HERBS 2000: INTERNATIONAL HERB CONFERENCE
July 18-21, 2000/Track 3 - Production/Wednesday, July 19, 20, 2000/2:30 - 3:00 PM
Getting Started In Herbs
by Richard Alan Miller © 2000[This paper includes portions from SUCCESSFUL FARM VENTURES IN NORTH AMERICA, (CD-ROM edition) by Richard Alan Miller,c1998, and GETTING STARTED:SOME IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE BEGINNING HERB FARMER By Richard Alan Miller, c, 1991, 2000]
Most homesteaders today, especially those who are just starting out or are still in the dreaming stages, feel a vague (and often not so vague) sense of dissatisfaction with conventional modern life. Something seems to be missing…not found with life in the city. Farming requires a lifestyle not possible in city living.
It's desirability often has to do with the family, and a sense of belonging to a community. Farming bolsters a sense of accomplishment, of somehow become more in charge of one’s own life. Country living requires (even demands) self-sufficiency, a different form or relationship to self, neighbors, and friends, of becoming more independent.
This is the general reason why most have moved from the city to the country - for lifestyle chances, the moral codes of ethics, and the rules of conduct. It is not for the financial advantage, or the promise of a better source of income. And, while alternative agriculture (like herb and spice farming) does offer more income potential than conventional farming, it still does not compete with living in a city.
With spring around the corner, and buds beginning to show on trees in most regions of the country, urgent thoughts of “what am I going to plant?” become a primary issue. For those of you who plan a project with alternative crops (like herbs and spices) for the first time, an overview of the herb and floral trade and business plan on what you need to do becomes critical.
Questions like “what should I plant?” and “how much money do I need?” must have answers before April. Before you can even begin approaching answers to these types of questions, however, a bigger need exists for a comprehensive approach to developing specific herbs as cash crops.
There are ways to make money on a new homestead, obviously, but they don’t involve farming (per se). Money is made not in becoming a raw material supplier, but in the marketing of these farm products, or somehow processing them (in cottage industries, to add value). This alone requires careful selection of what crops to grow, and how you plan to market them.
Most alternative crops, like herbs and spices, are niche markets. This is what distinguishes them from storable commodities (such as wheat and alfalfa). If there are surpluses (like Echinacea and Ginseng right now), these crops cannot be given away at any price (even at a loss). This is why it is important to have a business plan before starting any new venture.
POINTS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE DEVELOPING YOUR FARM PLAN
1. New crops should be cultivated on two-acre trial plots for at least two years before expanding to full production. A smaller plot size will not give you accurate production and cost data critical for success.
You must become thoroughly familiar with each crop before you invest further money and labor. Each crop has its own idiosyncrasies.
2. Successful small herb farm ventures use what is known as a polyculture scheme, where six or more crops are grown, rather than relying on just one crop. This gives the small farmer protection against saturated markets and stability in marketing and cash flow.
If one crop market becomes oversupplied, that crop can be easily rotated out of the farm plan without affecting other crops. New herb farms should start with about 12 acres, consisting of six crops of two acres each.
3. Often the land you own is not appropriate for the crops you wish to grow. An example would be land that lacks irrigation. Better land may be available for simply the cost of taxes, water ditch costs, and often ten percent of gross sales.
This is known as sharecropping, and it is an excellent way to conserve funds for crop development instead of tying up funds to buy land. With a lease-option, you may even be able to buy the land from profits earned on the crops. This is the old-fashioned way farmers acquired land.
4. The need for farm equipment requires thought. If the cost of acquiring equipment is prohibitive, there are plenty of small farms in most communities that are already well equipped. Often farmers are willing to "custom farm" your fields at about $25 [U.S.] per acre for each pass of equipment over the fields.
If there is an established market for the crop, a "custom farmer" will take payment in crops; for example, the standard rate for hay is 40 percent. Crop selection is often based on the availability of specific tools. There is no sense in growing chamomile if a flowerhead harvester is not available because the cost of picking flowers by hand is prohibitive (except in areas where labor is cheap).
