Spearmint Farmer Says Crop Is Complicated

Spearmint Farmer Says Crop Is Complicated CROPS New Crops The Dale Thacker Specialty Crops farm located near Bow Island Alberta is home to many unique crops including dill hemp peas and hybrid seed canola but also features approximately 1000 acres of spearmint “We need to have significant acres to justify the cost of equipment and the entire process ” says Thacker “It’s a unique industry We’ve had stable acreage for many years ” Spearmint is a perennial plant that looks much like alfalfa in the field It’s added to many products including food candy mouthwash and toothpaste Thacker and his brothers began growing the crop around 1988 while trying to get out from under the Canadian Wheat Board’s control Mint grows well in their specific region of Western Canada due to high heat and cool evenings “It likes water heat and lots of fertilizer ” Thacker says “It’s a very robust growing plant so we use higher rates of fertilizer than in any of our other crops Weed control is also a problem so we must select our cleanest fields ” Thacker explains mint is a sterile triploid meaning it doesn’t produce seed To establish the crop plants begin in a laboratory then are grown out in a greenhouse from where they’re sold for about $1 a plant The 10 000 plants per acre are hand planted “We let them grow for a year then use a digger to spread the root material using a homemade sprigging planter that will expand it 15 or 20 to 1 on a good year ” Thacker says “We let that grow for another year and then spread it out into meaningful acres It’s very risky and expensive and takes two or three years to establish a substantial acreage base Not like an annual where you just throw seed in the ground ” He says harvesting is a whole different process requiring specialized equipment including a distillation system Mint is cut with a normal swather and once dry a forage harvester is used to chop and then load it into cooking vessels These vessels are trucked to a still where steam is introduced causing the spearmint oil to vaporize and exit the cooking vessel The vapors are condensed back to liquid form and separated from the water “It’s a long process that requires significant investment You have to boil your entire field ” Thacker says the mint industry prices are subdued due to contracts being fully subscribed and overproduced “Once you’re in it you’re somewhat committed You’ve got a lot invested and you’ve got to recover costs We use a 5-year rotation to control weeds pests and disease ” The oil is sold in drums or totes through a brokerage system Dealers take the oil and further rectify purify and blend it depending on the final destination “For all the risk and for what we get paid it’s not great but it’s something we’re good at our region likes it plus we’ve done a lot of work to improve the distillation and planting process so it works for us ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dale Thacker Dale Thacker Specialty Crops P O Box #369 112065 Twp Rd 110 Bow Island Alberta Canada T0K 0G0 ph 403-545-6122; dtsc@mintfarm ca; www mintfarm ca

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.