Growing Veggies

[danm]

I farm in sw MB & was looking at alternative crops. I was noticing that my crop ins coverage for carrots starts at $2000/acre!!
So I want to learn more where would a person research to market veggies/grow & harvest. Seems like we have to start growing something else besides wheat if we don't want to buy more land.
Any suggestions??

[rodb]

Hi Damn

We started 18 years ago and it is a lot harder to get in the business today than then. With all the requirements for HACCP and GAP programs and the facilities that go with it. the other thing is that you would have to deal with "Peak of the Market". so the first step you need to persue is to talk to them. the next is to do a equipment inventory and see if you have any equipment that will work for you in growing carrots. If your lucky you will probably have some tractor with a 3pt hitch which will be integral in growing any vegetable crop.

[seedsman]

Carrots may be good if you are in the rights soil/weather area. Remember that it is a very high volume crop and trucking will kill you if you are more than an hour from a packaging plant. Twenty years ago a friend tried it for a few years. He could only deliver a few truckloads/day, whenever the processor could fit some in. It took a couple of months to harvest 30 acres. Custom trucking ran over $500/ac!