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Financing

Beginning Farmer and Ranchers Development Program
Kohala Center
NOTES from class on April 27, 2019 by Jim Crum
Presentation by Jill Ficke-Beaton (for registered Students only) here
Presentation by Lester Ueda (for registered Students only) here
Presentation by Eric Bowman (for registered Students only) here

Jill Ficke-Beaton, USDA-NRCS
Soil conservationist
Acting district conservationist, Waimea service center


USDA Program to assist land owners, land managers and communities. 
– can come out at our invitation to do a site visit within a couple weeks: soils and water folks come too, process of helping takes time, getting ready for farming.
– if you have a conservation program then you can be exempt from grubbing and grading program permit requirement.
– don’t help with illegal crops- look at soil, air, water, animals, plants, energy, resources
– steer you into a program like: environmental quality incentive program,

Ag management assistance (good for beginning farmers), conservation innovation grant, conservation stewardship program, emergency watershed protection, regional conservation,  Ag conservation and wetlands reserve easements, landscape
– $450k available over 4 years with 2018 Farm bill
– mid-October cutoff for applications so do your work well ahead of this- don’t stop working to wait for funding. 
– commitment to the federal government so think carefully
– waimea has 46 applications and only one person to manage it
– it’s about sustainability and making the land usable forever. 
– have soil and (plant tissue test) by UH Extension in Waimea or Komo Hana and talk about crops you want to grow and organically so they can give 
– eligibility: control or own eligible Ag land, comply with adjusted gross income limitation, in compliance with highly erodible land and wetland conservation requirements, develop an NRCS EQUIP plan of operations- Ferrell pig program helped with APHIS for mitigation and cameras and 
– life span on projects: 20 years for fence, 
– 5% have a spot check every year. 
– plans are windbreak, pollinator habitat, mulch, seasonal high tunnel, cover crop, high tunnel system
– 1” of water on 1 acre requires 100,000 gallons
– 50% goes to livestock
– over $900,000 annual income is disqualified, but can still partner with others that make over that, but their portion disqualified
– you are the driver of your land system and so can decide what direction it goes- multi-species grazing can have great benefits, but sheep, horses with cows can help. Livestock should be a tool, not a burden* sustainability starts with profitability

Lester Ueda, USDA-FSACounty Executive Director
Hawai’i County FSA Office
154 Waianuenue Ave., #122Hilo, HI 96720
808-933-8381 x2
www.fsa.usda.gov

Help with non-insurance crops
– micro loans, farm ownership, operating (up to $50k @ 3.5% up to 7 years), emergency (up to $500k @3.75% within 8 months of disaster designation for 7-40 years), youth loans
– micro loan with expedited application process for annual operating expenses, supplies, farm equipment, farm vehicles, family living expenses 
– the FSA county committee (elected by farmers and ranchers) but ranchers are the ones in charge
– programs include Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance, livestock forage program, livestock indemnity program, emergency livestock assistance program, tree assistance program, emergency loans, emergency conservation program (this is used a lot)
– noninsured crop disaster assistance program (NAP): due to damaging weather or natural disaster, service fee of $325/ crop up to $825 waived for socially disadvantaged, limited resources, beginning farmers and veterans- losses have to exceed 50% and it covers 55% of revenue but can “buy up” to cover 35% loss and 100% payment 
– must annually report acreage and production and it is verified. 
– emergency assistance for livestock, honey bees, and farm-raised fish: managed hives, CCD, natural disasters, loss adjuster verifies, 
– NAP (crop insurance) deadlines: 5/1 = Nursery 9/1 = floriculture, Christmas trees, aqua culture, mushrooms, sod grass and 12/1 = forage/grass, vegetables, fruits, honey
– Emergency Conservation Program: 75% cost sharing for land cleanup from natural disasters and water conservation measures during drought. Can help with wind damage- Reporting deadlines: 9/30 = floriculture, 12/2 = honey bee colonies, 12/16 = forage* bees are considered livestock* if you don’t register/participate and apply you can’t get help* documentation is key to success

