Hanover farmer goes modern

Inside a former milking parlor surrounded by grain silos in Hanover County, Kevin Engel sits at an oak desk in front of his laptop computer and checks soybean prices on his cell phone.

He's the face of modern farming.

Engel, 48, founded Engel Family Farms in 1991. He's now based out of Cabin Hill Farm, just down the road from where he grew up working on his father's farm in King William County.

"That's all I ever really wanted to do," he said. "I still enjoy it a lot. A lot of people dread getting up and going to work in the morning. I quite often can't wait for the clock to trip so I can get up and get going."

But Engel is clear that he is a businessman first and foremost. His team of 23 employees farms nearly 14,000 acres of crops throughout Virginia, all but 500 of which are rented from other landowners.

Engel does primarily grain farming, specializing in soybeans, corn, wheat and barley. He rents land from 86 property owners in 14 counties throughout Virginia from Sussex to Caroline and from Albemarle to New Kent.

"We're guests, and we've got to act like guests and treat the property and landowners with respect, and at the same time be productive in a way that's economically profitable for everybody concerned," he said.

. . .

Engel's crops go to dairy farms, flour mills, dairy and poultry operations, and bio-diesel plants across the country. He also sells into niche markets. His special soybeans, for example, go to a distributor who ships to Japan for tofu and natto, a traditional Japanese breakfast food.

Equal parts businessman, farmer and entrepreneur, Engel is an increasingly common breed in the farming community.

His tractors are guided by satellite technology. His turbines cost $500,000 each. His fleet of trucks carries most grain to the end users, saving middleman expenses. The company also handles its own fertilization and chemical application.

"The tricky part is moving your equipment and doing it at times that it doesn't create too much of a ruckus, but we haul a lot of our own equipment on trailers, so that helps," he said.

Other farmers are doing the same things to keep up, he said, noting that his business model isn't as rare as it was a few years ago.

. . .

"Agriculture is Virginia's biggest business. In order to be a good farmer, you have to be a good businessman and some of these business models are very sophisticated," said Elaine Lidholm of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

She pointed out that a recent study from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia estimates the annual economic impact of farming to be $55billion in the state. And the stability of agriculture is more vital now than ever before, with its products being used to make plastic, paper, energy and more, Engel added. "Our crops are used in so many things that I as a farmer can't even keep track of them," he said.

Fortunately, he said, the state of agriculture in Virginia is better now than it has been in several years.

"That's a good thing, because consumers should want their food suppliers to be stable," Engel said. "You don't want something that you have to have to survive to be unstable."

But working the land is still more than a job for Engel -- it's a passion.

"It's a challenging business, but it's rewarding because quite often at the end of the day you can look back at what you've done and see what you've accomplished," he said. "I can't think of anything else much more pure."

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .