 New Jersey Farmer published a comprehensive review of ARC Greenhouses on the occasion of the Vegetable Growers 1998 conference. The article is reprinted below in its entirety. Shiloh's ARC Greenhouses Cobb family gives quality and service top billing By Sharon Duckworth Dick and Bruce Cobb strive for product quality followed by topnotch service. That means providing a consistent supply of quality hydroponically grown herbs and lettuces is another vice. The father and son team have been doing so since 1985. Bruce Cobb, who grew up in Princeton and always enjoyed puttering around in the garden, started the business with his father once he had finished a plant science and economics degree at the University of Delaware. Renting three different greenhouses in South Jersey at first helped lower their startup costs. But the fact that their operations were scattered in different locations between Woodstown and Swedesboro made it difficult to operate their business. In 1990, they finally settled on the flat, sandy plains of Shiloh in Cumberland County to run what is now an 82,000 square foot vegetable greenhouse operation called ARC Greenhouses. Where other greenhouse operations have failed, the Cobb's have succeeded because they have constantly driven down production costs. This includes buying the equipment of their less-fortunate rivals and making use of used parts. Every year ARC Greenhouses has experienced growth. With four full-time maintenance employees on the premises, Cobb describes the operation as on that's under "continuous process improvement" with construction never ending. In this type of business, he noted, "There's a huge learning curve in the beginning. Even with renting the structures and land at first, it was still a big investment getting into business," said Cobb. "The reason we're still in business is because we've constantly driven down the cost of production. Every big corporation that has been in the same type of business hasn't survived," he pointed out. He described his business this way. "You count up the little holes in the flats, multiply that by a certain price and by the end of the year you're a millionaire," he said, laughing at his own irony because it's not quite as simple as that. Product Some basic Bruce Cobb logic. "If you can't grow (crops) every week of the year it doesn't fit into the plan for being a reliable supplier. That's why we don't grow any seasonal crops." At ARC Greenhouses, they strive to be known "as the premier lettuce and herb growers that others compare themselves to." |
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Operating in Cumberland County, Bruce Cobb and his father, Dick, have created a high caliber hydroponic operation which supplies Giant Foods, Acme and A&P among others. Their produce is marketed under the name, "Mr. McGregor's." |
| Their produce is marketed under the whimsical mane of "Mr. McGregor's." Cobb chose the name because Mr. McGregor was the name of the farmer who constantly chases Peter Rabbit out of his garden in Beatrix Potter's children's books. Plus Cobb's mother, Ann, has always liked the books.
Their butterhead lettuce is by far the most popular crop. Currently, restaurants and produce wholesalers are their main customers. Mr. McGregor's can be found at Giant Foods, Acme and A&P. RLB Food Distributors in West Caldwell which services Kings Supermarket, a North Jersey store chain, is another one of Cobb's customers. Specialty lettuces come in the form of mache, a French variety, baby arugula, Red Oak and Lolla Rosa. Fourteen varieties of perennial herbs, include such kitchen favorites as basil, cilantro, chives, dill, rosemary and oregano. Every week, almost 23,000 heads of butterhead lettuce are shipped out of the greenhouse. That doesn't include the more than 15,000 heads each of baby arugula and mache and nearly 4,000 each of Lolla Rosa and Red Oak lettuce. Production Right out of college, Cobb spent several weeks in Holland taking a look at greenhouse operations and how they utilize technology. Back home, he has taken this knowledge to create a greenhouse system that works for his family's business. For example, several on-farm generators help them produce all their own electricity to heat their offices and greenhouses. While Dutch greenhouse technology sets the standards for the industry internationally, Cobb said it's too automated for their purposes. "We can only afford so much automation." All of their product is seeded by hand, for example, accounting for some 70,000 seeds getting their start in life per week. Cobb agrees that their seeding process needs to be automated, but purchasing a seeder can mean a $14,000 investment. If you look at the fact that the seeds they plant are extremely small and process must be exact, he wonders if the investment is worth it. It's his belief that, "if you start off with a good seedling it will give you a good plant" so for now, hand seeding will continue. The seedlings begin in an oasis that's coated with vermiculite. The flats are placed under high pressure sodium lamps for about three weeks. Next, they are moved to three-inch by three-inch on center flats set up on rolling tables. The transplants will progress to three-inch by six-inch on center with final spacing at six-inch by six-inch on center. During the summer, a finished product can take , on average, 35 growing days. But due to decreased sunlight during winter time, a finished product can take up to 73 days. The difference between production time is based solely on the amount of available sunlight. So important is sunlight to the operation that it is measured each day. The numbers are plotted against the production schedule to keep everyone on time. Using hydroponic methods to grow their crops makes their final product even more unique. The Cobb's utilize nutrient film technique, or NFT, which is the form of hydroponics employed at the greenhouse. The plants are fed by a thin film of running water which also contains various nutrients. They've tried other ways, he said, but found NFT to work best for them. The nutrient room is where it all comes together. Right now he adds a bit of soap to the water/nutrient mix to help do away with unwanted spores. Fertilizers are kept in 50-gallon containers, stationed like a beacon on the platform. Even better, their crops are grown in a re-circulating system which means nothing goes back into the groundwater, in an effort to use resources wisely and to be good neighbors. |
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Despite the use of automation, there's still a lot of hands-on work in hydrponic production. |
| A separate 17,000 square foot greenhouse opens the senses when one walks in. It harbors all fresh herbs. To supplement low natural sunlight the greenhouse is lit 18 hours a day from October through April with 165 1,000-watt light bulbs.
