Plant Materials Center Update
Here are 5 things you should know about the PMC for June 8, 2023:
Sales
The 2022-23 sales season is almost a wrap. A few numbers might be tweaked slightly but no new sales will be posted. The cooler is empty and there is not anything left to sell. That is okay because the growing season is in full swing and the PMC exceeded all projections and expectations for the sales year.
As of May 31, 2023, PMC Plant Sales were $1,744,071. That is up from last year’s record-setting year of $1,558,682 which eclipsed the previous year’s sales record of $1,100,900. That is an increase of almost 12% from the previous year and 50% from 2 years ago. This year’s sales also exceeded the sales budget for the year of $1,411,300 by 24%. Total sales were composed of 460 individual orders which is a decrease from the previous year by 100 orders. That might sound concerning but it is quite the opposite. It means that the size of the average order has increased and there were fewer orders to process and fill.
Every employee at the PMC deserves recognition for how hard they worked to make this happen. The PMC is fortunate to have hard-working and dedicated employees. Together they make an effective team and a sum that is greater than its parts.
May Financial Reports
Lori has completed the financial reports for May. The total revenues at the PMC year to date are up from the same time last year. As of May 31, 2023, Total PMC Revenues stood at $1,812,546. That is a 12% increase from the same time last year when Total PMC revenues were $1,616,696. As mentioned above, most of the Revenue was PMC Plant Sales which were $1,608,144.
Total Expenses are up as well. As of May 31, expenses were $1,422,610 compared to $1,237,879 for the same time last year. There are a few expense items this year that were not on last year’s May financial report yet resulting in a significant increase to this year’s report. That includes most notably $61,905 in income tax payments to the IRS which were not on the expense report at all last year. Other increases in expenses this year include brokered stock which has an offsetting increase in revenue, seeds which have gone up in price and increased in volume, and Staff Wages due to cost-of-living increases.
The bottom line is that as of May 31, the PMC received $1,812,546 in revenue, spent $1,422,610 in expenses for a net revenue of $390,000. It is important to note that there is still one month of expenses left in the fiscal year which will reduce net revenue for the year. The PMC spent almost $70,000 in each of the last two June’s which if that holds for this June would decrease net revenue for the whole fiscal year down to around $320,000, which is not too bad.
Spring Seed Planting Ends
The PMC has not published an update for the past three weeks due in part to the amount of time required to plant the Spring Seedbed. That started shortly after May 15 and wrapped up on June 2. One reason spring seed planting took a little longer than usual is that the ground was too dry to prep so irrigating it first took longer than usual. Typically, there are enough rainy days this time of year to eliminate the need to irrigate before planting. Once planting started, 133 pounds of seed comprising 34 different species and 62 individual seed lots were planted into 30,500 linear feet (or 5.78 miles) of 8-row seedbed. Now the waiting for germination is taking place. Many of the species planted a couple of weeks ago are starting to come up but the more recently planted ones have not had a chance yet. Hopefully, germination occurs at a decent rate which will translate into a record number of plants for the next two years.
Operations
Since the harvest months of December thru March are the busiest some assume that the remaining months are relatively quiet. While the pace does slow a bit there is a lot to do to produce 2,000,000 plants of over 80 species. Besides seed planting and transplanting, there is weed control, disease and pest management, inventory, sales, irrigation, root pruning, seed collection, and processing just to name a few. The weeding crew is keeping up on weed control. The irrigation system is up and running which is fortunate since May and June have thus far been unusually dry. Field inventories are ahead of schedule as well. There is still a long way to go to produce enough plants to rival and surpass this record-setting sales season but the PMC is solidly on track.
Coming Attractions
There are several upcoming events at the PMC this summer. One event that will not occur is hosting the June WACD Board Meeting which was changed to a remote meeting due to scheduling conflicts. One thing that will happen is the WADE Conference. Jacquie will be attending so look her up and see what is new. The PMC will host a tour of Washington State Ag Educators near the end of June which is an opportunity to promote this field of work to those who are mentoring the next generation of ag employees. Jim will attend a seed workshop in Eatonville in June to discuss the challenges on the seed supply chain created by future projected growth of native plant materials. It is shaping up to be a busy summer.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions. You can find older posts about the Plant Materials Center at https://wadistricts.us/topics/wacd/pmc/
Jim Brown
Director of Nursery Operations
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You might be interested in our archive of PMC photos. The gallery shown below is sorted from newest photos to oldest. We hope you enjoy seeing the many faces of the PMC through every season!
