Santa Cruz Farms

Santa Cruz, New Mexico

Overview

In the 1970s Don Bustos began converting his financially challenged 100-acre row crop farm to a 3.5-acre year-round moneymaker, raising organic produce and selling it locally. His business mission is to keep his land base in agriculture for another 400 years, continuing his Indo-Hispano family’s use of the land since Spaniards first colonized the region.

To do that, Don’s business plan developed around four major objectives. First is the overall switch from commodity crops to higher value crops he can sell closer to home and with more control over selling prices and marketing. Another objective is the transition to organic production, which builds long-term ecological resilience (soil fertility, drought tolerance etc.) for Santa Cruz farm in addition to providing a marketing edge. Year-round revenue is an objective that led Don to add 10,000 square feet of relatively low-cost passive solar greenhouses, or hoophouses, to extend the growing season. His fourth objective is to turn his operation into a training ground for the next generation of farmers, particularly young people in the farm’s northern New Mexico foodshed.

The resulting Agri-Cultura Network internship program now provides significant revenue and labor for Santa Cruz Farm in addition to a new crop of farmers for the region. The farm’s other sources of revenue are from farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) memberships, and year-round sales of produce to area school districts.

Business Structure

Santa Cruz Farm is a sole proprietorship.  This single-operator, small-business structure is very simple. It has served Santa Cruz Farm well over the years, so Don has not structured his business differently.  However, similar businesses might want to think further about the sole proprietor structure if they have employees, have a greater exposure to food product liability, or are implementing a succession/estate plan.

The Agri-Cultura Network training program is currently organized as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) because this structure was the easiest for getting the program off the ground. It is a collaboration of Santa Cruz Farm and New Mexico’s American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization where Don also works. Their plans are for the Agri-Cultura Network to become a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The non-profit structure is more complicated but will make it easier for Agri-Cultura Network to apply for and receive grant funding to support farmer training.

Don’s daughter Anna is also engaged in the farm, along with Don and the Agri-Cultura interns. Two granddaughters, ages six and 11, are eager to become more involved as well.

Markets Served

On 3.5 acres, Santa Cruz Farm raises more than 70 varieties of vegetables and fruits, including strawberries, blackberries, heirloom tomatoes, asparagus, eggplant, cucumbers, bokchoy, and a significant amount and array of peppers and chilies.

The farm generates 55 percent to 70 percent of its revenue from four days of sales at three farmers markets. A CSA with approximately 35 members is the farm’s secondary income stream. Don also sells some product direct from the farm site. Another secondary market is the Santa Fe School district, which has grown over time to eclipse and displace direct-to-retail sales that Santa Cruz Farms has made to La Montanita Cooperative, a natural foods retailer in the region.

Don Busto’s farmer training efforts have paid off in this case as interns and graduates of the Agri-Cultura Network training program step in to supply La Montanita with local produce. Working together as a network, the new farmers keep this La Montanita outlet supplied and growing even as farms like Don’s focus on other markets.

Similarly, members of the Agri-Cultura Network are following in Don Bustos’ school food footsteps. Members combine their products to serve the much larger system of Albuquerque Public Schools. This local product aggregation helps build the product volume and consistency that will build farm-to-school opportunities for farmers across the region, including Santa Cruz Farm.

The increasing use of hoophouses across this community of farmers is a factor in their ability to supply a broad range of products 365 days a year compared to the high-elevation climate’s normal 120-day to 150-day growing season. In addition to higher revenues, the hoophouses can also cut costs. In his first year with the passive solar technology, Don cut his annual greenhouse heating costs from $2,000 to $0 and increased yields to as much as 40 percent over standard cold frames.

Advisors

Don Bustos is an active mentor for many farmers in the region. But in the process of making his transition to a profitable year-round organic training farm, Don has sought the counsel of others, too. One set of advisors he has worked with extensively over the years is the university extension faculty at New Mexico State University’s Sustainable Agriculture Science Center in nearby Alcade, New Mexico. The project’s research in sustainable and value-added agriculture, along with community outreach, supports farmers like Don who are trying new methods and markets. 

