Tour Aims To Improve Profitability,
Ohio Farm Sustainability
COLUMBUS, Ohio Rais
ing and selling wholesale vegeta
bles, particularly tomatoes, is a
time-consuming, labor-intensive
job.
In 1997, the stress of manag
ing a wholesale vegetable opera
tion was starting to wear on
Shane Pugh. A change was
needed, so that in June he and
his wife, Vicki, opened a farm
market on their farm north of
Marietta and began selling most
of their produce directly to con
sumers.
“I wasn’t trying to improve
profit as much as I was trying to
improve my quality of life by
cutting time and stress,” Pugh
said. “For the amount of money
that’s being invested, the profit
is higher, the amount of hours
and stress is down, and my qual
ity of life is greatly improved.
The profit will improve even
more, eventually. It just takes a
while to get a good customer
base.”
The Pugh’s Doak Farm and
Doak Farm Market in Washing
ton County is one of the stops in
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the 2000 Ohio Farm Profitability
Tour Series. The series consists
of 22 farm tours across Ohio, be
ginning with the 900-acre certi
fied organic Wenger Farm in
Wayne County on July 1 and
ending with Saum Family
Farms, a diversified operation in
Fairfield County that grows
Christmas and nursery trees to
complement more traditional
commodities, on Oct. 3.
The Doak Farm is the tour’s
fifth stop and will take place
July 21.
“There is a lot of risk involved
when growing something for
wholesale. By raising vegetables
'for retail, you cut labor, time,
and the amount of money put
out to raise a crop,” Pugh said.
“We’ve done that and it works.
It’s working quite well for us.
I’m tickled to death with what
I’ve done.”
By switching to the farm
market, the Pugh’s have re
duced the amount of labor
intensive tomatoes they grow
from 60,000 plants five years
ago to about 10,000 plants this
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spring. They also stopped grow
ing peppers, green beans, can
taloupe and cabbage, and began
growing more sweet corn and
pumpkins.
“Sweet corn is a lot easier to
handle and requires less labor
than tomatoes,” Pugh said.
“Plus, the planting and harvest
ing time is more spread out to
allow a steady supply of com
throughout the summer. We
start planting corn the end of
March and won’t stop until July
4. That way we’ll have corn
ready for market from about
June 20 through the end of Sep
tember.”
Through the market, they also
offer fresh eggs from the fami
ly’s range chickens and annual
flowers and perennial plants
from their greenhouse.
They buy cantaloupe, green
beans, squash, potatoes, cab
bage, cucumbers, watermelon,
apples, and other fruits and veg
etables grown by other area
farmers so they have a variety of
things available. The market is
complemented by a corn maze
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in the fall, along with a straw
pyramid, fall decorations, and
other items. They plan to add
hayrides this fall.
“It was awfully hard to
change. I was scared to death,”
Pugh said. “I was used to doing
things in a big scale with the to
matoes, and it was hard to
change my habits.”
The purpose of the Farm Pro
fitability Tour Series is to help
Ohio farm families improve the
profitability and sustainability
of their farming operations. The
farms being'toured are good ex
amples of entrepreneurs that
have taken advantage of new
opportunities through alterna
tive enterprises, different mar
keting methods, and alternative
production systems, said Eric
Barrett, agriculture and natural
resources agent at the Washing
ton County office of Ohio State
University Extension.
“Traditional commodities
such as corn, soybeans, and
wheat aren’t that profitable
right now, so these tours can
show people how to switch to
direct marketing, add an alter
native commodity, or do some
thing else unique to help become
more profitable,’’ Barrett said.
“There is more than one way of
making money farming, so why
not try something different?”
A packet of information also
has been created for tour partici
pants to take home that
discusses the topics demon
strated on the tours and how
others can try them, he said. The
seven areas emphasized are
trends in agriculture and what
will be profitable in the future;
what is marketing; how to add
to an operation; develop
ing a market; what makes an op
eration profitable and how long
until profitability can be
achieved; what is available on
the family, personal, and com
munity levels to make a change
possible; and what is the next
step needed to actually imple
ment a new commodity, prac
tice, or marketing style.
The packet will be handed out
and various aspects of it dis
cussed at each tour stop, Barrett
said.
“A lot of the ideas we’ve im
plemented here got their start
from traveling and talking with
other people at meetings and
events,” Pugh said. “It was the
best time I ever spent. So people
should be encouraged to come to
these tours. It might help them
drastically.”
