- Oomen’s Family Farm
Builds on Long Tradition
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- By Kimberly Warren
Staff Writer
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- Tom and Rick Oomen learned to farm from their father, and now they’re passing that skill onto their own kids.
The Oomens took over that family farm in Hart, Mich. in the mid-1970s and look to hand it over to their children when it comes time for retirement.
Rick said that family members of all ages are involved with the farm.
“We have family members working on this farm from 12 to 84 years old,” he said. “Tom and I are caught in the middle.”
In fact, Rick’s wife, Jackie, and their children, Justin, 18; Kristin, 16; Jared, 12; as well as Tom’s wife, Jill, and children Brock, 19; Derek, 16; Kyle, 14; are all active members on the farm.
And with between 1,100 and 1,200 acres, Tom and Rick have found that being brothers has come in handy.
“Most of the time, it goes pretty good,” Tom said. “It has its advantages at harvest time in the fall, and we can split responsibilities. It’s a team effort.”
Because each of their crops places different demands on the brothers, they have each taken responsibility for different aspects of the farm.
“Tom does the asparagus, while I’m busy with other crops this time of year,” Rick said.
Besides asparagus, their other crops include: asparagus root stock, carrots, zucchini, cherries, peaches, Christmas trees, beans and celery—though Tom said they lease out most of their fruit. In all, the farm remains about 90% vegetables.
Asparagus has been on the family’s farm for years.
“We’ve had asparagus on this farm since the late 1940s-early 1950s,” Rick said. “I can remember picking a field right here [below the building where the asparagus and other crops are prepared and cooled] when we were about seven or eight years old.”
Tom and Rick have seen many changes occur throughout their history in the agriculture industry.
“There are much more regulations now,” Tom said. “It just goes on and on, but most of the changes are for the better. Back then, they used some really hard chemicals. Now with all this on sustainable agriculture, it’s a step in the right direction.”
Rick added: “The weather is a lot different. It used to be that you could grow without the irrigation, now you can’t. Almost all of our vegetables are on irrigation.”
One of the big issues in the industry that growers have to worry about is labor—finding it, keeping it, regulating it, Tom said. Fortunately, however, Rick said that they have been fortunate when it came to that aspect of the job.
“We’ve been pretty lucky as far as labor issues and workers,” Rick said. “We had one family that’s been with us for 30 years. Usually if they stay a couple of years, they stay forever.”
“A lot of our families have been with us for a long time—10 to 15 years,” Tom said.
Rick said that they have been able to watch their workers’ families grow—they’ve seen a couple of generations of the some of the families grow up.
Growing up themselves in the farming business made it an easy transition to becoming farm owners and operators.
“When you come into it slowly like we did, it wasn’t such a shock,” Rick said of owning the farm.
The transition to owning their own processing facility, however, called for a bigger step—the Oomen’s recently bought Michigan Freeze Pack with three other growers’ operations.
“It has helped us understand the marketplace better,” Rick said. “We can understand all sides of it; before, we only saw the grower side.”
“It was a real eye-opener, as a grower, when you look at the other side [processing],” Tom added.
As Rick and Tom look to expand their farming ventures, they also look to expand their knowledge of the industry.
They have recently participated in a USDA study—the Pesticide Strategic Plan—with both their carrots and asparagus.
“It’s been real positive for Michigan,” Tom said. “The studies are not difficult; it helps the industry.”
Both Tom and Rick are involved in other areas of their communities and the agricultural industry.
“Being involved in the industry is pretty important, but it takes time away from the business,” Tom said.
“That’s where having a partner helps,” Rick said.
The list of organizations that the two are involved with continues to grow—Tom: Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board, president of Michigan Asparagus Growers, Bargaining Committee for Asparagus; Rick: Vegetable Council and the township planning and zoning board.
Their involvement is helping to pave the way for future generations of farmers—their own children included. Rick said that both he and Tom have children who are interested in taking over the family farm, which is much more than some farmers can say.
“There are hardly any 23-to-30 year olds starting in the industry,” Rick said. “What’s going to happen when us old guys don’t want to do this forever?”
“They gotta want it, it’s not a walk in the park,” Tom said. “But I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
In all, it has been a love of farming that has kept Tom and Rick in the business.
“I enjoy watching crops grow and nursing them along; they’re almost like kids,” Rick said. “The harvest is always kind of fun—where you can reap the benefits.”
