Growing with Care, Marketing to Growth

By Deborah Wechsler (2004)

Belvedere Plantation
M.R. and Donnie Fulks
belvederefarm@aol.com
www.belvedereplantation.com 

Donnie Fulks was 13 when his family moved from rapidly urbanizing Montgomery County, Maryland, where his grandfather and father operated a poultry farm, to a new farm in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. At the time, the county was very rural; now, it is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the country. Though he left the farm to go to college (“It was my sabbatical,” he says) Donnie has been farming all of his life. The farm is a corporation, and he and his father have developed a division of labor: M.R. Fulks is in charge of the row crops, and Donnie is “Vice President for Direct Marketing,” responsible for producing all the farm’s direct market crops and managing the farm’s extensive consumer-oriented activities.

For many years the Fulks family farmed conventionally, raising row crops and as many as 20 acres of strawberries. But in the early 1990s, they made a major shift in production methods. “I became ill from the chemicals,” explains Donnie, “and even had to leave the farm for a couple of weeks. Though we were very progressive conventionally and were successful, every year there was a new disease or a new bug, and even with fumigation we couldn’t control black root rot in strawberries. Spider mites were an annual epidemic. We were creating an environment for pathogens, and the whole soil biology was out of whack. We had all kinds of soil-related problems experts wouldn’t give us an answer for.” M. R. Fulks agrees: “We had irrigated corn that 90% of it would be lying flat on the ground. The experts kept saying we needed more potash, but it didn’t help.”

“We decided there had to be a better way,” says Donnie. He and his father began researching alternatives. When they attended a Renewable Farms conference in the Midwest, they felt they were finally beginning to understand, and they plugged into a network of consultants and farmers who could help them. “We realized that our real problem was that use of some fertilizers and crop chemicals had destroyed soil health and nutrient balance,” says M.R. The Fulkses stopped using muriate of potash and dolomitic (high-magnesium) limestone, switched to high-calcium limestone, introduced beneficial microorganisms, increased their use of cover crops and rotations, and reduced overall use of fertilizers and pesticides. They began a large-scale composting operation and started bringing in chicken litter. Their corn and strawberry problems disappeared and the farm’s soil became more healthy and balanced. “It’s been a ten-year process,” says Donnie. The farm now devotes about 500 acres to raising certified organic corn, soybeans, and small grains. Rye is used as a cover crop. Working with consultants, M.R. adopted in-the-field sheet composting of crop residues and cover crops, since removing residues for composting and reapplying compost is prohibitively expensive in row crops. His goal is to break down residues completely and quickly, so whenever crops are disked or cut, a microbial starter is sprayed on, along with a sugar-based “energy package” to give these microbes an initial boost. Building humus should be the goal, he points out, not just increasing raw organic matter. Weed control at Belvedere Farm includes carefully timed pre-emergence tillage with specialized coil-tine, spring-tooth cultivators and flame weeding. “Organic production takes a lot more management and the weather is a lot more critical,” observes M.R.

M.R. sells most of the grain and soybeans direct to organic dairies and poultry farms as organic feed. For a while, a lot of their soybeans went to Japan, but that market is now disadvantageous for American producers. Currently, he notes, the price for organic feed soybeans is as about as high as that for human food-grade soybeans.

The farm’s other crops, strawberries, pumpkins, gourds, ornamental corn, and chrysanthemums, are raised for direct market at the farm and are Donnie’s responsibility. These crops are not organic. For strawberries, Donnie says, “The risk is just too high. Perhaps it could be done in high tunnels, but would the economics work out?” If someone asks, he will describe his practices as “biologically oriented,” but doesn’t make a point of it in his marketing.

Belvedere Farm was one of the first farms in Virginia to switch from matted row to plasticulture, in the early 1990s. A three-year rotation and applications of pre-plant compost (about 5-6 cubic yards per acre, though initial applications were higher) help them dispense with the soil fumigation commonly used with strawberries, and allow them to apply much less nitrogen fertilizer than they used to. Foliar applications of compost tea are generally used instead of fungicides, but anthracnose-infected plants from his supplier the last two years have forced Donnie to mount an aggressive program of fungicide applications to prevent this devastating disease. He would like to avoid the disease by planting more resistant strawberry varieties, but limited choices force him to rely on the standard but disease-susceptible variety Chandler for a large portion of his crop because of its other more positive attributes of yield, adaptation, and fruit quality. Donnie uses drip irrigation under the plastic and row covers and overhead irrigation for frost protection. Belvedere Farm raises its own plug plants from Canadian-source tips, setting out these plugs in mid-September. Strawberries may stay in the field for one or two years, depending on the weather and the variety. To get more use from the plastic and drip tape, at the end of harvest season for plants that will not be carried over to a second year, he kills and removes the strawberry plants and sets out gourds on the same beds.

