“Doing that organically, but also regeneratively. They’re doing testing on their meats. Some of this stuff is just above me, but understanding the omega-3 versus omega-6 balances, they’re finding that if you can raise your animals correctly, you could bring those balances to make your meat basically a healthier meat. If you can feed the animals on grass and on a diverse mix, you can actually get those omega benefits from beef and from pork that used to only be believed you could see from fish.”
Transcipt
JAY: The sun is so bright.
MOLLY: It’s a blue sky there today.
JAY: I’m actually out at a different farm today, I’m gonna turn my video around, ‘cause I want you guys to be able to see. Now, okay, now we can start for real.
MOLLY: Hey, Jay.
JAY: So, yeah. Hey, Molly. This is Jay Goertzen for the Farm Report for Grain Place Farms. I’m out at a different farm today. I’m out in Atkinson, Nebraska, visiting with a farmer that we’re working with a little bit here. And yeah, you can see he’s got a very interesting setup here. And so what he’s got going on, if you can kind of see out in the distance—see if I can zoom in. There’s a little shed out there.
MOLLY: Uh-huh.
JAY: And in that shed he has about 50 pigs. There’s a little opening in the beginning and an opening at the back where they can go inside and out of the shade. And he’s running them down this strip—let me turn over here now closer—that strip of cover crop is 15 to 20 feet wide, I think. He’s grazing that and then he moves that shed every day so they get new, forage to be on.
MOLLY: Uh-huh.
JAY: So that’s just another method of doing pastured pigs. Like what we’re doing on our farm, but he’s just got a different system set up.
MOLLY: Right.
JAY: And then next year, he’ll plant corn, like you see right in front of me here. He’s in the transition phase of going to organic, and he’s trying to go organic no-till on this area which is why this corn struggled a little bit because he didn’t get a very good kill on his rye when he crimped his rye. But he was trying to crimp it off rather than till it in for termination. And so, but that’s the goal is to run the corn where the pigs were last year because the pigs are fertilizing for the corn crop.
MOLLY: Right.
JAY: It’s just fascinating going out to other people’s farms and seeing how they’re taking their different perspective on the organic mentality and the regenerative mentality and saying, “Hey, this is how it works for me.” I just thought it was really cool coming out here today and just seeing what he’s doing. I know across the road he’s got oats growing, and he’s got peas, and then he’s got some of his oats are mixed where he’s got oats, peas, and barley together. And most of the crop that he’s pulling off of this farm is being used on farm as feed for the pigs. So most of the income that comes off the farm actually comes in the form of meat, because as for selling the pigs as opposed to selling a commodity crop or grain. His big driver behind it is healthy food to make people healthier.
MOLLY: Right.
JAY: And so doing that organically, but then also regeneratively as well. They’re doing testing on their meats. Some of this stuff is just above me, but understanding the omega-3s versus omega-6, balances. And they’re finding that if you can raise your animals correctly, you could bring those balances and to make your meat basically a healthier meat. If you can feed the animals on grass and on a diverse mix, you can actually get those omega benefits from beef and from pork—that used to only be believed you could see—from fish. It’s pretty cool, it’s all just been done through testing and through people seeing that, “Hey, if we just manage our animals differently we could create a completely different product.” And so he’s got a field day coming up next week. I guess it’s on the 18th—same day as ours. But just to kind of show people what he’s been finding. And then just encourage other people, “Hey, try something different,” you know?
MOLLY: Right.
JAY: There’s other ways to make money out there, rather than just planting, you know, end-row to end-row of a commodity crop. And, he’s doing it out here. You guys can’t see, but all around me are pivots and cornfields and bean fields, much like you would see in York County. It’s a smaller area up here where they have the pockets of irrigation—but very good crop land—he’s choosing to do something different on it. So it’s pretty cool.
MOLLY: And cool to see—I’m thinking about how a lot of the crop taken off of farmland in Nebraska is not becoming food for people. It’s food for animals. It’s packaging. It’s ethanol. So, it’s not like it’s really that radical of a change in the big idea, which is that the crop is grown to raise animals that’s becoming food. But it’s all in one place instead of it being spread out through a farm economy that removes us from the proximity.
JAY: Yeah and almost all this grain that is raised on here or forage is being fed back to animals. But again, like you said it’s all in the same place. And so he knows where the food that he’s feeding his pigs is coming from. And so he’s keeping it—I don’t know if it’s 100% closed loop—but a fairly closed loop system, saving back some of the seeds that you can save back, saving those back so that he’s kind of breeding for his area, you know, for his specific, context here. And, it’s pretty neat. He’s raising some really good oats out here, and we just looked at a field of peas that he has that just looks really nice. So yeah, and most of that is gonna go back again to animal feed, but it’s his animals and it allows him to keep his inputs down and there’s just so many different ways that farmers can approach different issues and different challenges and different goals, you know? And his choice is to try to do most of it himself and try to control the inputs that he’s putting into his ground as well as his animals, so that he knows exactly what he’s selling to his customers, and they keep that as a quality product that is ultimately healthier than what you can buy if you just go to the grocery store.
MOLLY: That’s very cool. Well, thank you for giving us the tour today.
JAY: Yeah.
MOLLY: Can you, uh, tell us this farmer’s name or the farm name? How, how can we find out more?
JAY: Yeah. Regenesis Acres is the, farm. his name is Jesse Poessnecker, and he is up in Atkinson, Nebraska.
MOLLY: Beautiful. Well, thank you, Jay.
JAY: Hey, hey, thanks Molly. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Have a good day. Take care. Bye.
