22 May

Another Hurdle: Corporate Identity Theft

Posted by Wilson in Farm.

As gears began to turn and were clicking into place, we faced yet another stumbling block.  One of the banks ran a background check on our EIN and found a flag.

EIN stands for Employer Identification Number and is basically the social security number for a company.  It is issued by the IRS and is used to as a unique way to identify each company.

The search showed that Wilson Judice Farm’s EIN was used in 2009 by a real estate broker in Texas that owes almost $2,000 to a bank in Missouri.  My own google investigation found that this same person lost their brokerage license after going to jail for insurance fraud and arson.  Guess who burned down his own house in order to collect on the insurance policy money.

I called the IRS which, of course, means I sat on hold for 35 minutes before speaking with a person whose first language was not English.  After explaining our problem, I was promptly told that this was not an IRS problem.  Even though they are in charge of handing out the EINs, it is not an IRS issue unless that thief used the number to file taxes.  Now what good crook files taxes, even with the wrong identifying number?

More google research led me to the Federal Trade Commission.  They answered the phone within only a couple of minutes and were very helpful.  We filled out a report over the phone and she e-mailed a copy of the affidavit to me as proof of the report.  Then there were police reports to file and phone calls to the three major credit companies.

Basically, our company’s identity was stolen before it even existed.  What next?

Oh yeah, then both the inside and outside units of our air conditioner and heater went completely kaput.  Another $6,000 that we didn’t have.

I quit asking “what next” because I don’t want to know.

 

21 May

Money, or Lack Thereof

Posted by Wilson in Farm.

As things began happening – hearings took place, leases were is discussion, loan applications were submitted for approval – money was needed.  Each company needed a checking account, with money to open them.  Each legal document needed to be filed with the clerk of court, with the appropriate fees attached.  Each application required a fee as well.  Lawyers submitted invoices.

The utilities of the shop and all of the labor houses needed to stay turned on.  After all, we still had families living in those houses collecting unemployment since we laid them off in February and just itching to go back to work instead.

You cannot farm anything without the proper insurance.  When you can hire people back to work, the worker’s comp insurance must be place.  There are umbrella policies and liability policies and equipment coverage and environmental policies and the list goes on and on!  All of these things cost money.  Add in crop insurance and you are looking a quite a hefty bill!

And none of the companies had any money.  Any money left in Frank Martin Farms was confiscated by their largest creditor before they filed for the Chapter 12.  They had written a check to Wilson Judice Farms to help with his start up costs, but their money was gone before we could cash or deposit the check.  It became a worthless piece of paper.

So we began working out of our own pockets.  $100 here to open a checking account.  $90 there to file with the Secretary of State to form Judice Agricultural Services. There were checks to be ordered (and paid for) so that when the time comes, we will be ready to go to work!  Each company needed their own set up in Quickbooks and, of course, that costs money, too.

Add to that the fact that I was laid off in February and Wilson in March so we have had zero personal income since then.  What savings we had was soon gone and we had to borrow money from family just to keep our mortgage current, our own utilities paid, and food on our table.

All this time, we were living on a prayer, praying that it would all work out in the end.

There were a couple of job openings that would fit Wilson’s education and experience, but they were not local enough to stay in our house.  At the same time, we were reading stories from other farming and ranching bloggers lambasting articles that call a degree in agriculture “useless.”  We were beginning to wonder if the articles might be right and our friends and fellow aggies were wrong.

Friends and family questioned whether we were crazy.  After all, as it was pointed out by one of the parent farm’s creditors, why would a young, educated person go into farming knowing how high the expenses are compared to the profits and understanding the risks involved?

Just when we were at the end of our financial rope, the stars aligned and things started coming together.

20 May

The Waiting Game

Posted by Wilson in Farm. Tagged: , , , .

One lesson we have learned is that the world does not work on the same time schedule as a farmer.  They don’t get to work until 8, at least, and leave by 5, if even that late. They never work on Saturdays or Sundays or any day that might be perceived to be a holiday.

You cannot call an attorney at six in the morning with a question because they are not at work.  They are probably not even awake.

Don’t even think about getting anything done at the courthouse on a Friday evening.  It’s locked tighter than a drum and completely empty.

We have had to wait for lawyers and bankers and candlestick makers.  Well, not the candlestick makers but plenty of other people.  The legal process is incredibly slow, even though the attorneys frequently reminded us that the proceedings were expedited because everyone knows how badly we needed to be in the fields.

Add in Easter and people went on vacation.  Our main FSA guy – whom is one of my favorite people in this process – is off every other Friday with flex time.

Just getting signed copies of the approved motions allowing us to go back to work took weeks, as in multiple weeks, to go through.

