Rescuing A Dying Breed
Gregory Moore, CEO of Smithfield Chicken & BBQ, refers to Falcon Park as his “farm.” Going on four years old, the farm is the hard-won result of Moore’s vision.
(EMAILWIRE.COM, August 11, 2008 ) Clayton, NC - Driving up to Falcon Park in Clayton, NC, a tall wrought-iron gate looms and opens automatically, hinting at the property’s majestic beauty and exquisite contents.
Gregory Moore, CEO of Smithfield Chicken & BBQ, refers to Falcon Park as his “farm.” Going on four years old, the farm is the hard-won result of Moore’s vision. It has not been easy, and there is work to do yet. But the future is bright for Falcon Park, in large part because Moore’s greatest strength lies in his ability to apply his business savvy honed from Southern BBQ to the modern-day challenges running a farm brings.
A learning process
Moore admits he has never been a farmer before this, but his roots run deep.
“My family’s been in Johnston County since the 1700s, and I’m the only one who hasn’t been a farmer,” says Moore. “I was among the first generation not to do farming at all. When I turned 50, I decided I was going to do it.
“I wanted my children to understand the experience of farming and understand the cycle of life,” continues Moore. “And so I embarked on this feat. And I say “feat” because I didn’t realize that North Carolina farming had deteriorated the way it has. Some people have come up to me and said, ‘If you want to lose a million dollars, go into farming.’ It was terrible.”
But Moore had the resources to think big. He purchased 144 acres of pasture and rolling hills, surrounded on three sides by the Neuse River, and began the arduous and expensive work of building roads, buildings, an impressive water system and stables that rival fine homes. They are immaculate—with herringbone brick floors, solid cherry stable doors, and black-painted wrought iron gating with brass finials, inspired from the finest stables in England. In the ceilings are video cameras, where boarders can check daily on their animals.
This is not the type of farm where you need a pair of knee-boots to tromp through the mud. This is the kind of farm most have never seen—an upper echelon farm intended to board horses, breed Hereford cattle and, perhaps, bottle it’s own water. It is Moore’s greatest vision that, one day, his farm will be sustainable, paying for itself and then some. In other words, it will operate in the black.
“We’re being very careful about the branding of Falcon’s Park because we want quality. We don’t want to go cheap and then have a bad brand. In the beginning, when we started, we thought we were at the top. We didn’t know any better. So now, we really think that we are. And obviously we are if we’re competing nationally,” says Moore, referring to a recent national win for one of his Herefords with DeShayzer Farms in Texas.
But there are challenges. At first, Moore tried breeding beef cattle, but realized he didn’t have the land mass to do that. With the Hereford, the finest cattle available, others will buy from him to integrate the animal into their own herds. The farm’s reputation is growing, but that too will take time. Bottling water was going to be an enterprise too, but one of his roads is built too close to the well.
“It’s not an overnight process, getting something like this done,” says Moore. “It has been a process of learning. But if you start something from scratch, you have to try a few things before you can find something that you feel is going to work. We’ve got a lot of hope that this is going to work.”
Revenue avenues
Actually he’s got more than hope. Moore is fully ready to view farming in a larger frame if that’s the key to Falcon Park’s success. It means he must be willing to diversify and he must be patient, two luxuries his Johnston County ancestors likely did not have.
“This whole experience has really brought me into a reality check with what farmers have had to face and why all of these family farms are gone now,” says Moore. “It’s real. These people didn’t just make a choice. It was made for them. When the tobacco cash crop was gone, nothing else was there.”
The reality Moore is speaking of continues today. Of America’s 2.1 million farms, only 645,000 commercial and family farmers actually earn the bulk of their living from the farm itself. The remainder categorize themselves as farmers, but make a majority of their income outside of the farm, according to economist Timothy Wise, the deputy director of Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute. Wise goes on to report that more than half of the nation’s full-time farmers have average incomes that are just 86 percent of the U.S. average.
Moore thinks the key to changing those numbers is diversity. In addition to breeding Herefords and boarding thoroughbreds, Moore is open to the idea of hosting corporate events, parties, and weddings, as well as cattle and animal shows. Moore is also in the process of constructing riding rings, which could later be used for practices, shows and competitions. He has also experimented with free-range chickens, which was successful, and may add that to his farming operation.
The way he sees it, the more revenue avenues a farm has today, the more likely it will succeed. “We have to do anything that we can,” says Moore. “But to find a market and find a product and match it up is going to be a challenge.”
History not forgotten
The money may no longer be in traditional farming as we know it, but Moore, an entrepreneur who started 25 years ago with one barbecue restaurant and now owns thirty and counting, is determined to think outside the box until he finds the formula that leads him to sustainability. His determination is palpable.
“I’ve had times when I’ve felt like giving up, but you just can’t,” says Moore. “I think if we can get to a point and find our niche that we will see things start progressing. I think it’s going to come from multiple avenues. I don’t like being out of my area of expertise, though. I like my comfort zone. If it weren’t for the real goal, the higher goal, of wanting to contribute back to North Carolina and back to the farming industry and for the fact that I really firmly believe that farming needs to stay, then I’m not sure I would be doing this.”
But if he wasn’t doing this, he would never have gotten to see his three children—Junius, 25, Margaret, 21 and Garland, 19—chasing loosed calves or tagging cows. And that is as large a part of Moore’s vision for Falcon Park as is sustainability.
