Fertile Ground Value-Added Farming Gains Favor As Government Payments Dwindle

Some people look at Steve Camp’s hair sheep and see half-breed billy goats.

Camp sees the future of farming.

The 100 Katahdin sheep that graze around Camp’s LaCrosse, Wash., outbuildings shed their wool coat every spring, so they don’t qualify for federal wool payments.

But that’s exactly why the Katahdin, a breed farmers call hair sheep, have suddenly gotten popular. This is the last year sheep farmers will receive price-support payments on wool.

For farmers who raise sheep primarily for breeding or slaughter, an animal that doesn’t need to be sheared may be ideal.

“I’ve just about run out of animals,” says Camp, who also grows wheat and barley. “I grew up with the saying that you shouldn’t put your eggs all in one basket.”

Camp sold a third of his Katahdin to breeders last year. He hopes to build up what’s left to a herd of more than 300 animals as a hedge against downturns in the wheat market and the looming threat that Congress will reduce or eliminate wheat and barley subsidies.

Camp’s Katahdin will be displayed this week at the annual Pacific Northwest Farm Forum and Ag Expo in Spokane, the Inland Northwest’ largest agriculture convention. The sheep will join bison, llamas, emus and Spokane Marketplace vendors in an exhibit aimed at drawing attention to so-called value-added farming.

The convention, which is expected to draw 5,000 people, runs Tuesday through Thursday at the Spokane Convention Center and Coliseum.

The need to diversify the farm and increase sources of income to farmers is so great that Farm Forum sponsors are devoting an entire afternoon to the topic of value-added agriculture. Larry Branen, a professor of food science at the University of Idaho, will lead discussion on value-added farming at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Ag Trade Center.

“With removal of commodity support programs, we have to talk about a whole different type of agriculture,” Branen says.

The notion of value-added farming ranges from growing wheat for basket weavers to marketing personal computer software programs to other farmers. What farmers can do to earn more money is limited only by their imagination.

“There’s a market for this kind of thing right now,” says Dixie Riddle, chairman of the Spokane Ag Bureau’s Value-Added Committee and a prominent Peone Prairie wheat farmer. “It’s the wave of the future.”

For instance, Branen says he is developing soft white wheat varieties that Northwest farmers could grow for starch that would be used as a food additive or as an industrial product.

He hopes that someday International Absorbents Marketing in Smelterville, Idaho, can use wheat starch in its super-absorbent products. International Absorbents uses corn starch to make headbands, grass mats and gas tank devices that sap up moisture. The company buys the starch from the Midwest, where the closest processors are located.

Grain farmers, Branen says, also could improve their bottom line by taking a more active roll in seeking out customers with specific needs.

“It’s going to take risks,” he says. “We have to promote what we’re doing.”

Branen envisions wheat farmers growing specific varieties, and shipping the flour to Korean noodle makers rather than exporting unmilled grain. Other farmers might raise organic wheat and market it to health-conscious American shoppers.

“By doing this, we’ll add value right at the farm,” he says.

Producers of exotic livestock have been the most visible gamblers. Bison, which often are cheaper to raise than cattle, now garner $4 a pound for hamburger. A pair of baby emus, an exotic bird that lays giant green eggs, can bring $2,000, says Ed Benhardt, who manages 250 birds on his Reardan ranch.

Benhardt says an infertile emu egg is so unusual that artists and collectors will pay $10 to $20 each. Cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies also buy emu body oil for cosmetics and medicines.

“There are so many things you can do with agricultural products,” Branen says. “Farmers just need to ask themselves, what do we have that is unique? What do we have that can be marketed?”

MEMO: See sidebar that ran with this story under the headline: Expo highlights