It always seemed like people needed stuff from us immediately but then we had to hurry up and wait.  We spent a great deal of time waiting, watching the cane and the weeds grow taller.

The weed scientist in Wilson was dying to kill some weeds.  The cane farmer in him was dying to fertilize the cane before it grew too tall for the machine to properly spread the mixture.

The bookkeeper in me (and the common sense in him) held tightly to the reins.  We just could not spend nearly a hundred thousand dollars to fertilize a crop without a lease or a loan.

And so we waited.

19 May

The Parade of Lawyers

Posted by Wilson in Farm. Tagged: , , , .

Neither of us has ever spent this much time or money in a court house or with lawyers and we have both been divorced!

We started with one lawyer:  Wilson’s sister.  She has traditionally done all of the farm’s legal work, mostly just leases.

Then the parent farm needed a bankruptcy lawyer, and actually hired a team of two great lawyers, each with his own specialty.  One is the fighter and in his element in the court room.  He is the big-picture guy who sees the whole forest at once.  The other is the details guy, the numbers man, the one who sees each individual tree.

Tally so far:  three lawyers.

The bank that held the farm’s last several farm loans and is the largest creditor in the case brought along their own lawyer.  (Note:  his firm has since been fired.  Hmmm)

Cue the Fourth Laywer.

When it came time to discuss the equipment lease between Frank Martin Farms and Wilson Judice Farms, the general consensus was that Wilson might need his own lawyer, one not at all biased towards any other party.  While his sister is incredible at compartmentalizing her business and personal lives, we were all so very emotionally invested in this process that even she thought we needed outside help, just to be prudent.

Thus, Lawyer #5.

The land that is owned by the sugar mill and the group of local families and was farmed by FMF will be farmed by WJF so they were an integral part of the Chapter 12 proceedings.  They hired one lawyer together and he also worked on their new leases with WJF.

Lawyer #6.

We have gone with Wilson’s sister to the Tax Assessor’s office to research land owners and exact property descriptions.  We have been in our parish FSA office to certify acres for WJF.  We have been to the Clerk of Court’s office to file all of the paperwork necessary for the loans.  All of these are in our parish courthouse.  Between the lawyers’ offices and the courthouse, I’m pretty sure we should be able to pick up a paycheck there on Friday.  We’ve done that much work there.

Pictures of “Progress”

The Old St. Mary Parish Courthouse

The “New” St. Mary Parish Courthouse

18 May

Who Works for Whom?

Posted by Wilson in Farm, Sugar Cane. Tagged: , , , .

When we first began talking about splitting the farm in two, there was nearly a revolt among the employees. The guys began choosing sides, like kids on a playground.

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The wise words of a certain USDA employee that we met in Michigan came to mind: why not form a labor company? I’ve worked for contract and staffing companies before so I have a general idea of how they work, but I had a great deal of research to do before we could even consider it.

We then birthed yet another company: Judice Agricultural Services, LLC.

JAS is technically owned by Wilson’s farm, but will pretty much be my baby. It is a pass-through company, designed to make no profit. All of the employees will work for JAS, myself included. Our technical description is a farming labor contracting and bookkeeping company. I’m the bookkeeping portion.

JAS will pay all of the utilities for the farms and bill them out to the two other companies along with all of the labor expenses. I really think it will help keep things straight and a little less confusing. It will mean more work for me, but I hope it will work out.

So, as I like to tell the guys, everyone works for me! (Insert power trip here.)


17 May

Forming a Farm

Posted by Wilson in Family, Farm, Food, Garden, Sugar Cane. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Say that title out loud, quickly. Not easy, right!

We knew that the possibility of Wilson Judice Farms existed back in January so we created the corporation as a legal entity.

In March, when Wilson’s dad and cousin met with the attorney and filed for the Chapter 12, we began to set the wheels of this new company into motion. We opened a checking account and it was both thrilling and terrifying to see checks that say “Wilson Judice Farms, Inc.” in the top left corner. I can sign a business check? Crazy!

Wilson’s half of the farm consisted of nearly a dozen tracts of land, each with a different landowner. He began contacting those owners, getting Letters of Intent from them and preparing them for the leases that were to follow soon.

Of course, a monkey wrench was then thrown into the gears. Some of the details on those leases meant that Wilson would have to purchase the root stock of the cane on some of those tracts of land from Frank Martin Farms. Because we do not have that kind of money in savings and no lending institution will finance something that could die in the next freeze and then be useless, something had to change.

We swapped out land with the old farm.

Those Letters of Intent and the time spent contacting landowners all had to be undone. Well, not quite all of them. In the swap, he got to keep two of the tracts. The other two, which make up the majority of the land Wilson will farm, are owned by the sugar mill and a group of local families.

