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- Torrey Farms Works Hard to
Attract Migrant Labor
- By Mary and Bill Weaver
Pennsylvania Correspondents
- Torrey Farms in Elba, New York has been very successful at attracting and keeping migrant labor.
The farm, spread across parts of four counties, is operated by Maureen Torrey and brothers John and Mark, who also own a muck onion operation, Big O that they farm separately. They specialize in vegetables for the fresh market, growing about 5,900 acres in vegetables, with the balance of their 10,000 acres in grains, hay, and soybeans for rotation.
To avoid a lot of worker retraining, their workers stay for the most part with a particular specialty, usually one they have chosen themselves. “Cabbage people pick cabbage,” said Maureen Torrey, “and cucumber people pick cucumbers. The packingshed has a regular crew. We try not to switch people around, so everybody knows their job and what is expected of them. That has helped us.
“Picking cucumbers or cabbage is hard work. The employees decide this is what they want to do. They come back year after year to do the same thing. Some field workers have been with us since 1976.”
All workers, even seasonal ones, are included in the farm’s 401K and profit sharing plan. For the last 12 years, the farm returned from 10% to 15% to the workers through these plans every year.
The Torreys also provide good housing, and look for ways to integrate workers’ children into the community. The farm sponsor sports teams for them, and encourages their participation. Torrey also serves on the New York State Agricultural Child Care Board, which she considers a very important issue.
“And we operate on mutual respect,” continued Torrey, “no matter what an employee’s job level is. Everyone is important to the farm operation.”
Torrey Farms has new-crop cabbage ready to sell by about the second week in July. They market cabbage 12 months of the year, and have onions most years until the first of May, according to Torrey. “We also grow green beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, and summer squash for the fresh market, and some carrots, sweet corn, peas, and a few green beans for processing at Agrilink. In addition, we have added some muck white potatoes for 2001,” she said.
How can she keep track of all the details of such a large, far-flung operation? “We have an excellent software program, ‘Famous,’ by Holm Dietz, which has really been a key to our success,” said Torrey. “We’ve been working with this program since 1986. We also have a very good accountant we work with, and my brothers and I and some key employees communicate by cell phone. My office is the hub (except for Big O). Even the trucking comes through here.”
All three Torreys are also hands-on managers. “If something needs done, we do it,” said Torrey. “My brothers will get on a tractor and plant when necessary, and if I see the packing line is running behind because we’re short on help, I’ll go over and help pack cabbage with them.”
But marketing is Torrey’s chief occupation. “I thrive on marketing,” she commented, “and I’m very efficient at it. I also oversee the business, try to keep us in compliance with regulations, and handle PR.”
The farm’s consistent, high quality packs help sales. “One reason why we’ve been so successful,” noted Torrey, “is that we grow it and we pack it and we market it, so our packs are very consistent.”
They finish marketing cabbage from cold storage around the last week in June most years. All cabbage is hand harvested at piece work rates, with higher rates for storage cabbage that requires more careful handling. Their cabbage is shed packed.
Cabbage transplants for April planting are brought from the South. “Then we move to Maryland,” said Torrey, “and then we move to our own 40-acre seed bed.” The cabbage harvest is usually finished by Thanksgiving.
For late fall and winter storage, the Torreys use common storage cooled by outside air. By March, everything left is under refrigeration at 32°F. In winter, Torrey’s cabbage sales switch from retail to processing, to salad makers and egg roll makers. “Egg rolls are probably the largest use of New York state and Canadian cabbage there is,” noted Torrey. “Egg rolls are 95% cabbage inside.”
Cheaper cabbage coming from Canada hurts sales. “Canadian cabbage is usually running $1 to $1.50 lower than our prices,” said Torrey. “The exchange rate wouldn’t be so bad if we had a more level playing field. The Canadian government is very pro-farm.” In the past two years, she has also felt Canadian competition in cucumbers. Torrey Farms grows chain-store size cukes, which are sold waxed, and are available for 10 to 12 weeks. Each field is hand-picked three to six times.
In onions, the farm packs red and yellow onions in 50-pound repackers and in consumer size packs. Their onion crop is grown on muck soil near Potter, N.Y., 70 miles west of the home base in Elba, where it is also packed and stored.
Green beans are a relatively new fresh-market crop for the Torreys. “We started beans six years ago,” explained Torrey. “They seemed to be a good mix with cucumbers and cabbage. We do succession plantings of Bronco.
“Our beans are flume hydrocooled, and we invested in a packing room and a packing line. Our philosophy is, we only do what we can afford to do. If we can’t do it right, we don’t do it. We started small, and were able to increase our market base to 1,200 acres this year.”
Torrey Farms partners with other farmers when possible. A neighboring farmer, for example, has an extra green bean harvester and extra help, and he harvests all the Torrey Farms’ green beans.
Pumpkin plantings include close to 100 acres of Jack Be Littles, and about 1/3 acre of the giant 150 to 200-pound pumpkins, which can bring from 30 to 70 cents a pound. Their pumpkins sometimes travel long distances. “We’ll go down into Louisiana and Florida,” said Torrey, “and we have shipped to an army base in Germany and another base on the Panama Canal.”
Their vegetables can travel long distances too. “We’re within easy driving of 40% of the population in the U.S. here, so we have a very good location,” she noted. “But we have on occasion shipped vegetables to California. We go wherever we can get the price we want.”
Torrey and husband Paul own a trucking company with 25 over-the-road trucks, specializing in produce hauling. In addition to their own produce, they also haul for other growers, and haul frozen food goods.
Slotting fees have not yet become a problem. “We’re lucky that we’re considered home-grown,” said Torrey. “We did have pressure put on us to help pay for a new chain warehouse. But I just didn’t get rattled. I didn’t do anything with it, and the chain is still buying.”
However, chain customers are expecting more services than they did a decade ago. “Customers want us to service their accounts for them,” explained Torrey. “We monitor their inventory. And I spend a lot of time educating buyers who have little experience with produce, even if their questions have nothing to do with my commodities.”
Torrey tries to cultivate relationships with buyers in which she becomes a partner. “If the market is short, and I’ve given a $10 price, and the market is up to $14, I’m still delivering at $10. I work to develop that type of relationship. I want to have customers who care if Torrey Farms is around five years from now.
“You have to believe in your product, and in the quality of it. You also have to know when it’s just a game sometimes, and they’re just really trying to cut you down on price, and then sometimes you just have to walk away from that.”
Torrey’s workload also includes a lot of non-farming activities unknown to most farmers a generation ago, such as public relations, for example, to try to foster better relations with the community, “We sponsor a lot of activities in town. We financially support a lot of groups, and sponsor a lot of ball teams.”
Ads on the local radio promoting agriculture, sponsoring local sports events, have been parts of the farm’s public relations program, and Torrey works closely with the Chamber of Commerce, serving on committees and helping sponsor their banquets. “This has benefited us when we’ve needed letters written on farming issues,” she noted.
She also somehow finds time, in her non-stop days, to give talks to service clubs and schools. “If I have a chance to promote agriculture, I do. Today, farming and the weather are the least of our problems,” she said. “We have to begin defending farming in a whole new way. Many people think they don’t need us. They can just buy their food from the Third World. So we’re starting to talk about open green spaces, and quality of life, and defending ourselves from that standpoint. Also, it is a security issue if a country is not in control of its food.”
Torrey also testifies at government hearings on agriculture, and writes, calls, and visits political representatives on state and federal issues.
“We’re the eleventh generation of our family farming here in New York,” she pointed out. “We’re hoping that the twelfth generation (now in high school) will be able to continue that tradition.”
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