agriculture

There are some years that are better than others for onion growers.

This year is one of the others.

Paul Mortellaro, co-owner of G Mortellaro And Sons in Elba, said this year's harvest will be about 60 to 75 percent of an average year and about 50 percent of a good year.

That sounds about right, said John Torrey, of Big-O Farms, Elba.

Wind, cold and rain either blew away or drowned a good portion of the onion crop this summer.

"The onions were thinned so much by the wind that you're not seeing a lot of small bulbs, but you're not seeing a lot of tonnage because there's not a high enough plant population," Mortellaro said.

Big-O runs a huge onion operation and Torrey agreed that wind and water were a problem this year.

"We've had our challenges during the growing season," Torrey said. "While we're in the midst of a full harvest, we're probably going to have a little below average yield."

The price for onions right now -- a market largely determined by Western growers -- is from $9 to $11 per 50-pound bag, Mortellero said. That's decent, but of course local onion growers would like to see it go higher.

Onions are a slow crop to bring to maturity and harvesting them is a slow process, too. The harvest started in July and will continue through October.

Out on the muck today, I met Elizabeth Buck and Courtney Hill, researchers from Cornell. They are assisting in a project to test four different kinds of possible treatments to combat rhizoctonia. Rhizoctonia is a fungus that goes after the roots of onions. (Pictured above, Hill; Buck is pictured in the slide show below).

This is the fourth in our series on Genesee County's farms and farmers. For previous stories, click here.

When Brent and Polly Tillotson bought their house -- a farmhouse on nearly five acres built on Sparks Road in 1855 -- it wasn't necessarily with the intention of going into the dairy business.

The property put the young couple with two children close to the 1,100-cow dairy farm of Brent's father, Dave Tillotson.

Brent worked at the farm sometimes. He also drove trucks. He liked the idea of being his own boss, especially growing up in a family of farmers, but he hadn't quite arrived at that decision yet.

Then he started to hear about how Upstate Farms needed more dairy farmers who could deliver quality organic milk.

He and Polly started to talk it over, did a little research, tried to figure out what it would take and decided they liked the idea.

It wouldn't be easy -- there's more paperwork, different yields, higher feed prices and just more work -- but it also made a lot of sense, even for a guy who wasn't into organics for health or environmental reasons.

"It was just a business decision," Tillotson said while sitting behind a small, black metal desk in  his cube of an office next to his milking parlor. "You get a contract. The price doesn't fluctuate like it does in a normal milk market. I can bank on what we're going to get paid, make plans and know I'm going to have this place paid off in a certain number of years if I just follow the plan."

Getting a little help from his father certainly made it easier to get started, Tillotson said. He could, of course, tap into his father's expertise, but Dave Tillotson also had pasture land to lease and the kind of strong reputation that helps secure bank loans, even into six figures.

"The banks weren't busting to give me a loan," Brent said. "My father helped. They know he's a good dairy man and a good business man. He's also the best resource in the world with his knowledge of cows."

Dave Tillotson down plays his role in his son's business. He says Brent is his own man. He said he doesn't want to take anything away from what his son has accomplished. He won't take credit for anything.

"I don't stick my nose in it," Dave said. "I let him run his own business. I don't have a clue about their financials or what they're doing day-to-day. They take care of all that stuff. I have my own business to run. If he needs my help, he asks for it and I give it to him. If he doesn't want my advice, he doesn't get it."

If that sounds harsh, know that Dave was smiling and laughing as he said it.

He's clearly proud of his son's business, which has been up and running for about four years.

"I came from a family where there were three brothers and the farm got split up," Dave said. "I have two boys and a daughter. I always wanted to give them the opportunity to have their own farms."

Life on a dairy farm is never laidback, especially when the farm is organic and cows need to be regularly rotated from pasture to pasture and into and out of the milking parlor. The tasks of herd management include the proper timing and care for calving, and filing out of piles of paperwork.

To remain certified organic, Polly -- who has a full-time job away from the farm but also handles the bookkeeping -- needs to file forms that cover daily animal and paddock movements for the animals, what they're eating in pasture and what they're being fed in troughs.

Organic means no herbicides or pesticides in the food the cows eat and no hormone injections to boost production.

"The cow is as good as she is," Tillotson said. "There's no pumping her up to get more production. We can change her feed around, but only as long as it's all organic."

Just to get their initial certification, the pasture had to be properly prepared, which took three years. A mix of rye, fescue and alfalfa was planted and then the grasses had to grow without any ground sprays before the organic herd could set hoof on it.

When it came time to choose cows, Tillotson went for Jerseys. The black and tan cows may be smaller and don't produce as much liquid milk, but their milk contains more protein and is said to have a creamery taste.

That higher fat content -- what the industry calls components -- commands a higher price. 

A Holstein's milk might be three pounds per hundred weight of protein, the Jersey's milk is about five pounds per hundred weight.

It costs more to raise an organic Jersey and there's less liquid, but the higher milk fat concentration makes up the difference.

"We make more off the components than off fluid," Tillotson said. "Our milk production is lower, but the compenents are higher, so that makes up for a little bit of the milk production deficit."

The organic milk market is still a fraction of the entire milk market, but the demand for organic milk grew 2.3 percent last year, according to Mark Serling, who markets organic milk for Upstate.

The boom in Greek yogurt has also meant a boom for organic Greek yogurt.

"We signed their farm and others because we continue to see nice growth on the organic milk side," Serling said. "There is also additional demand on the yogurt said. It takes three times as much milk to make Greek yogurt and that really drives the need for additional milk."

The organic milk market is one largely built on myth. There's no scientific evidence, both Tillotson and Serling note, that says conventional milk posses any problem for human consumption. The nutritional benefits are the same.

"There's nothing wrong with conventional milk," Tillotson said. "The flavor is a little different. It's processed differently, but it's good milk. It's all about what you want for your family. If you don't want the antibiotics or the hormones in your family's food or what you drink, then that's what you want for your family."

Serling said it's a lifestyle choice, a choice driven by consumers so it's what retailers demand Upstate offers as a product choice.

Asked whether it's the flavor of the milk or health concerns that spurs the demand for organic milk, Serling said, "It's all of that and more. It's the feed, the flavor, the potential for avoiding pesticides, even approved pesticides, things of that nature.

"For our organic farmers, for all of our farmers," Serling added, "we really drive hard on quality, the highest quality milk they can produce. That's our focus."

When it came time to buy the start of Brent's Jersey herd, he and his father had to travel around the Northeast a bit. Many of the cows came from Pennsylvania, but there was one memorable trip.

On the way back from picking up Jersey calves in Vermont -- calves that cost $1,200 a piece -- Brent said he got a little tired of looking at the back of his dad's trailer, so he decided to pass him on the Thruway.

Brent had a full trailer. Dave was hauling four calves. The two trucks were going about 70 mph.

Jerseys have a reputation for being pretty smart animals and Brent doesn't doubt it. His stories about Jerseys often include the notion that they draw straws to try something and if the first one makes it, the others will follow.

"So, a lady pulled up beside him yelling hysterically 'you're cows are jumping out, your cows are jumping out,' but only one had jumped out," Brent said. "I think they drew straws again and said, 'you're going first. If you make it we'll go, too'. When my dad stopped the trailer, the cows were all up front saying, 'we're not going.' "

Of course, Dave worried about what sort of damage a calf could do to a moving vehicle and when he pulled over he could see a car on the shoulder about a half mile to three quarters of a mile behind him.

Unable to turn around, Dave walked back and found a lady had used her car to pin the calf against a guard rail.

"I think she watched too much Crocodile Hunter or something," Brent said. "She had a bandanna tied around the calf's head to cover his eyes."

Dave made a leash from his belt and walked the calf -- which wasn't injured -- back to his trailer.

"We were trucking along, so you know that first step was a doozy," Brent said.

There's some other advantages of milking Jerseys that Tilltoson has picked up on the past few years -- the cows, both because of their build and because they get plenty of exercise grazing -- stay in production about twice as long, or longer, than Holsteins.

The Jerseys do seem to like to walk, Tillotson said. In winter, they'll make several round-trips up the gravel road from the barn to the backwoods and back.

"I've always wanted to put a pedometer on one of them to see how many miles a day they walk," Tillotson.

The other advantage: organic inspectors know all the cows are his, raised on his land.

"Everybody always asks why I picked Jerseys instead of Holsteins and it's because we're organic," Tillotson said. "Nobody can say we're bringing my dad's cows over and milking them."

