Triple D farm in danger of closing due to debt, regulations

WASILLA — Triple D Farm and Hatchery owner Tony Schmidt normally would be stockpiling baby chicks to sell this time of year. Instead, he’s collecting letters of support from loyal customers in the hopes of selling a business plan to save the Valley’s only organic poultry farm.

“I’ve got to consolidate all my debt and lower the interest rate or there’s no way I can stay in business,” Schmidt said Friday, throwing up his arms. “I’m looking at losing my house at this point. This economy and all the federal regulations affecting farmers are killing me.”

His poultry processing room and chick brooding area have been eerily silent since last fall as the first casualties in his fight to save his farm near the Hyer Road/Parks Highway interchange in Wasilla.

About 30 Heritage turkeys and several chickens remain on the property made famous a few years ago by Gov. Sarah Palin’s pardon of one of his turkeys during Thanksgiving.

Schmidt, who grew up on his parents’ farms in North Dakota and Yakima, Wash., is making a last-ditch effort to convince local banks to work with him before he’s forced to put the operation up for sale for an estimated $245,000.

“I have about $80,000 to $90,000 invested in just the equipment,” he said standing in the middle of the empty processing room. “Fifteen years of blood, sweat and tears are about to go down the drain. That’s a hard reality to face, but I’ve been dragging this place along since 2008 and it’s just gotten worse every year.”

The Navy veteran had worked in the construction business for years in Alaska and had raised poultry just for his family’s enjoyment before realizing he could make a living by expanding his farm and selling to others who valued fresh products not tainted by chemicals and antibiotics.

Dubbed Triple D Farm and Hatchery in 1998 to honor his three daughters, the family later expanded its market in 2001 when it bought out the Kachman’s Hatchery in Palmer.

Triple D had since grown to become the largest poultry supplier in the state and the only fresh turkey supplier, Schmidt said.

“Every year, more and more people planned and purchased their Thanksgiving turkeys from Triple D because of its freshness and size,” he said. “Now, with the economy the way it is, a lot of those people are now getting free turkeys from Fred Meyer or wherever during the holiday season if they spend $100 in the store. We can’t compete with that. They won’t have nearly the same quality on the table, but when times are tough, people don’t want to spend $3 or $4 bucks per pound on a fresh, organic bird.”

On top of that, Schmidt said new federal regulations requiring poultry farmers to come up with a recall system in case customers become sick puts another burden on his over-loaded shoulders. He said he’s never had any customer complaints about his products, so he doesn’t see a need for such a plan.

He’s already gathered about a dozen letters of support from local customers and those in Anchorage who buy organic products through “Organic Alaska.” Even the president of Alaska Mill and Feed Co., Ken Sherwood, took the time to write a letter last Tuesday.

“Anthony Schmidt at Triple D Farms has been a very good customer for a number of years,” Sherwood wrote. “He supplies chicks to a large number of people in the Valley and elsewhere in addition to raising poultry for customers who want fresh chickens and turkeys.”

The letter goes on to say that if Triple D closes, there is no one else with a similar operation.

“Acquiring baby chicks would become much more difficult and purchasing fresh poultry would probably be impossible,” Sherwood continues. “Filling the void would take a long time. Our feed business would also experience a significant drop in feed sales. Triple D is one of our largest poultry feed customers.”

Sherwood said Alaska Mill and Feed delivers several tons of feed to him every week and that the dollar total in feed sales is “substantial.”

Schmidt, who leveraged his 3,000-square-foot, custom-built home to get Triple D up and running, said he ended up having to donate about 7,000 pounds of turkey meat to food banks, youth groups and churches in the spring of 2009 after failing to sell enough turkeys that past holiday.

“That was a big hit to my bottom line,” he said. “It forced me to start living on credit at a high interest rate and it’s been gobbling me up ever since. It’s been taking three or four months to sell what I used to sell in a month.”

Three different people stopped by Friday morning to buy fresh eggs from him, which is about all he’s selling these days. One couple, Jose and Lori Gascon of Wasilla, was disappointed when they realized Schmidt didn’t have any baby chicks for sale.

The Gascons had previously purchased Cornish crosses and Rhode Island Reds from him and loved both the meat from the Cornish breed and the abundance of eggs from the Rhode Island hens. They also were hoping to get Easter photos of their toddler granddaughter with the baby chicks.

“Now it’s back to Google,” Jose said. “We’re looking for at least a dozen of each kind.”

Schmidt asked the Gascons if they’d be willing to join his letter-writing campaign and they nodded.

Schmidt told them he would know by mid-April whether he’d be able to keep the business afloat.

“Keep in touch,” Jose told him. “We hope it turns out for the best.”

For more information, visit the Triple D website at alaskatripled.com.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.