I get these random text messages from people wanting me to post more. Don’t worry, I have the time at the moment, come summer, yeah probably not going to happen as much! So enjoy these while I’m able to!
How we got here is a huge question. Why a winery? Why keep the cherries? Why did we get rid of cattle (I think I’ve covered that in a past post)? Why no longer do row crops? Why in the hell do you keep farming??? Why keep the land?
How much time do we have… I poured a cider (dill pickle/pineapple habanero, yeah, it’s delicious) to get it all started.
Farming straight up sucks right now and hasn’t been pretty the past few years. With commodity prices being in the tank, and input costs being through the roof, farmers are lucky to break even at best. We haven’t had a decent cherry crop in about four years and with the temperatures dipping down tonight, we will be seeing some buds freeze this year. What can we do it about it at this point and time? Not a damn thing but sip coffee in the morning and hope for the best.
Coffee… it’s only 10 degrees outside so that sounds kind of amazing. Anyway, how we got to where we are today after 112 years of farming livestock, corn, soybeans, cherries and grapes etc… We got here after many years of breaking down numbers of where our money was going. You talk about another full-time job. We literally logged the hours we worked and what commodity we were working on. Logged the fuel that was used for the equipment, the repairs, hours on the machines and on what commodity they were being used in. Insurance on ourselves, assets and land for example. You name it, Greg and I knew it. Still to this day we can rattle off sometime stupid about where and what our input costs are. Ex… Bottles for wine W5’s cost us $10.56/case in 2023, just bought some for $12.33/case last month. It’s not just as simple as “gotta spend money to make money.”
No, it’s not that simple. Damn near every purchase Greg and I discuss on how instead of just buying it to have it, how can we make a return off of it. Today, we discussed an enclosed trailer to have because we would use it all the freakin time, yeah it would be nice to have because we are constantly hauling shit and with kids going off to college soon, that would be the cat’s ass. How can we make money off it though??? “Ahhh, got it!” We can put hay/straw in it next to the road and people can pick up 4-5 bales without us having to meet them there on a Sunday morning at 9am… Then wait till 10am before they show. Yes… We will lock the trailer up so nobody can steal it. As for the hay/straw… Please be honest when people offer a self-service station…
When we started logging information about the farm, it was monotonous. Damn… what did I do throughout the day… I was here, I was there, I helped feed, I spent 10hrs plowing freaking snow. Where does that go??? It was like a daily habit, though we don’t do it as much anymore. We are now broken down to winery and farm nowadays. Farm is cherries, wine grapes and hay. We don’t want to know what we are losing on hay… You’d think cutting grass is a cheap, by the time you add fuel, repairs and maintenance, equipment, our time, taxes on land, fertilizer etc… you’re counting pennies.
Pennies are what we are paid for in the cherry industry as well. 15cent’s/# is not uncommon when it comes to tarts. Yeah, but you did 5 million pounds in cherries last year. Sure… that’s $750k. Boom payday! Well… Not quite. You have to pay to be part of the cherry committee. There’s a few more pennies. You have your fungicide/insecticide/fertilizer spray bill to keep that tree and that fruit healthy. And please, do not blame the farmer for not keeping the water blue… We know exactly how many pounds to add of what for what. We’re not putting five bags of fertilizer on our 1/4 acre lawn next to the lake. That takes up a solid majority of it… Our time, the fuel, the tractor that’s $1000/hp. The tractor that keeps breaking down, the sprayer that keeps malfunctioning, the employee that mowed over a young cherry tree. Factor all that shit in there and according to MSU, it costs roughly .40-44 cents to grow 1# of cherries. Make $750k to spend $1.25 million. Welcome to farming…
Yes, we still farm 300 acres of cherries and have over 10 acres of wine grapes. All of which have a home by the end of the growing seasons, and we are beyond thankful for that. Many of our cherries head south after harvest (Hart/Shelby area) or end up in our ponds, our neighbors even buy some for their cherry juice concentrate. We in return buy them back for our cherry wine and cider. Full circle. That’s where the winery came into play…
The winery became a vision about 10 years ago after we planted grapes because we knew we needed another specialty crop. Apples we’re over planted and corn and soybeans weren’t cutting it in the fall. The first year they absolutely exploded… I mean 20ft growth on the Baco Noir which is unheard of. The benefit you get on planting grapes near an old cattle barn… All the free nitrogen from the cattle shit of 50+ years. Well shit… What do we do with them next year??? We had a five-year plan of starting a winery and learning to make wine over the course of time but thrown to the wolves is an understatement. Rob attended more and more wine/grape conferences and everywhere he went, everyone asked “Rob Shooks, Shooks Farms, what’s your story?” My response was the same “I own and operate a centennial farm with my brother of over 1100 acres.” “Why don’t you have a winery?!?!” is what they all said. Sell the story… Sell the story, sell the story…
The story is what sells what we have to offer. How many centennial farms are left in Michigan that are still under operation of blood and sweat that started the farm??? I do not have a clue… I’ve asked the Michigan Centennial Farm program; they didn’t have any idea. Most farms fail in their third generation… Lack of interest from the next generation or debt consumes them. The winery is where we can set prices in order to make a profit. With commodities, you cannot do that. The price is set for corn & soybeans and the buyers of cherries set the price for what they need, not what it costs you.
If you walk into our tasting room, you will see the history of what this farm was and is. Damn… I’m literally sitting on my Grandpas stool that he would sit on to watch the gates and not let cattle escape… It’s everywhere here. From the “crown molding” to the pedal tractors outside, it all sells a story… I need to wrap this up because there is more snow to plow and with a cider in me… That will go a lot better.
Thanks everyone and peace!
Rob