Eric Bowman
The Kohala Center Microloan Program
“Farm Capitalization”


Spend money on: Equipment @ $10000, seed and plants @ $5000, fertilizer @ $5000, building @ $10000, animals @ 
– current assists = less than a year
– capital equipment & working capital are needed. 
– cash is king to stay in business, so AP and AR are balanced to manage your inventory
– look everywhere to acquire money: friends and family, loans, selling assets, marrying well, other job l, retirement fund loan
– equity (ownership): personal savings, sweat equity, investors
– debt: customer prepay (CSA), loans, credit cards
– cost of money: investors take ownership and are there forever, loans require collateral and and interest, grants take time and administration. 
– challenges: no money for needed equipment and building. 
– most money comes from friends and family. They already trust you. Start there, then move to investors, then lenders, then customers- when asking, tie it to a milestone, put it in writing, show your own commitment, experiment on your own, don’t ask for more than they can afford to lose, communicate plan and risks, focus on well-connected friends with experience, tie repayments to revenues
– lenders:
1) start with equity from family friends and savings
2) next are micro lenders like Kiva and Slow Money
3) CDFIs like FTHF
4) government like USDA FSA and HDOA @ 3.74-4% 5) commercial like FCS and First Financial but need established operations and higher interest rate 5-7%
– Kohala Center hawaii food producers fund: kiva.org/borrow uses “social underwriting” and matches and is 0% interest and 36 month repay to all those that match too! Great for quick projects.  
– Feed the Hunger Foundation: in Honolulu   
– USDA Rural Energy for America Program: up to 25% of renewable or energy efficiency. 10/31 and 4/1 deadlines.
– Value Added Producer Grant: $75k planning or $250k working capital- htdc.org/money for 20% of hawaii-bases manufacturing aug-mar deadlines. Covers equipment, training and feasibility studies
– HIPlan Business Competition: $25k, monthly meetups, 9/7 deadline, 7-page business plan – food safety reimbursement grant: up to $5000 over 5 years FSMA deadline is application on 4/30 deadline 
– most useful: more friends and richer relatives, register for free NAP insurance, trust the government when it is good for you. 

Crooked Nail Farm- bamboo as windbreak if Malay dwarf or Fernleaf Multiplex- diversity of crops is key and plan for different times of harvest- use grafted fruit trees- avocado: add 3 cups lime, 2.5 cups 0-45-0, and a shovel of compost or chicken manure- tree shelters are good anywhere. Use 10’ hog wire and low% shade cloth- fertilize new trees regularly 4x/yr with emphasis on warmer months- K’au dwarf or Florigon mangos and Dave Frenz at 987-6455 in Hilo can help with best
* buy Stihl, Kubota, and DeWalt. Skip Ryobi and Black and Decker- diesel 
* keep your day job (50% of farmers are there)
* need more friends with money!!
* Perennial peanut. Get it from KTA

Seeds and Seedlings

Beginning Farmer and Ranchers Development Program
Kohala Center
NOTES from class on March 9, 2019 by Jim Crum
“Local Seeds for Local Needs” Presentation by Glenn Teves here
“Growing Vegetable Seedlings” article by Glenn (for registered students) here

Glenn Teves, CTAHR Extension Agent 37 years, farmer 18 acres at Puakala Farms, and Hawaii Seed Growers Network member on Molokai.
Tevesg@ctahr.hawaii.edu