The productions schedule includes the shipment of 800 packages of basil per week as well as chives and arugula. Off and on for the last 10 years, they have also grown the edible flower, nasturtium, which bring 25 cents a flower. There are production issues relative to the season. The intense heat in the summer makes it hard for them to keep temperatures under 85 degrees. Fans and water sprays are their best defense. Yet in the winter, it's the opposite as they strive to maintain 75 degrees in the daytime and 65 degrees at night. According to Cobb, "You control what you control. Natural sunlight is not one of them." As for quality control in the greenhouse, the lettuces and herbs are checked weekly through random sampling. This includes weighing various crops such as their lettuces which should weigh in at between six- and seven-ounces per head. This enables the Cobb's to better forecast and schedule their crops rotations. Twice a week the greenhouse is scouted for insects. Mainly aphids and thrips are the most bothersome insects. To combat that problem every opening on the outside of the greenhouses are covered with a mesh-type material. But there are few if any pesticides used in the greenhouse since biological controls are utilized when possible. Marketing ARC Greenhouses has made a renewed effort at marketing. It might stem from Cobb's belief that, "We as farmers do the poorest job of marketing our products." Their emphasis these days is on the restaurant industry with a majority of product being sold to markets in Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New York. Their grower-to-chef program offers the restaurant industry high quality herbs and lettuces with direct delivery twice a week, an important factor to the food industry. What Cobb has found through his own experiences is that, "chefs do want to work directly with farmers and they do care about quality. If we make it easier for them to buy it then we're in business." They have begun attending food trade shows such as the New Jersey Restaurant Trade Show to better showcase their line of products, which has helped them pick up some now accounts, according to Cobb. He thinks, "If more people understood what I did, I'd have more customers." If it were up to Cobb the state, country and farm origin of labeling would be required for packaging. "That would do a lot more for everyone's public image," said Cobb. "I think this would do more for New Jersey agriculture than any other kind of subsidy." To assist his own marketing efforts, he has also commissioned Wenzel & Co., a public relations firm in Pennington. New product packaging is better developed specifically for their herb lines including informational inserts. The Future "The business is a challenge, a different challenge everyday. But to say that nobody else is doing what we're doing is a plus," reminded Cobb. When he started out in business, said Cobb, "I expected success to come sooner than it did, but that's my fault and something we're fixing through public relations. And I didn't think the learning curve would be so great." Has he ever thought of giving up? "No more than anyone else would," said Cobb. "Although, we have knocked our heads against the wall more than most people would have." Even when the co-generator got leak in it and seeped ethylene in the greenhouse killing every plant in the place, they didn't give up. "We lost every head of lettuce, lost thousands of dollars and were out of production for two months," he said. "But we worked our way back, though, and have gotten all of those customers back," Cobb can now triumph. This year will see another one-acre of greenhouses go up. For a guy who has never grown field lettuce, he hasn't done so bad. With his eye on the future, Cobb isn't looking to grow just greenhouse vegetables. He said he aims to watch the nutraceuticals industry closely, adding that his business is a prime setup for producing these value-added products.
ARC Greenhouses P.O. Box 191 Shiloh, NJ 08353 (856) 451-3561 © Copyright 2001 by ARC Greenhouses |
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