by Nathan Boddy
Max Smith at Winter Kissed Farm in Stevensville can easily point to a source of federal funding that has made a positive difference in his business.
“It’s a walk behind tractor,” he said of the Tilmor Power Ox. “It’s exhilarating. It’s this loud tool that you’re connected to – you’re basically running with it.”
To purchase the Power Ox, Smith applied for a Speciality Crop Block Grant (SCBG) through MSU’s Western Agricultural Research Center (WARC), the reward for which paid for the majority of the cost. The powerful new tool mechanizes weed-pulling and dramatically reduced the hand labor on the farm, something he attributes in part to last year’s bumper crop.
Max Smith of Winter Kissed Farm shows some of the equipment that he was able to secure from a USDA based grant. Some at the MSU agricultural research center say that grants like the one Miller received have been frozen, and the impacts will be far reaching. Photo by Nathan Boddy.
Winter Kissed Farm specializes in crops that store well and are highly sought after in the wintertime, such as fresh greens, kale, and spinach. Smith currently distributes the products through the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) service, which has 700 regional buyers. To take risks of developing speciality crops, Smith says, can be a challenge when balanced with the daily requirements of an operational farm. To help take that leap, some producers avail themselves of federal grant programs like the SCBG.
However, as funding freezes dictated in Washington clamp down on similar grants, the reverberations in the agricultural community may soon ripple outward to the public at large who constitute the buyers of locally sourced products.
Zach Miller, PhD, is the Superintendent and Professor of Horticulture at WARC, and says that the USDA grants comprise 90% of the funding they need to bring their skills and services to area producers. But, as of late February, that source of funding has come to a complete stop.
He said there has been little warning or communication about the funding freeze, which makes decision making difficult, especially considering the time-sensitive nature of farming.
“Where you have a planting season, we’ve got one shot to do this work for our farmers,” he said.
The SCBG, as the name implies, focuses governmental resources on the development of agricultural products that are not big commodity crops, like wheat or barley. Instead, the grant targets production of crops like vegetables, peas and lentils, as well as fruits and berries. Many of these specialty crops find their way into community food networks through local distributors, community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers markets.
Max Smith says that ongoing assistance in research, and guidance by the Western Agricultural Research Center, have a big impact on producers like him. Nonetheless, 90% of WARC’s funding has been frozen by policy changes in Washington. Photo by Nathan Boddy.
Miller estimates that there are approximately 30 organic vegetable farms and between 15 and 20 orchards and vineyards between Missoula and Ravalli County. WARC is available to work with these producers to gain them access to grant funds, but equally important, to provide research and development, and ongoing guidance.
“Basically, we’re doing the research that these farms need in order to be profitable,” Said Miller, adding that certain lines of production, like apples, berries, grapes, orchards and vineyards, can eventually turn a profit, but tend to have incredibly high startup costs.
“You’re talking about spending maybe $20,000 an acre on a crop that you’re not going to harvest for three or four years because you’ve got to wait for those trees or bushes or vines to mature. So [producers] can’t afford to plant the wrong thing. We figure out what varieties will work, which ones will not only survive our climates, but also produce enough of a fruit that’s of a quality that they can sell it.”
However, freezes of grant funds have put WARC’s mission on unsure footing, threatening not only their service toward producers in the future, but also what they are able to comply with at present.
Kierstin Schmitt, an Administrative Associate with WARC, said that the current funding freeze means that ongoing multi-year grants may go uncompleted. “We’ve got plants in the ground,” said Schmitt. “We’ve got ongoing research projects that we’re working on with those plants. We’re at a loss to know what we can do now, without the funding.”
Miller adds that WARC had allocated several thousand dollars to help a regional grower’s group put on their annual conference in April in Missoula, and even though there are contracts pending, and arrangements to be finalized, the funding freeze threatens to stifle WARC’s participation.
“We’re operating on faith that the federal government will honor these contracts,” he said.
Back in Stevensville, Max Smith expressed his appreciation of the federal programs which are currently under threat, and how they help producers like him. When he was successfully awarded the SCBG for purchase of the Power Ox, an MSU graduate student familiar with the machine came out to get it up and running and ready for its critical task in an already growing field of cauliflower.
“Every bed-foot really counts for small farmers like us,” Smith said. “Having that resource is incredibly critical so that we don’t destroy the crop in the process of trying to defend it.”
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