Tillotson's Grassland Farms Dairy is still a small operation. He only has a couple of employees.  The employees do most of the milking, including one old guy who just loves to come to work at 3 a.m. -- a real godsend for Tilltoson since he has a long enough day as it is.

"It's tough getting up in the morning and working until eight at night and then doing it all over again the next day," Tillotson said. "We've got a gentleman who is 66 years old. We put an ad in the paper and he said, 'that's right up my ally. I love getting up early. Even if I'm not working, I'm still up at two o'clock in the morning.''

"I said, 'perfect.' "

Tillotson has two sons, twin boys, Ethan and Cole, age 10. They help a little around the farm, but Tillotson wants them to be boys before they're men and he also wants to protect them from some of the more dangerous aspects of farmwork, so he doesn't demand many farm chores.

They do like helping with the newborns.

Brent enjoys their Little League games. He makes it a point not to let farmwork rob him of the joy of watching them grow up.

"I'm not missing a game because I've got hay to bail," Tillotson said. "The hay will be there tomorrow. I've missed things and then regretted it because they'll only be this age once."

The high price of corn the past few years has local farmers trying to figure out how to increase their yields, according to Drew Klotzbach, owner of Alleghany Farm Services, and one way is to improve the drainage of the field.

The better the draining, especially in wet years such as this one, the more corn that will grow.

One of the specialties of Klotzbach's company is installing drainage tiles and he said he's seen an increase in demand locally in recent years.

"It's just a way to improve production," Klotzbach said. "They've got to improve the land. They're not making more land, so ..."

Klotzbach hosted an open house today for interested parties on a farm field next to his business lot on Route 77 in Alabama. Along with his son and employees, he demonstrated his GPS-guided trenching and tile-laying machines.

"It's all about getting the water off the ground faster," Klotzbach said.

The tiles -- more like hoses these days -- are perforated and collect water and drain it off into retention ponds.

"In dry years, it will even help bring up water from the bottom," Klotzbach said.

You don't see rectangular hay bales much these days, but while out in Alabama this afternoon I spotted a few in a field off Maple Street Road.

And below, a tractor in a field off Sanders Road, Stafford.

Photos and info submitted by John Milroy.

During the Genesee County Fair, Tim Adams, leader of the 4-H Swine Club, showed off the club pig "Zeus."

Kristi Milroy also had the Grand Champion market goat. Kristi also had Best in Show dairy goat with her Alpine goat, "Nellie."

Auction night at the Genesee County Fair is a big night for 4H members. It's the night members find out whether a year of hard work raising lambs, hogs and steers is going to pay off, both in terms of ribbons and cash.

Bidders are a mix of local farmers, business leaders and vendors to farms who often pay higher than market prices to help reward the perhaps future farmers for their efforts.

The auction was conducted by William Kent, Inc.

Here is a collection of pictures from Thursday evening's auction.

Lauren Young prepares her steer for auction.

Taylor Ross with his prize-winning lamb.

Lukas Johnson

Moving cattle to and from the auction ring can get a little crowded.

Bidders are provided with a list of animals coming up for auction.

Winning bidders receive a blue ribbon and a photo of the animal they won with the 4H member who raised it. Winning bidders have the option of taking the animal or letting it go to commercial auction and paying only the difference between it's market value and what they actually bid.

A winning bidder.

Dylan Weber and his second-place hog.

Hudson Weber brings his hog to the auction ring.

A hog in line to enter the auction ring.

Two hogs resting after their turn in the auction ring.

Julian Duyssen waiting for his turn to enter the auction ring with his hog.

To purchase prints of these photos, click here. More photos from the auction in the slide show.

We've been tracking this year's onion crop and we checked in on the mucklands today, and from the road, the fields looked pretty good, but looks can be deceiving, said Paul Mortellaro, of G Mortellaro And Sons in Elba.

From the air, Mortellaro said, you can see a lot of open patches and thin spots.

"You'll probably see averages of 500 to 600 bags (50-pound bags) per acre," Mortellaro said. "Some less, some maybe 1,000. That's pretty disappointing."

Right now onions are trading at $13 per bag, but with transportation costs for Elba onions, that brings the crop yield down to about $6 per bag.

"At $6 per bag, you cannot make a living like that, not in Elba," Mortellaro said. "You can do that out west, but you can't do it here."

He said he and his brother are in no hurry to harvest their onions -- but will do so at the end of the month -- unlike last year when onions were going for $20 per bag.

The onions that were transplants -- such as the one pictured above from a Torrey field -- are developing bulbs and some have already been harvested, Mortellaro said. Those fields are generally in better shape than those planted with seeds, which have not yet started to bulb.

The problem this year: too much rain and not enough warm, dry days between storms.

I took a break from the Ramble this afternoon to go out to Ted and Patricia Hawley's barley field in Byron to get some pictures of the harvest.

The Hawleys are opening a malt house -- the first in New York in about 100 years -- and this barley will be used to create malt that can be used by microbreweries throughout the state.

All the rain we've had in the past week have made the harvest a challenge. The grain has to reach a search moisture level -- not too moist -- to be harvested. But in waiting for it to dry out there's a chance the grain could pre-germinate on the stock, which would affect the malting process.

This grain will need to be dried a bit before being stored in a bin because it's a just a bit too moist.

Above is barley grain that has been separated by the combine from the straw. The cut straw is left on the field and will be collected later. It can be used for a feed supplement, for mulch or -- according to Hawley -- dropped in ponds to purify the water. Hawley said it is very effective at cleaning pond water and the Hawleys may eventually try selling some of it for such a use.

Kevin Scroger gave me my first ride in the cab of a combine. Scroger has been operating combines since he was 14 years old. Back then, cabs weren't air conditioned. There weren't even cabs and Scroger said the combines were smaller and harvested fewer acres per hour. Not only are today's cabs air conditioned, they can be driven over a pre-defined route by a GPS system.

There's quite a sight on Lewiston Road, Batavia -- MY T Acres has planted acres and acres and acres of potatoes, which are now in flower.

Press release:

“Today’s unfortunate defeat of the House Farm Bill speaks to the dysfunction in Washington that continues to stand in the way of solving real problems for real Americans.

Agriculture is a critical industry in New York’s 27th Congressional District, impacting our local residents far beyond those directly doing the hard work of farming. Our farmers and growers deserve a Congress that can come together and pass a long-term Farm Bill. It is essential to help our agricultural industry plan and prepare.

As  a member of the House Agriculture Committee, I remain committed to the work ahead to see a Farm Bill become law.” 

The third in our series on Genesee County farms and farmers.

The house was ramshackle. There were broken doors and windows that wouldn't close, but the land was good. Carl Yunker knew it was soil he could grow something in.

"I was after the dirt," Carl said. "I said, 'if I got the dirt, I'll get the rest.' This is good land."

He couldn't buy the 200-acre farm and its 30 cows, but he could lease it. He moved his family from Sheldon to a house without plumbing in Elba. It was 1951. The house was more than 100 years old. The Yunkers, married in 1947, and with two young children, would put down roots near the intersection of Transit and North Byron.

Bernice went from cooking with gas to a wood stove in kitchen with warped floorboards.

That first Thanksgiving, she was expecting 17 people for supper. The night before, a cat crept in through the broken door from the cellar into the kitchen and feasted on turkey breast.

The day after Thanksgiving, Carl built a new cellar door.

In the kitchen, paint was peeling from one wall. Bernice drove into Batavia and bought the largest Rand McNally map of the United States she could find. She bought a series of smaller state maps. She decorated the wall with the maps, she said, so visitors would discuss the state of the union rather than the state of the house.

"I said if she lives with me for a year, she will stay with me for good," Carl said.

Craig Yunker

Craig Yunker, the Yunker's second of five children, was born in 1951 in Sheldon. He was raised in the house on Transit Road.

Today, the house that was falling apart 61 years ago, is now the home of Craig and Kimberly Yunker. 

It's fully restored, of course. Inside, the walls are white and the floor polished hardwood. Left exposed are structural beams that were hand hewn in the 1820s by strong men with axes and chisels.

Carl, who turns 90 next month, lives with Bernice in a farmhouse built in 1900. When the Yunkers first moved to Elba, the Merrimans, who farmed the land before the Yunkers, lived in the newer house while the Yunkers lived in the older house. After Carl and Bernice moved in, Bernice wanted a little storage room at the back of the house fixed up to use as an artist studio.  Carl expanded the room and added a second level, giving Bernice all the space she needed to paint and draw and display her work.

