Corn fields, bean fields and barns may not look like economic drivers in Mecosta County to passing motorists. Appearances can be deceiving.
In Mecosta County alone, agriculture was a $41.75 million industry in 2007, said Jerry Lindquist, Michigan State University Extension agent. That’s a conservative estimate that doesn’t include a number of crops, such as potatoes or fruit. The MSU Ag Economics Department has estimated agricultural revenues turn over on average 2.6 times in the local community, meaning agriculture in Mecosta County has an economic impact of almost $109 million.
That revenue is spread among many barns, fields and animals across the county. Following the template for Leadership Mecosta’s ag tour, this story shows some of the size and variety in local agriculture.
Sackett Potatoes Farm
That bag of Frito Lay potato chips in your cupboard may have been grown in your own backyard.
Sackett Potatoes, a $20 million farming operation headquartered near Mecosta, produces more than 56,000 tons of potatoes annually, specifically for the potato chip industry, said Alan Sackett, owner and manager.
In 1987, Sackett and his two sons, Brian and Jeff, came to Mecosta County from the McBride area in Montcalm County and began farming 1,200 total acres, 400 of which were potatoes. More than 21 years later, their farm has expanded to 5,500 acres, with 3,000 acres specifically designated for potatoes.
“Today, farming is more business-oriented,” Sackett said. “There are a lot more management and administrative aspects than there used to be, as well as government involvement. I take care of the administrative portions while my sons make sure things get done.”
Potatoes are measured in hundred-weight, meaning 100 pounds of potatoes equals one hundred-weight. At 12 ounces per bag, one hundred-weight of potatoes produces about 33 bags of chips.
Sackett said this year’s harvest could produce up to 400 hundred-weight per acre. The farm produced in excess of 1 million hundred weight of potatoes in 2007 — that’s 33 million bags of chips — and had a gross income of about $10 million.
Providing potatoes to companies like Frito Lay, Lance and Utz has become a year-round business, even though harvesting is primarily done from mid-August to mid-September, Sackett explained.
As orders come in, the vegetables are shipped out during 11 months of the year, August through June. Each outgoing shipment of potatoes is subjected to one final test: a sample is sliced up and fried to taste-test its quality.
While potatoes are the major crop grown at Sackett’s, the farm also manages corn and other grains for feed. These crops are sold to other local farms.
“Farming has grown so much in just the last 20 to 30 years,” he said. “Technologically, there is so much more that can be done with irrigation, as well as monitoring stored potatoes without having to actually be there. When I was a kid, we farmed a little bit of everything. Back then, it was almost 100 percent labor-intensive. Now, there are large machines that can do so much and it’s very management-intensive now.”
High Lean Pork
Driving by one of High Lean Pork’s four farms, you may notice the smell of pigs, but you won’t see one — and that’s if you notice the farms at all.
The multi-million dollar company, founded in 1993, is owned by Harley Sietsema and Ed Hanenburg. While the buildings of Farm 1 are right off the road, the others are tucked back into the countryside, surrounded by farm fields.
All together, the operation has about 10,000 sows in Mecosta County spread among the four farms in Fork, Wheatland and Millbrook townships. The pigs are all kept indoors — their feet never touch the ground. All breeding is done through artificial insemination; the boars are kept at a separate facility.
When it’s time for farrowing — when the piglets are born — the sows are moved into a different barn.
The nursery and feeding farms are all contracted with High Lean Pork to raise the pigs, but High Lean retains ownership of the animals. The company pays about $4.5 million annually to contract growers. While some of the locations are in Mecosta County, the farms are spread throughout central and western Michigan.
Biosecurity measures in place include not allowing anyone but the people who work at the farms to enter the barns. Even the employees must follow the shower-in, shower-out rules of the barns. When they arrive for work, they shower and change into different clothes; at the end of the day, they shower and change back into their street clothes.
Workers not specifically assigned to work in the barns don’t enter them. In all, the company has about 50 employees in Mecosta County with an annual payroll of about $1.9 million. High Lean Pork even has a full-time marketer.
High Lean Pork also helps support other farms in the area, Carte explained. High Lean Pork doesn’t grow any crops — it buys all of its feed, in the form of corn-soybean pellets. About $15 million a year is spent to purchase the corn and soybeans. Corn from many of the acres surrounding the farms is sold to grain mills that in turn sell it to High Lean Pork.
“Today, for survivability, livestock farms are going to have to have access to grain,” Carte said. “Being able to access grain is probably 90 percent of the battle.”
Leprino Foods
If you’ve enjoyed a stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut, you’ve tasted the mozzarella cheese produced in Leprino Foods’ Remus plant.
“All the stuffed crust pizza cheese anywhere in the world from Pizza Hut is cheese coming from this plant,” said Janeen Cochi, plant manager.
The plant, located just north of the intersection of M-20 and M-66 in Remus, employs about 150 people. It processes 845,000 pounds of milk a day and can produce up to 135,000 pounds of cheese daily when operating at full capacity.
Cheese produced in Remus doesn’t head straight to the grocery store. Leprino Foods markets its products wholesale to various suppliers, including the major pizza chains. Though Leprino Foods isn’t a brand you’ll find in the grocery store, the milk could easily have come from a dairy farm near you.
Started in 1917 as the Remus Cooperative Creamery, MMPA took ownership in 1984. In 1987, Leprino Foods took over management responsibilities but it wasn’t until 2006 that ownership of plant property and equipment transferred to the corporation.
Amish farms
On the other end of the spectrum from the large operations like Chapin Family Farms and High Lean Pork are small, family farms that provide the farmers with almost everything they need to survive.
The Amish community of Mecosta County includes about 90 farms, said John Brenneman, whose farm is on Five Mile Road.
The Amish grow corn, wheat, oats, speltz (a variety of wheat they use to feed their horses and grind into flour for bread), hay and vegetables. They also have a variety of livestock, from hogs that they sell commercially to dairy cattle, sheep, goats and, of course, horses.
All farmers share a dependence on the weather. Costs also affect all farmers, but prices have less effect on Amish farmers. For example, fuel costs affect them because they have gasoline-powered engines that operate some of their equipment, but they are not impacted as much as farmers who depend on tractors and diesel-powered equipment.
Amish farmers utilize horses to work the fields and harvest crops. The average Amish farm ranges in size from 40 to 120 acres, Brenneman said.
Income sources for the Amish community are intertwined with the farms that feed the families — some farms sell truckloads of hogs, some sell milk to be made into cheese, some operate vegetable and baked goods stands alongside the road or at farmers’ markets.
Agriculture Economics
Industry value in Mecosta County: More than $41.75 million
Sales figures in 2007:
Milk - $20.7 million
Beef feeder calves - $1 million
Swine - $15.673 million
Corn - $1.42 million
Hay - $1.2 million
Wheat - $290,000
Source: Jerry Lindquist, Michigan State University Extension agent