Puakala Farms: PO Box 554, Hoolehua, HI, 96729-0554
gtmolokai@gmail.com

Know what to grow when bases on weather. Everything has to just click and the crop can explode. 
Avocado – Guatemalan (winter) & West Indies (summer)
Moloka’i – strong and connected community 4 generations next to each other on island. 7 deer for every resident. 
Internet – whatever is left over from farmers market and post online. Gotta look at the prices and market to ($5.20/lb for tomato’s to snowbird. People buy online on Sunday and pickup at distribution centers on island
Seeds – lost art but critical. Kent Whealey creates seed savers
Public seed initiative- 2010 “restore our seed” symposium Hawaiiseedgrowersnetwork.com has an online store
Ag: Growth is controlled by the scarcest resource (nutrients, knowledge, sun, rain) 
Taiwan has awesome seeds but you can’t get access to them. 
seeds are the spark. Save them for- food security: <7 days worth of food- adapted seed: adapted (Vimeo on Moloka’i). Find varieties that work well and adapted to the area. Hawaii used to be the best disease resistant. Heat tollerence and – seed availability: losing varieties because of big guys buying up everything. Seeds are becoming expensive too- seed sovereignty: need to be self sufficient. Avoid GMO contaminated seed with wrong info. Large monopolies can limit access to things we need/want
Vavilov’s centers to origins – talks about where all crops originated. 
Either go heavy on farming or heavy on marketing. CSA, Direct to consumer, 4 seasons. Worth more the farther away from home. 
Know your crops! Nutrition, special needs, adaptability, adapt to your farm and adapt your farm. Every crop has a cycle and you need to know the cycle. Most of the world research doesn’t apply to Hawaii. Timing of planting is important to cycles to control weeds.
Taro – crop rotation is key to avoid southern blight $2/lb for taro. Pica Ulu ulu. For 3-year rotation, need a nematode resistant like sun hemp, resistant tomatoes or soybeans
Proper nutrition can address the severity of most diseases. Know your soil! Soil series, pH, organic matter, P/K/Ca/Mg, crop history and rotation. 
Clean crops in the field
To pull nutrients from low down and drop them to the ground and add nutrients. Kiewe for example 
Daikon, green onion, do well with lots of rain
Calcium is important: dolomite, gypsum, ground coral. Also biochar and opihi shells
Sorghum-Sudan Hybrid can be used as a windbreak. Sterile seed variety from Koolau seed to keep them under control. Chop them low and they grow back. 1-2” apart. Not invasive and nematode resistant. Can plant panax for wind protection for the wind protection. Avocado and mango need wind protection to 
Bigger seeds mean bigger crops. Organic seed alliance conference in Oregon and people swap seeds. 
*business idea: food coop to have a place for all the people to bring their crops or collaborate on harvesting. B&C rated markets for food. 
Pickles – salt and chill for 3 hours to keep them crunchy. 
Dried bananas – a lot of work to it
Sell mixes to pull people in. If you have something you like, force them to take other products you sell too – market muscle. Sometimes you find inspiration by trying to find inspiration (sell to local Times instead of driving to Honolulu)
Soy beans – no money in it for fresh, so need value added. 
Seed vendors: Southern exposure, johnny’s. Try 4-5 varieties and test them out to see how they do.
Big island- new soil- wide-range of soils- steep areas lead to runoff so need to capture and retain soil- high runoff: leaches calcium, magnesium and potassium- low pH<5.5 ties up phosphorus and creates toxicity. – liming is costly. $150/ton and 15tons/acre
Soil- the older the soil, the more it is depleted- lower temp volcanos and slower moving keeps better soils- sampling is very important!- low in phosphorus = purple stems and leaves. 
Fertilize in spring and not winter. Fertilize banana in August to get them ready for the winter. 
Climate Change:- weather extremes: – unseasonable weather: – insect flare ups: black witch moth. Mayans know them well and see them as diseased relatives. Rose beetles on banana and corn. – new dominant weeds: Guinean Grass