5. Consider adopting organic farming techniques. Very few chemical herbicides and pesticides are registered for use on herbs and spices. While the illegal use of chemicals on herb crops does occur - such as Sinbar on mints to control grasses - such use will not be possible in the near future.
This becomes true especially when exporting to important markets such as Germany and Japan where laws are much tougher than in most countries. Many crops need CITES documentation to show proof of origin.
6. Your crop selections should be designed for export. Selling locally only recirculates money within a given community. Exporting, however, whether it is out of the county, state, or country, brings new revenues into the community. Exporting also boosts pride in the community.
When you produce a product that was previously imported, you are helping to balance trade deficits. This is where small farm agriculture will find stability.
7. If you export, transportation becomes the single largest expense other than labor. This is why most herbs and spices are sold in a dehydrated form. A truck that holds $2,000 of fresh produce can be filled easily with dehydrated herb worth more than $10,000.
Transportation costs often make the difference between closing a sale with a distant port, or not. For the buyer, the bottom line is landed cost, even though most herbs are bought on a F.O.B. or freight-collect basis.
8. Often the value of a crop can be enhanced by on-farm processing prior to shipping. This is why many traditional spice crops are distilled for oil, a value-added product worth more than the raw herb it was distilled from.
Often the best way to enter a new market is to set up as a cottage industry business where a focus is adding value to the herbs grown on the farm. With value-added products, even a small acreage can generate a good net income, and marketing options are broadened.
9. Currently, many farms have too many acres of herbs in cultivation. This was how farms got into trouble in the first place, contributing to oversupply in some herb markets. The first question a farmer should ask is "What are my annual income needs?"
As herb and spice crops can net as much as $3,000 [U.S.] per acre, the answer to this question will dictate how many acres will be needed once the farm has expanded to full production. Rather than simply maximizing revenue by planting every available acre, it may be better to leave some large parcels unplanted, freeing the farmer to spend time on critical activities such as marketing and value-added projects.
10. What should be done with excess, unplanted land? Farmers should consider putting the land into timber or grasslands, creating topsoil for future generations. Topsoil is a threatened resource in many areas and is only created, by and large, from forests and grasslands.
Man needs to assume a responsibility for the health of our soil, and we farmers need to see ourselves as the stewards of the soil to ensure our children's future.
THE FARM PLAN
Deciding where to put crops on your farm is an art. Like reading the racing form, soil survey maps can give you a lot of information about your land. I have found that soil surveys based on chemical analyses are often useless Most farmland contains four to five different soil; types, depending on how the land was originally formed.
To get an accurate description of your field might often require ten or more samples, taken from different parts of the field. The selection of where to sample can be augmented using Soil Conservation Service (SCS) aerial maps, but many of these were made in the past where crops and animals have changed some of the conditions.
Noxious weeds growing on your field will often tell you more about soil deficiencies and what additives are needed than most any other form of soil survey. Overgrazed lands, for example, will always show thistle and other “marginal topsoil” conditions. The history of weeds on a farm has an important significance on what techniques are used for organic weed control.
The best single source for this information can be found in Chuck Walters’ book Weeds, Control Without Poisons, Acres, USA (c1991). Specific weeds thrive on situations where soils have been depleted in specific chemistries and balances of soil elements. The spread of these weeds indicate where these changes have occurred.
New herb farms should start with two or three annuals and four or five perennials. The annuals give farmers experience through a complete crop cycle the first year, from seed to harvest, while the perennials are getting established in beds.
One should not expect to show a profit in the first year, even from the annual herbs. There is more chance of early success if annuals are grown to feed a cottage industry business that adds value to herbs and adds to the bottom line. Rarely does anyone make their money with these crops as a raw material supplier.
What most rural communities have to sell is labor. It would be nice to be gainfully employed eight hours per day, not four. And, it would nice to make $40/hour, rather than $8/hour. Using “Yankee ingenuity” and specialized farm machinery can do this. For example, the use of a rice harvester to put up grains for the floral trade can jump start labor into much higher earnings.
Two-acre plots are usually too small make money selling bulk dried herbs; bulk herb operations need to scale up to become profitable. But two acres of dill, sold fresh in one pound sacks, is quite profitable during canning season. Again, it is important to always remember that these crops are niche markets, not for the large volume suppliers.
