled “organic,” a government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards.

Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.

B8

Farm Indiana // april 2013

Organic

farm briefs

Looking for Funds?

Lantz Family

» Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) is accepting grant applications for its Fund-a-Farmer Project. Grants of up to $1,500 will be awarded for projects that help farms transition to pasture-based systems and improve the marketing of their humane products or enrich the conditions in which farm animals are raised. Working, independent family farmers who raise pigs, broiler chickens, laying hens, dairy cows and/ or beef cattle are eligible to apply for any of the three types of grants. Projects involving goats and sheep are only eligible for marketing grants. Applications must be submitted online or postmarked by May 1. Grants will be awarded in August.

For more information, visit www.fundafarmer.org.

Hoosier Homesteads

Two Hancock County families received the Hoosier Homestead Award during this year’s spring award ceremony. The Lantz and Merlau farms were recognized by the Hoosier Homestead Award program for having been owned and maintained by the same family for 100 years or more. The Lantz Farm, which is located in New Palestine, has been in operation since 1848. The Merlau Farm, also in New Palestine, got its start in 1899.

The awards, which have been given to Hoosier farms since 1976, were presented by Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann and Agriculture Director Gina Sheets.

For more information on the Hoosier Homestead Award program, visit www.in.gov/isda/2337.

Record Numbers Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that Indiana farmers had received more than $1 billion in crop insurance payments from losses due to last year’s drought. The 2012 payouts for corn, soybean and wheat losses, which were double the previous record, had reached $1.04 billion. That number was expected

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to increase, according to Chris Hurt, Purdue Extension agricultural economist.

In total, $900 million in payments were made for corn losses; corn yields were nearly 40 percent below normal. Soybean payouts reached $138 million to cover low soybean yields, which were about 10 percent below normal. For more information on insurance indemnities by crop and state, visit www.rma.usda.gov/data/sob.html.

| Email briefs to farmindiana@hnenewspapers.com

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process

For smaller organic farmers, the question isn’t about whether there is a demand for organically grown continued from page B7 food, but more so how to supply that demand efficiently.

“We know we’re supposed to grow food,” Anna Welch says. “We’re trying to soul search and determine what we are supposed to do with this food.” For the Welches to grow, they need upgrades in equipment; they need more efficient avenues of distribution; they need more time spent on the farm and — quite simply — they need more money.

Keith Welch still works a full-time job, leaving Anna, who resigned from her corporate position last August, to handle everything from marketing and distribution to grinding and packaging the products they grow.

Right now, the couple delivers food only to retailers within 100 miles of their farm — simply because they don’t have enough time and money to do more. They work with regional bulk distributors, like Bloomingfoods in Bloomington, The Good Earth and Pogues Run Grocer in Indianapolis and Clear Creek Food Co-Op in Richmond.

“We don’t want to get into taking it to 25 different places,” Anna says.

“It’s really a struggle for me right now. I don’t want to be a commodities farmer, but you have to have revenue streams where you can sell the majority of what you grow, where you can sell a few thousand pounds at one time.”

Anna is trying to find new ways to bring in revenue and grow the farm, now that the couple operates on only one full-time income, but the reality is that she may have to take seasonals jobs to help pay their bills.

Regardless of what measures she’ll take, “we’re not going to stop,” she says. “We live in total faith now.”

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture does reimburse up to 75 percent of the fees associated with becoming organically certified to help smaller farmers, but Anna believes more could be done — on both individual and government levels.

“If people believe in organic, there need to be grants from private investors,” she says. “People should be able to rent the equipment they need for a day. Farmers need to work together. There are things that need to be developed, so farming can be a little easier and more viable.”

Working together Beyond the government or individuals stepping in to offer more support, Anna says one of the keys to success, in the meantime, is in taking the cooperative approach. The couple’s partnership with Patty Lange Reding, for instance, helps them to more quickly clean the foods that they grow. Reding owns a large grain cleaner that cleans thousands of bushels in a day.

“Fields of Agape owns a clipper grain cleaner that cleans 50 bushel in a day,” Anna says. “We are blessed to have Patty as a mentor and partner in organic food crop production. To become sustainable as an organic specialty crop producer, it is critical to develop such partnerships and to work cooperatively within regions. We have to take care of one another.

Share our gifts.”

As for Patty Lange Reding, she is happy to share her gifts with her farming friends, her business partners and with the world at large.

“I am proud to be an American farmer,” she says. “I have farms that are both organic and conventional. In my opinion, our soil health and eco-system health would benefit from a better-balanced farming practice.

“In the meantime, I am continuing to farm organically, and I will scowl and tug at my weeds and smile at my profit. And hope the generations who follow will find I have been a good steward of the land.” FI