When Carl and Bernice met, she was a preacher's kid in Sheldon. They saw each other for the first time in the foyer of a church.

"When I saw him, he was sort of looking me up and down one Sunday when I went into church and I thought, 'you young snip, you,' " Bernice said. "I thought he was 17 years old and he was 25."

Bernice Yunker

Bernice knew nothing about farming when she met Carl, but she's proud to call herself a farmer's wife. That's the name of her studio -- Farmer's Wife Studio -- where she paints and teaches art classes.

Bernice has been a member of the Genesee County Art Society for more than 50 years. 

Her favorite subject is trees. She paints and draws a lot of trees. Well, she paints and draws a lot. Carl said she's a workaholic when it comes to art. When she has five minutes, he said, she's in the studio working on something.

Bernice has completed thousands of pieces of art. Earlier this year, she threw out about 700 of her paintings.

Living on a farm, Bernice said, her children learned the value of work. The boys started working in the barns when they were 7, getting paid for their work. By the time they were 12, they were buying their own clothes.

"I don't see how the city people to it," Bernice said. "These boys were never under my feet because they were working."

After all that farm work, Craig wasn't sure he wanted to be a farmer. His mother dropped him off at Cornell University for his freshman year and that's when he told her, he wasn't sure he wanted to farm.

He read Jack Kerouac. As Dean Moriarty took to the road, so did Craig Yunker. After the first semester of his second year at Cornell, Craig  left on a six-month ramble across America. He drove a 1963 Chevy. He packed  a Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DLT camera. In Las Vegas, his car was done and he was out of money. He managed to make it to California and spent some time at a commune before returning to New York.

He came home and went back to Cornell. Craig has a degree in agricultural economics and a master's in resource economics.

Carl had gone from tenant farmer to farm owner in 1963. When Craig came home, father and son became partners.

All of Craig's siblings found pursuits other than farming. Gail, the oldest, lives on a boat north of Seattle. Chris, three years younger than Craig, is a military man and lives in Virginia. Joy lives in Troy and Heidi lives in Medina.

CY Farms is owned today by Carl, Craig, Craig's son, Christian, and P.J. Riner, who is now retired but for years handled the day-to-day operations of the farm while Craig managed the business and CY's growth.

What started as a 200-acre tenant dairy farm is now 6,000 acres of turf, corn, wheat, soybeans, alfalfa, onions and green peas.

How CY transformed from a small dairy farm to one of the largest crop farms in WNY is as much a story of persistence and hard work as good fortune, Craig said.

"I'd like to be able to tell you that I had everything planned out, but some things just happen," Craig said. "Our success is sort of a hybrid of luck and timing with some hard work thrown in, but a lot of it is just luck."

The big turning point came in 1986, when CY Farms was a 400-acre operation with 300 cows.

The federal government decided the country was awash in dairy products. The USDA wanted fewer cows and fewer dairy farms. The government set up a reverse auction -- farmers would set a price for their herd and the government would start with the lowest bid and buy up more and more herds at higher and higher prices until the target number of cows were purchased.

If farmers put in a bid, they obligated themselves to destroying their cows or exporting them to a foreign country.

"We submitted a fairly high bid and I was fairly confident that we wouldn't get taken," Craig said. "We only bid it because it's just one of those things where everything has it's price, so we said let's put in a number high enough that if we get taken we'll be happy. We didn't expect to get taken and we did. We were surprised that our bid got accepted, but we had already signed it so we had no choice at that point."

The Yunkers had a year to dispose of their herd. By contract, they couldn't produce milk for five years.

The story continues after the jump. Click on the headline to read more.

They were left with 400 acres of land. As Carl said, good land. Good soil. You can grow things in good soil, things like corn and peas and cabbage.

"I thought at that time, maybe we'll get back in the dairy business, but we never went back to milking cows," Craig said.

Carl Yunker made the right decision in 1951. He came to Genesee County because he thought the good, flat farm fields of Elba would give him more flexibilty as a farmer than the hill country around Sheldon.

Without cows, CY Farms became a crop farm and began to grow.

Carl was also working on his own plan. By age 65, he wanted to start backing out of the business and handing over more control to Craig.

Too many farmers, according to Carl said, don't have a plan for handing their farms off to their children.

"That's one of my big criticism of family farms where dad hangs on so long and doesn't give the younger generation the opportunity to develop themslves and move on," Carl said.

Family farms that cease being family farms have meant opportunity for the Yunkers.

There was, for example, a 900-acre farm -- including muckland -- that fell into the hands of four brothers. Four feuding brothers. The brothers sold off their farm equipment and leased the land to CY Farms.

Craig knew better than to sit all four brothers in a room and try to buy their land.

"If one guy liked this deal the other guy wouldn't like the deal because the other brother liked the deal," Craig said.

He was patient. He stayed friendly with each brother.

"It took, I think, two years, but I got that deal," Craig said.

Mucklands

It was a big deal. Too big for CY to handle on its own. To help finance the purchase, Craig sold off some of the land to a neighboring farmer.

The purchase included muck, good onion-growing muck. CY Farms added onions to their product line.

Next, they added grass.

Perhaps the biggest deal for the Yunkers was the purchase of Batavia Turf. Initially Craig was just interested in acquiring more crop land. Tony Peca owned 600 acres of farmland. Craig was thinking about the land, not the business.

Peca started Batavia Turf in 1960 and it was the original turf farm in New York. When the Thruway was constructed through Genesee County, part of the deal was Peca could keep his billboard next to the I-90. Batavia Turf has the only billboard in New York on Thruway Authority property.

"(The business) was very well known," Craig said, and as he dug into the particulars of the deal, he realized it would be a good thing to buy not just the land, but the business.

"We looked at it as an opportunity to expand," Craig said.

Peca's two sons signed on as Yunker employees to oversee turf production and manage the marketing for two years. They were paid above-average salaries, Craig said, to help the Yunkers break into the business.

"We didn't know anything about growing turf and we didn't know anything about marketing turf," Craig said.

Calves at CY Heifer Farm

The Yunkers, of course, as former dairy farmers, do know cows, and in a different way, the next CY Farms expansion got the family back into the dairy business. Rather than milk cows, they raise them for area dairy farmers.

The opportunity came to the Yunkers when Agway let one of its business units fall into bankruptcy.

A few years before, Agway managers decided one of the secrets of success for dairy farmers in California was the replacement heifer business. Rather than dairy farmers raising their own calves, there are whole farms that do nothing but raise calves for other farmers. Agway thought that might be a good business line in WNY.

The company picked land owned by CY Properities for the operation. Raising calves means manure. Manure means noxious odors. Cow odors can cause complaints from nearby residents. The Yunkers owned a plot of land just southwest of the mucklands. Up on a ridge, overlooking the onion fields, a bit isolated from residential neighborhoods. The wind carries odors away from any homes in the area and out over the farmfields. It seemed like a smart spot to raise calves and convert manure into plant food.

CY Heifers takes in calves from about 10 dairy farmers in the area. As they grow, they move through a series of barns according to size and age until they're old enough to be moved back into the farmers production herd. The dairy farms can concentrate on milk production rather than raising their own calves.

The 6,000 acres of CY Farms is divided among 60 or so parcels in Elba, Byron, Batavia and Stafford. All of the land is owned by CY Properties, which leases land to CY Farms, Batavia Turf and CY Heifers.

Each business unit operates on its own P&L (profit and loss statement), but farm equipment and employees are shared among the operations.

The morning managers' meeting

It takes a lot of coordination to manage the crops, the land, the equipment and the people (just under 50 employees total). Each morning at 6:30, Craig Yunker and the farm's five managers meet in a Mid-century ranch home that has been converted to office space on the southeast corner of Transit and North Byron. 

Meeting with Craig every day are Christian Yunker, Charles Augello, Chuck Barie, Mac Ewell and Mike Riner.

First topic each morning: The weather. Cold, rain, wind and sun -- whatever the elements -- will determine much of the work schedule for the day.  It's hard to plow a field when it's muddy and darn near useless to spray pea plants in the wind.

"Everything starts with weather and then you plan your day," Craig said.

The morning meeting is a time to balance priorities against available resources. There's usually more work than hours in the day or feet on the ground.

"There are five us every morning judging who needs what tractor, who needs what truck, who needs what personnel or this or that, and sometimes, you know, something has to wait," Craig said. "One man is going to be frustrated because he's got his plan, but there aren't enough tractors, trucks and people to do everything."