How to grow seedlings- key to success – good plants produce good seeds- heirloom should be a thing that has been around 50 years of more- annuals: done in one year (carrots and beets 2 years)- biennial: requires 2 years to complete cycle and overwinter. Chill or vernalization required to trigger flowering. – in Hawaii, some biennials may act like annuals: kale, colored carrots, radish, chard, etc. – open pollinated are inbred lines that “breed true” and most common seed saved. Expensive!- Hybrid F1 is selective breeding by cross-pollinating two different parent plants. A strategy to discourage seed saving. More diverse – self pollinators: inbreeders. peas, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc- out crossers: can cross with each other so need to be isolated. broccoli, cauliflower, cabbagecross breeders. Squash, cucumber, watermelon.- Require bees: plant buckwheat to attract bees and pollinate the melons. Keep hem by having water and flowers. Lava rock on top of water to wick up the water for bees to drink. – Planting distance are keys to to cross pollination – inbreeding depression: when the gene pool of a variety is narrowed by seed selection- vernalization: length of time at or below a certain temperature that each Bienniel crop requires for flowering for its second season. Bienniels = 41-50, – separate: size (screens, sieves, colanders), weight (winnowing), floaters and sinkers (green onion), threshing & beating (), stepping/dancing/stomping. – germination testing: every lot should be tested to determine percentage. There are germination standards if you want to sell them. – dry the seed to 7% humidity. Put them in a jar in the fridge and silica. Don’t have them over 70 degrees. – they are alive! Keep metabolic rate low to preserve them. 32-41 degrees- control pest: freeze for 1/2 day. Don’t leave them around too long. 
In hawaii, – temp at night may now be low enough to allow he plants to rest. – find what needs the the least about of fertilizer- pest and disease tolerance- late maturing. Pull flowers off to allow them to grow bigger and produce later- look and taste. Culinary breeding network has a winter squash flavor wheel. 
Hawai’i challenges- pests! They don’t die- most vegetable varieties are developed elsewhere 
Alan Kapuker – Seeds of Change and Peace Seeds and Peace Seedlings. 
African mustard seeds – grow great and excellent spice
Eggplant: UH long green is a great sweet variety. Beatrice is traditional. 
Green onion: very popular. Splitting type. Koba does well here and makes seeds. High pH 6-6.5
Hawaiian shallot – akakai and grown as green onion
Lettuce: most are loose leaf. Best are UHManoa, Sierra, Hilo Green. Issues with Tip Burn, early bolting, increase “milling” and pests. 
Northern organic vegetable breeding network
Genetic resource information network from USDA
Rat lung – from African snails. 
Purple peacock – kale x broccoli
Pak Choy – Chinese mustard but easy to grow. Anti-cancer crops. 
Carrots were developed to be orange by the Dutch because it’s their national color
Culinary breeding network Hawaii. 
Tomatoes: Kalohi do well. – determinant: more concentrated over shorter time and better with wind- indeterminate – cherry. Blond Girl- healani from Volcano. and Juliet cherry, love song. – lots of diseases so need to find the 5 varieties that work – blossom end rot is from calcium deficiency
Seeds that can go right in the ground: beans. 
Seedlings- Potting mix is expensive to try to minimize. As small a cell as possible. 1-2”. – Farmers either water too much or not enough so prepare your mix well. Try out different mixes, make notes in a journal – You need to come up with a recipe, start to finish to be able to repeat it. From plant seedling to harvested and sold plant. – Only reuse potting materials for transplanting. – Fertilizer for potting: miracle grow, bone and blood, time release. – they are ready to transplant if you can pull out the plant with the dirt, but roots not coming out of the bottom- plant 3x diameter of he seed
Be careful of drought. Know the environment they come from, but when the flowers come out, they need food and water
Avocado like shade for germination. hanai Ai –  Uh sustainable Ag. has resources and newsletters. Moloka’i native Hawaiian 
“The only way things change is through radical ideas expressed loudly”
Tomatoes and  potatoes can’t handle a lot of water. 
You lose control when products go off island and can’t always trust folks on Oahu
Marketing- carbon footprint- how nutritious and fresh is your food?- where does your food come from?- do you want to support “blood diamond” agriculture- America likes cheap food, but at What cost?!
“You start as an idealist, then become a realist, but try not to be a cynic.” 
Business ideas* oversite of seed naming and lineage. * food hubs, collaboratives, and and food systems
Liam at Kohala Center is web site contact. Probably best to have a student-run site. 


