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Family finds success diversifying operation

A family farm and grain operation north of Huntington has had success by diversifying its operation. Dennis Grain and Farms grows corn, soybeans, wheat, and double-crop sunflowers. The family also operates a commercial grain elevator. 

The operation was part of this year’s Purdue Farm Management Tour. Jason Dennis says the family discussed the process of transitioning from 30-inch to 20-inch row corn production during the tour.

“We want to outperform the previous year,” he says. “What can we do different as far as population, fertility, and row spacings-we’re trying different things to improve that yield.”

But like many farmers across the state, Dennis says it’s been a challenging planting season for them.

“We were shooting for roughly 4,500 acres of corn and we ended up getting 4,000 acres,” he says. “We didn’t quite get it all in, but we did get most of it in, in about seven days. We were planting for 24 hours a day for a couple of days.”

He says they did take prevented plant on some corn acres.

“They just simply did not dry out,” he says. “It was low river bottom ground and we actually got stuck in it twice trying to plant it. We decided just to go ahead and prevent plant those instead of creating compaction and screwing the farm up just to plant a crop.”

The family also has a commercial elevator that is now 100 percent Plenish high oleic soybean.

“Pioneer came to us last year and asked if we’d be interested in being a Plentish elevator for the local farmers to bring their soybeans in and for ourselves…we started out with about 6,000 or 7,000 acres of soybeans and that ended up growing to over 10,000,” he says.

During the tour, the family was asked what the biggest challenge facing the future of farming. Dennis said the biggest thing is going to be finding labor.

“Trying to find that person that will want to work the hours that we work when we work, but also be able to have the capabilities of running high tech equipment,” he says. “With the dollar figures that are in farming with the margins we have, that is becoming harder and harder.”

The 87^th annual Purdue Farm Management Tour took place in Huntington and Wabash counties.

Audio: Jason Dennis, Dennis Grain and Farms