I had a fun drive from the field to campus the other day with one of my advisers. He is a longstanding plant breeder with decades of experience. He took notes in the field, and showed me some diseased plants, his yield trial plots.
On the way back, he asked me to stop by at a shop where they sell apples, baked goods and ciders. It first started out as a apple sale stand, where they would sell apples from their orchards and closed out during wintertime. He has been a royal customer for decades. Now, the orchard got bigger and the shop is a nice country building with lots of homemade and other foods. The founder's daughters and granddaughters are helping run the shop. He got a bucket (bushel) of Gala apples saying he is going to share them with his daughters and grandchildren. He gave me one to try while I was driving after giving it a rub on his clothes. It was sweet and crispy.
We talked a lot - he is very interested in agriculture in general, knowledgeable not only the bean industry but other crops, too. He explained how the elevators try to sell all the crop within a year of harvest before new crop comes in. Canners want fresh beans, and sometimes depending on supply and demand, some market class of beans would sell out, while others remain as carryover. Canners only want to buy for the next 3-6 months.
Carryover beans will be sold at less price. Major supermarkets buy those carryover beans for less price, have them canned and sell them as their own brand for cheap price. Others go to school lunch programs. It's a shame that public schools in the US do not spend a lot of money on school meals. Then others go to pet food. It's a good source of protein. Others go to overseas market. The problem is that only the seeds are old at the time they are shipped to overseas market, the shipping and storing conditions at the port is suboptimal, which makes beans hard to cook. Since beans are living organism, they age and deteriorate under poor storage conditions.
He told me about two fires that occurred last year in two different households. The houses were close to each other, only a mile apart, and their house or their barn got burned down. The one whose barn was burnt did not have enough money to rebuild it, so they went out of business. The farmer used to have old cattle breed with unique pattern, black head, white in the middle, and black rear, affectionately called "Oreo" by his group. Now the cattle are sold and the farmer is retired. The two cases may have been arson, but we don't know.
It was in the middle of potato harvest in some farms. He said they plant rye immediately after harvesting potato to prevent soil erosion. Since the soil in that area is sandy and dries up quickly, it cannot retain nutrients. So they plant rye to retain nitrogen and other water-soluble nutrients. Rye grow quickly and good at scavenging nutrients in the soil. It's also convenient that rye are winter hardy. Just before planting, they will cultivate rye into the soil, and the field will be ready for next crop because nutrients held by rye are tilled into soil. It is impressive how farmers use resources wisely to get best out of their filed with particular soil type under particular climate.
He also told me about the new milk processing facility and a soybean processing facility that are being built now. After their completion, Michigan dairy farmers and soybean farmers will no longer have to drive out of state to sell their milk or soybeans, so it will encourage soybean and dairy production. And beans will be pushed out of fertile land to more marginal poor land, unfortunately. Soybeans are used to produce oil, and the soybean meal is used to feed cattle. The dairy and meat industry is so huge that the demand for soybean meal is high, a good source of protein for animals. The milk processing facility will be the nation's largest, it seems, being able to process 8 million pounds of milk per day.
With his navigation, we passed a cucumber storing facility, too. Michigan is a leading producer of pickles especially for machine-harvested ones. When farmers bring their crop, it will be stored in a brine solution with salt and sugar until they are brought to pickling companies. Cucumbers are very high in moisture and perishable, so they need to store them for a year-long supply of pickles. I took granted the all-year supply of pickles, but now know how they make it possible.
Then we passed through a small town where a German sect (I forget the name of it..) of Christians live. A restaurant called Middleton Diner is very good, according to him.
We passed through an area on the highway where there used to be a mint farm. They grew mint and distilled it to make essence there, so when they pass that road, it smelled like mint and it was a refreshing time. But they have not produced mint for several years. He has indeed so many stories to tell after going to the field for 40 years.
I learned a lot! It was inspiring to talk with such an intelligent, experienced breeder with a lot of humour. He is very curious about anything and so much to tell you. How many times will I get to talk with him like this, since he is retiring very soon...?
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