Ohio farmers grow over 200 types of produce, ranging from grapes to peaches and apples on the fruit side, to tomatoes, sweet corn, squash and pumpkins in the vegetable family. The leading crops are corn and soybeans.
The USDA reports the state has 14.9 million acres of farmland. Food and agriculture make up the top industry, with 44% of the state considered prime farmland. In Ohio, there are around 80,000 farms, 99% of them owned by families, most of them in the Northwest section of the state.
Buurma Farms grows a variety of vegetables, including radish and beets, at its farms in Willard, Ohio, and Gregory, Michigan. About half of its produce comes from each state.
The company reports a very diversified business with no one product standing out. Buurma grows 30 different items, making it easier to fill a truck. They refer to it as one-stop shopping and it’s a niche that helps the company move product.
This year, the weather has been good and production now on schedule for harvesting and shipping.
Buurma sells most of its produce within a 400-mile radius of Ohio but does cover most of the East Coast.
D.R. Walcher Farms in North Fairfield specializes in bell peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, eggplant, winter squashes and fall ornamentals.
The operation sizes, grades and markets its produce. About 40% goes to large grocery chains, either directly or through wholesale brokers; another 40% is for foodservice, mostly to distributors who slice and dice it; and the remaining 20% goes to the commission market, which sells to restaurants and mom-and-pop stores.
One-third to half of the produce grown by D.R. Walcher remains in the Midwest, particularly Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, although does ship further east of the Mississippi.
The farm packs and ships vegetables from its own fields, as well as from other local contracted growers in six states. Then, the produce is all sent out under the D.R. Walcher name.