In the Field Farm Tour: Scott and Pam Heinemann Farm

It’s time for another Ward Laboratories in the Field Farm Tour.?This year the theme is, “Food for Thought: Connection, Collaboration, and Conversation around Ideas for Progressive Farm Management.”

The field day will be at Scott and Pam Heinemann’s farm located at 57116 849th Road; Winside, Neb. The day’s activities will begin on Wednesday, July 13 at 8:30 a.m. with registration and a morning program at the Heinmann’s farm followed by lunch and an afternoon question and answer session at the Winside Community Center located at 424 Main Street in Winside, Neb.?

About Scott and Pam:

Scott was born and raised just three miles away from where he and his wife Pam reside today, “I have only lived in two houses in Nebraska.?My grandpa settled in Wayne County in the 1940s.?As early as I can remember, I was tagging along with dad and grandpa. I loved being around the cattle and on the tractor.?So, I carried on the cattle feeding tradition and we grew corn, oats, and alfalfa.”

Scott thought about college, but schooling on the farm next to his parents and grandparents called him the most, so he learned from others and is self-taught to this day, “I was a pretty good welder, so grandpa bought me a welding set in high school.?They let me learn by experience.?I worked for area farmers too when I had spare time.?I walked beans in the summer and fall.?If we finished harvesting, I would help the bigger farmers finish.”?

On Thursday, there were the cattle sales at the livestock auction in Norfolk, Scott recalled, “I really learned the numbers there with dad and grandpa, figuring prices on what we were paying for feeders – the price of feed and cost of gain.?I loved penciling out feeder cattle and what we needed to do to make sure the fat cattle made money.?Everything we grew on the farm went to the cattle.?We fed a lot of silage to about 300 to 400 head a year.?We cut a lot of corn silage, alfalfa, oats and haylage.?We grew the cattle longer than typical feedlots and then pushed them harder at the end with grain.”

Making some changes . . . ??

“In 1995, I grew my first soybean crop,” Scott said.?“My dad was kind of against it.?He’d say, ‘We’re cattle feeders, we feed what we grow.’” ?

“We had a lot of dryland corn though and friends and neighbors encouraged me to try some beans to break the disease and pest cycle,” he explained.?

“We were conventional tillage when I was growing up.?I actually started no-tilling in the early 90s when they were requiring it on highly erodible ground.?I was like everyone else saying, ‘It’s my farm and they should not be telling me what to do.’ But then you accept it and instead of being negative you start seeing maybe it’s going to work.?Then you see it working – the time saved and the moisture retention and it’s like, ‘Wow, this is something that I thought would never work and it did.’”?

Farming is a partnership . . .

In 1999, Scott met his future wife Pam and they headed to the Nebraska State Fair on their first date, she said, “It was great because we had things we could talk about, looking around at everything, and getting to know each other.?I thought he was a great guy and became interested in him.”

Pam was especially intrigued by Scott’s stories about his grandparents’ gardens and how much he developed his interest in traveling from them, “His grandparents had traveled all over – even to Denmark, Germany, and Argentina.?I didn’t know that farmers traveled that much, and I was impressed. But I was still like, ‘I cannot be a farmer.’?My friend who was an accountant and who grew up on a farm told me to, ‘Snap out of it.?Farming and accounting go very well together.’”

Turns out it was a match and Scott ended up asking for her hand in marriage and also this question, “Pam, will you be my accountant?”

Saying yes to marriage and running the farm numbers was easy.?But the first thing Pam did was allow herself the time and freedom to learn the farming ropes, “I had some acquaintances ask me if I wanted to get a job at the college and this or that.?But I just wanted to settle in first.?I think if I had gotten a 9 to 5 job right away, it wouldn’t have been a partnership.?We definitely took the risk of not having a paycheck right way and that was a weird feeling for me, but Scott and his parents always made me feel like a partner.?They liked that we were working as a couple.”

Scott laughed thinking back on a story with his dad, “I remember one time, dad was laughing and waving his arms at me during harvest, and he came over to me and said, ‘Just let your wife do it.’?To this day, she really is the best at running the grain cart.”

Know your numbers and your soil . . .

Scott knew from watching the 1980s farm crisis that creativity and working together was needed in agriculture, “Some of the larger farmers I worked for in the 80s didn’t make it.?It made me see that knowing the numbers is very important, regardless of size.?You can work hard from sunup to sundown, but if you don’t know the numbers, hard work alone cannot save you if you are working hard at the wrong things.”