Puakala Farms: PO Box 554, Hoolehua, HI, 96729-0554
gtmolokai@gmail.com

Know what to grow when bases on weather. Everything has to just click and the crop can explode. 
Avocado – Guatemalan (winter) & West Indies (summer)
Moloka’i – strong and connected community 4 generations next to each other on island. 7 deer for every resident. 
Internet – whatever is left over from farmers market and post online. Gotta look at the prices and market to ($5.20/lb for tomato’s to snowbird. People buy online on Sunday and pickup at distribution centers on island
Seeds – lost art but critical. Kent Whealey creates seed savers
Public seed initiative- 2010 “restore our seed” symposium Hawaiiseedgrowersnetwork.com has an online store
Ag: Growth is controlled by the scarcest resource (nutrients, knowledge, sun, rain) 
Taiwan has awesome seeds but you can’t get access to them. 
seeds are the spark. Save them for- food security: <7 days worth of food- adapted seed: adapted (Vimeo on Moloka’i). Find varieties that work well and adapted to the area. Hawaii used to be the best disease resistant. Heat tollerence and – seed availability: losing varieties because of big guys buying up everything. Seeds are becoming expensive too- seed sovereignty: need to be self sufficient. Avoid GMO contaminated seed with wrong info. Large monopolies can limit access to things we need/want
Vavilov’s centers to origins – talks about where all crops originated. 
Either go heavy on farming or heavy on marketing. CSA, Direct to consumer, 4 seasons. Worth more the farther away from home. 
Know your crops! Nutrition, special needs, adaptability, adapt to your farm and adapt your farm. Every crop has a cycle and you need to know the cycle. Most of the world research doesn’t apply to Hawaii. Timing of planting is important to cycles to control weeds.
Taro – crop rotation is key to avoid southern blight $2/lb for taro. Pica Ulu ulu. For 3-year rotation, need a nematode resistant like sun hemp, resistant tomatoes or soybeans
Proper nutrition can address the severity of most diseases. Know your soil! Soil series, pH, organic matter, P/K/Ca/Mg, crop history and rotation. 
Clean crops in the field
To pull nutrients from low down and drop them to the ground and add nutrients. Kiewe for example 
Daikon, green onion, do well with lots of rain
Calcium is important: dolomite, gypsum, ground coral. Also biochar and opihi shells
Sorghum-Sudan Hybrid can be used as a windbreak. Sterile seed variety from Koolau seed to keep them under control. Chop them low and they grow back. 1-2” apart. Not invasive and nematode resistant. Can plant panax for wind protection for the wind protection. Avocado and mango need wind protection to 
Bigger seeds mean bigger crops. Organic seed alliance conference in Oregon and people swap seeds. 
*business idea: food coop to have a place for all the people to bring their crops or collaborate on harvesting. B&C rated markets for food. 
Pickles – salt and chill for 3 hours to keep them crunchy. 
Dried bananas – a lot of work to it
Sell mixes to pull people in. If you have something you like, force them to take other products you sell too – market muscle. Sometimes you find inspiration by trying to find inspiration (sell to local Times instead of driving to Honolulu)
Soy beans – no money in it for fresh, so need value added. 
Seed vendors: Southern exposure, johnny’s. Try 4-5 varieties and test them out to see how they do.
Big island- new soil- wide-range of soils- steep areas lead to runoff so need to capture and retain soil- high runoff: leaches calcium, magnesium and potassium- low pH<5.5 ties up phosphorus and creates toxicity. – liming is costly. $150/ton and 15tons/acre
Soil- the older the soil, the more it is depleted- lower temp volcanos and slower moving keeps better soils- sampling is very important!- low in phosphorus = purple stems and leaves. 
Fertilize in spring and not winter. Fertilize banana in August to get them ready for the winter. 
Climate Change:- weather extremes: – unseasonable weather: – insect flare ups: black witch moth. Mayans know them well and see them as diseased relatives. Rose beetles on banana and corn. – new dominant weeds: Guinean Grass