Donnie plants pumpkins no-till into rolled-down rye. He uses the variety Autumn Gold for school groups—“it’s bigger than a lot of people use, but it works well for us,” he says. For larger pumpkins, he chooses Magic Lantern or related varieties, because of their resistance to powdery mildew. Donnie finds that pumpkins are difficult to grow in his climate, blaming the prevalence of disease partly on poor air quality in this metropolitan corridor. [My anecdotal observation is that every summer when the air quality warnings go to “code red”, downy mildew becomes a real problem.] As a result, though he raises a 20-acre patch, he buys far more than he raises, usually from farms in Ohio.

Agritainment activities now brings in more income than the crops themselves. “My biggest crop now is cars in the parking lot,” says Donnie. Close to 60,000 people visit the farm each year; 20,000 of these are children on school tours. The main season is the Fall Harvest Festival during late September and October, when the farm offers a “Great Adventure Maize Maze”, designed by international maze designer Adrian Fisher, a “Great Pumpkin Patch,” bonfires, hayrides, a “fun barn” with ropes and swings and lots of hay to climb in, and more. A big slide is under construction. From spring through fall the farm hosts educational field trips for preschoolers through high school, “Virginia has a set of “Standards of Learning” for each grade level that is posted on the web,” says Donnie. “We try to hard to make our field trips as educational as possible. The teachers need to justify every trip they take.” The farm also hosts birthday parties, company picnics, parties, and church and scout groups. In spring of 2004, the farm hosted a major Civil War reenactment, which, says Donnie, turned out to be a lot more work than he thought it would be, though it brought lots of publicity.

Donnie estimates that most consumers in strawberry season come from within 30 miles of the farm, but in the much bigger fall season, customers come from as far away as Washington, DC and Richmond, VA. School groups will drive more than an hour by bus for field trips.

M.R. Fulks is beginning to “semi-retire,” he says, wanting to give up 12-hour farming days to spend more time with his grandchildren. Some of the row crop land is now rented out to other farmers who have learned organic practices from him. One of the contiguous farms, which belonged to Donnie’s grandfather, will soon be sold to settle the estate. The family is just beginning its discussions of how the generational transition of the farm will eventually take place. For Donnie, in this rapidly developing area, entertainment farming is clearly a big part of the future of agriculture. “In order to be profitable, the farmer must add value to his product. We do that primarily by selling an experience,” he says. He plans to continue to expand and refine the farm’s direct market crops and activities as his customers move in around him. 

Location: Northern Virginia, near Fredericksburg, between Richmond, VA and Washington, DC
Climate zone: 7   Soil type: Sandy loam to clay loam
Years in commercial production: 32 years
Acreage: 625 at Belvedere Farm, 700 at two adjoining farms
Crops/livestock: Certified organic corn, soybeans, and small grain. 4-5 acres strawberries; 30 acres pumpkins; gourds and ornamental corn; 1500 chrysanthemum plants
Value-added products & activities: 14-acre corn maze, school tours, company picnics, other agritainment; crafts, pies, and private-label jams and jellies at market.
Notable facilities and equipment: Seasonal on-farm retail market with small bakery; 25 acres parking (more as needed); 8 custom hay wagons for transporting customers; specialized European compost/cultivation equipment
Weeks in production: Open to public during spring strawberry season and for 5-week “Fall Harvest Festival”; groups by reservation other times.
Markets: Most grain and soybeans as organic feed direct to organic dairies and poultry farms; all other products direct to consumers at the farm; strawberries are both pick-your-own and pre-pick
Labor: Donnie Fulks and his father, M.R. Fulks, full time; two full-time employees plus 4 H2A workers April-November; 40-60 part-time/seasonal workers during spring and fall, when open to the public. Donnie’s wife, Donna, works full-time off-farm, but helps on weekends. Donnie and Donna also have 5 boys that help on the farm.