The Nomco Story

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After 90 days of soul-searching, Nate and Onnalee took the big leap. They borrowed money and formed NOMCO (a name that stands both for Nate and Onnalee Morrell Co. and Nature's Own Method Co.).

Over the next few months the couple bought a Mack truck, two dump trailers, a front-end loader, hoppers, conveyors, chip screen and hammermill. None of the equipment was new and none of it worked until the Morrells either rebuilt or modified it. Somehow they did manage to "balewire and binder twine" their tools together, however . . . well enough to produce a three-ton batch of their new, composted product. The initial run of soil conditioner was completed in their barn in the dead of the 1969-70 winter and christened B.S.A. (for Bark Soil Amendment).

And then the work began! The new gardening season was drawing nearer and—with no established sales outlets to handle B.S.A.—Nate was forced to hit the road to line up accounts for the product. That left Onnalee to hold down her nursing job and keep things on an even keel back home.

Both Morrells had their hands more than full: Many outlets hesitated to handle the as-yet-unproven soil conditioner. NOMCO's secondhand equipment continued to break down and malfunction. The special bags that Nate and Onnalee needed for packaging their product were late in arriving. Delivery dates were missed. Expenses climbed and income hardly got off Ground Zero.

The Morrells borrowed more money and continued to put every possible penny from Onnalee's job into the business. They experimented with different formulas for their soil conditioner, lined up more sources of raw material, replaced and rebuilt their tools and submitted samples of B.S.A. to laboratories and agricultural colleges for testing.

NOMCO's treatment at the hands of some of the land-grant university experimental stations and agricultural research centers is an especially sore point with Nate. He says, "The public maintains these facilities expressly for the purpose of developing and testing products such as ours and one would think that using such services is a perfectly straightforward procedure. Not at all! We've largely gotten the runaround when we've taken our bark product to the land-grant universities for analysis and testing."

Nate's low opinion of the current situation at many of the agricultural colleges does seem more than a little justified. There was the time, for instance, when the Morrells took a sample of their soil conditioner to the labs (stocked with a half-million dollars' worth of equipment) of one such institute. "Yes," they were told, "this station can analyze your product in the finest and most exacting manner."

"Splendid," replied the Morrells. "We'd like to have you do just that."

"Sorry. We can't. There's no money in the budget for your project."

"We'll be pleased to pay for the tests," said Onnalee and Nate.

"Oh no, we couldn't accept the money. As New York State taxpayers, you're entitled to the service at no charge."

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