The tour series is sponsored
by the Ohio State University
Farm Income Enhancement
Program, the Ohio State Univer
sity Extension Sustainable Agri
culture Team, the Ohio State
University Extension East Dis
trict Farm Profitability Commit
tee, Innovative Farmers of Ohio,
the Ohio Ecological Food and
Farm Association, and the
USDA Natural Resources Con
servation Service.
There is no registration, and
all the tours are free and open to
the public. Tour dates, locations,
and some highlights are:
• July 1 Wenger Farm,
Dalton, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. High
lights: 900-acre certified organic
farm that produces corn, soy
beans, speltz and alfalfa; and
preharvest contracting of crops.
• July 6 Skyline Turkey
Farm, Danville, 9 a.m.-noon.
Highlights: turkey, hydroponic
tomato, cucumber, com, soy
bean and fattened lamb produc
tion.
• July 6 Spray Brothers
Farm, Mt. Vernon, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
Highlights: one of the largest
certified organic farms in the
U.S. with certified organic beef,
com, soybeans, wheat, speltz,
and hay.
• July 18 C-J Natural
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 1, 2000-819
Meats, Defiance, 6:30 p.m.-8:30
p.m. Highlights: grass-based
dairy, beef, and broiler opera
tion, and products marketed di
rectly to consumers.
• July 21 Doak Farm,
Marietta, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Highlights: farm market, corn
maze, straw pyramid, fall deco
rations, eggs from range chick
ens, and flowers and plants from
family greenhouse.
• July 25 Snode Farm,
Minerva, 10 a.m.-l p.m. High
lights: expanded dairy operation
with new freestall bam, vegeta
ble production, old barn restored
for entertainment farming, and
social, educational, and enter
tainment programs for a fee.
• July 25 Timberlane
Farms, Clyde, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
Highlights: certified organic
grain and noncertified, rotation
ally grazed beef cattle.
• July 26 Mad River
Farms, Bellefontaine, 10 a.m.-
noon. Highlights: pumpkins,
sweet corn, and other vegetables
raised and sold at farm market
at farm; flowers and trees also
sold at market; and entertain
ment farming with a corn maze,
tours, and dinners.
• July 26 Freshwater
Farms, Urbana, 1:30 p.m.-3:30
p.m. Highlights: raising rainbow
trout in closed recirculating sys
tems, converting hog buildings
to house systems for raising
trout, and yellow perch produc
tion for pond stocking.
• Aug. 3 Dale Filbrun
Farm, West Alexandria, 1 p.m.-
4 p.m. Highlights: organic meats
and eggs, direct marketing to
consumers, grocery stores, res
taurants, and health food stores.
• Aug. 4 Todd Smith
Farm, Defiance, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Highlights: diversified livestock
and crop farm, 40-head cow-calf
herd, rotational grazing system,
and grazing maize as fed for
cows from October through Jan
uary,
• Aug. 15 Sigrist Dairy
Farm, Dundee, 9:30 a.m.-12:30
p.m. Highlights; composting
manure from dairy farm, bagg
ing and selling at retail outlets as
Bull Country Compost; bulk
compost sold to landscapers and
contractors; and operating bed
and breakfast.
• Aug. 15 Buckeye
Pheasant Hunting Preserve,
New Lebanon, 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
Highlights: raising pheasants
and selling to hunters and game
preserves through a Website and
magazines and dog, guide, and
game-dressing services.
• Aug. 15 Stephen Cook
Farm, New Lebanon, 5 p.m.-7
p.m. Highlights: vegetables, flo
wers, honey, and pick-your-own
strawberries on one acre and
direct marketing at farm and
farmers markets.
• Sept. 5 Hughey Farm,
Washington Court House, 1
p.m.-4 p.m. Highlight: using
hoop structures in swine pro
duction operations.
• Sept. 9 Bluebird Hills
Farm, Springfield, 10 a.m.-
noon. Highlights: organic vege
tables marketed through a
Community Supported Agricul
ture (CSA) arrangement and
Alpaca production.
• Sept. 16 Gasser Farm,
Sterling, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. High
lights: certified organic grain
and hay production. Milk from
60-cow operation will be certi
fied organic this fall.
• Sept. 23 Risley Agricul
tural Center, Spencer, 9:30 a.m.-
12:30 p.m. Highlights: 200-acre
certified organic farm producing
com, soybeans, wheat, no-till
melons, and range turkeys, and
education about organic farm
ing and gardening.
• Sept. 26 Sweeney Farm
Jerseys, Somerset, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
Highlight: grass-based, 35-cow