Pasture opportunities
Luhmans operate
low-input cow-calf operation, raise sustainable crops
By Amy Kyllo
STAFF WRITER
GOODHUE — When Jon and Jared Luhman see pasture, they see opportunity.
The Luhmans grow premium products produced in a low-input, low-labor, focused-management environment.
“Most people in this area view pasture land as the land that you can’t farm,” Jared said. “We can create more value off of it than most people expect.”
The father-son duo, with encouragement and help from their wives, Terri and Valerie, own Dry Creek Red Angus Farm, where they graze 225 Red Angus cow-calf pairs and grow crops on 900 owned and rented acres. Jared is also a podcast host.
Thinking about his local area, Jared said he has fun pushing the limits and finding ways to make a cow-calf operation in the region more profitable.
Jon agreed.
“People keep doing the same thing, farming the same way, and just getting bigger,” he said. “Our philosophy is that maybe we need to change the way we do things and come up with some systems that fit the times.”
The Luhmans focus on profitability through breeding and herd management.
The Luhmans’ cows weigh about 1,150 pounds. The animals are bred for low maintenance energy, which makes them more efficient.
Each year, they sell about 60 bulls to Pharo Cattle Company based in Colorado as cooperative producers. This winter, the Luhmans are also expanding with 80 Black Angus on a permanent rental agreement from the company because the animals’ original farm was struck by drought.
Pharo Cattle Company requires their bulls to come from cows who have never had an assisted calving or failed to breed back. This requirement drives the Luhmans’ culling decisions.
“Their philosophy is raising cattle that survive and thrive on the environment that they have,” Jon said.
The Luhmans put a bull with their herd for 60 days a year. They keep replacements resulting from pregnancies in the first 45 days — which is the first two heat cycles. The rest are sold as feeders.
The Luhmans use first breeding time to further cull heifers. If heifers do not come up pregnant quickly, the Luhmans can still profitably sell them as feeders because they are young.
The Luhmans’ herd is intentionally youthful. Jared said depreciation is the second-largest cost they face after feed. Jared estimates a beef cow’s value will go from $2,500 to $1,500 over 10 years. However, the depreciation is not linear. Value remains strong until about 4-5 years of age, which is when they sell many of their cows.
“You’re not writing a check for depreciation like you write a check for hay, but it’s still real,” Jared said.
The Luhmans rotationally graze.
“I just love green grass, green forage and animals on the land,” Jon said. “Grazing, to me, that’s the most beautiful scene that’s out there.”
Using minimal stored feeds is the Luhmans’ goal. Their cows overwinter on pasture. Part of their overwintering strategy includes moving calving into April and May, so calves are weaned during the cold months, and the cows’ energy needs are lowered.
The Luhmans have grazed corn stalks the last five years into late January and beyond. Last year, they baled grazed corn stalks. This year, they hope to swath graze sorghum-sudangrass. To swath graze, they will cut the forage into 3-foot swaths as close to the first big snow of the year as possible.
With their management, the Luhmans are trying to create an accessible beef farm model with low overhead and minimal equipment. Since beef cows create limited income, the Luhmans said the more work the cow does for itself, the better the profit.
The Luhmans also raise row crops. This past year, they grew 300 acres, a portion of which were organic. Next year, they plan to fully transition from organic to conventional crops and lower row crop acres to 150.
Several frustrations have caused the switch. Jon said in spite of using cover crops, his organic matter has been stagnant due to tillage for weed control erasing soil structure built by soil organisms and earthworms.
“When you till it every year, you destroy it,” Jon said. “You’re constantly tearing down everything you built up.”
He also said the tillage has caused erosion. Finally, organic-to-conventional price differentials have become less attractive.
With conventional production, the Luhmans plan to eventually become 100% no till, something they have already done on some of their land.
Besides farming, for the last three and a half years, Jared has hosted a weekly podcast, “Ranching Returns.” The podcast, which has more than 200 episodes, garners over 5,000 listens a week.
He said the podcast has given him access to expert farmers and ranchers he would not otherwise have visited with.
Jared applies the concept that people are the average of the five people they spend the most time with to the value of podcasts.
“A lot of times, the people that you want to become are not people that you can surround yourself with physically,” Jared said. “By listening to enough podcasts … that’s the same thing. … Surrounding (yourself) with the ideas instead of the actual people.”
Jared said one of the things he finds most valuable in listening to podcasts is not the ideas, but the likeminded community affirming and reinforcing what he is already doing.
Beyond their management practices, family is an important aspect of farming for Jon and Jared. They both said they enjoy that farming allows them to spend more time with Jared and Valerie’s children and to be together working.
“I have a relationship with my dad that very, very, very few children will ever have,” Jared said.
Looking to the future, the Luhmans see potential that Jared’s children may someday farm.