You should have detailed plans for both annual and perennial crops on how you plan to get them started, and where.
One rarely begins a perennial herb crop from seed sown directly in the field. Perennial herbs are slow to establish from seeds and competition from faster growing weeds is a serious problem. Therefore, most perennial herbs are started in nurseries several months before field planting.
To buy seedlings from a nursery is often quite expensive, averaging more than $0.085 [U.S.] per plant. At a typical planting density for perennial herbs of 10,000 plants per acre, the outlay just for nursery stock can be more than $900 [U.S.] per acre.
To save money, farmers can start their own seedlings in outdoor seedbeds, or in plug trays or seedflats. If heated greenhouse space is available, start seedlings in plugs or flats one or more months before outdoor planting time in your area. The lead-time for starting seeds indoors depends on the herb: some can be ready to transplant in as few as four weeks, but most take longer.
Plug trays have become very popular because they save labor. They do not require a transplanting step before planting in the field. Starting seeds in seedflats require hand labor to transplant seedlings into plug trays, flats, or pots to allow room for seedling development before transplanting to the field.
Seedflats save on initial heated space requirement during the germination and early seedling development stages, and in cases where seed germination is typically spotty or sporadic, or where special treatment is required to induce dormant seeds to germinate, seedflats are the preferred way to start seeds.
Most farmers begin their perennials in beds outdoors in the spring, set for easy hand cultivation during the summer. The plants are then moved in the fall into rows for cultivation the following spring. The new rows are often mulched heavily the first winter to protect the new rootlets from hard frost.
In the case of fast-growing perennials such as oregano, a late-summer move into rows allows some root development, before the dormant season. Although starting seeds in outdoor seedbeds may add an extra season till harvest in contrast to starting them early in greenhouses, the cost saving of starting in seedbeds is significant and the quality of the transplants is often superior to greenhouse-grown plants.
Annual herbs are either sown directly in the field or started indoors in plug trays or seedflats depending on the variety. Fast growing annuals such as coriander, cumin, dill and summer savory are sown in the field in early spring after the ground warmed and the threat of spring frosts is past.
Slower annuals such as basil and marjoram should be started indoors in areas where the frost-free season is short. Basil in particular does not thrive below 50 degrees Fahrenheit [10 degrees Celsius] and is best planted a week or two after the last frost date for your area.
Some biennial herbs such as parsley and caraway may be sown directly in the field in spring also. Parsley is always treated as an annual because second year growth does not produce much saleable foliage. Other biennial herbs such as mullein should be started like the perennials.
The main problem with most seed companies is their lack of attention to specific herb cultivars and contaminated seeds. It is often worth paying a little more from a smaller, specialty herb seed source knowing that the seedman's reputation is on the line. Seeds should be ordered at least a month before seeding. Some companies offer discounts if you order early.
Sometime before spring, you should go visit the local agricultural extension office and obtain a copy of the noxious weed and native plant lists. As you become more familiar with local weeds, you may find that some of them can be gathered and sold for supplemental income. In the U.S. desert, for example, chaparral and Mormon tea are wild plants of some commercial importance. Recognizing a natural resource among the noxious weeds of your area can often be used to underwrite a small farm venture.
Noxious weeds can become more important than the crop they infest. In Iowa, for example, burdock often infests cornfields. Farmers are constantly struggling to eliminate burdock, usually at considerable cost of production. Burdock roots, however, are a delicacy in Asia where they are eaten as a fresh vegetable like carrots. In fact, the burdock in a cornfield in Iowa could be worth more than the corn! Dried burdock roots also have medicinal properties and a market in the bulk herb trade.
The most important thing to remember is that the first year is a learning year, not one to show big profits or to solve your financial problems. It takes time to learn a new crop. Often the soil will actually show you which crops should be grown, like the burdock example. There will a lot of handwork at first.
The key is to learn as much as possible about your crops, what they need, how they grow, and how to use tools and techniques to save time and labor and bring your cost of production down to a minimum.
