"To survive as a cash-cropper, you have to diversify and you have to find ways to add extra value to your

Lloyd Crowe

crops." So says, Lloyd Crowe, Director for Region 3 (Prince Edward, Lennox and Addington, Hastings, Northumberland and Peterborough counties). Lloyd is a co-owner of Reynolds Brothers Farms Ltd, near Picton. Along with his two uncles, George and Larry Reynolds, they farm 4,500 acres, which is devoted to roughly equal amounts of corn, soybeans and winter wheat.
Diversification comes through the other main enterprise of the farm, custom harvesting vegetables for two large frozen food plants in the London area. Reynolds Brothers Farms Ltd. own five large pod-stripper combines with which they harvest peas and lima beans each summer. "It fits in quite well with our cash-crop operation," says Lloyd. "Pea harvest begins right after we have finished planting in the spring and lasts for about 6 weeks. We run seven days a week, 24 hours a days, working in 12 hours shifts. We take two full crews, along with support and maintenance personnel. Everyone just packs up and moves west for the duration. We even have a mobile repair shop in a 45 foot trailer that carries everything we need."
At one time, Lloyd was part of the vegetable harvesting crew. That meant moving to the London area with his wife, Dorothy, and their four children, and living out of a hotel room for six weeks. With everyone away for that length of time, however, the crops at home began to suffer. Lloyd therefore "gladly volunteers to stay home and look after the crops" along with George, while Larry supervises the London operation.
The rotation of no-till soybeans, no-till wheat followed by conventional corn is used. "We are pretty independent, with our own dryer, elevator and grain storage. Also, we have our own trucks and store our 28% nitrogen on the farm, doing all our own spraying."
"Marketing the crops is still a struggle but hopefully, using tools such as CASCO's website for selling corn online, it will help us to plan more ahead," says Lloyd.
"We cut the wheat as short as we can and take it all off as large square bales," Lloyd comments. "The straw is sold to a local mushroom farm. Right now, we've got 4,000 bales sitting here waiting to be delivered. Again, it's a little way of getting some more value out of our crop."
Lloyd is a long-time director of OCPA, having joined the Board in the early 1990's. Over that time, he has served as Chair of the Communications Committee and is currently on the Environment, Technology and Research Committee. As a Director, Lloyd's main priority is economics. "Profitability -that's my biggest concern. We are short of markets for corn in Central and Eastern Ontario. Now, most of our corn goes to Cardinal, which is three hours away by truck. CASCO is the only volume buyer of corn here, and they rule the roost. I would love to see the ethanol plant get up and running (Seaway Valley). We have invested heavily in that project, both through the farm and personally. We have to do something to create more local demand."
"Safety net programs also have to continue to be front and centre, to help counter what's going on in the U.S.," Lloyd notes. "The programs we've had up until now have been pretty good, with Market Revenue Insurance, Crop Insurance, and NISA. They have made the difference for a lot of producers. Personally, I'll miss NISA. It remains to be seen if the new CAIS program will be as good - there are still a lot of details to be worked out for it."
Lloyd is also a strong supporter of the corn performance trials and is committed to seeing them continue. "I know that not everyone shares my feelings on that, but when I go out to sell seed, farmers like to see that third-party data. I make a lot of use of those reports for corn, wheat, soybeans, and even alfalfa."
In addition to his commitments to OCPA, Lloyd has been a dedicated member of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association. He has been a Director of OSCIA for 10 years and was the President for 2003-04. Outside of farming and family, Lloyd's most active interest is his church. He and his wife are members of Parkdale Baptist Church in Belleville, where he is one of the leaders of the Men's Ministry. Family is a high priority with Lloyd. He and his wife Dorothy have four children. Their youngest two sons and their wives still live in Central Ontario, and are both mechanical engineers. Their oldest son lives in Texas and has founded his own web development and marketing firm. Their only daughter now lives on Vancouver Island with her husband who also works for the Crowe's oldest son's Texas-based company. "My oldest son and daughter have four children each, so we end up using a lot of Air Miles," Lloyd observes, and one can almost see the smile on his face over the telephone. Lloyd, however, is quite concerned about the future of their farm, given that all of their children have off-farm careers. "Farm succession is a big issue for our operation," he says. "At 50, I am the kid in the business. One of my uncles is 75. My whole family works in front of computers, so who is going to run the farm in the next generation"? "On the other hand, look at what one farmer can do now. It's amazing to think that my grandfather farmed with horses."