By Carl Mickelson
News-Chronicle
Opportunity that filled more than 11,000 acres with peas and snap beans in Door and Kewaunee counties every summer - a tradition that dates back more than 50 years - might be gone forever.
And with it went a sizable chunk of money that once supplemented the incomes of farmers in the area.
Peas and beans were two of the Peninsula's most lucrative cash crops, according to area farmers.
But when Agrilink Foods of Green Bay, the only vegetable canning plant within reasonable distance, announced in February it was closing for good in June, that 50-plus-year relationship came to an abrupt end for 110 Door and Kewaunee county farmers.
The farms stretched from as far south as Algoma to as far north as Egg Harbor. Agrilink - which merged with and changed its name to Bird's Eye Foods shortly before the announcement - would deliver seed in March, and the farmers planted the seed themselves or hired contractors to plant the seed for them. The farmers could also contract out for chemical spray application, harvesting or hauling, or do it all themselves.
In years past, Jan Sixel, a farmer from Nasewaupee who serves on the Door County Board of Supervisors, had around 300 acres of vegetables earmarked exclusively for Agrilink. This year, on account of the Agrilink closure, he was forced to plant less profitable crops like soybeans, oats and corn.
"It was a pretty good-size blow," Sixel said, referring to the money he stands to lose. He once made between $400 and $500 an acre with green beans (before paying expenses), compared with only $200 and $300 for corn or soybeans.
The same goes for Dale Uecker, a farmer in Forestville, who grew 40 to 50 acres of vegetables for Agrilink since he started farming more than 30 years ago.
"It was a nice little sideline," Uecker said.
Uecker's dad had grown for the same company in the 1950s, when it was known as Larsen Canning.
With the good farming weather so far this year, Uecker can't help but think of the money he would have made.
"You got your good years and you got your bad years," he said. "This year would've been a good one."
Healthy practices
When the plant closed, Lyle Nelson, Agrilink's field supervisor for Northeast Wisconsin, was out of a job. He was responsible for signing deals with farmers and coordinating planting and harvesting at the 110 farms.
Signing a contract with Agrilink was as close to a sure thing as it could get for a farmer, he said. If it wasn't for Agrilink, farmers around here would never have begun planting peas or beans. They're risky crops to grow on your own, because if the weather doesn't go a farmer's way, it often results in low yields - or no yield, Nelson said.
But Agrilink paid farmers a guaranteed minimum of $100 per acre, even if their crops went bust, while the average payout was closer to $200 an acre. If the weather really cooperated, some farmers were paid $350 an acre, Nelson said.
"I want to say we gave them at least another $50 an acre over what the average soy and corn prices would be," he said. "It was pretty much a guaranteed thing. The check was always good."
Depending on the weather, that meant between $2.5 million to $3.5 million was divided up each year among 110 farmers.
"That's quite a chunk of change for 10,000 acres," Nelson said. "But that is all over with now."
Besides the money, there were other reasons to grow for Agrilink.
Since both peas and beans are harvested 20 to 35 days earlier than corn and soybeans, farmers had a chance to squeak another crop out of their land - like winter wheat or alfalfa - before winter set in, Uecker said.
In addition, Agrilink forbade its farmers from planting the same crop in the same field for at least four years. The rule forced farmers to adhere to healthy agricultural practices that benefited their other crops as well, Nelson said.
Lastly, the cost of seed was deducted from the check Agrilink sent to farmers in the fall. That way, farmers did not have to pay for accruing interest on loans they took out in the spring to pay for seed, as they normally did if they were on their own.
But with all the benefits, the one thing the farmers couldn't foresee was boardroom executives in Rochester, N.Y. - the home of Bird's Eye Foods - from shutting down a crucial link in the chain.
No plant, no peas
With the plant closed in Green Bay, the next closest canning plant is in Manitowoc, which adds another 30 to 45 minutes for a hauler. The next closest plant after that is in Ripon - two-and-a-half hours away.
If peas are not transported to a processing plant within three hours, they begin to turn sour, and the money a farmer stands to collect decreases with each mile tacked on by the hauler.
Since beans can last up to 48 hours before they go bad, it's possible beans could make a revival up here as soon as next year, Nelson said.
"We were just so fortunate to be in the area and have the plant so close to us," Nelson said. "We are stuck out in the middle of nowhere. There is no place for us to go now with that product."
A harvester from Arena has made it known that it may make its way back into Door and Kewaunee counties next year for beans, but Nelson said without a nearby canning operation, the lowly pea is more than likely gone for good.
Sixel said the farmers who got burned most after the Agrilink closure were the dairy farmers who recently jumped ship from their milk farming operations because of falling milk prices. They figured they were headed into a solvent vegetable farming operation, so they sold their herds and relied on hiring contractors to harvest the vegetables. They never had the equipment to do it themselves, Sixel said.
Now they have neither.
"They were just getting going," he said. "They are saying to themselves, 'Now, do I rent my land, or buy the equipment to keep going?'"
Nelson said it's not just the plant workers and farmers who felt the blow. Other local businesses provided services to the farmers like co-ops, haulers, fuel distributors, and all sorts of contractors.
"We bought all the fuel locally. We went through 70,000 gallons of diesel fuel last year," he said.
"That was big chunk of change for them," Nelson said.
Door
County news 