What crops are grown each season is planned out up to a year in advance.

Craig and his team make a P&L for every crop they grow.

"Each crop is analyzed on its own for its own profitability," Craig said. "If crops are not profitable in one year, that's normal, but if it's a trend and they stop making us money, then we stop growing them. We did that with tomatoes."

This year, you won't find any cabbage growing on CY property.  When the management team analyzed the potential for cabbage, two problems loomed large: The Affordable Health Care Act and the difficulty in hiring migrant labor.

Cabbage may grow again on CY Farms, but first Craig said he needs to be assured that employing more than 50 people won't drive up the cost of health insurance and he needs to know he can hire legal workers that won't get swept away in immigration raids.

Solutions to those problems, if there are any, will only come out of Washington.

Then, there's the price of corn. Last year and this, corn prices have hit historically high levels.

Craig's office is dominated by a large wooden desk. He has a bookshelf and filing cabinet. On one wall are original color pen-and-ink drawings by Don Carmicheal of the Old Courthouse and County Building #1, momentos of Craig's tenure as chairman of the Genesee County Legislature in the 1980s.

Corn

On the back of door, Craig keeps a poster of corn prices.

For more than 100 years, it shows corn prices fluctuating in a fairly nominal pattern, then there's a big spike -- prices climbed above $5 a few years back -- then prices returned to a fairly normal level.

Craig points to a spot off the chart and says, "now prices are here."

That would be somewhere over the $6 mark.

Six-dollar corn is another reason not to grow cabbage.

Last year's drought in the Midwest and this year's flooding in the Eastern Corn Belt have been good things for WNY corn growers.

"Last year we got prices higher than we ever expected and we had a very good year because of that," Craig said. "We forward-contracted our corn and sold a good portion of the next year's crop."

Near the corner of Route 262 and Ivison Road are a half dozen storage bins that glisten in the sun. They're made to store feed corn. Cabbage is a perishable crop and must be sold close to harvest. Corn can be stored much longer.

"The idea is to sell it when it's profitable and not when you have to sell it," Craig said.

Onions are a crop that must be sold at harvest, too. It's one of the most challenging crops CY Farms grows. Out on the muck, farmers battle wind, rain and weeds. It's no different for the small muck farmer or the big muck farmer. 

The demand for onions doesn't change much year to year.

As Craig put it, a restaurant isn't going to buy more onions just because the price drops. If the price is high, it doesn't suppress demand.

That can make growing onions at a profit a challenge.

Which is why Craig thinks CY Farms has an advantage with its 6,000 acres and more than half a dozen crops it grows. Farm managers can rotate crops, react to changes in the market and the weather and absorb, in most years, unexpected price fluctuations.

"One of the advantages we have over somebody that just grows onions is that diversity and that stabilizing effect," Craig said.

The production numbers for CY Farms in a typical year are impressive:

• Corn -- 3,000 acres at 146 bushels per acre
• Wheat -- 700 acres at 75 bushels per acre
• Onions -- 100 acres, at 650 50-lbs bags
• Soybeans -- 700 acres, at 44 bushels per acre
• Alfalfa -- 1,000 acres at 12 to 13 tons per acre
• Barley -- 40 acres at 60 to 70 bushels per acre
• 100 acres of turf harvested per year

Batavia Turf grows more than 100 acres of grass per year, but it takes 18 to 24 months to bring grass from seed to sod, sliced and rolled onto pallets ready for delivery to customers from Pittsburgh to Watertown.

Jose Castanada and Katie Houseknect

With 5,000 acres available for crop rotation, the grass-growing business has benefited from being absorbed into CY Farms. One problem smaller turf operations run into is that with only a few hundred acres available, used year after year for the same crop, the sod is more susceptible to weeds and disease. 

Jose Castaneda manages the turf operation and Katie Houseknect and Chuck Hoover sell the grass.

"Jose makes it easy to sell a quality product," Houseknect said. "We do have the finest quality sod in WNY because of our quality soil. The emerald green color, the guarantee of quality, the fact that we can rotate our crop and keep the sod clean of any type of infestations makes it easy to sell."

The grass is 20 percent Kentucky Bluegrass and varieties of fescue. The fescue is more drought and disease tolorant than Bluegrass and helps Batavia Turf's sod keep its emerald green color even in dry summers.

Every day (except rain days) during the spring and summer, crews use a precision, computer-controlled grass harvester to cut and roll the turf. Grass is delivered to clients the same day or the day before it's scheduled for planting. 

Customers include homeowners, schools, landscapers, contractors and sports field owners.

Yunker is clearly proud of the role Batavia Turf has played in helping diversify the family business and add to its overall growth.

Running a big farm keeps Craig busy, but he still has time for himself. He's never lost his love of adventure.

In his office, behind his desk, is a large photo of a sailboat charging through the waters of Lake Ontario.

Craig Yunker with his Hemingway collection

Craig loves sailing. The man who once drove a '63 Chevy across America still loves to travel. And he loves Ernest Hemingway.

When Craig travels, he prefers to stay where Hemingway stayed.

Hemingway lived in Havana for a time, so Craig has been to Cuba.

When visitors enter the home of Craig and Kimberly Yunker, they find themselves first in a room with few pieces of furniture. There are a couple of paintings on the walls. To the back of the room is a floor-to-ceiling window that frames a green back yard. Yellow roses grow by the patio. On the south wall of the room, at the center of the house, there is also a cabinet filled books by Hemingway and about Hemingway.

Craig and Kimberly have three children: Christian, 33, Cyrus, 35 and Katherine, 31. There's a picture of their children with the Hemingway books.

Upstairs in the old farmhouse, Craig pointed to a wineskin hanging from a single nail pounded into one of the exposed, hand-hewn beams of a guest room. The wineskin is autographed. 

The skin is from Pamplona, Spain. Hemingway made many trips in his time to Pamplona. He wrote about the bullfights there. In "The Sun Also Rises" men drink wine from bota bags in Pamplona.

When Craig sojourned in Pamplona, he stopped in a shop to buy a wineskin. Craig spoke to his travel companion. He mentioned Hemingway. The shop owner exlaimed, "Oh, Ernesto!" The little man scurried to the back of the store and retrieved a photo. It was a framed print of the shop owner with Hemingway standing behind him while the shop owner signed a wineskin.

Next to the wineskin, hanging from that wooded beam is a photo of Craig Yunker standing where Ernesto once stood while the shop owner signed his wineskin.

"What do you like about Hemingway?"

Christian Yunker

"His sense of adventure. He was his own person. He lived his own life. I like his style of writing. It's straightforward."

CY Farms is a big operation now, and Christian Yunker is next in line to run it. Like father, like son, Craig is giving Christian increasing responsibility for the farm over the years, just as his father did with him.

Christian is also a graduate of Cornell. After college, he worked in New Jersey for six years handling farm loans for Farm Credit East. It was good experience. It gave him a broader knowledge of what it takes to run a modern farm.

Like a lot of sons, Christian admires his father and thinks Craig has a real talent for the business.

"He has the ability to deal with people and negotiate deals," Christian said. "He's much more of a big-picture thinker. Most of his decision-making is about five, 10 years down the road, which for some people doesn't come as naturally as it does for him."

Christian has two young daughters -- much too young to know if they'll take to farming.

"I want them to be successful in life, so I'm not going to presume anything," Christian said.

Looking down the road, Christian said, perhaps they won't run the farm. Perhaps it will become an employee-run operation. It's too soon to say.

So these days, while little girls play and farmworkers work, one of the favorite pastimes of Carl Yunker is sitting on his porch reading novels and watching the traffic pass on Transit Road. Carl figures half the traffic is trucks and tractors owned by CY Farms.

He said he's proud of what the little farm in Elba has become. He thinks it will be around for a good long while now.

"I hope it keeps going successfully, and I'm sure it will," Carl said. "We've got a great team of people put together. People are the heart of an operation. You've gotta have good people or you don't have much."

You can't brew beer without malt, which is something Ted Hawley thinks legislators forgot about when they passed a farm brewing bill last year that will eventually require ales and lagers  labeled "New York Beer" to contain 90 percent locally grown ingredients.

"They just thought they could grow barley in New York," Hawley said. "They didn't know there was another step, which is malting. It has to be malted before you use it in a brew. So it was kind of interesting that they put this huge amount of effort into requiring 90 percent ingredients from New York, but there's no way it can be produced with 90 percent ingredients."