“I don’t think that my kids or grandkids can understand our history and their place in it without experiencing the real organic understanding of life,” says Moore. “It just doesn’t seem right that an American tradition such as farming could just slip away like that. I’m trying to make sure that it doesn’t.”
Source: http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/news/TopProducer_Wise.pdf
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Gregory Moore, CEO of Smithfield Chicken & BBQ, refers to Falcon Park as his “farm.” Going on four years old, the farm is the hard-won result of Moore’s vision. It has not been easy, and there is work to do yet. But the future is bright for Falcon Park, in large part because Moore’s greatest strength lies in his ability to apply his business savvy honed from Southern BBQ to the modern-day challenges running a farm brings.
A learning process
Moore admits he has never been a farmer before this, but his roots run deep.
“My family’s been in Johnston County since the 1700s, and I’m the only one who hasn’t been a farmer,” says Moore. “I was among the first generation not to do farming at all. When I turned 50, I decided I was going to do it.
“I wanted my children to understand the experience of farming and understand the cycle of life,” continues Moore. “And so I embarked on this feat. And I say “feat” because I didn’t realize that North Carolina farming had deteriorated the way it has. Some people have come up to me and said, ‘If you want to lose a million dollars, go into farming.’ It was terrible.”
But Moore had the resources to think big. He purchased 144 acres of pasture and rolling hills, surrounded on three sides by the Neuse River, and began the arduous and expensive work of building roads, buildings, an impressive water system and stables that rival fine homes. They are immaculate—with herringbone brick floors, solid cherry stable doors, and black-painted wrought iron gating with brass finials, inspired from the finest stables in England. In the ceilings are video cameras, where boarders can check daily on their animals.
This is not the type of farm where you need a pair of knee-boots to tromp through the mud. This is the kind of farm most have never seen—an upper echelon farm intended to board horses, breed Hereford cattle and, perhaps, bottle it’s own water. It is Moore’s greatest vision that, one day, his farm will be sustainable, paying for itself and then some. In other words, it will operate in the black.
“We’re being very careful about the branding of Falcon’s Park because we want quality. We don’t want to go cheap and then have a bad brand. In the beginning, when we started, we thought we were at the top. We didn’t know any better. So now, we really think that we are. And obviously we are if we’re competing nationally,” says Moore, referring to a recent national win for one of his Herefords with DeShayzer Farms in Texas.
But there are challenges. At first, Moore tried breeding beef cattle, but realized he didn’t have the land mass to do that. With the Hereford, the finest cattle available, others will buy from him to integrate the animal into their own herds. The farm’s reputation is growing, but that too will take time. Bottling water was going to be an enterprise too, but one of his roads is built too close to the well.
“It’s not an overnight process, getting something like this done,” says Moore. “It has been a process of learning. But if you start something from scratch, you have to try a few things before you can find something that you feel is going to work. We’ve got a lot of hope that this is going to work.”
Revenue avenues
Actually he’s got more than hope. Moore is fully ready to view farming in a larger frame if that’s the key to Falcon Park’s success. It means he must be willing to diversify and he must be patient, two luxuries his Johnston County ancestors likely did not have.
“This whole experience has really brought me into a reality check with what farmers have had to face and why all of these family farms are gone now,” says Moore. “It’s real. These people didn’t just make a choice. It was made for them. When the tobacco cash crop was gone, nothing else was there.”
The reality Moore is speaking of continues today. Of America’s 2.1 million farms, only 645,000 commercial and family farmers actually earn the bulk of their living from the farm itself. The remainder categorize themselves as farmers, but make a majority of their income outside of the farm, according to economist Timothy Wise, the deputy director of Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute. Wise goes on to report that more than half of the nation’s full-time farmers have average incomes that are just 86 percent of the U.S. average.
Moore thinks the key to changing those numbers is diversity. In addition to breeding Herefords and boarding thoroughbreds, Moore is open to the idea of hosting corporate events, parties, and weddings, as well as cattle and animal shows. Moore is also in the process of constructing riding rings, which could later be used for practices, shows and competitions. He has also experimented with free-range chickens, which was successful, and may add that to his farming operation.
The way he sees it, the more revenue avenues a farm has today, the more likely it will succeed. “We have to do anything that we can,” says Moore. “But to find a market and find a product and match it up is going to be a challenge.”
History not forgotten
The money may no longer be in traditional farming as we know it, but Moore, an entrepreneur who started 25 years ago with one barbecue restaurant and now owns thirty and counting, is determined to think outside the box until he finds the formula that leads him to sustainability. His determination is palpable.
“I’ve had times when I’ve felt like giving up, but you just can’t,” says Moore. “I think if we can get to a point and find our niche that we will see things start progressing. I think it’s going to come from multiple avenues. I don’t like being out of my area of expertise, though. I like my comfort zone. If it weren’t for the real goal, the higher goal, of wanting to contribute back to North Carolina and back to the farming industry and for the fact that I really firmly believe that farming needs to stay, then I’m not sure I would be doing this.”
But if he wasn’t doing this, he would never have gotten to see his three children—Junius, 25, Margaret, 21 and Garland, 19—chasing loosed calves or tagging cows. And that is as large a part of Moore’s vision for Falcon Park as is sustainability.
“I don’t think that my kids or grandkids can understand our history and their place in it without experiencing the real organic understanding of life,” says Moore. “It just doesn’t seem right that an American tradition such as farming could just slip away like that. I’m trying to make sure that it doesn’t.”
Source: http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/news/TopProducer_Wise.pdf
###
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