Growing high effort, high value crops at Niese Ag

By Brianna Smith

Growing processing tomatoes requires precision, patience, and plenty of planning. At Niese Ag near Pandora, the crop has also become a big driver for the diversified family business.

Operated by Chuck and Tammy Niese, along with their son and daughter-in-law, Derek and Ashley Niese, the farm raises corn, soybeans, wheat, and processing tomatoes. Along the way, the family has added seed sales, freezer beef and a pick-your-own blackberry and raspberry patch.

“I wanted to raise tomatoes because when we first started farming, I wanted to make the most that we could with what we had,” Chuck said. “Tomatoes are high value, high effort.”

“We like the challenge. We like working hard and trying to make things better,” Derek said.

The Niese family’s history with processing tomatoes stretches back generations. Both Chuck and Tammy’s parents and grandparents grew tomatoes, and the couple continued that tradition after purchasing farmland from both sides of the family following their marriage in 1989.

Today, the crop remains what Derek describes as the farm’s “bread and butter.”

Every season begins months before planting season. Every year begins with contracts with tomato processors that determine planting dates and varieties. From there, the processing calendar drives nearly every decision on the farm.

“It starts with a schedule and a plan,” Derek said. “You sign contracts in the spring, and they tell you the varieties and when to plant. We generally start around Mother’s Day and finish before Father’s Day. Every week is a certain number of acres and certain varieties. We plant 12 varieties because they all have different maturity dates, and they’re the varieties Red Gold, the processor we work with, wants, because they’re easy to peel.”

The Roma tomato plants arrive from greenhouses in Ohio and Georgia as plugs ready for transplanting. Planting is a slow process, with workers riding the transplanter while it creeps through the field at less than 1 mph.

“Twenty acres is a big day,” Derek said.

This year, the family planted nearly 3 million tomato plants. Most are destined for diced tomatoes, salsa and other processed products.

Once the crop is planted, the work is just beginning. Disease is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to growing tomatoes. Once disease enters a field, it can spread easily.

“We start spraying them about a week and a half after planting, and then we spray multiple times until they’re harvested,” Derek said. “Right behind that, we have the guys put the T-tape in so we can irrigate and apply fertilizer through it. We usually fertilize three to five times during the summer. Every Monday I pull a sap test, and we base those fertilizer applications on those results. It takes a lot of time.”

Once the crop reaches maturity, harvest begins in mid-August and stretches well into the fall.

“We generally harvest for about 58 to 60 days,” Chuck said. “We start at about 2% a day and just keep working through the schedule.”

Harvest is carefully coordinated with Red Gold, the farm’s processing partner. Growers are contracted by both acres and tons, with tomatoes hauled directly from the field to the company’s processing facility in Geneva, Ind. Timing is everything during harvest. Rain can quickly throw schedules into disarray, requiring constant communication between growers and the processor.

“When it rains, communication with the tomato company is extremely important,” Chuck said. “They want to know to the nearest hour when your first load is going to get there so they can get their plants running.”

“About 36 growers are trying to keep three factories running, so rain throws a big monkey wrench into everybody’s schedule,” Derek added.

To help with the intense labor demands of growing tomatoes, the family relies on seven H-2A employees. The farm has utilized the program since 2020, bringing back many of the same workers each year.

Tammy oversees much of the administrative side of the program, from coordinating with a third-party contractor to ensuring the farm remains in compliance with federal regulations.

“There were a lot of rules to learn to make sure we stayed in compliance with Homeland Security and all of the H-2A requirements,” Tammy said. “The housing inspections and paperwork can be overwhelming at first, but it’s become an important part of how we operate.”

“Our employees are pretty much family,” Derek said. “They’re all great guys. Three of them have been with us since the beginning.”

Like the tomato enterprise, the berry patch grew out of the family’s willingness to look for new opportunities. Looking for another way to diversify the farm, Chuck planted five acres of blackberries in 2011 after reading about the idea in a magazine. Since then, they have planted red and black raspberry bushes as well. The berry patch, called Pandora Berries, also complements the tomato operation by providing work for the farm’s H-2A employees between planting and harvest.

“It’s sort of a joke with the employees,” Chuck said. “They come back each spring and ask what the new year’s experiment is.”

Today, the berry patch is open for u-pick during the month of July. The hours vary depending on the weather and berries. Tammy manages the berry patch while Ashley is responsible for marketing the farm on social media and responding to customer’s questions online. Derek and Ashley’s four young children, ages 7, 4, 3 and 6 months, are already becoming familiar with the business, with their oldest even picking berries to sell to great-grandparents.

Each enterprise at Niese Ag serves a purpose. Together, they’ve helped build a business that keeps the family working side by side throughout the year while creating opportunities for the next generation.

“My goal was always to be a full-time farmer,” Chuck said. “When I started farming about 35 years ago, I worked in a factory and worked a lot of 12- to 16-hour days, and we fit the farm in around that. Now, I get to farm full-time.”