The timing of the bill was fortuitous for Ted and Patricia Hawley, who started planning a year earlier to open a malt house on their farm off Bank Street Road, Batavia.

It will be the only malt house in New York, though the Hawleys are sure others are coming with anticipation of a craft brew boom in the state thanks to the new rules.

The farm beer license created by the bill is modeled after the winery license, which requires local ingredients and allows for tastings, on-site sales, bigger production runs and statewide distribution.

The Hawleys, like the bill's supporters, envision beer trails -- like wine trails -- and a new branch of agri-tourism throughout Central and Western New York, with hopefully the Hawley's malt house, and Batavia, right on the map.

The Hawleys are never afraid to dream big, and asked about the future of craft beer in Batavia, Patty shared a vision of microbreweries being drawn to the area.

"If you look at the larger picture, it would be really great if we could encourage microbrewers to come in, who are largely young, to set down roots, raise their families here, to change the landscape of what Genesee County looks like," Patty said. "It would be very cool to bring in that demographic, who then attract others with that whole artisanal mindset."

The Hawleys have no immediate plans to brew beers themselves, though they imagine selling beer right on their farm that's created by other microbrewers using Hawley malts.

It's almost a matter of coincidence that the Hawleys came into the malting business.

Living local is important to the Hawleys and they also have a strong interest in organic products (Patty Hawley owns Fountain of Youth Organics in Brockport), so two years ago, Ted went to a conference to learn more about growing organic grains for commercial bakeries.

"We were thinking that we were going to grow some organic grains on a little bit of land that we have for the baking industry, which is another kind of booming initiative," Patty said. "At this conference, there was one brief mention, like a sentence or two, if there were any entrepreneurs out there, malt is needed and there are no malt houses. Initially we weren't thinking in that direction."

Ted started researching the idea and saw it as a great opportunity for a new business venture even before the farm bill passed.

Since then, he's been learning everything he can about malting and grains, attending conferences, taking workshops, going to seminars.

"About 100 yeas ago, New York State used to be the largest producer of barley, the largest producer of malt, the largest producer of hops in the whole country," Ted said. "Some fungus came in and kind of knocked it down a little because of the farming practices and repetitive planting and (the state) never recovered after Prohibition."

Hawley just returned from the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Center, where he found himself sitting next to representatives from the largest breweries in the world.

The center, he said, can create any kind of climate in the world. They grow many varieties of barely in different conditions and then malt the barley in small batches and brew beer to test the results.

Not all barley types grow equally well in all climates and since malt varieties of barley haven't been grown in New York in nearly 100 years, Hawley is on a search to find the best barley varieties to grow in Genesee County.

To get their malting operation off the ground, the Hawleys are growing barley on 43 acres in Byron (top photo) and planted a variety that is used commonly for malting. But Ted also has a field in Le Roy where he's growing 23 varieties of barley in cooperation with researchers from Cornell.

"A variety you grow out in the Midwest is not going to grow the same here," Ted said. "We've got to see what grows here and thrives and keeps the proteins down and the enzymes up, which is different than feed-grade barley, which is protein high, enzymes low, and that's what's been planted here the last 100 years."

The Hawley malt house will produce a variety of artisanal malts based on the varieties of barley and other grains they find grow best in Genesee County.

Already, some 50 brewers have expressed an interest in Hawley malts, from some larger craft brewers to guys still brewing private stock in a garage, Ted said.

The passage of the bill also created another opportunity for the Hawleys. They were able to apply for and receive a $117,000 state grant, which allowed them to immediately double the size of their operation.

Eventually, Ted believes the Hawley house will produce 150 tons of malt a year, but he's starting out small -- 1,000 pounds a week (the 43 acres in Byron will yield 43 to 50 tons of malt).

"This is all new, so I need to feel comfortable doing this," Ted said. "It's quite an intricate process."

There is no limit to the kinds of recipes brewers can dream up for beer and the Hawleys think that creative opportunity will help fuel a craft beer boom in New York and that brewers are ready for locally produced malts unique to New York.

"This craft brewing industry is phenomenal," Ted said. "There's no rules. I mean, there could be up to 30 ingredients in brews, from nuts and berries to honey, to apples. There's no rules and there are some great craft brews that are being processed right now in people's garages. This farm brewing bill will offer them an opportunity to open up larger and sell their brews."

House Republicans are staunchly opposed to one element of an immigration reform bill -- a path to citizenship -- that some supporters think is critical to its passage, Rep. Chris Collins said today during an event at Post Farms in Elba.

"As a country that was founded on the rule of law, the first action that these adults took in coming into this country was to break the law, so a pathway to citizenship will not come out the House Republicans," Collins said.

The immigration reform bill is the result of hundreds of hours of negotiations between farmers and the farm labor community, which wants to see people who have been working the the United States for years, although illegally, have a chance to become citizens.

While Collins doesn't support allowing such individuals to become citizens, he said he doesn't see a problem with allowing them to obtain permanent work status.

"Call it a blue card," Collins said. "We're fine with making it so that workers who are now here illegally are stay here legally. Make it so that they can go home and visit their families and come back and we know who they are and where they are and that they pay taxes."

Dean Norton (left in photo), said that if the House Republicans can't be brought into the fold, we could wind up with two versions of immigration bills that will go to conference committee. Losing the path to citizenship will be a disappointment to some members of the coalition who worked on the bill, but he thinks when it comes down to it, both sides need some sort of reform to pass.

"I've got to believe in my heart that once we get people sitting down at the table, they won't do anything to scuttle reform," Norton said. "It's too important to the country and to our food supply."

Collins did say he supports citizenship for the children of workers here illegally.

"This is the country they know and love," Collins said.

With an eye toward drawing more young people into farming, Rep. Chris Collins appeared at the Post Farm in Elba today to announce his support of a bill that would provide aid and support to aspiring young farmers.

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2013 is aimed at providing loans, grants and assistance to new farmers.

“Farming and the agriculture industry play a critical role in the economy of our area, and in communities all around the country,” Collins said. “But the average age of our nation’s farmer is 57 years old. With a large segment of America’s farmers and ranchers at or nearing retirement age, we have to encourage young people to enter this challenging, hard and vitally important line of work so we can sustain this economic engine.”  

Collins appeared with members of Future Farmers of America, New York Farm Bureau President Dean Norton and Genesee County Farm Bureau President Jeff Post.

"This will provide an opportunity for young people to get into farming," Norton said.

The bill would:

• Enable access to land, credit and technical assistance for new producers;
• Assist new producers to launch and strengthen new farm and value-added businesses;
• Help new producers become good land stewards;
• Provide training, mentoring, and research that beginning farmers and ranchers need to be successful;
• Conduct outreach on agricultural job opportunities for military veterans.

For more on the bill, click here.

Ivy Reynolds, secretary of the NYS FAA, said the bill will ensure that young people like herself with a passion for farming will stick with farming.

"The engagement of young people in agricutlure is key to ensuring that when current owners and operators of New Yorks farms, dairies, nurseries and vineyards are ready to retire, there's a new generation that's ready, educated and excited about their role as the providers of nutrition," Reynolds said.

Post, Collins and Norton.

Reynolds, and a barn cat who stopped by to check out all of the activity.

Wind and rain over the past few weeks are making muck farmers a little edgy about their onion crop for this season.

They know now they won't have a bumper crop, especially from fields planted with seed rather than transplants, but what happens with the weather over the next four weeks will be critical.

Following two-and-a-half inches of rain last week, they need some dry whether, but another inch of rain is forecast for tomorrow (Thursday).

"It would be nice if it were 80 degrees, sunny and a little bit of breeze," said Paul Mortellaro of G. Mortellaro & Sons.

On a tour of the muck today, Mortellaro pointed out the fields planted with transplants look pretty healthy. They're less susceptible to rain and the bigger plants are better equipped to respirate (pump off the water from the ground).

Fields planted with seedlings have been thinned out by wind -- wind can shear off an onion top -- or have been too saturated by water and there's been some die-off.

The right time for some rain would be when the onions start to bulb, which is three our four weeks from now.

"What determines the size of the onion is its size when it starts to bulb," Mortellaro said. "We need some good rain during that time."

Even with the slow start, the muckers could get perfect whether the rest of the season and enjoy a good harvest.

"Three or for weeks from now, this all could be forgotten," Mortellaro said.

"He's right," said Maureen Torrey of Torrey Farms. "We have a long way to go before our crops are made."

