You Use What We Grow Every Day.
You Just Never See It.
We grow corn and soybeans in South Dakota. You will not find them on the shelf looking like they do in our fields, but they are in your gas tank, your breakfast, your lunch and a lot more. Here is a normal day, and where we show up in it.
It Starts With Air, Water And Sunlight.
This is the part that still amazes us. A corn or soybean plant pulls carbon dioxide right out of the air and, with sunlight and water, builds it into grain. That grain becomes fuel, food and fiber. Then it comes back to the soil, and we grow it all again next year.
Morning To Night, The Farm Is There
Bacon, Eggs And A Hot Pan
The hogs and hens behind your breakfast were raised on feed built from soybean meal and distillers grains from corn. The oil in the pan is very often soybean oil.
Filling Up The Tank
Nearly all gasoline sold in the U.S. is blended with ethanol, and ethanol is made from corn like ours. Most of our corn goes to a local ethanol plant.
Paper, Ink And Packaging
Corn starch helps make paper and cardboard, and many printing inks are made with soybean oil.
A Burger And A Salad
Cattle are often fed distillers grains from ethanol plants. Most salad dressings and mayonnaise start with soybean oil.
The Trucks On The Highway
Many of the trucks that stock your grocery store run on diesel blended with biodiesel or renewable diesel, made in part from soybean oil.
Pork Chops And A Glass Of Milk
Hogs and dairy cows eat rations built on corn and soybean meal. The manure from those animals comes back to our fields to grow the next crop.
Food. Fiber. Energy.
Corn
Soybeans
Nia's Sweet Corn.
Every summer, Cheryl, one of our founders, sells sweet corn picked fresh throughout the day, right out in front of our office. Everyone knows her as Nia. When one of the grandkids was learning to talk, "Nana" came out "Nia," and it stuck.
The grandkids help run the stand. It's how the third generation is getting started, one ear of corn at a time.
A Year On Our Farm
Curious? Ask Us Anything.
How does a seed turn into a crop? Why do we tile fields? What happens at harvest? No question is too basic. We will answer, and the good ones may end up on this page.