Tomorrow's Top Producer

Horizon Award Honors Husband-and-Wife Team for Their Drive and Focus

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:59:42 GMT

Each year, Top Producer recognizes a producer under the age of 35 who demonstrates excellence in the business of farming, specifically marketing, finance, technology and family and employee relations. Congratulations to Martin Angus, the 2022 recipient of the Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award. Brendan and Elaine Martin were recognized at a ceremony held Feb. 14 during Top Producer Summit in Nashville.

Brendan Martin learned early on that cows equal cash flow. He started building his herd in high school with the goal of one day owning his own farm.

Growing up in the Shenandoah Valley near Mt. Solon, Va., Brendan began building equity and his farming dream through heifers, custom hay bailing and hard work. His reputation attracted the attention of a neighbor who was looking to slow down. The neighbor wanted a young, energetic farmer to purchase his cow herd and lease his 280-acre farm. Brendan stepped up to the plate.

Today, Brendan’s diversified and multi-faceted operation is a team effort with his wife, Elaine. In addition to their 280-acre home base, they lease around 600 acres of pasture and farmland. They raise corn, alfalfa, small grains and hay, and their cattle operation includes a registered Angus and commercial Angus herd, 210 fed cattle and 1,030 feeder calves. In the past couple of years, they have invested in their cattle facilities to increase cow comfort and feeding efficiency.

In 2019, the Martins added Blue Cedar Beef, a direct-to-consumer beef business. They ship beef all over the nation every week of the year. They also do custom mowing and litter spreading and recently added a trucking business. Their team includes two full-time and two part-time employees. Brendan also owns a large animal mobile veterinary practice, Valley Herd Health. Elaine specializes in record keeping, payroll and financial management for the farm, as well as keeping a close eye on the cattle herd.

As the Martins look toward the future, their goal is not to have the most cows or acres. They are motivated by their return on investment and creating generational impact in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

Take a trip to Martin Angus with this video from AgDay.

The Horizon Award is sponsored by Corteva and Pioneer. The winner receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Top Producer Summit; virtual mentoring sessions from Kristjan Hebert, the 2020 Top Producer of the Year; and a DJI Phantom 4 Drone, courtesy of Corteva.

The Online Top Producer Summit is set for Feb. 22-23 and will include live, on-demand and recorded sessions from the event in Nashville. Register now!

Young Farmers Build Dream Farm, One Piece At A Time

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 17:56:35 GMT

Look around the cattle facilities at Martin Angus and you see attention to detail, creative thinking and ambition. Every piece, from the automatic curtain system to the overhead fans that dry out bedding to the underground drainage system, increases cow comfort, feed efficiency and farm profitability.

Brendan and Elaine Martin are building their dream farm — one piece at a time.

The couple are multigenerational farmers. Brendan’s farming roots run deep in the Shenandoah Valley, while Elaine grew up on a central Missouri row crop and cattle operation. Now the pair have created their own first-generation farm near Mt. Solon, Va.

BUSINESS NO. 1: Registered and Commercial Cattle Herd

As an early age, farming was Brendan’s ultimate goal. His plan: skip college and start buying cows and land.

“I didn’t see the need to waste four years and the dollars on tuition to delay my dream,” he says, “but I realized, you can’t graduate high school and go buy a $1 million farm.”

In researching career paths, Martin shadowed a local large-animal veterinarian during his high school years. The experience fueled a fire within Brendan. He became the first person in his family to attend college, earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.

In 2017, Brendan opened Valley Herd Health , a mobile and full-service large-animal practice.

BUSINESS NO. 2: Direct-to-Consumer Beef Business

Simultaneously, Brendan began building a framework for his farm through heifers, custom hay baling and hard work. His reputation attracted the attention of a neighbor who was looking to slow down.

The neighbor wanted a young energetic farmer to purchase his cowherd and lease his 280-acre farm. Brendan stepped up to the plate. What started as a lease morphed into an owner-financed purchase of the farm.

“That was a win-win for us and the landowner,” Brendan says. “He had steady income for a set amount of time, and we were able to use our loan availability for equipment and cattle versus just the land.”

Martin Angus now includes their 280-acre home base and 600 acres of leased pasture and farmland. Their operation includes registered and commercial Angus cattle, as well as cattle donor services.

BUSINESS NO. 3: Large Animal Mobile Veterinary Practice

To add a new marketing opportunity for their cattle, the Martins created Blue Cedar Beef , a direct-to-consumer business, in 2019. The name is inspired by the cedar trees that dot their farm tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Elaine completed a course to learn the ins and outs of starting a small business. She selects the cattle and delivers them to a local USDA-inspected processor. After they process them, the beef is dry-aged for 21 days and packaged in 50 lb. boxes. She sorts the pieces by the cut and ships to customers.

