By Christine Morris
Assistant Editor
Four generations of the Leitz family have been pioneers in the Midwest
vegetable and fruit industries by implementing new innovations on
their farm and ridding themselves of practices that no longer suffice.
“We’re always trying different things,” said Fred
Leitz, one of the four brothers running the Michigan farm now. Whether
it’s using different equipment or growing new crops, as long
as it has the opportunity to increase cash flow, they’ll try
it.
One new crop they tried was grape tomatoes. They were the first growers
in Michigan to plant grape tomatoes and have grown the crop ever since.
They sell the tomatoes under the None Better label, as they do all
their produce, all over the Midwest including terminal markets and
chain stores.
But Fred said they won’t hesitate to get rid of a commodity
if its not working out.
“I guess you could call me the CFO/CEO,” Fred said. “I
do the financing and figure out what is or is not working for us.
Every day in the packing shed I can tell you what it cost us to pick,
pack and package.” And if a crop fails to fill up its place
in the packing shed, Fred said it’s time to say goodbye.
“I’m not tied to a piece of ground or a crop,” he
said. “This is a business. If it doesn’t (increase) cash
flow and make money, we are not going to do it. That’s the way
we make our living.”
For that reason, he had to push peaches out about 10 years ago, and
he did the same to tart cherries.
“At one time we had 150 acres of peaches, and we pushed the
last 30 acres out in 95. They had peaches on them, and they were ready
to harvest but it wasn’t worth a darn,” he said. “Tart
cherries were the same way in ’96 or ’97. That year we
pushed the trees out with the cherries still on them. I wasn’t
going to fight that battle.”
The newest innovation to Leitz Farms is 10-acres of Haygrove Tunnels
where they are growing tomatoes. High tunnels, as they are commonly
known, are made of a steel frame with a Visqueen polythene cover and
are built over the crop to give the grower more control of the growing
environment. These tunnels act as weather barriers – similar
to greenhouses – and can be used for season extension. Tunnels
can range in width from 18 to 28 feet and in height from 11 to 15
feet. Ralph Cramer, the regional manager from Haygrove Tunnels said
you can personalize the tunnels to each crop, but for engineering
purposes, the wider tunnels are taller.
Fred said they use the tunnels on their farm to help produce a higher-quality
crop, through more control over their growing conditions. Right now
they are growing round tomatoes under the tunnels because Fred said
it is more difficult to control the growing conditions for that crop
than for others.
“We try to control everything, but we couldn’t control
the weather,” he said. “But now we’re trying to
do that with these tunnels. We should get higher yields because there
is less shoulder checking instead of throwing half of the produce
on the ground from weather-related problems.”
Even though this is his first year using the tunnels, Fred said he’s
been optimistic about what he’s seeing right now. He said the
plants looks healthier and he hasn’t had to deal with diseases.
The plants are treated the same way as the ones outside the tunnel,
but they are sprayed less.
Implementing this innovation has been challenging because it required
a lot of labor to put up the structure, Fred said. Then a bad storm
came through in May and knocked down what had plastic on it.
“Between putting the structure up and then we had 100 mph winds,
I have had 12 to 15 people up there all the time doing things until
a couple weeks ago,” he said. “The winds took part of
it down, so we had to rebuild it. Haygrove was real good about that
though. They came and helped fix that part, and then we did some reengineering.”
Keeping laborers happy is another way the Leitz’s have continued
to grow the farm operation, and they have even implemented a way to
help make the laborers’ jobs easier.
Fred said his brother Jim, who is the labor manager, works some days
with five or six crews who harvest the produce. Since they wanted
to make sure everyone is paid fairly, they implemented a touch memory
button system in 1994 that records how much each person picks. They
were the first in the Midwest to try the system.
“At first, you could see some of the laborers moving pennies
from one pocket to the other to count how many buckets they’ve
picked,” Fred said. “But that got a little confusing for
them and they realized we were right every time, so now they trust
us with this system.”
Another way they are keeping the workers happy is by making sure there
is always something to do.
“Our migrants start coming in April and then some more come
for the first of May, and then once school gets out we get a bunch
more for the first of June,” Fred said. “So we (have)
got to keep the people busy from when they get here until they go.
That’s why we added pickles three years ago and cantaloupe four
years ago: to fill in different time frames.”
Fred said keeping the laborers busy has helped keep his retention
rate high.
“If we keep them busy they don’t go anywhere else,”
he said. “They’re happy and we get about 80 percent retention
every year. And it’s easier to work with people who know what’s
going on.”
Even though the four brothers have been able to gel their skills together
to grow and implement innovations to their operation, the future of
the business is not certain.
“Most of the kids still work here, but they’re getting
older and moving on,” Fred said. “With the next generation,
we don’t know what’s going to happen yet. The kids don’t
see enough profitability in it for the work you put in.”
Even though he said he thinks it would be fun to see the kids take
over, the reason they don’t may lie within the parents.
“The problem is growers,” he said. “We don’t
talk to our kids enough about the highlights, the good things like
being your own boss, the fun of watching something grow or starting
a new crop or project and seeing it happen. Kids are impressionable
when they’re young, and farming has always been tough. You go
in at night a little crabby sometimes, and that’s what they
pick up on.”
