Q & A: Talking with Bob Miller, owner of Richmond Farms in Fort Collins, CO

Born and raised in Kansas, Bob Miller started running his family farm at 14-years old after his father passed away in 1965. He farmed that land for 20 years with the help of his brother, brother-in-law and other friends. While running the family farm, Miller also worked for the United States Department of Agriculture as a second job where he learned a lot about the government side of farming.

In 1981, his lifetime goal of buying the family farm became a reality. Unfortunately, four years later, his youngest son developed severe asthma and the family had to relocate to Colorado. This move meant Miller had to sell half of the farm. The other half he rented out to a friend who continues to farm the land to this day. Although, Miller tries to visit every year to ride the combine during harvest because he enjoys the work and being on the old farm again.

After moving to Colorado, Miller continued to work for the USDA as a way to stay involved in farming. On the side, he managed his own landscape business. In 2005, Miller retired from government work and returned to his roots in farming. When he got the opportunity to buy the nine acre Richmond Farms in Fort Collins, he couldn’t resist. In 2009, the family opened their doors to customers and the rest is history.

Q&A

Q: Why is agriculture important to you?

A: I grew up on the farm. I loved running equipment and growing crops. Then when I was working for USDA, I got to see farming in a lot of different areas and different size operations. I was in the lending business and we created loans for farmers to buy farm ground, equipment and livestock.

Q: What is the hardest part about owning your own farm?

A: Physically, it’s the labor. And finding people who wanna work hard and don’t just want a job. You’ve got to be a business person. You’ve got to be a mechanic. You’ve got to know how to run equipment. You gotta know about herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. There’s a lot of knowledge to farming.

On top of that, the state of *Colorado is trying to raise the wages for farm workers to $15/hr, but there is not enough money in this industry to do that. I like hiring and working with young people but we cannot afford to pay them $15/hr. “It’s scary how much our legislature doesn’t know about agriculture.”

Q: What is the best part about owning your own farm?

A: I’ve got so much to do on the farm that I have to get up and get going every morning. And although the growing process can be very long and there’s a lot of work involved, there’s a great deal of reward at the end when all the different vegetables are harvested. It’s very satisfying.

Q: Why did you become a vegetable farmer?

A: I just like growing and the vegetable industry always intrigued me because there are so many different crops to grow. It’s very interesting to me because every one of them is a little different. We concentrate on the most popular 20 vegetables, but there are a whole bunch more. Even each vegetable has so many different varieties. Like sweet corn — there must be 50 different varieties of sweet corn, maybe even more than that.

Q: Do you have any recipe suggestions that you like to make with your fresh vegetables?

A: I’ve got a really good one. It’s called summer sweet corn and basil salad.

Q: Are you a certified organic farm?

A: We are not certified organic, but we use all organic methods. I don’t want to eat the stuff that’s been sprayed with pesticides and I don’t think anybody else does either.

Q: What else do you want the Fort Collins community to know about your farm?

A: We love growing vegetables and flowers and sharing those with the community. One of the reasons I liked the location of the farm is because it’s on a busy street. People can drive by every day and see the whole process from start to finish. They can see us preparing the ground for planting. They can see us in the field planting. They can see it growing all during the season. And then they can come enjoy it when we harvest.

*Page 15 of a letter from the Colorado Agriculture Council to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment explains why this increase in wages is unreasonable for the agriculture businesses.