Summary of Operation
Addressing Obstacles to Sustainability
Larson Farm History
Diversification: A Key to Success
Economics and Profitability
Environmental Benefits
Community and Quality of Life Benefits
Transition Advice
The Future

90 to 100 stocker cattle and flocks of chickens – both raised on pasture; organic grains for human consumption, including popcorn, soybeans for tofu, barley for birdseed and forage turnips. Crops are planted in strips and cultivated with minimum soil disturbance. Cattle graze pasture and strips of crop stubble and turnips.

Larson’s father, Glen, began raising corn and alfalfa as grain for beef cattle and hogs on the Nebraska farm after World War II. His farm, described by his son as "very traditional," followed standard dictates: a "clean" monoculture system. Glen Larson plowed, disked and harrowed to get straight crop rows with no weeds. Just preparing the field required up to four tractor passes, with another two to three for cultivation. The laborious work kept Glen Larson busy from sunup to sundown for much of the season.

A former conventional farmer who followed in his father’s footsteps in the mid-1970s, Tom Larson took stock of the operation, its size and the labor requirements in the mid-1980s and found it lacking. The 156-acre farm was reliant on just a few commodities, and was too small in the prevailing "get big or get out" environment to make money. Meanwhile, he spent hours and hours atop a tractor to produce feed for livestock.

Larson decided to strive for maximum returns rather than maximum yields, and adjusted his operation accordingly. He diversified crops, became certified organic and began a cattle stocker operation in a unique grazing system. He also raises poultry on pasture. His profitability goals go hand in hand with soil improvement.

Glen Larson used to tell Tom that they raised cattle to pay property taxes. Their old system of growing and harvesting grain as cattle feed helped raise fat cattle, but the cost didn’t justify the return.

Today the cows are just as fat from eating stubble after grain harvest to be sold at premium prices for human consumption. To diversify in a way that would help the soil and the bottom line, Tom uses a small grain, coarse grain and legume planted in narrow strips for weed control. These are produced for human consumption.

"Being on limited acres, we looked at crops that would net more dollars per acres, which is a long-standing value with me," he says. "I’m not really interested in production per acre. It’s the dollars per acre that I can generate."

Once Larson decided to diversify, his path was set. Over the next decade and a half, he would try new ventures, focusing both on their outcome in the marketplace and their place in his rotation. His new motto: spread the economic risk through diversification.

A major change came from raising pasture and forage for grazing rather than harvesting grain and feeding it to confined livestock. Larson double-dips wherever possible, selling organic grains in the marketplace and sending his cattle into the fields to graze grain stubble in conditions carefully controlled to maintain a steady diet.

"We’re turning sunlight into dollars through grass and alfalfa," Larson says.

Larson constantly reassesses his rotation, choosing crops that "we’re able to sell without a lot of hassle or effort." He grows organic soybeans for the tofu market as well as popcorn. He used to raise oats, but low market prices prompted him to try Ethiopian barley, which he sells to a birdseed processor at about twice the price. He had seen barley grown in the neighboring Dakotas, but found it grew well farther south.

The farm is configured in narrow, 12 ½-feet-wide strips arranged in a pinwheel pattern across the landscape. As such, Larson’s grains and forages grow side by side in a rotation orchestrated for environmental benefits as well as profits. He plants small grains in the spring, then harvests them in July in time to plant forage turnips for his livestock operation.

Cattle graze within 32 paddocks. When his stocker operation, which centered on raising 100 heifers from early spring into late fall before selling, lost money in the mid 1990s, Larson began renting his pasture to a neighbor for several months a year. Key to their diet is forage turnips he plants in mid-summer but never harvests with a machine.

"The turnips walk off the farm on the hoof," he says. "The cows get a nice salad every day between grain stubble and turnip greens."

The protein content of the mix is about 12 percent, compared to 6 to 8 percent in a cornstalk/hay mixed ration.

Larson markets his crops through a variety of organic channels. He uses local processors and the National Organic Directory from the California Alliance with Family Farmers as main sources.

 Economics and Profitability

In 1992, a community college in Columbus, Neb., conducted a survey of farm and ranch budgets for 95 area families. The average net return on irrigated corn came to $22 an acre. That might have been a livable income for most of his neighbors, with an average farm size of 800 acres, but to Tom Larson, at one-third the size, those returns spelled foreclosure.

Realizing he needed to earn three to five times more value per acre, Larson decided to raise food crops.

