Early on he hired locals. “I didn’t ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do—and I still don’t,” says Daniel. “In the beginning, we could hire high school students, and they’d usually work for us for two or three years.”
Ten the availability of competent local labor changed. In 1996, Daniel had W2s for 53 different employees just to have a field crew of four to five people. He began working with the MAS H-2A program in 1998, shortly after they started to collaborate with the Ohio Farm Bureau, and he continues to do so. “I used H-2A workers as equipment operators and started using them as truck drivers well before other TPI members did,” reports Daniel. “Tey all pick up enough English to get along, especially because most of the landscapers have bilingual workers too.”
Columbus Turf Nursery’s current in-season, local workforce consists of one truck driver, one mechanic, two shop technicians, and two office workers. In 2024, they had eight H-2A workers. For 2025, they will have six. “I had to document that my labor needs were down 20 percent to make that reduction,” reports Daniel. “I also had to guarantee every local worker would get their job back.”
He adds, “Our state average hourly wage rate for H-2A workers has risen from just over $5 to $19.57 for farm workers and $27.50 for H-2A truck drivers. Te restrictions and stipulations keep getting more stringent. Tere are about a dozen land mines among those they issued just last year. We are hoping for an injunction on those.”
Expanding
In 1996, Daniel had an opportunity to buy 320 acres for $3,000 an acre, but with most farmland selling for $1,200 an acre, he passed on that purchase. By 1998, farmland prices were up to $7,000 an acre and competition for land had escalated. “I spent about 10 years looking for ground and couldn’t find anything worth buying.”
In 2002, Kroger came to Daniel’s area of Ohio. Land prices went from $7000 an acre up to $20,000 plus an acre. Farmers leasing farmland to other farmers typically have a 120-day clause that can end the lease and take back the land. Kroger moving in kicked all the farming off those acres, including Daniel. He found some rental land further south and some near Delaware, Ohio, about 50 miles north of Columbus.
Tat pricing boom ended in 2004 when Kroger and the big homebuilders acted on the predictions of economists who foresaw the falling market three years ahead of its occurrence. By 2006 or 2007, it was pretty clear the country was going into a recession. Land started coming back on the market, but not from farmers, because they were still holding out for the homebuilders.
Looking to expand, Daniel says, “In 2007, I was eyeing 145 acres south of Columbus. It had all been zoned for development by the city, with the pre-recession asking price $20,000 to $25,000 an acre. I negotiated a price of $5,280 an acre with a 10-year no-sell agreement stipulating I couldn’t sell it to another builder and giving the sellers first right of refusal. Since the land was not contiguous to the river, the sellers agreed to let me survey and drill to find the water source I’d need for sod production, but that offer had a hard August 15 closing date. I did the planning, did the survey, and drilled three test wells. Each hit about 200 gallons. Tat wasn’t enough. A pond wouldn’t comply with the zoning. I talked to the neighboring landowner who agreed to let me pump water from the river and pipe it across his land. On August 10, the stock market dropped. But remembering my decision not to buy in 1996, I purchased those 145 acres at $5,280 an acre.”
In April of 2009, Daniel got a call from the landowner who had purchased the first land that Daniel had rented for $25,000 an acre. Te question was—are you still interested in this property? “I had hoped to rent it back and sublease it,” says Daniel. “I had just spent my capital on those 145 acres. But this was 136 acres contiguous to my farm and I just couldn’t turn it down.”
Daniel was serving on the County Farm Bureau board at that time, one of his numerous stints of serving on farm- related boards over the years. As well as TPI, he’s active in TPA, the Ohio Landscape Association, the Columbus Landscape Association, and donates to the OLA’s Landscape Olympics. He considers that service a form of value marketing, a way to give back to the community—and another opportunity to “ask questions, observe, and learn so you’ll be smarter and quicker the next time around.”
Daniel says, “Tough farming was not good at that point, I knew I could sub out the land. I did the paperwork and determined that a purchase at a good price could just be trading money. I offered to buy it using the average farmland price in Ohio as our barometer and the seller agreed as long as the purchase was completed before the end of 2009. Tat average price was $4,280 an acre.”
Tat was a great deal for Daniel—and for the seller. When the recession hit, developers were dumping the land they had bought at the high rate for whatever they could get, and losing money, which made them upside down on their bank loans. Congress acted to help the developers and the banks by letting the developers look back multiple years when filing their taxes. At the end of the year, the seller got a cash credit for the loss. Tat program expired at the end of 2009. Daniel says, “Te seller received the difference in his buying and selling price in 2010. So he made his money quicker––a win-win all around.”
TPI Turf News January/February 2025
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