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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2016)
January 29, 2016 CapitalPress.com Small farm grows larger with diversification John and Becky Klimes broaden offerings to sell more to customers Snake River Poultry Owners: John and Becky Klimes Location: Buhl, Idaho Acres: 20 Status: Certified organic, Animal Welfare Approved By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press BUHL, Idaho — Farming was a natural choice for John and Becky Klimes, who both grew up on farms, but they de- cided to do it differently. After meeting while work- ing at the University of Ida- ho’s Kimberly Research and Extension Center, they mar- ried and in 2005 purchased a few acres in Jerome and com- mitted to using organic prac- tices. The egg business they had started in Kimberly, Snake River Poultry, expanded be- yond poultry to include veg- etables, fruits, pork and beef, which they sold locally. Wanting to expand and become certified organic, the couple purchased 20 acres in Buhl and gained certification in 2014. They also added broilers to their production. They market their products through Idaho’s Bounty, Twin Falls Farmers’ Market and di- rect to customers off the farm. Their vegetables span a wide variety, from leafy greens to tubers. They have 150 laying hens and sell 45 dozen eggs a week this time of 5 Products: Organic vegeta- bles, dry beans, fruit, berries, eggs, broilers, pork and pastured beef Education: John has a master’s degree in plant science and bachelor’s in ag education, University of Idaho; Becky has a bache- lor’s degree in ag science and technology, University of Idaho Family: Three children, Eliza- beth, 9; Jacob, 7; Kylie, 3. Affiliation: John, Idaho’s Bounty board of directors Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press John and Becky Klimes check cabbage starts on their 20-acre farm in Buhl, Idaho. The couple raises a organic vegetables, eggs, broiler chickens and hogs. year. The farm is home to 600 broiler chickens, five sows and about 80 finished hogs a year. The choice to farm organic is both personal and economic, they said. Organic is “what food was intended to be and maintains soil health and biodiversity,” he said. “As a concerned mother, I feel it’s better for my body and the kids, too, and better for the earth,” Becky said. It’s also a marketing advan- tage, John said. “The marketability of prod- uct is much higher with organ- ic certification,” he said. While the Klimeses had used organic practices for years, moving to larger acre- age on land that hadn’t been farmed in nearly 40 years came with a learning curve. Longtime organic farmer and neighbor Mike Heath has been a big help. He is well versed in organic standards and regulations and has the connections to source organic seed and feed, John said. Networking is important in organic farming, both in sourc- ing inputs and marketing, he said. The diversification of the farm allows the Klimeses to sell more food to fewer people. Yields are on par with conven- tional ag, but quality is higher because products are not held up in transit or sitting on store shelves, he said. “I’m trying to capitalize on every customer I have. I’m trying to do more for them,” he said. John said he’s doing what he always wanted and he’s al- ways doing something differ- ent because things change on the farm with every season. With their expanded pro- duction, the Klimeses intend to change the company name to Agrarian Harvest, but that will have to wait for the slow season, John said. This story first appeared May 29, 2015. Diversification brings fish farmer success Leo Ray raises trout, catfish, tilapia and sturgeon in his fish farms Leo Ray Age: 77 Business: Fish Breeders of Idaho Inc., Fish Processors Inc., Big Bend Trout Inc. Products: Catfish, trout, tila- pia, sturgeon, white sturgeon caviar By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Leo Ray has built a suc- cessful aquaculture business in Idaho’s Hagerman Valley through diversity, innovation and strict attention to custom- er service. Fate seems to have played a major role in the life of aqua- culture entrepreneur Leo Ray, but tenacity, business acumen and hard work brought him success. Ray’s college life at Uni- versity of Oklahoma began with a focus on wildlife con- servation, switched direction to geology and finally settled on invertebrate zoology. But it was a job in college that would inevitably influence his career path. A professor at the universi- ty had received a grant to re- search the reproductive cycle of catfish and the hormones that control their reproduction and offered Ray a job working on the project. The research would lead to the develop- ment of the catfish industry, Ray said. After graduating in 1963, Ray taught high school for six years. But he kept in contact with the professor and when the catfish industry began developing, he quit teaching, bought land in California’s Imperial Valley and opened a catfish farm. Fate stepped in again when in 1971 Ray delivered a load of catfish fingerlings to a fish farm with a geothermal well near Twin Falls, Idaho. “I saw the value of that hot water” and set his sights on Idaho, he said. He worked on a fish farm in south-central Idaho for about a year, bought land and he and his wife opened their own operation — Fish Breed- ers of Idaho — in the Hager- man Valley in 1973. The operation started with 106 acres of Snake River frontage, which Ray got for a bargain at $300 an acre. People wondered why in the world he wanted to purchase a rock field with water too hot to drink, he said. “It was perfect for a fish farm,” he said. Ray recognized the poten- tial of the geothermal water and concrete raceways and switched his management from pond production to Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press Leo Ray stands alongside a ditch near his fish processing facility in Hagerman, Idaho. Sturgeon keep the water clear of vegetation. high-density production with temperature control. The catfish business took off, leading to a distributor outlet in Long Beach, Calif., to establish a presence. “In six months, we had so much market we shipped straight to distributors,” Ray said. Three years after his first land purchase in Idaho and sharing what could be done with hot water, Ray bought 70 adjacent acres — paying $2,000 an acre. He expanded the operation in 1975, launching the first suc- cessful tilapia farm in the U.S., to provide the fish to the Impe- rial Valley Irrigation District for moss control in its canals. Five years later, the irriga- tion district switched to carp, which could survive the win- ter, and Ray turned to food markets for his tilapia. In addition to geothermal water, Ray also recognized the potential of the area’s cold springs and added rainbow trout to the mix in 1978 and sturgeon in 1988. He also raised alligators, imported from Florida, mar- keting their meat and hides from 1992 until 2002. It was a profitable business, but he ended it after a shipment of baby alligators succumbed to West Nile virus. “This is still a new indus- try with a lot of room for in- novation. You have to stay on top of it and change with it or you’ll be obsolete,” he said. Today the operation raises trout, catfish, tilapia and stur- geon on warm- and cool-wa- ter farms in Buhl and Hager- man and is just getting started in the tropical fish business. Ray also processes the meat fish and sturgeon caviar and does all his marketing. All told, the operation produces about 1.5 million pounds of fish meat and 3,000 pounds of caviar a year. Ray supplies the largest part of Whole Foods’ trout sales na- tionwide and sells to 50 to 60 distributors, shipping to 30 to 33 weekly. “The strength of this com- pany is the diversity; the weakness is trying to manage that diversity,” Ray said. This story first appeared Jan. 8, 2015. Parma, Idaho 208) 722-5121 Grand View, Idaho (208) 834-2380 Winnemucca, Nevada (775) 625-1945 Idaho Falls, Idaho (208) 881-5160 Mountain Home, Idaho (208) 580-4002 IDIN16-1/#17
