Orange County NC Website
Andy Petesch: And you’re familiar with the financial projections that Ms.> Brewer testified were part of the 1 <br />farm summary? There were some questions about the labor aspects that were incorporated in that? 2 <br /> 3 <br />Chris Brewer: Right, so I think Mr. Katz had a couple of questions about the labor and just for the 5 year, 10 4 <br />year and 20 year projections: the 5 year we had $15,000 in labor, which at 5 years there won’t be as many 5 <br />chestnuts produced; 10 years we have $74,000; and 20 years we have $86,000 in labor in our projections. 6 <br /> 7 <br />Andy Petesch: And then one other issue that arose was the yield per tree. Could you talk about how you 8 <br />arrived at your estimates? 9 <br /> 10 <br />Chris Brewer: So there’s varying… There’s lots of different places we looked. Michigan State University has 11 <br />published an article which they talked about up to 3,500 pounds per acre of chestnut trees. Chestnut Hill 12 <br />Outdoors, which raises Dunstan chestnut trees, have stated that they believe between 50 and 100 pounds 13 <br />per chestnut are possible. The Northern Nut Groves Association have stated in an article that they’re 14 <br />between 50 and 138 pounds per tree. For our financials we only use 52 pounds per tree. 15 <br /> 16 <br />Andy Petesch: Ok. 17 <br /> 18 <br />Barry Katz: I would just like to ask you… You have other locations where you’re harvesting chestnuts so 19 <br />you process these chestnuts as was described? You wash them and raise them to the temperature of 160 20 <br />degrees and then you dry them and all that? 21 <br /> 22 <br />Chris Brewer: Yes. 23 <br /> 24 <br />Barry Katz: And what kind of equipment did you have to do all of that? 25 <br /> 26 <br />Chris Brewer: So we actually work at PFab, which is the Orange County commercial kitchen. And we rent 27 <br />so about every 3 days. 28 <br /> 29 <br />Barry Katz: Ok, I understand now. And in the future, do you plan on using that facility or having your own 30 <br />facility? 31 <br /> 32 <br />Chris Brewer: That’s what the barn is. That’s what we want to transition it to that. Obviously the barn’s not 33 <br />built right now so at some point that will transition to the barn. But right now we’re at PFab and that’s the 34 <br />kitchen we’re using. 35 <br /> 36 <br />Barry Katz: And I believe that your expert witness was implying that there was a fair amount of expense 37 <br />involved in having equipment to process these chestnuts? 38 <br /> 39 <br />Chris Brewer: He might have. 40 <br /> 41 <br />Barry Katz: What I wanted to know was this: Is this equipment stationary and permanent? Do you lock it in 42 <br />where it is, or do you not? 43 <br /> 44 <br />Chris Brewer: Well the equipment that’s at PFab now is stationary. 45 <br /> 46 <br />Barry Katz: At your barn? 47 <br /> 48 <br />79