Why do we farm?
Because we love it. We find great joy both in caring for the land that is entrusted to us, as well as building lasting relationships with landowners, employees, business partners and our own extended families.
Our biggest hope is to leave a legacy for our children to carry forward. Right or wrong, consolidation in farming is happening, and we anticipate this trend to continue. We will grow our business to be a leader that proves family farm values can survive. We are committed to proactive strategies and financial diversification that will help ensure we are among the few family farms that continue to thrive over generations.
We are proactive and innovative so that we can Be the Few.
The Grain Operation
At Rogers Family Farms, we grow corn and soybeans across a four-county region: Butler, Franklin, Cerro Gordo and Floyd. A third of our corn is sold to family-owned Rogers Livestock Company for animal feed.
We use Challenger (CAT) equipment with Ag Leader Technology. Starting in 2018, we will be doing vertical tillage on ground going from corn to soybeans. We have recently added an efficient grain dryer to our bin site, which allows us to plant fuller season corn to optimize yield. We apply manure from our hog sites on many acres to build fertility and yields. Every four years, we pull new soil samples of all farms on four-acre grids to variable rate the fertilizer, giving us greater effectiveness in fertilizer application.
We own a Terragator floater for all our pre-emerge applications of nitrogen and herbicide. This allows us the ability to compare prices and set our own timeline for application based on the needs of each field. We plant using prescriptions so we can variable rate our seed and plant more population on heavier soil.
The Hog Operation
From 2017 to 2019 we partnered with a group of other investors to build six 2,500 head wean-to-finish buildings that we rent to an integrator. This greatly increases the amount of manure that can be applied to our home land base. These new barns along with the two existing barns that were built in the early 2000s give us great flexibility on crop rotations and fertility plans. The new buildings are double-wide curtain tunnel vent with automated generators, shower-in-shower-out biosecurity, stainless-steal Crystal Spring feeders and robust ventilation system for optimal air quality.