Food Value Chain

Don’s work to build his own farm’s markets, as well as new farmers and regional food outlets, has involved much collaboration with other businesses and organizations in his foodshed. From food production and processing to agricultural policy, these efforts support the development of businesses up and down the food value chain.

Santa Cruz Farm has helped build and also markets through the Agri-Cultura Network, which is focused mostly in northern New Mexico. Don participates in the Southwest Marketing Network, as well, which covers the larger Four Corners foodshed (where four states meet: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah).  This network is part of the broader Farm to Table organization, based in Sante Fe, which works to expand local food connections in the region, including establishment of farm-to-school programs and the New Mexico Food and Agricultural Policy Council.

In 2009, Don took the initiative to gather more partners around the table to address key issues, such as a lack of meat processing appropriate to the scale and practices of most New Mexico ranchers. With a one-time grant from the Wallace Center, Don gathered these partners into what has become a Regional Lead Team of the National Good Food Network. 

Known as the Northern New Mexico Good Food Network, the team continues its work on food value chain needs in the foodshed. Steering committee members include: The American Friends Service Committee of New Mexico, where Don has worked since 1976; the New Mexico Acequia Association, a grassroots organization of communal irrigation systems that works to sustain a land-based way of life; the Sustainable Agriculture Science Center at Alcalde; Taos County Economic Development Center, which provides food business incubation space and services; La Montanita Co-op, the natural foods retailer that has built a comprehensive foodshed value chain development program, including regional distribution of local foods and financing of farm and food ventures; and the Northern New Mexico Stockman’s Association, which unites ranchers in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado on livestock grazing and other issues.

Programs

The federal Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program has played a key role in the evolution of Santa Cruz Farm. A SARE grant helped fund his transition to passive solar thermal heating of greenhouses, for example. Don has also served on the administrative council of the Western Region SARE, which provides practical information and support for farms that are finding ways to build economic and ecological resilience into their operations.

The Agri-Cultura Network training program that Don developed on his farm provides significant labor and management resources. The program has extended training from primarily short-term internships (several months) to longer-term arrangements. Some interns now stay on for one to two years and work as interim farm managers. More than 50 percent of the program’s graduates have gone on to establish their own farms in the region.

Finance

Don has not had to finance any land purchases given this his farmland has been in his family for some 400 years. As for making the switch from row-cropping to specialty and local markets, Don took it slow and financed this move over 30 years through sales and through his work with the American Friends Service Committee.  With the AFSC, Don helped build programs such as the Agri-Cultura Network that benefit the larger community of farmers as well as his own farm.

Other organizations in the foodshed have also played a role because of the benefits to them. For example, a number of the interns finance their training through a micro-loan program that the La Montanita Cooperative offers. The micro-loan program is part of La Montanita’s comprehensive approach to building the supply of food from farms and other suppliers in the cooperative’s foodshed, which encompasses a 300-mile radius around Albuquerque. Graduates often become suppliers to La Montanita Cooperative in a win-win cycle of giving and receiving among foodshed collaborators that builds food value chain strength and local benefits over time.

Key Learning

1. Providing training to other prospective farmers can be a creative way to partner with non-profits and generate income for the farm, while also developing the greater foodshed community with new farmers.

2. Sometimes small is better. To expand his business Don needed only a few acres compared to his previous production base of more than 100 acres. More land did not result in more money; the commodity row crop approach limited his production and marketing options compared to his new and profitable approach of raising produce year round for local market outlets.  Smaller operations also tend to require less overhead.  Less overhead allows an operation to focus its financial resources on efficient production and growth of sales.

   The wide range of activities at Santa Cruz Farm illustrates how Don leverages diverse and resourceful thinking to benefit not only his farm but also build the region’s foodshed and bring more healthy food to the local market. Providing training to other prospective farmers can be a creative way to partner with non-Profits and generate income for the farm, while also benefiting the greater foodshed community by providing new farmers.

Links

• Don Bustos; Tolani Lake Chapter House. July 2010 This video link shows Don Bustos talking about his venture and his business philosophy. Navajofarms
• Merging Traditional Production with Modern Technology Here is more coverage of the Santa Cruz Farm’s history, operations, and markets. Agricultural Marketing Resource Center