WJF will not be a stand-alone business. It just cannot happen that quickly. We’ve talked on this blog before about the amount of specialized and expensive equipment necessary to grow and harvest sugarcane. We will continue to work with FMF every single day. Part of their Chapter 12 plan is to lease all of their equipment to WJF, to use it all together.

The Farm Service Agency has a program where it loans $300,000 to new farmers and ranchers to invest in their agricultural future. They offer a very low interest rate for this one-time-only program. Wilson plans to use that money to buy a couple of tractors that would be useful to both farms. There is no need to duplicate the equipment since we will all be working so closely together and an infusion of new equipment will lower the repair costs for everyone.

With the equipment all figured out, that just left a million other details to plan and make work. One of the major questions was labor.

Current Update:

Yesterday was the first of the 2012 Corn Days. It was time to pick the first round of sweet corn from the garden. I managed to get a few pictures of Wilson in the corn patch before the rain sent me back inside.

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16 May

Back in Business

Posted by Wilson in Farm, Sugar Cane.

I originally named this post “Back to Work” but we never really stopped working, just stopped being paid.

When last we wrote to you, things were still up in the air and we couldn’t tell you the whole story.  Now we can.

Wilson’s dad and cousin’s farm was on the brink of financial ruin.  The bank that they had been working with for the past 50+ years had decided not to renew their annual operating loan and they did not have the savings to move forward with the business of farming without the financing.  Unable to secure any operating loan at all, they were facing the end of the family tradition of farming sugarcane.  Because of the personal guarantees that were signed, they were also facing the possibility of losing everything they’ve worked for decades to build.

They made an appointment with a bankruptcy lawyer, fairly certain that they were going to lose it all.  Instead, he introduced them to something new to all of us:  Chapter 12 Reorganization.  Chapter 12 is only available for family farms and fishermen and gives them the opportunity to work out of their debt and fix whatever was wrong with their business that caused it the financial problems that caused the whole ordeal.

We’ve written before about how the mill pays for the sugar as they sell it throughout the year.  The amount of money that the mill still owes the farm is called the “retainage” but was still due to be paid to the bank for last year’s operating loan.  Part of the Chapter 12 is to substitute the collateral of last year’s crop with the collateral of this year’s.  That frees up last year’s retainage for them to use to farm this year’s crop.

Well, not really.  It’s not enough to grow, fertilize, and harvest this year’s crop along with planting next year’s.  It’s about enough to do half of it.

Which brings us to the creation of Wilson Judice Farms to farm the rest of it.

And now, for a video from Wilson:

Last year, he took this picture on July 5:

15 May

Feast Day of Saint Isidore

Posted by Wilson in Faith, Farm, Sugar Cane. Tagged: , , , , , .

Today was the feast day ofSt.Isidore, the patron Saint of Farmers.  We celebrated in a big way:  by closing on our very first crop loan as Wilson Judice Farms, Inc.

Several months of hard work, uncertainty, fear, dread, elation, panic, and countless other emotions and actions have led to this point and we want to share with you the whole story.  The are no doubt other young farmers going through some of the same things we went through and we want to share with them the light at the end of the tunnel.

There are also people out there that were completely unaware of the investment it takes to run a farm, especially a sugarcane farm.  For them, we want to share and open their eyes.  We are always learning from other people, gathering a little information here and a little knowledge there to apply them where we need.  We hope you can do the same.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will tell our story in its entirety.  As it is quite a long and detailed tale, no reader would make it to the end of that long, drawn out post.  We will be posting a bit of it each day until we reach the present.

Along the way, we plan to interject the current events from the farm and try to catch you up with the progress of the crop.  We have exciting news to share about how well the crop is doing in spite of the farmers’ inability to enter it for months at a time.  We need to tell you about the fertilizing process and show you a video of it.  We need to update you on the kids as I am sure they have grown a couple of inches since we last wrote!

But today we want to leave you with hope.  When we have had doubts and fears, we have tried to drive them away with hope.

Oh God, who taught Adam the simple art of tilling the soil,

and who through Jesus Christ, the true vine,

revealed Yourself the husbandman of our souls,

deign, we pray, through the merits of Belssed Isidore,

to instill into our hearts a horror of sin and a love of prayer,

so that, working the soil in the sweat of our brow,

we may enjoy eternal happiness in heaven.

Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

and

Oh God, Source and Giver of all things,

Who manifests Your infinite majesty, power, and goodness in the earth about us,

we give You honor and glory.

 

For the sun and rain,

for the manifold of fruits of our fields,

for the increase of our herds and flocks we thank You.

For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace, we are grateful.

 

Supreme Lord of the harvest,

graciously accept us and the fruits of our toil,

in union with Christ Your Son,

as atonement for our sins,

for the growth of Your Church,

for peace and charity in our homes,

for salvation to all.  Amen.

