Agriculture grant helps strawberry farmer

If you peer down into the depression beside a large strawberry field in Hermon, it is surprising to see a large glistening pond. The pond is festooned with floating chairs and a dock for diving but it has a more utilitarian purpose that is evident from the large pump and shiny aluminum pipes at the end of the pond. This is the newly dug irrigation pond for Langley’s Strawberry Farm.

In the field, owner Mike Langley, 58, is bent over picking strawberries. He pops a couple in his mouth and stands up to explain how the pond came to be.

In previous years “we have had diminished yields [because of drought],” he said. “We needed this pond, but could never have done it on our own.”

Langley and his wife, Sharon, built the pond with the aid of a new grant program from the Maine Department of Agriculture, which has the potential to mitigate a lot of crop losses over time.

“If you can irrigate, you can eliminate some of the risk,” said Mary Ellen Johnston, director of the Division of Market and Product Development at the Maine Department of Agriculture. “[The farmers] can’t take bad years the way they used to.”

“In 1999 Gov. King went Down East and saw the devastation of the blueberry crop. He said do something, and we put this program together,” said John Harker, irrigation program manager at the agriculture department.

The average value of crops per acre in the grant program is $3,000. The state has invested an average of $343 per acre in ponds and wells through the grant program, Harker said.

“This small state investment protects a large private investment over many years,” Harker added. “We’d much rather do this up front rather than make disaster payments. The payments aren’t enough, [the farmers] never regain,” he said, calling the program “the best type of insurance.”

This year the department has allocated $975,000 through the grant program to 56 projects in 12 counties throughout the state, and has $225,000 left to distribute before the end of September. The grant pays for 60 percent, up to $75,000, to develop new agricultural water sources.

Ten projects in Penobscot County, besides Langley’s, have been funded – five in Exeter: Double D Farms, Campbell Farms and three at Crane Brothers; three in Corinna: Whitney Farm and two at Hillacre Farms; Bright Berry Farm in Dixmont; and Treworgy Family Orchards in Levant.

For Langley’s, the engineer’s project estimate was $80,000. The department of agriculture allocated 60 percent or $48,000 for the project.

The next hurdle is getting water from the pond to the fields. “We’re just getting our feet wet,” Langley said. With a loaner pump from his engineering firm, he was able to irrigate two acres of new strawberry plants, which are more susceptible to drought. Five acres of mature plants could not be irrigated this year, Langley said.

It will cost $25,000 to $30,000 for the pipes to irrigate all the fields. There is no cost share at the moment for the pipes or a pump, Langley said.

It is likely there will be funds in the 2004 Farm Bill for purchasing equipment, pipes and pumps, but if not, a state bond issue for wells and ponds may include funds for supplies, Harker said.

A new pump will cost $30,000 to $40,000 for overhead irrigation, in which the water is sprayed down on the plants. Langley is thinking about reducing the pump cost by opting for drip irrigation only, which takes a much less powerful pump and also wastes less water.

Langley worked in the dairy business until he left it this spring to devote more time to strawberries.

“If you’re going to do this you’ve got to be available as soon as the ground is ready,” he said. In the past he farmed when he wasn’t working and hired help. He’s not sure yet what he’ll do this winter. Sharon Langley works in a school kitchen during the school year.

In the 1970s, Langley started cultivating several acres for strawberries.

Ten years ago, shortly after Mike and Sharon married, they started cultivating more acreage.

Langley’s closed for strawberry picking July 20.