“The East Coast is my main customer base,” she says. “Most of my customers have a little freezer at home, so they want 15 lb. of beef at a time to feed their family.”

Elaine uses a website and social media to market her products.

“People want a connection — to see you raised their beef,” she says. “It is amazing to me I can post on Instagram, people like the post and then buy something. I don’t buy groceries like that, but it’s been fun to connect with my customers.”

TWO-WAY STREET

The Martins want each of their businesses to complement, not hinder, each other. For example, Brendan’s expertise as a veterinarian has attracted customers for their cattle boarding and breeding program. In return, he is a student of his veterinarian customers.

“I learn every day by being at somebody else’s farm,” he says.

The Martins have borrowed and combined technology, infrastructure and ideas for their cattle facilities that increase productivity. In addition, they built an office and kitchen that adjoins their facility. This offers a professional and dedicated space for shipping the retail beef.

Brendan says he’s also learned a few profitable tips for marketing cattle.

“You need to market cattle, not just sell them,” he says. “If you haul cattle to the sale barn and just unload your trailer, they will send you a check. But if you didn’t check with them for a time to bring them, tell them what you have, etc., you’re just going to be a price taker.”

Beyond learning from customers and peers, Elaine and Brendan credit their internships for opening doors. The two met while working at Gardiner Angus Ranch in Kansas. The couple’s ambitions are remembered almost a decade later.

“Their shared interest in improving beef production from the beginning to the end of the supply chain is remarkable,” says Mark Gardiner, of Gardiner Angus Ranch. “I know of no other couple who graduated from college and almost immediately began to pursue their dreams.”

ORGANIZE, PRIORITIZE

The Martins are routinely asked: How do you do it all?

“Planning ahead helps,” Brendan says. “We try to never put ourselves in a jam. We do a lot of preventative maintenance. Elaine can do just about everything I can do on the farm, so we divide up a lot of the work.”

“A lot of vet and farm work is predictable,” Elaine adds. “So, we try to use those windows of opportunities for our farm work, so it doesn’t negatively impede the vet business.”

In all of their roles, the Martins stay focused on their priorities, finding little ways to make big strides.

“If you do an extra project every day, you make progress,” Brendan explains. “If all you do is feed your cows each day, you haven’t done anything extra, and you get behind.”

LASTING IMPACT

The Martins know dedication is essential in business success, especially as young farmers.

“We’re young and our businesses are young,” Elaine says. “So, we lack some boundaries, but we have fun when it’s just us farming, and Sundays are a good time because the phone is not ringing.”

“We love agriculture, so that’s our fun,” Brendan adds.

As the Martins look toward the future, their goal is not to have the most cows or acres. They are motivated by their return on investment and creating generational impact in the Shenandoah Valley.

The Martins have a clear goal for their three businesses. “We focused on finding ways to build them together to generate income in related but separate ways,” Elaine says.

The Power of Diversification

Brendan and Elaine Martin own and operate three multifaceted businesses, which allow them to diversify income and maximize their connections.

Martin Angus: Registered Angus and commercial Angus herd, which includes 450 cows and 400 cattle on feed. They also offer donor cattle boarding and flushing. They raise corn, alfalfa, small grains and hay on owned and rented farmland.

Blue Cedar Beef: A direct-to-consumer business, offering steaks, roasts and ground beef. They ship beef across the country every week.

Valley Herd Health: A large animal mobile veterinary practice serving farmers and ranchers in the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding counties.

How to Build Consumer Connections

In launching Blue Cedar Beef, a direct-to-consumer business, Elaine Martin knew an inviting website and social media strategy were essential. The website, BlueCedarBeef.com , is easy to navigate and offers a simple process for purchasing products.

“Your website is the billboard for your business,” she says.

With each post on Facebook and Instagram, Elaine aims to educate, inspire or encourage: “I try not to be too salesy. We focus on that we’re a family farm. It is humbling that our beef ends up on so many dinner tables.”

See Why Crop Tour Scouts Had a Tough Time Measuring Derecho Damage

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:37:35 GMT

As Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts crossed into eastern Iowa on Tuesday, they were greeted by field after field of devastation.

“The (crops) seem to be standing good enough they may make it into the combine,” says Kyle Wendland, an Iowa farmer who spent the week scouting the eastern leg of the tour. “I have my doubt on some of these,” he adds.

Wendland and other scouts were stepping over flattened corn, trying to make sense of what where the crop was planted before the story.

“It’s not a good situation by any means,” he says, trying to measure a damaged field.