"Having a small operation, $22 an acre does not cut it," he says. "We just can’t survive on that. Being certified organic has given us access to different markets than we traditionally had, and it’s much more profitable."

According to a state extension educator, Larson brings in between $150 and $200 per acre, while his neighbors earn just $20 to $50 per acre. With their larger land base, Larson figures standards of living are about equal, and he works fewer hours.

Larson continues to nurture a hobby that helps keep the operation in the black: retrofitting farm equipment for unique needs. Much of the equipment on today’s market is built for larger farms, so Larson reconfigures old equipment. He has modified planters, cultivators and harvest equipment. Rather than buying a new tractor, he lowers the asking price by trading in an old one he’s fixed up.

Experimenting with new crops often brings good rewards. Switching to Ethiopian barley was a better investment than oats, which brought just $2.40 per bushel. By comparison, he receives about $8.40 per bushel for organic barley, although he gets lower yields. In real numbers, the barley is about twice as profitable.

 Environmental Benefits

Larson’s crop strips and rotations in his organic system allow him to eliminate purchased chemicals without a noticeable increase in pest pressure.

After a heavy rain, Larson sees little water pooling or running off his farm, which he attributes to improved soil structure with better infiltration.

"If we have a significant rain event, I can go across the road and look at the neighbor’s field and see quite a lot of water standing around," he says. "I think we have a soil structure now with good infiltration capacity, and we’re building our organic matter slowly."

To control weeds, Larson plants with minimal soil disturbance and seeds at twice the recommended rate. The dense cover of small grains early in the season helps crowd out weeds. He retains crop residue on the soil surface to deter weeds and to help water infiltration and slow erosion.

The system also seems to attract more wildlife, particularly songbirds, as well as deer, raccoons and opossums. "We have all sorts of these creatures running around, and I think they’re an indicator of the health of the ecosystem," he says.

Larson makes time for his family. When he raised a corn crop, he spent intense, busy weeks in the field clustered around field preparation, planting, cultivation and harvest. By raising four crops, he has spread his work across the calendar, planting about one-third of his acreage at one time rather than 100 percent.

"I do the same amount, or maybe a little bit more, but it is spread more evenly through the year," he says.

He found a neighbor with whom he exchanges farm chores so they can both travel.

"If you walk in a graveyard and look at the headstones, you see names, but I don’t think you see any of them that say: ‘He worked every day of his life and that was it.’ To me, the events in life that make up quality of life are the little trips you take and the good times you have together."

Larson’s type of farm is so different from his central Nebraska neighbors that he has bonded with others in the sustainable ag movement far afield from St. Edward.

"The way I farm puts me outside this community, and I think that’s a common experience for people in sustainable or organic farming," he says. "I see my community as a network of people in a community of interest, and not so much a geographical community."

Larson travels frequently, both in the U.S. and abroad. Nebraska’s Center for Rural Affairs often asks Larson to speak about his farming system both locally and regionally. Larson rarely turns down an opportunity to speak to farming groups, even if that means traveling to South Africa, which he did in the year 2000 at the behest of a South African mayor who heard him speak.

"I think I offer them hope," Larson says of his diverse invitations to present. "I talk about succeeding on a small scale and learning from your mistakes."

 Transition Advice

Farmers should not be afraid to try new things, Larson says, but they should do so on a small scale. Networking with other farmers is key to success, especially because beginning farmers can learn from the mistakes of others – although they should expect to make plenty of their own.

"If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough," he says. "In the realm of mistakes, I just don’t like to make big, ugly, expensive ones. We take the tactic of trying very small-scale experiments on a little part of the field and keeping track of the results."

 The Future

Larson plans to continue tweaking his farming system year by year, seeking not only better profits, but also new challenges.

"I would be very frustrated if I was in a job where I did the same thing, day in and day out," he says. "Some say they’ve been in farming for 35 years. Does that mean they have 35 years’ experience, or do they have one year of experience 35 times? I like the challenge of having a little variation from year to year."

To Larson, good stewardship means measuring his impact on natural resources against the desire of future residents of the land.

"If, 200 years down the road, an anthropologist would look at this particular farm and find no evidence of whoever was here, then I’ve been a good steward with a vision beyond my life span," he says. "Some of the Native American religions center around doing nothing that will adversely affect the next seven generations. I think that’s a realistic thing to strive for."

-February 2001

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