How to grow seedlings- key to success – good plants produce good seeds- heirloom should be a thing that has been around 50 years of more- annuals: done in one year (carrots and beets 2 years)- biennial: requires 2 years to complete cycle and overwinter. Chill or vernalization required to trigger flowering. – in Hawaii, some biennials may act like annuals: kale, colored carrots, radish, chard, etc. – open pollinated are inbred lines that “breed true” and most common seed saved. Expensive!- Hybrid F1 is selective breeding by cross-pollinating two different parent plants. A strategy to discourage seed saving. More diverse – self pollinators: inbreeders. peas, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc- out crossers: can cross with each other so need to be isolated. broccoli, cauliflower, cabbagecross breeders. Squash, cucumber, watermelon.- Require bees: plant buckwheat to attract bees and pollinate the melons. Keep hem by having water and flowers. Lava rock on top of water to wick up the water for bees to drink. – Planting distance are keys to to cross pollination – inbreeding depression: when the gene pool of a variety is narrowed by seed selection- vernalization: length of time at or below a certain temperature that each Bienniel crop requires for flowering for its second season. Bienniels = 41-50, – separate: size (screens, sieves, colanders), weight (winnowing), floaters and sinkers (green onion), threshing & beating (), stepping/dancing/stomping. – germination testing: every lot should be tested to determine percentage. There are germination standards if you want to sell them. – dry the seed to 7% humidity. Put them in a jar in the fridge and silica. Don’t have them over 70 degrees. – they are alive! Keep metabolic rate low to preserve them. 32-41 degrees- control pest: freeze for 1/2 day. Don’t leave them around too long. 
In hawaii, – temp at night may now be low enough to allow he plants to rest. – find what needs the the least about of fertilizer- pest and disease tolerance- late maturing. Pull flowers off to allow them to grow bigger and produce later- look and taste. Culinary breeding network has a winter squash flavor wheel. 
Hawai’i challenges- pests! They don’t die- most vegetable varieties are developed elsewhere 
Alan Kapuker – Seeds of Change and Peace Seeds and Peace Seedlings. 
African mustard seeds – grow great and excellent spice
Eggplant: UH long green is a great sweet variety. Beatrice is traditional. 
Green onion: very popular. Splitting type. Koba does well here and makes seeds. High pH 6-6.5
Hawaiian shallot – akakai and grown as green onion
Lettuce: most are loose leaf. Best are UHManoa, Sierra, Hilo Green. Issues with Tip Burn, early bolting, increase “milling” and pests. 
Northern organic vegetable breeding network
Genetic resource information network from USDA
Rat lung – from African snails. 
Purple peacock – kale x broccoli
Pak Choy – Chinese mustard but easy to grow. Anti-cancer crops. 
Carrots were developed to be orange by the Dutch because it’s their national color
Culinary breeding network Hawaii. 
Tomatoes: Kalohi do well. – determinant: more concentrated over shorter time and better with wind- indeterminate – cherry. Blond Girl- healani from Volcano. and Juliet cherry, love song. – lots of diseases so need to find the 5 varieties that work – blossom end rot is from calcium deficiency
Seeds that can go right in the ground: beans. 
Seedlings- Potting mix is expensive to try to minimize. As small a cell as possible. 1-2”. – Farmers either water too much or not enough so prepare your mix well. Try out different mixes, make notes in a journal – You need to come up with a recipe, start to finish to be able to repeat it. From plant seedling to harvested and sold plant. – Only reuse potting materials for transplanting. – Fertilizer for potting: miracle grow, bone and blood, time release. – they are ready to transplant if you can pull out the plant with the dirt, but roots not coming out of the bottom- plant 3x diameter of he seed
Be careful of drought. Know the environment they come from, but when the flowers come out, they need food and water
Avocado like shade for germination. hanai Ai –  Uh sustainable Ag. has resources and newsletters. Moloka’i native Hawaiian 
“The only way things change is through radical ideas expressed loudly”
Tomatoes and  potatoes can’t handle a lot of water. 
You lose control when products go off island and can’t always trust folks on Oahu
Marketing- carbon footprint- how nutritious and fresh is your food?- where does your food come from?- do you want to support “blood diamond” agriculture- America likes cheap food, but at What cost?!
“You start as an idealist, then become a realist, but try not to be a cynic.” 
Business ideas* oversite of seed naming and lineage. * food hubs, collaboratives, and and food systems
Liam at Kohala Center is web site contact. Probably best to have a student-run site.