Posted on 03/16/2005 4:29:15 PM PST by SJackson
BARABOO - From straw and steel silos to emus and elk, a wide variety of crops, livestock and equipment had their day in the sun in Wisconsin agriculture.
In some cases, the shift is like a swinging pendulum, with a product or technology falling out of and then back into vogue. But others are a flash in the pan.
"Sometimes people believe so much in what they're doing, especially if they've got a significant investment in it, they are 100 percent convinced that they made the right choice and that there is a future for whatever it is they're doing," said Paul Dietmann, Sauk County UW-Extension agriculture agent. "It's really hard to walk away from something after you make a big investment in it."
But with some agricultural gambits, the farmers walked away in droves.
Mr. Dietmann's short list of crops, animals and technologies that have lost popularity in Wisconsin includes emus, elk, bison, veal, pot-bellied pigs, llamas, miniature horses and donkeys, miniature cattle breeds, ginseng, hemp, mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke, echinacea and other medicinal and herbal plants.
A few others that could be added are hydroponic vegetables, butcher rabbits, small-bale straw and hay, flat parlors and even tobacco.
Mainstream busts
"We automatically think of the alternative livestock species, but then there are some technologies that mainstream farmers have adopted and then rejected over time too," he said.
"Look at something like (steel) silos. They were a good idea back in the '70s and '80s when people were making good money, and you were able to put up good feed and preserve it really well, because they do a good job of that," Mr. Dietmann said. "Then I think we went through the '80s and '90s, and people started to realize that the maintenance cost of those was really high. The purchase cost is really high."
Farmers are returning to bags and bunker silos because of low costs for construction and maintenance, he said.
Wheat and pork are examples of once-viable industries that have lost favor. Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen told farmers earlier this month that pork production had dropped by 60 percent in the state over the past 20 years, and there are no commercial packing plants left in the Wisconsin. At an alternative grains conference in Phillips, Price County Extension agent Mark Kopecki said Wisconsin is no longer developing new wheat varieties at its research facilities.
Why some make it
It's money that drives the agricultural engine, and money is affected by efficiencies of scale, availability of infrastructure, the ripple effect from parallel industries and pure luck - or lack of it.
Mr. Dietmann said he has seen good businesses go bust from no fault of the operator, and it's heartbreaking.
"They've invested a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of psychological capital into what they're doing, and for reasons that are totally beyond their control, their market can just dry up overnight" he said. "I feel just horrible for those people."
In some cases, the market never developed because other commodities were available at better prices.
"A lot of the reason the alternative species never became commercially viable is that they just became too expensive - for the breeding stock, to feed them and to process them," he said. "They had to charge a price for the finished product that was so high that the consumer just wouldn't accept it."
Emus and llamas are good examples, Mr. Dietmann said.
"A few people made money at it and convinced other people they were a good idea, then people started realizing there wasn't much market at the other end, and the value of their livestock went down, and they got out," he said.
A lack of infrastructure is another rock in the road for some agricultural technologies and products.
"Look at something like pasture poultry," he said. "There's a huge consumer demand for it, and there are people out there who would like to raise the birds, but the big bottleneck is processing capacity. We just have no poultry processing of any scale in the state," he said.
Mr. Dietmann said the ripple effect of one product on another also takes its toll. Oats are losing ground as a nurse crop, in favor of direct-seeding alfalfa.
As prices for ginseng dropped and producers went out of business, straw was in less demand.
Even small bales have given way to medium squares and large rounds as more large dairy farms have come on line.
Worth the risk
Experimental niche crops often don't get a chance to become big because commercial farmers can't afford to take the risks, Mr. Dietmann said. He gives small farmers and hobbyists credit for making headway into new ideas - some successful and some not.
"I think some people look at the small acreage farms and say, 'Ah, they're just hobbyists. They're just playing around and not doing anything worthwhile,' but I think they're providing a valuable service by being able to take the risk of growing things that other farmers can't," he said.
"There might be 20 things that people try and 18 of them are utter disasters, and two of them have some promise, and one of them ends up being really good. Well, maybe one of them will turn into an industry that really boosts the state's economy," Mr. Dietmann said.
Mr. Dietmann said technologies and species that have lost favor still have avid supporters, "and they get very defensive if you say anything negative about their species."
"The economics are one thing, but then the person's desires are another. There are people who for one reason or another really want to raise bison or really want to raise elk. I try to help to find ways that they can do that and be profitable," he said.
Looking for the promising few new marketing segments is the job of Mike Bandli, who directs the Agricultural Development and Diversity grant program for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
He said his program receives 80 to 100 proposals a year and is able to fund 18 to 20. He said it is not easy to identify what will pan out and what will whither on the vine.
Even alternative or niche markets that don't work have value, he said.
"It doesn't mean that the industry segment is dead. You look at these projects and learn from them. You say, maybe if we had another kick at the cat we wouldn't do it the same way," Mr. Bandli said.
"When you look in the world of agriculture, I would say we've seen more projects that continue and evolve and change in some way on an ongoing basis, then occasionally there are those that seem to take off," he said. "If you don't try these things, you don't ever discover anything new or innovative."
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