Beyond that, Torrey was hesitant to comment because she didn't want to jinx anything.

Christian Yunker at CY Farms said early indications are yields will be down this year, but how much depends on what happens with the weather the rest of the growing season.

Right now, he said, a lot of onions have "wet feet," and that inhibits their growth. Like other farmers of the muck, he's hoping tomorrow's storm doesn't do too much damage and then we get some dry weather.

"It's pretty early to tell, but we've taken a little bit of a hit," Yunker said. "They're not off to a great start, but it's too early to say your yield will be down to X."

Photo: A seeded muck field. The dead-looking plants in between the green rows of onions is barley, planted along side the onion seeds to act as a wind break. Once the onions reach a certain stage of grow, the barley is killed off.

First grade students from throughout Genesee County made a field trip today to Post Farms in Elba for the Farm Bureau's annual "Dairy Days" educational event.

The 645 students were able to meet cows, calves, goats and meats, sample honey, dairy products, play in different soils -- and with worms.

Dozens of parents along with teachers -- 125 adults total -- also participated in Dairy Days, which each June for Dairy Month.

Jeff Post said it's important to help children learn about where their food comes from.

If you don't educate children about farming early and often they just grow up not knowing and not caring about where their food comes from and that doesn’t coincide with what we’re trying to do on a daily basis," Post said. "We’re trying to create friends of agriculture and not people who don’t know why they need to follow a tractor slowly down the road on their way to work or why it might smell like manure outside."

To purchase prints of these photos, click here.

This is the second in a series of profiles of Genesee County's farms and farmers.

Working the muck has never been easy.

When third-generation muck farmer Joe Bezon was a boy, he would work alongside his mother, each on their hands and knees, pulling weeds.

Seeds were planted by hand and it took manual labor to bring in the crop. When muck is wet, it's deep and muddy ground. When it's dry, the fine dust gets in your eyes and nose and the sun's rays radiate heat off the black soil.

Today, machinery and chemicals make sowing, harvesting and weeding easier, but no machine can control Mother Nature, or the government.

Winds damage crops and workers are harder to find as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) rounds up all the farm labor.

Still, Bezon, in his 75th year, toils on, and is quite happy doing it.

"I enjoy it and I got this (highland in Byron, where we were standing talking) and that (muckland in Orleans County) down there and I've got a son who helps me all the time," Bezon said. "If I had to do it all myself, it would be a different story."

Today, Bezon & Sons Farm is 383 acres, with 110 acres of muckland, and is run by Joe, his wife Edith, son Joey and son-in-law Jim.

The Bezons, along with the Mortellaros and the Halats, are the last of the original muckland farmers in Genesee County.

Before the 1950s, there were as many as 160 families working the muck, each with plots of three to 10 acres of land.

As machinery was invented to make farming muck easier, and more and more farmers figured there has got to be an easier way to make a living, the families of the muck thinned out.

The Bezons were among the first to start consolidating their holdings.

Joey Bezon, who like his father has been working the muck his whole life, is perhaps the last Bezon who will farm the muck, unless his son, who now works for CY Farms, decides to work the Bezon land some day.

"I have a little bit of pride in it because we're one of the only ones who stuck with it," Joey said. "There was something like 160 some 40 or 50 years ago and everybody just kind of threw in the towel except for only a handful who are left and could stay with it. We used to be big or medium size and now we're one of the smallest ones. How long we can stay in the game with everybody else getting bigger, that's the challenge."

Muckland is reclaimed swampland. Over hundreds of years, trees and vegetation rotted in standing water to create a rich black soil that is full of tiny wood chips, making it both porous and a good medium for retaining moisture. It's about 80 percent organic matter.

Early muckers grew carrots, lettuce, spinach, potatoes and onions. Today, onions are the big muck crop locally, with some potatoes, and some of the more played-out muck west of Route 98 is used to grow turf.

Onions need deep, loose well-drained soil that retains moisture. There's big onion production in the desert soil of California, but the black muck of Genesee and Orleans counties has more organic matter and retains moisture better.

"Muck is special because unlike sandy soils or clay soils, the roots grow aggressively in it and they get enough moisture to form the onion," said Paul Mortellaro who has also been working mucklands his entire life with his family.

We call it the Elba Muck, but a majority of the 6,000 acres of muck still being farmed is in Orleans County. There's a lot in Byron, and just a corner of the southwest part of the fields are in Elba. 

Elba may host the Onion Festival, but there hasn't been an onion grown in Elba for years, as far as anybody knows.

There was once more farmable muck in Elba, but to be useful, the mucklands need to be several feet deep. Much of the muck farms in Elba have been lost to oxidation and wind. What little of it left is used to grown corn and turf.

The local muckland was once part of the Alabama Swamp, which once covered 25,000 acres. 

After the turn of the 20th Century, local residents were increasingly concerned about odor, mosquitoes and disease associated with the swamplands in Elba and Byron. (source for historical background)

Perhaps the entire Alabama Swamp would have been drained at the time, but much of the area has rocks and stone much closer to the surface than the Elba Muck. To be tillable, muck must be several feet deep.

And even to this day, farmers still pull out rotting tree stumps that work their way to the surface of the muck every spring.

It took the invention of the steam shovel to make draining the swamps possible.

Western New York Farms Company, based in New York City, owned 9,000 acres of muckland, and at the urging of state officials, drainage work started in 1913. By 1914, there were eight miles of canals 20 feet deep in place and lumberjacks started removing trees.

Farming started in 1915.

While muck farming was immediately successful, Farms Co. always intended to lease the land to tenant farmers, and the first leases were signed in 1916. The first year, Farms Co. leased land for $50 an acre and made machinery and assistance available to farmers. The next year, prices dropped to $35 an acre, but no more help came from Farms Co.

In 1927, Farms Co. decided to sell off its land, offering plots on favorable terms to farmers.

Edith Bezon isn't sure when Joe's father and mother first bought into the mucklands. It was before 1936.

The elder Bezon was the son of a muck farmer 17 miles to the west. Joe Bezon said when his grandfather died he had a chance to take over that farm, but he couldn't see farming Elba Muck and muck 17 miles away.

The Bezon's started out with a couple of 10-acre plots that they worked by hand.

When Joe's mother was weeding, she used onion crates as cribs for her boys.

"I can picture that," Joe said. "I can take you down where the shade was. There was a lean-to. They'd put us in a crate and put another one on top of it. There was a ditch right along the muck. I filled it all in and put tile in it. She would put us in the lean-to and she'd take straps and tie two crates together and set us there."

It was the only way to keep the rambunctious boys safe while she worked.

"We would say we wouldn't, don't worry we won't, we won't go out there," Joe said. "But as soon as they got down to the second plot and they'd have their backs to us, we'd run down the road with a wheelbarrow that they carried the weeds with. We would run up and down the road with it. Of course, in those days, there was traffic going, but heck, today, there's no traffic down there."

As time went on, Joe's father diversified his holdings. He bought other land, including ranch land on Oak Orchard Road in Elba where he started raising Angus. Today, that land is a dairy farm owned by Joe's younger brother, Eugene.

Joe's older brother left the muck for good when he went off to fight in World War II.

When he returned, he helped his father run his two motels -- the Sunset Motel on West Main Street Road, Batavia, and the Park Oak Motel, once just off Route 98 and the Thruway exit in Batavia.

Joe and Edith grew up together. Both went to Elba Central School.

When they were first married, they had a place on Pekin Road, but in 1966 bought a farm and farmhouse on Searls Road, Byron.

There they raised their two sons -- Joey and Rick -- and two daughters -- Laurie and Amanda.

Laurie now lives just down the road. She married Jim, who works with Bezon & Sons and Amanda went to work in pharmaceuticals and lives in Philadelphia.

"She enjoys the city life," Edith said. "She always said, 'I only showed 4-H because my dad made me.' "

Rick works at Genesee Community College.

Joe and Edith have five grandchildren.

"The family is growing, but I don't know about being farmers," Edith said.

"We don't have any of the grandchildren working here because it's such a hard life and most years there isn't a lot of money in it," Edith said. "The past few years, we've been doing good, but in 2010, we had no crop at all on the muck. We got flooded out and it was so late, we couldn't put seed in. We had to go to crop insurance, but that's the first time we ever had to do it."

Besides onions on the muck -- the only crop the Bezons have ever grown on the muck -- the family grows on its upland farm cabbage, corn and soy beans.