Knowing the soil was also the key to the numbers working, “I know how God started to lead me.?I was reading the newspaper one day and was turning the page to the farm page in the Norfolk Daily News.?It was a one paragraph announcement in the side column talking about the No-Till on the Plains conference.?I told myself, ‘I want to go to that.’ I had never heard of No-Till on the Plains before.”

Later on, after practicing no-till for several years, Heinemann came upon an article about Gabe Brown in the Progressive Farmer.?He felt something differently, “It was in 2013, and Gabe was talking about when he started farming and got hailed out four years in a row and was forced to do something to save the cow herd.?He started growing forage and saw such an improvement in the soil and in the diversity of his farm.?There was something about reading it that just triggered me and lit my fire again.”?

The Heinemanns had been forced to look at the numbers closely and got out of the feedlot business around the same time the sale barn in Norfolk closed.?But they sat down and started thinking differently and started planning Pam said, “We got out of the cattle in 2006 and since I am a planner and organizer, I said, ‘Okay, now what are we going to do?’?At that time, it was back to just corn and soybeans.?Honestly, it was a little dull.?I remember even asking the banker if it was too simplified and they said that no it wasn’t because those crops were still profitable.”?

Diversity became a must . . .

The couple could simply not settle on a corn and soybean rotation alone.?Scott wanted to bring cows back and graze differently and there were so many other crops to try.?The soil health movement had settled upon their hearts and the farm, Pam said, “Looking back, when we were just doing corn and soybeans it felt like we were in competition with all the neighbors.?It was more about being concerned with yield and what is this or that weed issue.?Then Scott started talking above cover crop and cows.?It was getting more complicated again, but also more interesting.?Then I remember listening to Dale Strickler talk about soil structure and what all goes on beneath our feet.?It started clicking for me.?I get it now.?I don’t even want to till my garden anymore.?Now we are beginning to balance things.”

Better and better is not always bigger and bigger . . .

Instead of growing the farm, the Heinemanns are actually giving up a little bit of land year by year, she said, “We don’t have the desire to keep getting bigger and bigger.?We just want to get better and better.”?

A challenging and rewarding part of the scenario has been incorporating livestock.?The couple wants to give other people in the community the opportunity to build wealth and equity for themselves through grazing cattle.?They get the benefits of running livestock across their land to improve soil fertility and now a couple brothers get the benefit of starting in the cattle business. Scott helps with the cattle, but wants to travel to Arizona with Pam for the winter months, so he is striving to keep the system manageable for the brothers who own the livestock and his life balance too.?

The diversity on the Heinemann farm has included a continuation of the corn, soybeans, and also oats, cereal rye, barley, heirloom corn, crimson clover, and more intense grazing.?Their pollinator buffers consist of native grasses and wildflower mixes with 50 different varieties. They are also testing out fewer synthetic inputs like nitrogen on the commodity crops.

“It’s about the compounding benefits for the future,” Scott reiterated.?“We had some soybeans this year with grasshoppers in a few spots.?But I was adamant about not spraying insecticide, even if was just for this year, in the long-run it would have been disastrous to the beneficial insect population we are trying to build up.”?

Sometimes changes like these are seen as radical to others, but Scott is willing to face even feeling like an outsider, “It can be frustrating when trying to talk to certain people.?I am not trying to be bossy.?I am just excited about how we can really help ourselves as farmers.?I try to bring these topics up in a friendly and not preachy way.?Farmers are smarter than they often give themselves credit for.?They rely on an agronomist or this or that expert and they can do their own research.?They are the ones paying the bills.?I mean, if I can figure some of this out, anyone can.”?

About the Field Day . . .

Morning Location:

Scott & Pam Heinemann's farm | 57116 849th Rd. | Winside, NE 68790

Lunch location and afternoon Q&A:

Winside Community Center | 424 Main Street | Winside, NE 68790

Schedule:

8:30 a.m. – Check-in and registration.?

9 to 9:10 a.m. – Welcome??

9:10-9:40 – Rain Fall Simulator

9:50 a.m. to 12:25 pm – work through stations:

1. Compost Tea, Jimmy Red Corn, and Milpa Garden
2. Soil Pit and Rainfall Simulator
3. Grazing area and cattle talks

12:45 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. – Lunch at Winside Community Center?

1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. – Wrap up with Q&A Session

*We will be applying for CCA Credits