THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606190142
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 104 lines
JERRY LOTZ IS for the birds.
He loves to watch them eat, but tossing out bread crumbs or placing a few seeds in an outdoor feeder is not his style.
Lotz, 54, grows his own birdseed - 30 varieties - on 65 acres. Then he watches his feathered diners to see what they eat and what they don't eat.
He keeps tabs on their habits, hoping to whet their appetites with his products.
``My motto is, ``Invite some birds for dinner,'' said Lotz, who expects to enter the commercial wild bird food and seed market, growing and packaging what the birds seem to enjoy most.
He plans to be ready for marketing in November or December. ``I'll try it locally first and see what happens,'' he said.
The Richmond firm of Morand, Sabatino & Day, Advertising is working with Lotz, ``to help him direct his efforts,'' said Paul Morand, president.
``We'll develop a strategy - find out what the market needs, what the opportunities are - help him direct his efforts,'' Morand said. ``Birdseed is sold as a commodity: Buy a bag, put it in the feeder.
``Our challenge is to help him come up with a value-added concept, to show there is more to be obtained from the product than just feeding birds.''
He tossed around a few such thoughts - convenience, home-and-garden accessory, enhancement of lifestyle.
Morand equates those attempts with pitches offered by Martha Stewart.
``She's the guru of gracious living,'' he said. ``She talks about recipes Mom used to make. But when she talks about it, it's hot stuff.''
He added, ``We do think there's an opportunity for innovative marketing of bird food. Not everybody goes into the birdseed business, but, like any other product, you have to develop a strategy, find out what the opportunities are and what the market needs.''
Lotz plans to package 52 kinds of seed per bag. Windsor Supply Corp., a hardware outlet in Isle of Wight County, will mix the food.
The seed is being grown on a farm behind his place of business, Seahorse Plastics Corp., on Shoulders Hill Road.
There, for the past year, he has turned into the area's most avid bird watcher, eyeing ``large, small and teeny birds,'' he said.
Lotz watches as they peck at their food.
``I watch'em in the morning while I'm having my coffee. I sprinkle food on the rail that goes around the house,'' he said. ``Cardinals, doves, geese, ducks - I have food for them in front of the office windows.''
At this point, he has concluded that rye, fescue and polk salad are among the favorites. The birds turn up their beaks when it comes to cracked corn.
``Cardinals and bluejays like whole corn. They slug it down,'' Lotz said. ``Finches, chickadees and wrens like the smaller seeds.''
But, Lotz said, ``Look at the bird food you can buy. You don't get variety.''
Lots of Lotz mixes is his aim, ``a beautiful variety of food.'' This bird man harvests his fields in a beat-up, but still-moving, 1967 Allis Chalmers combine.
He plants 10 types of seed in one field. On a nearby plot, he has a mix of different plants - a large acreage version of a salad bar for birds.
There are about 20 acres of sorghum and 8 acres of millet - five different brands.
Lotz has two varieties of sunflowers on 7 acres, 6 acres of corn and 7 each of sesbania, safflower, flax, field peas and corn peas.
It's all there for the picking, except during the winter. That season is a different story.
``Wheat seeds are eaten all winter long,'' Lotz said. ``Worms and bugs are under the frozen ground, so the only thing they eat are the winter seeds.''
One of his chief worries is pesticide.
``There's so much of it. It poisons the birds,'' said Lotz, who spends most of his time inventing and developing.
He deals in the practical but unusual, including construction of fiberglass composite enclosures.
Lotz has developed such things as a pump house cover for the Craney Island Fuel Depot, nuclear control rooms for Cherry Hill, N.C., a speed ferry for the Virgin Islands, a catapult cover for Norfolk Naval Shipyard and ultralight and ultrastrong sailboats, ``plus,'' he claims, ``thousands of other fiberglass products.''
In addition, he has patents pending on many items such as modular roofing and geo-thermal foundations.
Some of his inventions are in production or in various stages of testing, he said.
He lives in one of his test centers, across the street from Seahorse, a home with a passive solar dome.
``It's about 55 degrees year-round - 10 to 15 degrees cooler inside in the summer,'' said Lotz, who has no fuel bills. ``My 180 degree panoramic view of nature helps with the study of birds.
``I have 200 quail, 18 turkeys and a couple of pheasants,'' he said.
Lotz lives comfortably, but not lavishly.
``I gotta invent all the time,'' he said. ``The hell with making money. It's more fun inventing stuff.''
That's not to say, however, that he decries the profit motif.
``The birdseed business is a $1 billion a year business,'' Lotz said. ``If I can get 1 percent of that business, I'd make a million a year.''
And, he would give a million or so birds something to sing about. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
``Cardinals and bluejays like whole corn. Finches, chickadees and
wrens like the smaller seeds,'' says Jerry Lotz.
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Jerry Lotz harvests his fields in a beat-up, but still-moving, 1967
Allis Chalmers combine. by CNB