By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For families who struggle with transferring the farm to the next generation – to children living and working on and off the farm and siblings who can’t seem to work together, while trying to be fair to everyone – help is on the way.
The 76th annual Indiana Farm Management Tour will visit five locations in Bartholomew and Jackson counties on June 24-25. A panel discussion, as well as interviews with farm families, will focus on passing on the family farm.
The Purdue University Department of Agricultural Economics held the first tour in the early 1930s to spotlight farms with highly successful business management practices or unique perspectives on management. The free tours offer Hoosier farmers the opportunity to learn new management skills and adopt those practices on their own farms.
Each tour stop begins with an interview of the family, followed by mini tours. Also included is a dinner with a panel discussion and a tour of Irwin Gardens on June 24. This year’s tour includes:
Tuesday, June 24
•B&A Thompson Grain Farms, Seymour. Interview at 1 p.m. EST; mini tours at 1:35 p.m. (pick three of the four) on surface and subsurface drainage, organizing one’s business to facilitate succession planning, crop monitoring and scouting and no-till fertility management.
The Thompson family is now training its fifth generation to manage the farm. Learn how this family is approaching the important process of transferring management and assets. There will also be an interesting collection of tractors.
•Brandt Farms Organic Dairy, Columbus. Interview at 3 p.m.; mini tours at 3:30 p.m. on the Indiana Classified Forest Program, rotational grazing and milk marketing by Organic Valley.
Justin Burbrink started the farm in 2001 as a conventional dairy, and started selling certified organic milk in 2007 to Organic Valley, a farmer-owned cooperative. The farm has 160 acres of certified organic farm ground and 47 cows. All feed is raised on the farm, using intensive rotational grazing and organic silage and corn.
•4-H Community Building, Columbus. Dinner at 5:30 p.m. Pre-registration required. The 6 p.m. program is a panel discussion on “Transferring Your Farm Business to the Next Generation” with attorney Jeff Washburn and Purdue specialist Alan Miller answering questions, and two local farmers sharing lessons they learned.
•Irwin Gardens, Columbus, 8 p.m. Participants can walk the gardens at the historic home of the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller family. Pre-registration required.
Wednesday, June 25
•Elsbury Greenhouses, Hope. Interview at 8 a.m.; mini tours at 8:40 a.m. of the garden center, outdoor mum production and the environmental computer systems.
Gordon and Nancy Elsbury established Elsbury’s Greenhouses and Garden in 1973. Today the family business attracts nearly 15,000 customers each year who purchase bedding plants, vegetables, herbs, perennials, mums, holiday poinsettias and indoor and outdoor gardening supplies. The business includes more than 65,000 square feet of indoor greenhouse production, five acres of field chrysanthemums and a garden center with an acre of retail space.
Elsbury’s uses a computer to closely monitor and maintain temperatures, irrigation and photoperiodic and supplemental lighting using metal halide lamps. Gordon relies upon his experiences and community involvement as a 10-year Purdue Extension educator.
•Gelfius Farms, Hartsville. Interview at 10 a.m.; mini tours at 10:40 a.m. on precision planting to enhance yields and reduce seed costs, managing full-time and seasonal labor and maintaining balance.
Gelfius Farms balances multiple crop enterprises (processing tomatoes, seed corn, amylose corn, seed soybeans, snap green beans and commodity winter wheat, corn and soybeans) to maximize returns on its nearly 4,000-acre operation.
The many time-sensitive processes demand a reliable source of full-time and seasonal labor as well as the equipment to minimize downtimes and the ability to multitask. The management of this operation is set to transition to the next generation in the next several years.
•Lunch at noon, Gelfius Farms. Agricultural Outlook Update at 12:30 p.m. by Dr. Chris Hurt, Purdue University marketing specialist.
•Shane Meier Farms, Inc., Scipio. Interview at 1:30 p.m.; mini tours at 2:15 p.m. on driving down per-unit production costs by using cover crops and no-till to build up soils, machinery selection and the computer controlled grain drying system.
Shane Meier believes lower costs per unit of production can be achieved through a number of techniques, one of which is building soil potential. For several years he has been improving the productive potential of his land by using cover crops and no-till.
Meier also selects machinery carefully to get the most for his money, either to improve the quality of the work or to speed up the process. He recently installed a computer-controlled grain drying system and will use a lower temp burner to improve outside air when needed.
The public is invited to the tour. There is no charge, but pre-registration by June 16 is required to participate in the dinner and Irwin Gardens tour on June 24 and the lunch on June 25. Call 888-EXT-INFO (398-4636) or 812-379-1665 to register.
Complete information, including a downloadable tour map, is available at www.agecon.purdue.edu/extension/programs/farm_tour.asp
For information on lodging, contact the Bartholomew County Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800-468-6564 or 812-378-2622 or online at www.columbus.in.us |
