- Sweet Cooperation
- Kentucky co-op scores big with sweet corn
- By Karen Gentry
Associate Editor
- Cooperation, alliances, working together, alternative crops, value-added. Growers have become familiar with these terms lately.
More than 50 growers from four Western Kentucky counties took these terms literally and joined together and moved quickly to accomplish what they could not do alone in a short period of time.
They are members of the Western Kentucky Growers Cooperative and enjoyed a successful first season last year raising 1,000 acres of sweet corn and 250 acres of other vegetables.
“We’re in a diversified area with corn, soybeans, tobacco, wheat and a small amount of vegetables,” said Rick Kamuf, president of the board of the co-op and a grower near Owensboro, Ky. Kamuf spoke at the Great Lakes Vegetable Growers Convention and Farm Market Show in Grand Rapids, Mich. in January. He told growers that tobacco acreage in his area has been declining for the last 15 years and growers have been looking for other crops.
In February 2000 Daryl Fryman was hired as the general manager of the co-op. “We were looking for something to subsidize farm income and try to grow something we knew a little bit about,” said Fryman, who previously worked with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
A small group of growers traveled to Florida and by chance, hooked up with Pioneer Growers Co-op, a marketing company in Belle Glade, Fla. This company agreed to market all of the Kentucky growers’ sweet corn.
Because of Pioneer, sweet corn was emphasized by the co-op in their first year. Sweet corn provided the volume to allow the co-op to get off the ground, Kamuf said.
The venture started in March 2000 when the group leased a 40,000-square-foot facility that included 15,000 - 18,000 square feet of cooler space. The facility included an ice machine, corn packing line and vegetable packing line. The original growers went out and recruited other growers in Henderson, McClain, Daviess and Ohio counties. Most were growers of tobacco, grain, corn or soybeans.
“The main challenge was the timetable we’re working with. The biggest thing was it was a new venture for everybody. There were a lot of obstacles to overcome. We were learning as we went,” said Fryman. As the leased facility hadn’t been used in four to five years, there was much upgrading to be done.
“We started the venture in March and started squash in early May,” said Kamuf. Co-op meetings take place two to three times a week to this day. To form the co-op they worked with the University of Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s specialist in co-op development and followed their recommendations.
“We’re a marketing co-op. We pack it and cool it, market and ship it,’ he said about their sweet corn and other vegetables. Growers pay a membership fee and are required to buy common stock in the co-op. The preferred stock, available to any investors, helped the co-op raise the needed capital to get started. “Our goal it to pay that back as soon as possible,” Fryman said. The group invested $400,000 and the building was leased for $1, said Kamuf. The group is in the process of buying the building.
The co-op’s board decides on acreage of crops grown. In the first year sweet corn was the largest with 1,000 acres and there was another 250 acres of mixed vegetables including squash, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, processing peppers, bananas and jalapenos.
“We try a little bit of everything. Sweet corn was the largest and enabled us to open,” said Fryman. Although sweet corn was the biggest, other vegetables like bell peppers were a little more profitable for growers, although more time consuming.
For sweet corn in its first year the co-op averaged about $6.80 per crate with 48 ears of corn in a crate and an average 278 crates per acre. A mule train was used to harvest the corn. The co-op provided a scouting service for growers to scout the corn and set a spray schedule. One-third of the corn was sold in tray packs and two-thirds in crates with bi-colored, yellow and white corn, according to Kamuf. In its first year the co-op did over $2 million in sales with their marketing season from July 1st - Labor Day.
Through Pioneer in Florida, their Kentucky sweet corn was distributed in states east of the Mississippi River and in Puerto Rico and Canada. The Florida company maintains a summer office in Kentucky. For other vegetables the Kentucky co-op uses a contract employee to help market them.
“Our goal is to expand to capacity, although we don’t know what that capacity is. We’ll figure out what we can do and do successfully,” said Fryman.
“We’re trying to work with other vegetables. The key thing is which fits into our window,” said Kamuf, a grower of sweet corn, bell peppers, tomato and sweet potatoes. As the migration of crops harvested is from south to north, Kentucky growers must find windows that their vegetables fit into.
“If we try to raise tomatoes the same time as Michigan, there’s no winners in that,” Kamuf said. “I raise tomatoes for the fresh market. When Michigan comes in I like to be out.”
Kamuf believes forming alliances is the key to marketing and providing year-round supplies.
“The industry changes so much. We can provide industry with truckloads of product instead of small loads,” he said. “We had a rewarding year for the first year. We’re seeing the opportunity for making this thing into something that’s very good.”
He said the co-op hopes to do basically what they’ve done with sweet corn with other value-added products and is working on another venture. “We’re looking for another product to move on a large scale,” he said.
People saw the need to cooperate and work together to be able to “withstand the ups and downs of commodity prices,” said Kamuf.
