Crop Tour Day 5 - The Collaboration of Community and Agriculture
By Ele Engin, Simon Enns, Jillian Hamm, & Laureen Hoonard
So far on our tour we have seen the importance of the relationships between farms and communities such as the customer relationship at The Farm Connection and the YouTube community outreach at Griggs farms (visited on Day 2). Farmers have noted the disconnect between agricultural operations and their surrounding communities. Both stops today highlighted the importance of how communities and agriculture need to support one another.
Today our tour started at Hammons Black Walnuts processing facility in Stockton, Missouri. Hammons Black Walnuts have been in operation since 1946, when Ralph Hammons began buying black walnuts from local Ozarks people. Ralph saw a niche to be filled, so he purchased a cracking machine and began processing black walnuts. Hammons has a very unique business model. Black walnut trees grow naturally all over the United States, with around 65 million trees in Missouri alone, the largest number of trees in a single state. The black walnut trees grow on hillsides, in rocky land, in pastures, and more. People from 13 states harvest black walnuts from their trees and sell them to Hammons. In an average year, Hammons processes 15-20 million pounds of black walnuts, but the total quantity is very dependent on how many people harvest and sell their walnuts to Hammons. Currently, Hammons is the only black walnut processing facility in the world. Their unique business model and niche product have kept Hammons in business for over 75 years.
Black walnuts have many purposes, some of the most common being used in baking, black walnut ice cream, black walnut oil, chocolate covered black walnuts, and more.
Black walnuts trees forms fruits in a shell that is surrounded by a green husk. The first step after the black walnuts are harvested is taking them to the husking facility to husk the green husk off the nut. There are around 200 husking facilities across America. Once husked, the black walnuts are bagged and shipped to Hammons in Stockton, Missouri. The walnuts are required to be dried down to 4.5% moisture before they proceed with the cracking of the nuts. Hammons has multiple drying sheds, which are a covered roof with open sides. The walnuts are dried naturally by the wind right in the mesh bags they arrive in. Once dry, the nuts go through the cracking machine, which cracks the shells. All of the pieces are run down sorting conveyers which use lasers to sort out nut pieces from shell pieces.
The shells, the by-product, are used for many different purposes, including abrasive metal cleaners, turf, cosmetics, and filters for the oil and gas industry. The sale of the shell’s could accounts for a substantial proportion of Hammon’s revenue! The shells are ground up into multiple different sizes of granular, the finest grind being of similar consistency to flour, and the largest being similar to the size of a pelleted fertilizer.
One of the most interesting things details about this stop was the unique business model. The business is based off a product that comes in from all over the United States, the vast majority of which are not commercial farms. The walnuts are harvested by families, groups of students, sports teams, club groups, church groups, individuals, and more. The harvesters are incentivised by the income that is received from the walnuts, as well as the traditional aspect that goes with black walnut harvest. In Missouri, there is a traditional heritage associated with harvesting black walnuts in the fall time.
Our second stop of the day was at a Chesapeake Fish Hatchery in Mt Vernon, Missouri. This fish hatchery is owned and operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The hatchery spawns many types of fish, including walleye, largemouth bass, hybrid sunfish, channel catfish, bluegill, grass carp, alligator gars and turtles. In the 1930s, the hatchery was taken over by the Civilian Conservation Corps, to help stimulate the economy by spawning and raising fish to stock bodies of water at Missouri conservation areas.
The fish hatchery is funded by tax dollars collected through the sale of fishing permits and the sale of fishing and outdoor equipment. This is an example of tax dollars going towards sports and recreation, which in turn will bring a lot of money back into the state from sport fishing.
Allison, our tour guide, took us through the process of spawning and hatching the many types of fish that they grow on the farm. Each fish has a slightly different process. One of the processes that we learned about was the raising of channel catfish. The catfish are paired up, one female and one male, in a small pen. The females receive a hormone injection, and the male is removed from the tank once spawning is finished. The eggs are collected and placed in a separate tank where they will hatch. Once hatched, the fish are brought to a larger tank and fed every few hours. When the fish reach approximately 2” in length, they are transferred to a larger pond. The catfish stay in this pond for about 5 months, until they reach 10” in size. The catfish are then put into tanks and shipped to where they are needed.
Allison took us on a walk to see the coveralls where the individual fish pens are located, and explained the importance of water temperature and quality, as well as feed requirements for the different types of fish. The farm has multiple ponds, ranging from half an acre to a full acre in size.
Our takeaway from our tours today is the relevancy of collaboration between the community and agricultural operations. This morning we witnessed this at Hammons, leaning about how the community is involved in the harvest of the black walnuts. In contrast, this afternoon, we learned about how the state of Missouri puts tax dollars towards raising fish to supply recreational or sport fishing in local conservation areas. This, in turn, stimulates the economy in these rural areas of the Midwest. Both facilities had very unique business models, integrating production of agricultural commodities with the community.
