When it comes to farming in New Hampshire, smaller has long been better, or at least more feasible, as small-form agriculture has given way to farmers markets and roadside stands.
The latest numbers show this trend is, if anything, increasing.
“The biggest thing I see right now is the fresh, local movement. It seems to be getting more and more popular,” said Wayne Hall II, who owns Rockey Ole’ Farm on Silk Farm Road in Concord. “Everybody wants to know where their stuff is coming from, they’re shy of the large farms.”
If you are shy of large farms, New Hampshire is the place to be.
According to the 2018 Census of Agriculture, almost a quarter of farms in the state are less than 10 acres in size, and more than 40% of them sell less than $2,500 worth of vegetables, eggs, meat, cheese, hay or other items a year.
“The majority of our farms are part-time, in that the owner typically has off-farm income,” wrote Gail McWilliam Jellie, director of the state’s Division of Agricultural Development, in an email response to the Monitor. “This doesn’t necessarily mean they are hobby farms, but farms that may be in various stages of development. You have to start somewhere.”
Lots of people seem to be starting. The numbers as compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s every-five-year census of agriculture tell the tale.
In 1997, there were 2,937 farms in New Hampshire, defined as places that sold at least $1,000 a year in agricultural products. On average, they were 141 acres in size and had annual sales of $50,891.
A decade later in 2007, as the boom in farmer’s markets and locally grown food hit, the number of farms had soared to 4,166, an increase of more than one-third.
But the farms were much smaller – an average of 113 acres, with half of them smaller than 45 acres – and average sales per farm had fallen slightly despite years of inflation to an average of $47,780.
The most recent data, from 2017, shows more of the same. While the number of farms didn’t change much in a decade, they have shrunk to an average size of 103 acres, with half under 35 acres, and their average sales had dipped again, to $45,548.
A half-century ago the traditional New Hampshire farm, often depending on one or two crops sold to wholesalers, was in trouble. Such New England institutions as dairy farms and apple orchards were being undercut by larger competitors in parts of the country where costs were lower. They were shutting down, with fields returning to forest or being sold and turned into developments.
How much trouble were they in? At the end of World War II, New Hampshire had more than 18,000 farms, but a generation later that had fallen by five-sixths, to just 2,900 in the 1969 census.
Our farming was saved by skipping the middleman. Instead of selling one thing to a supermarket chain or a regional processor, farmers found that they could sell many things directly to consumers.
This shift was made possible partly by the development of more outlets than the traditional roadside farm stand. These include community-supported agriculture – one of the first CSAs in the country was in New Hampshire, at the Wilton-Temple Cooperative Farm – as well as farmers markets, which were a niche item in the 1980s but now exist in more than 45 towns around to the state, including many that operate all winter long.
The local-food movement has only accelerated the transition. Perhaps the most visible sign of this change involves chickens.
In 2007, the census reported 210,000 birds in the state raised for their eggs on 912 farms; by 2017 that had risen to 1,145 farms – more than a quarter of the total – holding a quarter million birds, as well as 156 farms raising 128,000 birds for meat, a category that barely existed a decade before.
Small chicken operations operating on a free-range model have become so common that the state added “domestic fowl” – ducks, geese and Guinea hens don’t get a free pass – to a long-standing state law that makes owners of farm animals liable if their beasts wander onto somebody else’s property. New Hampshire Fish and Game had to respond, as well: This spring they posted information for newbie poultry owners about how to set up an electric fence, in response to the increasing number of complaints about bears breaking into backyard chicken coops.
Most of these farms have one thing in common: Not getting rich.
The 54-year-old Hall, a fifth-generation farmer, says annual sales at Rockey Ole’ Farm are in the $10,000 to $20,000 range – then he adds, “That’s probably grandiose thinking.”
Those are sales, not profits, so this is not an operation to support a family.
He specializes in row crops – “anything that goes in the dirt, I plant” – and says he’s not quite big enough to set up a deal with restaurants, which are proving to be a new outlet for small farmers’ vegetables and meat.
“We do find that some restaurants are reaching out to local farmers,” said Hall, who is president of the Concord Farmers Market. “I feel the local product is far superior to what you’re going to buy somewhere else. … It’s part of a trend toward better eating.”
As for the business side of small farming, Hall is realistic. “A lot of times it’s a labor of love for all of us,” he said.
Hopefully, he adds, it’s a love that people younger than him are finding.
“I see an interest coming in agriculture. And we need it: if we don’t get the younger generation interested in this, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” he said.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
