U-pick farms: Not your typical Iowa crop

Anne Ohrt, Shelly Bagge and Karen Petersen all have one hope - that consumers will bypass the grocery store for a few weeks out of the year to pick their own fruits and vegetables.

U-pick farms, where owners allow customers to pick their own food straight from the field, are most often operated by families. Most farm more crops than what they offer as U-pick.

The Bagge family, which operates Bagge Strawberries north of Independence, farms more than 1,600 acres while maintaining 30 acres of strawberries for their U-pick. Bloomsbury Farms in Atkins has 20 acres of U-pick pumpkins and 2,000 acres of additional crops. The acreage at Allen's Orchard in Marion only has apples, but the owners work separate, full-time jobs.

This type of agribusiness is popular around the state, but it brings its own challenges on top of the tribulations faced by most Iowa farmers.

SEASONS

The strawberry season lasts about 21 days and consistently begins around June 11, Bagge said, adding that the berries barely ever see July 4. Pumpkins, another popular U-pick crop, are harvested starting in September. And different types of apples are harvested from July to October, with most being picked in September and October.

During the peak strawberry season, Bagge said customers and the family collectively harvests 7,000 pounds per day from a four-acre plot. Petersen estimates between 25,000 and 35,000 people visit Bloomsbury Farm each year.

This season, despite a few high-wind storms, the farmers are preparing for a successful crop. Chris Jensicke of Allen's Orchard said the cloud cover and consistent, temperate weather has set the pace for 'whopper”-sized apples.

LABOR INTENSIVE

Owners from all three farms said that running their businesses requires outside help.

The Bagges rely on seasonal workers to plant and pick the crop. Bagge said teachers looking for summer work weigh the berries.

Other jobs include taking people out to the patches to pick, running the desk and answering the phone.

And labor is not cheap.

Unlike soybeans or corn, strawberries, apples and pumpkins must be picked by hand, which increases the time it takes to be harvested and racks up labor expenses.

'I wish we had a combine for strawberries,” Bagge said.

Petersen said she relies on a total of 90 employees - some working in October on the haunted attraction, some doing farm work and others focusing on the marketing aspect on the Bloomsbury farms.

'There's a lot of wear and tear,” she said.

The owners of Allen's Orchard agree that labor would be one of their biggest expenses - if they paid themselves for it.

'It takes hours and hours to get things done,” Ohrt said, listing the work related to maintaining an apple orchard.

The family mows the grounds and trims and prunes trees, working 20 hours per person on the weekends with some relief once picking starts.

'Physical labor stops off for me, and I hand it off to the customer,” Jensicke said.

WEATHER DEPENDENCE

But like any agriculture-based business, success can be weather-dependent.

For a strawberry patch, wind and hail damage can bruise the delicate fruit, leading to mold if it is not controlled. High winds knock apples off the trees, and too much moisture causes mildew to grow on pumpkins.

But even with Iowa's fairly consistent weather, crop insurance is a complicated issue for these farmers.

'We've enjoyed eight years of good crop,” Petersen said of her pumpkins, 'And we've also had two years of looking like watermelons. It hurts your bottom line.”

For specialty crops, insurance helps to protect farms from a drought, flood or other types of disruptions during a season.

Some local farms have it while others do not. The Bagges have crop insurance they called on a few years ago after hail damaged the strawberries that were blooming at the time. But Allen's Orchard doesn't. Without many specialty crop farmers in Iowa, the state legislature hasn't made specialty crop insurance a priority.

'We don't have crop insurance, and that's really hard for us. We're trying to build our new baby trees and it's tough,” she said.

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

Aside from offering U-pick opportunities, these local businesses turn profits with the help of side attractions; hardly any are solely U-pick farms. At Allen's Orchard, visitors can buy from the bakery. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, along with school groups, make up part of the consumer base visiting the farm on field trips.

Bloomsbury Farm offers a plethora of activities, including corn mazes, corporate events, zip lines, school tours, weddings and a haunted attraction each October.

To boost the sales of berries that have been picked, the Bagge's go to local farmers markets. The patch also has sold to the Isle Casino in Waterloo and the University of Northern Iowa.

Petersen said she thinks running her operation would be possible but difficult to do without the U-pick option.

'It would be hard, but you could do it,” she said. 'It would hurt our profits, but you should shift.”