Multigenerational farmers share how they adapt and innovate to future-proof their operations.
At a Glance
- Cattle producer adds CEO startup to farm legacy.
- Kansas farmer diversifies into beef-on-dairy to remain sustainable.
- Cheese turned a dairy farmer into a price maker.
In the ever-changing agriculture landscape, a family farm’s success is no longer about maintaining the status quo, but rather embracing flexibility, technology and innovative thinking.
A recent panel of generational farmers from Missouri and Kansas shared insights into how they’ve set their farm up to thrive even in challenging times. For these farmers, adaptability isn’t just a strategy — it’s a way of life.
Expand ag ventures
Kevin Johansen, a fifth-generation farmer, used this approach by diversifying agricultural ventures. His family came to central Missouri as row crop farmers more than a century ago, but that was not sustainable for a growing family.
Johansen added purebred Charolais and Hereford cattle, hay production and even a startup company, AgButler, which focuses on agricultural labor solutions.
STARTUP SUCCESS: Missouri farmer and entrepreneur Kevin Johanson explains how conversations with cattle producers around labor shortages led to the creation of AgButler, an app that connects employers with employees in rural areas.
His cattle operation changed over the past couple of years, and it’s paying off.
The once Charolais show-stock operation is now more production based. “We sell big-style Charolais bulls to commercial producers, because they’re paying on pounds and not hide color,” Johansen said.
While the Hereford side was always production based, now the family converted it to more of a diversified operation focusing on making feeder calves on the Red Baldy initiative to boost cash flow.
In the cattle business, Johansen often heard from farmers struggling to find labor, so he created a solution.
AgButler is an app that connects individuals in rural communities with jobs in agriculture.
Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johansen recalls trying to talk to people about inviting strangers to their farms was not an easy sell. However, more individuals were moving from professional, city-based careers to more remote, rural living. The app allowed farmers and employees to also remain flexible while searching for new labor opportunities.
Change market strategy
Kurt Schwarz says that farmers must remain flexible and creative in agriculture, sharing how changing markets guided his family’s agricultural journey.
Moving back to his grandfather’s eastern Kansas farm 23 years ago, one that’s been in the family since 1860, took an adjustment. To buy the farm, he had to look for an off-farm income.
Today, Schwarz owns Three Fires Cattle Co. and works as a crop insurance agent with Ag Risk Solutions. Flexibility and using market cues have been crucial to his success.
WELCOME ADVICE: Kansas farmer Kurt Schwarz spent many hours listening to farmers across his desk. He took their advice and listened to the market, revamping his operation to beef-on-dairy.
Two years after enduring the 2012 drought, Schwarz made a significant pivot, selling their entire herd of Red Angus and exploring beef-on-dairy cattle.
“We saw an opportunity that we thought was going to work, and we grabbed a hold of it,” he said. “Twenty-seven years of selling property insurance, I’ve been able to sit with very successful producers, and the common theme has always been doing what the market tells you to do.”
Add value and technology
For David Hemme, the dairy market was also signaling change, but one that would bring new innovation and technology to the nearly 200-year-old family farm.
Early on, the dairy farm consisted of Hemme and his wife milking cows and managing the daily operations. However, with five children, the couple wanted to provide a path back to the farm. Today, they milk cows and make cheese.
“I like to tell people we are craft cheese with a C, not a K,” the owner of Hemme Brothers Farmstead Creamery said.
The family farm focuses on creating an artisan product and prices it as a superior product in the marketplace. “We are going to be price makers, not price takers,” he added.
FIND THE NICHE: David Hemme produces artisan cheese on his west-central Missouri dairy farm to maximize profits through a value-add enterprise.
To keep up with the demands of the business, the family recently installed a robotic milking barn where cows walk in and voluntarily are milked by a machine. This new technology also allows Hemme’s son to manage the herd more efficiently through smartphone reporting. The Hemmes will add a second system in August.
The farm continues its innovative pathway with plans to add a café and retail space on the farm, making a place to tell their story.
“That’s where we tell people about carbon sequestration and regenerative ag and building organic matter in our soils and how we treat our animals,” Hemme said. “That’s where we build a brand.”
While investments like these are challenging, he says it is about embracing value-added agriculture to sustain his family business.
These generational farmers agree that integrating farming knowledge with emerging technologies helps to position their operations for continued growth in a constantly evolving agricultural industry.
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