For years, the Bezons would put in 20 acres of cabbage, which can be a pretty lucrative crop in good years, but the short supply of farm labor has them cutting back to 12 acres this year.

"It's all gone back to the family doing all of the work," Edith said. "I wish they would come up with a program for us where we could hire workers and not worry about the INS coming in and getting them all."

She said when there are immigration raids, officials round up all the workers -- here legally or not -- and take all of them back to Batavia to sort out, which is a major disruption the farm work.

On the farm, Joe also raises beef cattle. Edith calls it his hobby. Joe says it's the favorite part of farming.

All of the Bezon cattle is slaughtered and butchered right on the farm by Joey. The meat is sold to local residents -- the ones who pay their bills, Joe said.

By this time of year, the Bezons have finished planting their onion seeds.

While the Torreys and some other muck farms plant seedlings, the Bezons prefer seeds. 

Onion seeds are very, very tiny. They are rolled in clay, which helps make it easier to plant the seeds using machines.

Rows of barley are planted between the rows of onions to help prevent wind erosion of the muck and protect the tender baby onion leaves from wind damage.

There are little wood chips in the muck that can tear an onion leaf to shreds.

"The wind moves those little chips around like buzz saws and they will cut the tops right off," Edith said.

In the early part of the growing season, onions are in a precarious state. Paul Mortellaro said it isn't unusual to lose one in four acres of new plants to wind.

The Mortellaros typically plant seedlings, but whether seedlings or seeds, when you account for the plants, the fertilizer, the labor, the land costs, taxes and the water, expenses for an acre of onions is from $2,500 to $5,000.

The good years -- which don't happen often, Mortellaro said -- can generate about $12,000 per acre in revenue.

Some years, there's no profit, and perhaps even a loss on the onion fields of the mucklands.

The muck is like its own little microclimate, Mortellaro said. The black soil radiates the heat and makes the flatlands much like a desert in the midst of lush Western New York.

"I've seen it," Mortellaro said, "since the time I was 10 out there weeding -- clouds coming in from Buffalo and they totally disappear by the time they get to the Elba Muck. My brother and I used to speculate that there was a column of warm air rising up from the muck. It is a mini desert during the summertime. It can be really really dry."

If you have good eyes, on a dry, windy day, you can see spirals of dust rising 500 feet into the air, looking like a tornado, Mortellaro said.

The Torreys have added their own above-ground, automated irrigation system to their muck property, but the Bezons largely irrigate by hand.

There were years, Edith said, when she and Joe would sleep in their truck all night, waking at regular intervals to move the irrigation lines.

The Bezons put down about a ton of nitrogen fertilizer per acre of muck, Edith said.

You might think muck, being such an organically rich soil, wouldn't need fertilizer, but new plants in the spring need a lot of nitrogen to get started. After that, the wonders of the muck do the job, but the nitrogen once trapped by the swamp was long ago depleted.

"When they first broke up the muck, all this compost was giving up its nitrogen and it got to the point where it was all leached out," Mortellaro said. "After about five years, you couldn't grow a decent crop without putting those inputs into the muck, so going back as far as anybody can remember, you've had to put in quite a bit of fertilizer."

The onion harvest for the Bezons will be in late August or early September. Edith helps drive the harvest truck when the time comes.

The onions are first pulled out of the ground and left to sit in the sun for three days. The tops need to dry so they will fall off and not get caught up in the machinery.  Without that proper topping off, the onions are more susceptible to disease.

If there isn't three days of warm sun, it jeopardizes the harvest.

The onions are scooped up by a self-propelled onion harvester that was invented and built in Elba by Lee Shuknecht and Sons.

Throughout the growing season, the Bezons battle two of nature's persistent elements: Wind and weeds.

To Joe, some of his neighbors aren't very good muckers. They let weeds grow around their plots and don't do a very good job of maintaining their hedgerows.

Hedges, only about four-feet tall, separate plots in the mucklands. They act as wind breaks and catch some of the muck that might otherwise blow away.

Edith estimates that wind carries away about an inch of muck a year. She figures by the time her grandson is ready to retire -- if he becomes a mucker -- there won't be any muck left to farm.

It's not just wind, but also oxidation that depletes the muck, Mortellaro said.

The little particles of wood that make up muck dry out in the summer heat or during a winter drought just like old barn wood, Mortellaro said.

Even with wind and oxidation, Mortellaro isn't sure the muck is declining at the rate of an inch a year -- the process probably isn't that linear, but certainly, a lot of muck has disappeared over the past 90 years.

He's excavated enough around the the gravel roadways -- built on top of muck -- to see what the original level of the muck used to be, he said. He estimates that areas that were once 12-feet deep in muck are now nine-feet deep.

"It is discouraging," Mortelloro said. "You see the gravel road out there. The road doesn't go away and the fields keep getting lower."

The Bezons own 110 acres of muckland, but only 98 acres are tillable. There are swaths of former muckland that are now just rocks.

As for weeds, Joe is obsessive about weeds, Edith said.

You don't get good onions when weeds are growing in the fields, Joe said. Onions don't do well when competing for nutrients. At harvest, the weeds get all tangled up in the machinery and have to be picked out during grading.

"Joe has always really taken care of the land, because that's what he lives for, being down there mucking," Edith said. "He's been down there since he was born."

It used to be that weeds had to be removed by hand and carried off in bags or buckets. Now Joe uses mostly chemicals, he said.

"Weeding is not like it used to be," Joe said. "You were out there on your hands and knees. I've got pictures of my mother out on her hands and knees weeding in the muck. We didn't have chemicals in those days. Now, heck, you can put it out there and keep it clean."

Sure there are some hardships with farming muck, Joe said, but it's nothing like the old days.  The worst part of machine farming is maintaining the equipment. When it breaks, it is a lot more expensive to fix. 

So long as he's got help, though, Joe said he can handle the work.

All the machinery in the world can't change the weather or the wind or the nature of muck, Edith said.

"You've always got to be one step ahead of Mother Nature," Edith said. "Out here, some days, she can be very cruel."

Joe and Edith on one of their upland plots. Joe was plowing that day, preparing the field for planting.

Joey Bezon in a field that will soon be growing corn. The tractor is a loaner because one of the Bezon's tractors was in the shop being repaired. As farm machinery has gotten more complex, it's more expensive to fix and harder for the farmer to do it himself.

Muck -- sifted a bit by the wind so that the wood chips are a little more visible.

Onions and barley growing in a muck field. If you look at the picture in the slide show below at full-screen resolution, the little onion sprouts will be easier to see. In the distance, rocks that were once buried by muck. Wind and oxidation are reducing the amount of muck in the mucklands every year.

Press release:

Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) voted yesterday to approve the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013 and move it out of the House Agriculture Committee. The bill was passed by a large, bipartisan vote of 36-10.

“I am proud the committee was able to come together and pass a farm bill that will give American farmers the certainty they need to plan for the future,” Congressman Collins said. “Agriculture is critical to the economy of Western New York, and I am proud to have been able to represent the farmers of my district on this important issue.”

Congressman Collins also helped secure additional funding for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), which provides funding to land grant universities, such as Cornell University, to conduct research on specialty crops. Last year’s Farm Bill, which was not passed on the House floor, included $450 million in funding for the SCRI over 10 years. The FARRM Act of 2013 includes $600 million in mandatory funding for the program, which had expired under the current nine-month extension.

Securing funding for the SCRI was important to Congressman Collins as specialty crops farmers across Western New York have consistently cited how critical the ability to conduct research is to their enterprise and industry as it will pioneer new technologies, advanced plant varieties, and help New York farmers generate higher profits.

“New York Farm Bureau is very appreciative of Congressman Chris Collins’ commitment to New York’s farmers. His support in committee of the 2013 Farm Bill sets the stage to provide a stronger safety net for our dairy and specialty crop farmers who help support their local economies,” said Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau.

The legislation also contained major reforms to current U.S. dairy policy. The Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program and Dairy Product Price Support Program have been replaced with a new margin protection program that will better reflect a dairy farmer’s real costs by now equating the cost of feed. This program will ensure Western New York dairy farmers get the support they need to meet the market demands.

The program known as the Dairy Market Stabilization Plan or “supply management,” which would dictate how much a dairy farmer could produce, was also included in the bill. Congressman Collins supported an amendment that would strike this program after hearing near unanimous opinion from his Agriculture Advisory Board that “supply management” would inflate prices for consumers, restrict dairy industry growth, and burden farmers with additional government intervention.