 

Source of both prayers:  Novena in Honor of St. Isidore:  Patron of Farmers by National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

14 Mar

My Kid Shoots Stuff

Posted by Wilson in 4-H, Family, Fun.

Son #2 is in the Shooting Sports program of 4-H. He was asked to compete in a District competition in three weeks. This past Sunday he had practice and it looks like he will get in lots of practice before the actual event in Lake Charles.

Apparently, shooting stuff is fun. Who’d a thunk it?

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12 Mar

Genetically Modified Corn

Posted by Wilson in Farm, Food, Garden, Soybeans.

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Things are still on hold around the farm, with financing still up in the air and the future a bit uncertain. We are on a spending freeze so we are not purchasing chemicals to do the spraying that is due to start this time of year. We already have the off-road diesel and a couple of guys on salary so they have been busy off-barring some of the cane. We are doing things that don’t cost any additional money.

In the meantime, in between bank meeting and time spent on the computer perfecting budgets and figuring out equipment and labor needs, Wilson and his dad have been working in the garden.

If all else fails, we won’t starve!

In the past two weeks, they have planted Irish potatoes and sweet corn. #2 was actually involved in planting the potatoes and had more fun throwing the seed at everyone else helping than actually putting them in the ground.

GM Corn

The sweet corn we planted is a BT variety, meaning that it is genetically modified. BT stands for Bacillus thuringiensis – a soil bacterium that produces its own natural insecticide. Scientists took that specific gene from the bacterium and inserted it into the corn. Then the corn can produce its own defense against worms. Without the worm infestation, the birds don’t mess with the corn.

We used a different BT variety of sweet corn last year with fantastic results. The ears were beautiful, perfectly formed with very few blemishes caused by worms or birds. In contrast, the traditional sweet corn we grew housed a worm every couple of ears!

This year, we went with 100% genetically modified sweet corn.

What is the big deal with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Anyway?

As a mom, I want what is healthiest, tastiest, and best for my children. This is why I feed them homegrown food that has usually been genetically modified in some way.

It is the same reason I take them to a doctor when they are sick. I am in full support of better living through technology. I didn’t take my son to a traitur when he was sick with leukemia – I took him to a doctor that pumped him full of chemicals and saved his life.

When it comes down to it, I chose technology. Heck, I’m typing on a computer, not a typewriter and definitely not chiseling my message into the side of a cave! (In fact, I’m typing on a lap top in the passenger seat of my car while Wilson drives us down the road. Most of our blog posts are composed right here in this seat.)

Our soybeans are what is called Round-Up Ready, meaning that we can spray glyphosate (brand name Round Up) on them to control weeds but it will not harm the beans. Being able to use this specific herbicide greatly reduces the number of different chemicals we have to spray on a field. Round Up is what is called a “broad spectrum” pesticide because it kills a wide variety of weeds. If we had to spray a different chemical for each weed that grows in a field, we would be saturating the fields with sprays! In comparison with this cocktail of chemicals, glyphosate is fairly safe. Joe and Jane Homeowner can buy and use it with no formal training. There is a legend that a professor even drank some! Do not try that at home. Ever. Ever. Ever. With any chemical.

What does “Genetically Modified” Mean?

Technically, the term “Genetically Modified” means that an organism’s genes have been modified, right? They have been changed in some way.

Whoa. So just changing the genes of a specific species qualifies it as Genetically Modified? I don’t know about you, but I have very specific DNA, not like my mother and not like my father. My genes are comprised of their genes, having been modified by each other’s.

Any creature – plant, animal, bacterium, fungi, or otherwise – that reproduces sexually modifies the genes of the each successive generation. Darwin called it Survival of the Fittest, where each generation passes on to the next the genes that will make it most likely to survive in its environment. Species that do not do this are extinct. They died out rather than change to adapt to circumstances.

GMO = Sex

People don’t have problems with sex. They have problems with asexual modification. Specifically, those that outcry about the evils of GMOs don’t like when scientists take a gene from one species and place it in another. They don’t like that it isn’t a totally “natural” process – that specific genes are targeted in selective breeding programs as being desirable.

Don’t they realize that this exact same thing happens when we chose a mate? Whether we chose a person because we like the way they look or that they are smart or funny or whatever, should we just be randomly pairing off to create the next generation? Or would we prefer our children to be better than ourselves?

I honestly believe that God gave us specific likes and dislikes for this reason, specific things like pheromones that work on one person but not the next. Otherwise, no one would be sexually attracted to anyone else and our species would have died out long ago. Or women would decide to have babies and show up at artificial insemination stations to get pregnant. Natural pairing off wouldn’t occur, babies wouldn’t be born out of the physical expression of love, and men would eventually become extinct as a gender.

God was the first GMO scientist.

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