New methods boost yields for apple orchard owners
PHOTO/Emily Micucci
Gerard Beirne, owner of Berlin Orchards, says the orchard business is as much about entertainment as it is about selling apples.
Massachusetts has a rich history when it comes to growing apples. Early settlers grew them for cider, a beverage that stored well over a long time. Through the generations, and the evolution of refrigeration methods, the apple business adapted to changing tastes.
Today, people pursue fresh apples more as a healthy snack, which is a good way to understand the modern orchard business. In Central Massachusetts, home to the largest number of apple orchards of any region in the Bay State, the apple business is thriving, but growers are quick to admit their business talents must extend beyond the orchard.
“People don't just want to go to the farm anymore to pick apples; they want to be entertained,” said Gerard Beirne, owner of Berlin Orchards in Berlin.
A tour of the orchards, which include 35 acres of apple trees, illustrates Beirne's mantra, that “Man cannot live on apples alone.” This year, Berlin Orchards debuted its new barn-style farm store near the orchard entrance, which has other attractions, including farm animals, a play area for children, and, on weekends, face painting and pony rides. It will also give Beirne another channel to sell apples on rainy weekends when people don't want to pick their own.
Beirne, a native of Ireland, worked as the farm manager at Berlin Orchards before he bought the business several years ago. Despite working up to 16 hours a day in his busy season, he doesn't yet consider himself a full-time farmer, and he still runs a landscaping business in Stow, where he lives.
Growing apples today
But as a trained horticulturalist, Beirne is well versed in the latest orchard management practices that have revolutionized the business in the last 25 years.
During that time, a new approach to spraying has reduced the amount of chemicals apple growers use to keep their orchards healthy when faced with infestation of diseases and insects. This approach, integrated pest management, has saved orchards a lot of money because chemical sprays account for between 15 and 20 percent of an orchard's budget, according to Beirne.
Larger orchards also have advanced systems that measure weather conditions, which helps growers know when to spray. This is compared with the former practice of compulsory spraying based on the calendar.
The systems record temperatures and inform growers when it's time to spray, which is very important. Beirne said spraying too late for a disease like fire blight, which has entered many Massachusetts orchards in recent years, could significantly impact the quality of the year's apples.
Today's orchard owners aren't just using more economical spraying methods. They're also growing more apples per acre. Historically, apple trees were quite large, with between 20 and 40 trees sitting on an acre of land. Today, many orchards grow much smaller trees, packing them in more densely at about 1,000 per acre. This allows orchards to produce more apples with less labor, which helps boost margins, according to Wesley Autio, director of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. These smaller trees also take only about three years to bear fruit after planting. Larger trees can take much longer, he said.
That’s ‘agro-entertainment!’
Like Beirne, Autio recognized there's a lot more to running a successful orchard than growing apple trees. Apple orchards today are a source for “agro-entertainment,” Autio said, providing people a true experience in addition to a bag of apples.
There are a couple of reasons Central Massachusetts is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the demand for agro-entertainment, according to Autio. First, the climate: Central Massachusetts and points west tend to have cooler nights than other areas of the state. That's good for the apples' color formation. And the hilly terrain allows air to drain well out of the orchards.
Also important: proximity to the people. Central Massachusetts is relatively close to the Boston area, which makes Bay State orchards highly profitable, according to Autio. He noted that Massachusetts has about 4,000 acres of apple orchards, relatively small compared with such states as Washington and California that produce large amounts of apples for wholesale. But compared with other New England states, Massachusetts orchards generate the greatest profit. Because selling fruit is now a global industry, with growers shipping their products to far-flung countries, wholesale competition is steep. Apples grown in the Pacific Northwest are increasingly being sold across the U.S. as increased production in other countries has reduced overseas sales prospects, Autio said. Those Pacific orchards now compete with those in others in such countries as New Zealand and South Africa.
When he started working at UMass Amherst, Autio, a professor of pomology (the branch of botany that studies fruit), said about 70 percent of the orchard business was wholesale. Much of the crop was stored and sold to grocery stores year-round. Today, most of the apple orchard business in Massachusetts is retail, and most of the apples are sold during harvest season, typically late August to early October. Autio said local orchards aren't competing with countries that export apples during the harvest, so if people want a Cortland or McIntosh, they have to buy locally.
Of course, there's the odd orchard here and there that continues to sell apples wholesale. One of those is Bolton Orchards, a fifth-generation family business. Its owner, Sarah O'Toole said that while the wholesale side of her business has been scaled back, it remains a good way to sell off excess apples. O'Toole said she sells mostly to small businesses, such as farm stands and farmer's markets, as well as to a large produce distributor in Boston.
“Wholesaling is a nice option for us to get rid of the stuff while it's still fresh,” she said.
Family affair
Tougas Farm in Northborough, one of the larger orchards in the region offering “pick your own” apples, is seen by neighboring orchards as a powerhouse. The 130-acre site relies almost exclusively on retail sales for revenue.
Andre Tougas, son of owner Maurice Tougas, works for the family business after earning a degree in farm business management from Cornell University.
Tougas makes the orchard a family attraction, offering a playground, farm store and snack bar, and a petting zoo area for children. And the family has boosted apple output by employing the high-density growing method Beirne referenced. At Tougas, there are 1,300 apple trees per acre, compared with about 50 a half-century ago.
Andre Tougas said the prospects for a farm such as his are strengthened by the “buy local” movement.
“People are interested in knowing where their food is coming from,” he said. n
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