Similar legislation was completed on Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Agriculture. The Farm Bill will now need to be debated on the House floor.

"I am proud of the Committee's effort to advance a farm bill with significant savings and reforms. We achieve nearly $40 billion in savings by eliminating outdated government programs and reforming others. No other committee in Congress is voluntarily cutting money, in a bipartisan way, from its jurisdiction to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues and the bipartisan nature in which this legislation was written and approved. I look forward to debating the bill on the House floor this summer," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (OK-3).

Highlights include:

-- FARRM saves nearly $40 billion in mandatory funds, including the immediate sequestration of $6 billion;
-- FARRM repeals or consolidates more than 100 programs;
-- FARRM eliminates direct payments, which farmers received regardless of market conditions;
-- FARRM streamlines and reforms commodity policy while also giving producers a choice in how best to manage risk;
-- FARRM includes the first reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, saving more than $20 billion;
-- FARRM consolidates 23 conservation programs into 13, improving program delivery to producers and saving more than $6 billion;
-- FARRM builds on previous investments to fruit and vegetable production, farmers markets, and local food systems;
-- FARRM includes several regulatory relief measures to help mitigate burdens farmers, ranchers, and rural communities face;

For more than 20 years, CY Farms has been a major cabbage producer, but this year, not one seedling of cabbage will be dropped in the 400 to 500 acres of land normally set aside for the typically lucrative crop.

Instead, CY will grow a crop less labor intensive -- corn.

Craig Yunker said it was a difficult decision, but the twin challenges of Obamacare and the lack of immigration reform made growing cabbage this year untenable.

The decision will take millions of dollars out of the local economy, Yunker said.

Yunker and his staff made the decision in February because CY had to notify Pudgie Riner, owner of Triple P Farms, that CY wouldn't buy cabbage seedlings from him this year.

"We're not selling our cabbage equipment and we're not selling our cabbage facility," Yunker said. "We're taking a year off to see if this immigration thing settles out and to see if they can come up with more farmer-friendly regulations for Obamacare. If they do, we may grow cabbage again next year."

Typically, CY Farms employs 68 full-time equivalents, and 20 of those workers handle the cabbage operation.

Eliminating those 20 jobs, brings the CY workforce to 48, two below the 50-worker threshold that requires healthcare coverage under President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The act requires employers with 50 or more employees, regardless of revenue, to provide health coverage or pay higher taxes.

There's also a farm labor shortage in Western New York because of decades of immigration mismanagement.

Yunker is hopeful, to some degree, that the House and the Senate will be able to agree on immigration reform this year.

There is a bill under review in the Senate this week that both farmers and ag-worker groups seem to agree is a good move.

The bill would create a "blue card" for experienced workers already in the country. The workers would pay a $400 fee, need to prove they've paid taxes on their earnings and show they've not been accused of committing crimes. Up to 113,000 workers annually who are currently in the country without documentation would be eligible for the newly created blue cards over the next five years.

The bill also sets new visa policies for farm workers to cross the border legally for temporary farm work.

Ag-worker advocates applaud the bill's new minimum wage requirements in several ag-worker categories and praise the chance for workes to gain legal status, which advocates believe will improve working conditions.

The bill also puts farmer worker immigration under the oversight of the USDA, which is where it belongs, said NYS Farm Bureau President Dean Norton.

"We brought together a coalition of agriculture and the farm workers unions and negotiated," Norton said. "Do we get everything we wanted? No, but if this becomes law, it will be a lot better than what we have now."

Maureen Torrey, who has been working on immigration reform for 17 years and has seen attempt after attempt at reform go down in flames, is worried the highly partisan climate in Washington these days will kill this effort as well.

Reform is absolutely necessary if New York wants to keep its dairy industry, she said.

"If Congress doesn't get this passed fast enough, our dairy industry is in trouble," Torrey said. "We don't have enough people to work on the dairies and the dairies have no other option."

Non-dairy farms can use the H2A visa program to bring in a limited number of temporary workers for seasonal work, but dairy work is year-round and there is no visa program to address that need, she said.

The lack of immigration policy is having an ongoing effect on the nature of agriculture in WNY, Torrey said, and not in a good way.

More and more farmers are growing more and more corn because it's cheaper to grow and less labor intensive, but with fewer workers and lower profit margins, millions and millions of dollars are being drained out of the local economy.

Torrey said the labor costs are from $70,000 to $90,000 to grow one thousand acres of field corn, but from $1.5 million to $2 million to grow one thousand acres of cabbage.

Even with the lower cost, she said, the amount of profit on corn isn't what it is for cabbage.

"I'm really concerned about our rural communities," Torrey said. "The ag community has always been very, very good about supporting nonprofits, the hospitals, the colleges, the Boy Scouts, but if you don't have a chance to generate a profit, you don't have a chance to make the community a better place."

Ag workers are also an important part of the local economy with a real multiplier effect when they spend their earnings at local stores, car dealerships and restaurants.

Some local farming families began as immigrant families, Torrey said, migrant workers also gain experience and fill other needed roles in the economy.

Migrant workers and their children tend to be the most qualified to take on food processing jobs, she said. They have the skills and experience necessary to do the work.

"Do you think a degree from a two- or four-year school is going to prepare you for food processing work?" Torrey said. "It isn't. Only hands-on experience is going to do that. Because of the lack of an immigration policy, we've lost two generation of workers."

Yunker is worried that the House and the Senate won't be able to arrive at a compromise with the biggest sticking point being the Senate version's "path to citizenship."

"My take on it is the Senate is intent on passing a comprehensive immigration reform package that includes a path to citizenship," Yunker said. "Personally, I don't object to that at all. The House has a conservative wing that is objecting to that pathway."

Yunker said he's spoken personally to Sen. Charles Schumer -- one of the key architects of the reform bill -- and Rep. Chris Collins about the legislation.

"Selfishly, I say the blue card is adequate and just get me workers," Yunker said. "I'm not sure that's the right thing in the long run. The House wants to go piecemeal on this and just solve some problems. The Senate will want a comprehensive package and they'll deadlock.

"I think Collins believes if the House pushes back on the path to citizenship and just takes care of agriculture that the Senate would accept that as a compromise," he added. "I'm not so convinced."

Like a bad dream that keeps recurring, New York farmers are once again fighting legislation that could put many of them out of business, or radically change the way they do business.

Assembly Democrats yesterday pushed through a farm labor bill similar to one defeated two years ago that would require overtime pay, require at least 24 consecutive hours off each week and allow for collective bargaining.

The bill passed the Assembly 82-53 and moves to the GOP-controlled Senate, where it was defeated two years ago, but the fight isn't over, said Dean Norton, president of the NY Farm Bureau.

"Anytime a law this bad for us is passed in one house with the closeness of the leadership in the Senate, we're concerned," Norton said. "We still need our farmers to contact their senators and let them know how they feel about it."

Many of the arguments being made in support of the bill are disingenuous, Norton said. Farmers already pay minimum wage or higher, provide housing and are covered by workers compensation.

"What we have now is Downstate legislators who have no experience with farms telling us how to run our farms and trying to put in protections that are already in place," Norton said.

New York is ranked 27th in farm production in the nation, but number two in labor costs. New York's labor costs are 56 percent higher than the national average.

New York farmers pay an average of $26 per acre in property taxes compared to a national average of $6 per acre.

Supporters of the bill like to compare New York to California, Norton noted, but California is the number one agriculture state in the nation and has a 10-month growing season. New York's season is five months at best.

As Assemblyman Steve Hawley said during yesterday's floor debate, "There's an old adage -- when sun shines you have to make the hay."

In New York, crops don't wait for the next eight-hour shift to ripen; Harvest time is harvest time.

But neither do workers work all year long. There's a short period of time for them to make the most money they can.

If New York institutes a 40-hour work week for farm labor, Norton said, many labors won't work fewer hours, they'll just get a second job because they know harvest time is the time to make money.

Hawley also argued that if working conditions are bad on a farm, a farmer will have a hard time finding and retaining workers. 

Below is a five-minute video produced by the Farm Bureau about the legislation.

Two years ago it was the work of North Country Democrat Darrel J. Aubertine, who used his power as chair of the agriculture committee to keep the bill from a floor vote. Aubertine was repaid by the GOP with a campaign to win his Senate seat. 

Without Aubertine, Norton still believes farmers have enough powerful friends in the Senate to defeat the bill, but it won't go down without a fight.

UPDATE: Here's Hawley's floor speech.