ELEMENTS OF A TYPICAL FARM PLAN
For specific detail on what a typical farm plan should contain, see Chapter 5 of The Potential Of Herbs As A Cash Crop. Ideally, it should contain a detailed description of each crop selected, and spread sheets of proforma costs for each year.
As part of this example, I have chosen a number of crops that have options in their marketing. This was done to demonstrate the difference between marketing the products as raw materials or adding value to them as a cottage industry. The crops selected are
The Executive Summary: A single page executive summary (or overview) is helpful to give an overall perspective of what goals are desired. This summary should contain one paragraph on each of the following topics:
Purpose: To develop a model farm for alternative crops well suited for the soils and terrain of your farm. To also create markets for those crops, and to eventually develop specific cottage industries using those crops (marketing direction)
Objective: To produce herb and spice crops for the trade, and to develop accurate cost-of-goods produced for eventual expansion opportunities. To take advantage of specific resources in the area, to include capital equipment, skills, and buildings available.
Scope: A poly-culturing situation is recommended where a number of different crops are cultivated simultaneously, improving market access and cash flow stability. The program should include crop rotation schedules and other techniques for soil improvement.
Time Factor: A timetable is needed, to include expansion. Most perennials will be developed as seedlings during a summer for fall row planting. Some seeds are annuals, and can be drilled in late fall or early spring. Greenhouse support gets your program off the ground faster, however raised beds will cost less and delay your overall program one-half year.
Anticipated Costs: These vary with individual crops, averaging less than $2,000 per acre for initial establishment, and should include subsequent yearly maintenance costs. A detailed cost of establishment/yields proforma should be included. All floral crops can be expanded later for other markets.
Anticipated Incomes: Most suggested perennial crops will yield as much as $20,000 per acre (gross) after establishment (3rd year) when sold as dried florals. Other crops, like Fenugreek, might be seen as by-products to soil amendment requirements. Expansion into the forests and wildcrafting ventures only broaden marketing.
Anticipated Volumes: These will vary from Fenugreek, estimated at yields of about 1,000 pounds per acre, to such crops as Comfrey with more than 8,000 dry-weight pounds per acre. This is where you might describe handling problems and other logistics.
Potential Markets: This is essential as part of the overall marketing program to make the business plan successful. It could include options in the way something might be marketed.
Crop Selection: How one arrives at a list of specific crops is very difficult, and needs to take into account such variables as soils and habitat, capital equipment and resources available, and future market projection needs. This usually requires an expert, or more information beyond the scope of this book.
More detail and direction in selecting specific crops can be found in the new book Getting Started: Some Important Considerations for the Beginning Herb Farmer, by Richard Alan Miller. This is book number 1 in the new Herb Farming Series (Richters of Canada). Marketing and Economic Outlooks should also be review before final crop selections.
APPENDIX I: The Draper
A Draper is a swather-type harvester with a conveyor delivery system to the back of the unit. Wagons are used to pick up the harvested crops that can not be sun cured or left in a field. Most mints have volatile oils that are lost at temperatures over 75 degrees. These require some form of shade drying, or air-drying system.
A 15-foot header bar, with a conditioner can take down a 20-acre field in short order. The problem is the capacity of the drying unit, and how much it can hold at any given moment. This determines how quickly a field is usually harvested. Some crops (like Comfrey) require a light wilt (50%) prior to being taken to a drying shed. The shed, however, is what determines how quickly the field is harvested.
Another shot of the Draper showing more of the header-bar. This device, as designed in this shot, is probably the single most versatile harvest machinery available for diverse agricultural ventures. The Draper aspects can also be used to lay windrows, and turn or fluff a crop for field drying.
The Draper, one of the more important farm tools used for the harvest of most field crops (herbs and spices). More detail on this machinery, and other aspects of "Getting Started" can be found in the new book Getting Started: Some Important Considerations for the Beginning Herb Farmer, by Richard Alan Miller, c2000).
APPENDIX II: Estimated Crop Yields
The following table is a partial list of alternative crops (herbs and spices) with good market potentials for the small farmer. The yields per acre are estimates based on information from the USDA, trade magazines, and the author's background in marketing. The yields are for dehydrated products, not produce.
These crop yields are only estimates, based on average conditions and weather.