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(Editor’s Note: Rudy Rudolph writes that innovative farming on the Old Mission Peninsula is alive and well, thanks to farmers who are willing to adapt and change. Read on for his thoughts. -jb)
Some would have you believe that fruit farming on the Old Mission Peninsula is failing, but that does not jive with what I have observed over the past 60 years. Changing? Yes! Failing? Absolutely not!
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Perhaps it IS failing for those growers who are not innovating, or who merely want to cash in on an expansion of non-agricultural, commercial businesses, geared solely to a tourist driven economy.
Drive around the Peninsula, and you will soon realize you are seeing new plantings of sweet cherries and apples. One Old Mission family farm I know has planted over 100,000 new cherry and apple trees on more than 300 acres of new orchard since 2019.
Additionally, I understand over 125 acres of new plantings of sweet cherries and apples have occurred on other farms on the Peninsula. In my opinion, this is not an example of failure of fruit farming on the Peninsula. Rather, it shows that innovative horticulture is alive and well.
Many of the above acres are planted as high-density orchards that actually produce a lot more fruit per acre than the traditional trees we are most familiar with. I first encountered high density orchards in the Netherlands in the early 1990’s, immediately recognizing the utility of this production method, and was gratified to see the first experimental plantings, by progressive farmers, on the Peninsula in the late 2000’s.
This is definitely an example of innovation, and immediately puts those growers ahead of their competition in terms of lag time between planting and first harvest, total production, and efficiency of operation.

High density farming also adds value to the sweet cherries that are produced using this method. Trees are shorter and easier to reach for picking by hand. This allows growers to market fruit that still retains the stem. Stemmed cherries demand a higher market value, increasing the potential profitability of the crop.
Late season varieties of sweet cherries were introduced by innovative growers just six years ago and are now extending the fresh sweet cherry season on the Peninsula for two to four weeks into the summer. This provides more local wholesale fruit for longer and thus increases the profitability potential for an innovative operator.
Three years ago, the first high-tech, automated fruit sorting facility east of the Mississippi River was built on the Old Mission Peninsula. This facility takes 36 infra-red and natural color photos of each individual cherry passing through it. This all happens within ten seconds and allows the fruit to be perfectly sorted by size, color and quality to match the different grading standards required for modern marketing.
Such precision grading allows the best fruit to be sold at the highest price. This drives significant revenue advantage to the most innovative growers. As a result, it is possible that Old Mission Peninsula growers will supply the majority of fresh sweet cherries marketed in the Eastern USA. This provides new opportunities for not only the growers, but also for numerous seasonal workers and local support businesses.
Yes, times are tough for commodity growers that are focused on processor-bound cherries, apples and wine grapes. However, successful farmers have always had to adopt new technologies, invest in new growing methods and varieties, and learn how to manage crops for changing and emerging markets. I suspect this has been true since the second farmer put the second hoe to the ground in the second field, many millennia ago.

Now, are there also ways the agricultural community can increase profitability without evolving into primarily tourist driven enterprises? I believe there are. Your Peninsula Township Planning Department has been considering a number of innovative opportunities, and intends to discuss these with the new Agricultural Advisory Committee once it begins meeting.
Some of the ideas open to consideration include processing kitchens, expansion of individual farm markets, cooperative farmer’s markets, winery co-ops, and on-farm activities for those growers who are so inclined. On-farm activities could possibly take the form of tours, hayrides, farm work experiences, expanded bed and breakfast lodgings, and prep kitchens for food service of OMP produce.
I think our community should fully support direct marketing and consumer retail opportunities for farmers when they directly reflect the actual farming operation. This enhances profit margins for those that want to engage in them and has the added advantage of introducing the general public to farming. I believe this would be the smart way to strengthen farming on our beloved Old Mission Peninsula. After all, isn’t this what we all want, farmers and residents alike?
A little about my agricultural history:
The year was 1973, in the middle of the OPEC Oil embargo, when my wife Patti and I bought our first home. Until then we had been living in duplexes or apartments and we really wanted our own space. Luck was with us, as no one was looking at property outside of cities due to the fuel crisis. We found a 110-acre farm, north of Milwaukee, south of West Bend, Wisconsin, bid on it and suddenly we owned a farm. Our neighbors and best friends were all dairy farmers. We rented the land to our neighbors and it produced, depending on the year, sweet corn, or red beets or peas for the local cannery.
In 1977, Patti’s father was killed in an auto accident, and she inherited about 500 acres of corn and soybean farmland in Central Illinois. Rather than pay someone six percent of gross receipts to manage it, we elected to move to Illinois and take direct control of the property. I left my position as a vice president of an environmental engineering company and took a job in Springfield, Illinois with a small company that was pioneering computer driven sensors and controls applied to agricultural machinery.
Thus began a 30-year career in agriculture, culminating as Technical Director for the North American electronics operations of “Spraying Systems Co.,” retiring in 2009. Our forte was variable rate control systems for sprayers, spreader trucks and planters, along with electric-over hydraulic steering controls married to the Global Positioning System (GPS) which allowed precision steering of agricultural equipment.
During the course of my career, I was blessed to work with many different farmers and get to know them and their operations. Whether it be corn and soybean farmers in the Midwestern USA, wheat farmers from Washington State or the Dakotas, cotton growers in the Mississippi Delta, potato farmers in Wisconsin, Scotland or New Brunswick, leek and barley farmers in Belgium, maize farmers in the Po River Valley of Italy, apple growers in Washington State, orange grove operators in Florida, or rice farmers in Sri Lanka, they all had the same concerns Patti and I did.
Challenges to yield and quality due to weather, changing market demands due to changes in utilization, pressure on commodity prices from competition, increases in input costs of fertilizer, seed and chemicals and increasing costs of labor, land and the property taxes that go with the land — all these make farming a challenging business.
In my experience with agriculture, standing still is not an option if you want to be successful. The best farmers are always exploring new technology and new methods to extract another few percent return on their operations.
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SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette
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While I agree that innovation in farming methods can increase yield one is still stuck with market conditions.
The lack of a market more than lack of innovation is what determines the success of the farmer.
All of the new machinery and planting methods and technology for sorting fresh fruit is of no help if the market is not there to support it. I commend anyone who is trying new approaches. But only few have the resources to invest in new technology. And to criticize these farmers because they don’t have large outside investors or free land to farm is off the mark. When it comes to the market forces at work here please explain to me how all this innovation helped a variety of apple farmers sell their apples.
One farmer who has no issue bringing his apples to market had the buyer stop buying one of his varieties. He had 100,000 pounds of one variety of apples hit the ground.
No amount of high density planting or sorting technology
was going to change that situation.
Your argument seems to be if you lose your market it’s your fault because you didn’t invest in new growing methods or a sorting machine etc. I can’t
predict the future but for those farmers who are struggling to make a living I think they need support anyway we can give it. And if that means agritourism than let’s embrace it. It seems that many people deem any activity that expands beyond selling the actual agricultural product is unwanted commercialization.
Thankfully the state right to farm rules and our governor see it differently. The township has only recently agreed to take a look at agritourism. And if it brings people to the farm that is a good thing.
You recognize the importance of agritourism. It hasn’t always been that way here. Hopefully we will see that change.
Hello.
Good cheer to all on this beautiful day!!!!!
Good luck 🙂