“It gives more purpose to what you do when you know that the next generation might get to enjoy it,” Jared said.
low-input cow-calf operation, raise sustainable crops
By Amy Kyllo
STAFF WRITER
GOODHUE — When Jon and Jared Luhman see pasture, they see opportunity.
The Luhmans grow premium products produced in a low-input, low-labor, focused-management environment.
“Most people in this area view pasture land as the land that you can’t farm,” Jared said. “We can create more value off of it than most people expect.”
The father-son duo, with encouragement and help from their wives, Terri and Valerie, own Dry Creek Red Angus Farm, where they graze 225 Red Angus cow-calf pairs and grow crops on 900 owned and rented acres. Jared is also a podcast host.
Thinking about his local area, Jared said he has fun pushing the limits and finding ways to make a cow-calf operation in the region more profitable.
Jon agreed.
“People keep doing the same thing, farming the same way, and just getting bigger,” he said. “Our philosophy is that maybe we need to change the way we do things and come up with some systems that fit the times.”
The Luhmans focus on profitability through breeding and herd management.
The Luhmans’ cows weigh about 1,150 pounds. The animals are bred for low maintenance energy, which makes them more efficient.
Each year, they sell about 60 bulls to Pharo Cattle Company based in Colorado as cooperative producers. This winter, the Luhmans are also expanding with 80 Black Angus on a permanent rental agreement from the company because the animals’ original farm was struck by drought.
Pharo Cattle Company requires their bulls to come from cows who have never had an assisted calving or failed to breed back. This requirement drives the Luhmans’ culling decisions.
“Their philosophy is raising cattle that survive and thrive on the environment that they have,” Jon said.
The Luhmans put a bull with their herd for 60 days a year. They keep replacements resulting from pregnancies in the first 45 days — which is the first two heat cycles. The rest are sold as feeders.
The Luhmans use first breeding time to further cull heifers. If heifers do not come up pregnant quickly, the Luhmans can still profitably sell them as feeders because they are young.
The Luhmans’ herd is intentionally youthful. Jared said depreciation is the second-largest cost they face after feed. Jared estimates a beef cow’s value will go from $2,500 to $1,500 over 10 years. However, the depreciation is not linear. Value remains strong until about 4-5 years of age, which is when they sell many of their cows.
“You’re not writing a check for depreciation like you write a check for hay, but it’s still real,” Jared said.
The Luhmans rotationally graze.
“I just love green grass, green forage and animals on the land,” Jon said. “Grazing, to me, that’s the most beautiful scene that’s out there.”
Using minimal stored feeds is the Luhmans’ goal. Their cows overwinter on pasture. Part of their overwintering strategy includes moving calving into April and May, so calves are weaned during the cold months, and the cows’ energy needs are lowered.
The Luhmans have grazed corn stalks the last five years into late January and beyond. Last year, they baled grazed corn stalks. This year, they hope to swath graze sorghum-sudangrass. To swath graze, they will cut the forage into 3-foot swaths as close to the first big snow of the year as possible.
With their management, the Luhmans are trying to create an accessible beef farm model with low overhead and minimal equipment. Since beef cows create limited income, the Luhmans said the more work the cow does for itself, the better the profit.
The Luhmans also raise row crops. This past year, they grew 300 acres, a portion of which were organic. Next year, they plan to fully transition from organic to conventional crops and lower row crop acres to 150.
Several frustrations have caused the switch. Jon said in spite of using cover crops, his organic matter has been stagnant due to tillage for weed control erasing soil structure built by soil organisms and earthworms.
“When you till it every year, you destroy it,” Jon said. “You’re constantly tearing down everything you built up.”
He also said the tillage has caused erosion. Finally, organic-to-conventional price differentials have become less attractive.
With conventional production, the Luhmans plan to eventually become 100% no till, something they have already done on some of their land.
Besides farming, for the last three and a half years, Jared has hosted a weekly podcast, “Ranching Returns.” The podcast, which has more than 200 episodes, garners over 5,000 listens a week.
He said the podcast has given him access to expert farmers and ranchers he would not otherwise have visited with.
Jared applies the concept that people are the average of the five people they spend the most time with to the value of podcasts.
“A lot of times, the people that you want to become are not people that you can surround yourself with physically,” Jared said. “By listening to enough podcasts … that’s the same thing. … Surrounding (yourself) with the ideas instead of the actual people.”
Jared said one of the things he finds most valuable in listening to podcasts is not the ideas, but the likeminded community affirming and reinforcing what he is already doing.
Beyond their management practices, family is an important aspect of farming for Jon and Jared. They both said they enjoy that farming allows them to spend more time with Jared and Valerie’s children and to be together working.
“I have a relationship with my dad that very, very, very few children will ever have,” Jared said.
Looking to the future, the Luhmans see potential that Jared’s children may someday farm.
“It gives more purpose to what you do when you know that the next generation might get to enjoy it,” Jared said.
