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AGRICULTURE-
August 2003 by Claude E. Hammond Sidebar-
At Bowman’s Jerusalem Ridge Farm, the name of the game isn’t tobacco. His main cash crop is the Boer goats he and his wife, Stephania, raise. Originating in South Africa, the Boer goat is raised primarily for its meat. Its popularity has been blooming in Kentucky as farmers search for new sources of profits. “There’s a good ethnic market for Boer goats,” Bowman said. “And with meat consumers now becoming more health conscious, the word is getting out about the high nutritional value and low fat and cholesterol content of goat meat.” Though Bowman raises horses, cattle, sheep and pastured poultry (another increasingly popular livestock item for the growing market of consumers aversive to ‘factory farms’), the goats are the main emphasis of his agricultural efforts. He has served as state representative for the United States Boer Goat Association, director for the Kentucky Goat Producers Association and is president of the Franklin County Goat Producers Association. According to Kentucky Secretary of Agriculture Billy Ray Smith, the boom in meat goat production in Kentucky is just one new variance in the surge of agricultural entrepreneurship. “It’s not just tobacco and cattle any longer. They’re still important, but because of the changes in market and new regulations we’re seeing the smallest tobacco crop in more than 120 years.” Just five years ago, even though the writing was already on the wall regarding Kentucky’s top cash crop of tobacco, most farmers were still holding on to the long-leafed, pink-flowered plant. Now, there seems to be an ever-decreasing number of American smokers and ever-increasing regulations on tobacco use and sales. Even Lexington, once home of the world’s largest tobacco market, now has a ban on smoking in most public buildings, including restaurants and bars. Tobacco’s decline represents the most dramatic change in Kentucky’s farm economy in more than 70 years, when hemp declined and sheep ceased being profitable, largely due to the predation of stray dogs. The new farm entrepreneurship can be summarized into three categories: specialized crops, atypical livestock and products that are directly retailed to the public, thus avoiding a middleman and increasing the farmer’s profit margin. Specialized Crops
Also in demand are conventional, Portobello, and shiitake mushrooms, which Best and his sons have begun to cultivate. “Here in Kentucky, people are becoming more aware of gourmet items like these,” Best said. “We not only have people wanting the varieties of vegetables grown by their grandparents, but also those with discriminating palates who are discovering custom-grown items not raised on factory farms.” Atypical livestock An organization that has capitalized on the increasing demand for healthier meat has been ZH Beef, a company owned by James and Tara Osbourne, whose Zephyr Heights Farm is located near Springfield in Washington County. Third-generation farmers, the Osbournes raise cattle for the production of premium choice USDA-inspected beef. The beef produced by ZH is hand-fed with select feeds that are antibiotic and hormone free.
The agricultural group that struck the deal was Western Kentucky’s Purchase Area Aquaculture Cooperative (PAAC). The cooperative runs a catfish processing plant in Graves County and sells catfish to the Louisville division of the nation’s largest supermarket chain. Kentucky Department of Agriculture marketing specialists were instrumental in bringing together representatives of the two parties together to work out details of Kroger’s purchase of PAAC catfish. Kroger started out with an initial order of 12,000 pounds a week and has escalated to 48,000 pounds. Last summer the cooperative struck gold when it sold its products to a restaurant in southern Illinois, where a travel magazine rated the catfish as the best in the state. The co-op recently started selling to Missouri retailers, including E.W. James and Sons and Food Giant Stores. PAAC catfish is available in supermarkets and restaurants in Western Kentucky, including three Captain D’s restaurants, and in Kentucky state parks. PAAC has been so successful in marketing its products that the cooperative now seeks more members to produce catfish. Buyers are out there waiting – and more entrepreneurs will no doubt take advantage of the situation and make some money. Other aquaculture products in Kentucky have been getting national attention. Demand for freshwater shrimp is beginning to grow rapidly and a July article in the New York Times highlighted the growing paddlefish caviar industry in the U.S., due to the activities of Shuckman’s Fish Company and Smokery in Louisville. Run by Lewis Shuckman, the company sells numerous Kentucky aquaculture products, such as paddlefish caviar, smoked Kentucky largemouth bass, smoked trout and other products. Business is apparently pretty good. The company just enlarged its operations to increase production and shipping capacity. Cooperative agriculture Over the past five years, its successful marketing efforts have generated an average of more than $1.6 million in sales. Four vegetable crops have been the center of Cumberland’s marketing efforts: tomatoes, cabbages, pumpkins and green bell peppers. Of these, the vine-ripened staked tomatoes account for about $740,000 of annual sales for the cooperative. In Owensboro, the West Kentucky Grower Co-op markets a wide variety of vegetables to the public, including sweet corn, a wide variety of peppers, squash, zucchini, potatoes, broccoli and cucumbers. In particular, the West Kentucky Grower Co-op has had unusual success with its high-quality thick-wall green bell peppers. Following on the heels of the green bell pepper’s success, the co-op now markets jalapenos, Hungarian wax, cubanellos and other varieties. In Horse Cave, the Green River Produce Marketing Association has built its reputation on honey-sweet cantaloupes, pumpkins, seedless watermelons and cabbage. Cheerleaders
for the farm team Claude Hammond
is a staff writer for The Lane Report |
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Copyright 1996-2003, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2003, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
It’s
a bright summer morning. Ray Bowman walks out to the field of his Franklin
County farm to take a look at his cash crop. For most Kentucky farmers
in recent years, the main source of cash was tobacco — but Bowman’s
going out to check on his goats.
Having
co-founded the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center with no less
than UK Economic Professor Emeritus and former State Economist Charles
Haywood, Best has collected more than 175 varieties of heirloom beans
and around 300 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. The participation in
various area farmer’s markets by Best and his sons, David and Michael,
has built a strong consumer base. Chefs from certain high-end restaurants
in Lexington line up at his truck to buy old-fashioned heritage tomato
varieties, with names like Russian Oxheart, Willard Wynn, or Mortgage
Lifter. 
Western
Kentucky farmers with the ability to build ponds have found that catfish
can provide a good income. Last November, Kentucky catfish producers
made headlines in a deal with the Kroger grocery chain to provide a
huge amount of the fish to consumers throughout this state and Tennessee.