Corn stalks tangled together, some kinked, while other stalks were broken and turning brown. Those were some of the sights Eastern leg Pro Farmer scout tour lead Brian Grete saw this week. Grete lives in eastern Iowa, and even he was surprised just how much damage there is.

“It’s a mess out here,” says Grete. “This one had a fermented smell. So, some of those stalks are snapped off. You’re starting to get that smell as you go into the field.”

Corn abruptly turning brown was a sign of a sudden mess for an eastern Iowa crop that showed great promise in early August.

“This corn is dented, so it was maturing pretty rapidly, but now it’s a race against time in terms of how much you can get out of here even on what your potential is left,” Grete adds.

Pro farmer Crop Tour trying to measure potential in recently damaged fields.

“One of the difficulties is we go past the end rows, and then we start pacing out 35 paces, in some of the cases, it’s really hard to tell where the end rows are to begin with,” says Grete.

A difficult job to measure what is damaged and lost, and what can still be salvaged.

“If it’s snapped below the ear, obviously that won’t be able to be harvested,” he says. “In a lot of cases, you have to get down and actually pull the stock up to see what row it’s in to separate them. And then whether or not it has a viable ear still left on it and/or has been snapped off, and the process just takes quite a bit longer than our normal stop would.”

While scouts tried to make sense of it all, area farmers are also trying to hurry and create a game plan for this fall.

“We talked to a couple of farmers yesterday, and they indicated that they’ll go after every bushel that they can,” says Grete. “I’d like to talk to a couple more farmers today to get their opinions as we move further through this wind damage story.”

A tough job for tour scouts trying to measure damage, but an even harder job for farmers who have a slow and grueling harvest ahead.

Nominate the Nation's Best Young Farmers

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 15:35:21 GMT

Do you demonstrate exceptional marketing, technology or finance skills with your farming or ranching operation? Are you under the age of 35? If so, apply to win the Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award .

Top Producer will be honoring one outstanding young producer this year at its Tomorrow’s Top Producer event, which is set for Jan. 26-28, 2021.

The qualifications are that a producer, under the age of 35, should demonstrate excellence in:

Marketing
Farm finance
Family and employee relations
Technology
Environmental stewardship

Entrants are judged on entrepreneurial originality (50%), financial and business progress (30%) and industry or community leadership (20%). Any farmer, rancher or partnership that gets at least half of their income from farming and farm-related ventures may apply.

Download the application.

Deadline to enter is Oct. 15, 2021.

Read about the 2020 winner, Chase Dewitz of Steele, N.D.
Read about the 2019 winner, Tony Schwarck of Riceville, Iowa
Read about the 2018 winner, Maggie Holub of Scribner, Neb.
Read about the 2017 winner, Cody Goodknight of Chattanooga, Okla.
Read about the 2016 winner, Chris Noble of Pavilion, N.Y.
Read about the 2015 winner, Matt Sims of State Line, Ind.
Read about the 2014 winner, Jeremy Weaver of Needham, Ind.
Read about the 2013 winner, Joanna Carraway of Murray, Ky.
Read about the 2012 winner, Michael Daniels of Salem, Wis.

Questions about the award? Contact Top Producer’s Sara Schafer at sschafer@farmjournal.com or 660-537-0587.

Diversified Operation Creates Success for Iowa Young Farmer

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:13:36 GMT

When Anthony Schwarck joined his family’s farming operation in 2004, he knew he needed to bring and add value. He became the fourth generation of his family to farm, by joining his parents, Dan and Laurie Schwarck, and grandparents, Chris and Ann Schwarck.

“We were strictly a row crop operation when I joined after high school,” says Schwarck, who farms in Riceville, Iowa. “We needed to diversify.”

Schwarck knew he had two resources during the winter months—time and corn. They explored several diversification options, including hog production. But it was beef finishing that finally penciled out. In 2013, along with his wife, Aarika, Schwarck started a beef finishing operation. In the first year, the couple marketed 300 beef heifers.

“We wanted to utilize our homegrown corn,” he says. “This is an outstanding fit. We take the corn we raise, feed it to cattle and they are giving us a byproduct back that we can apply to our fields to help us grow better corn. It’s really added value to our acres of corn.”

Looking forward, Schwarck is focused on his cost of production, managing margins and smart grain and livestock marketing.

“We have the volume on the row crop side and finishing side,” he says. “Now I’m tweaking the operation so we’re getting the most out of both. We’re margin operators in every aspect of our operation—whether that’s growing an acre of corn or producing a market-ready calf. We’re working on margin and the margin is thin—so we want to maximize every dollar we spend.”

In 2006, Schwarck started farming 160 of his own acres. Now, the Schwarcks farm 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans. In 2019, they will market 2,500 head of cattle.

Schwarck’s strong business acumen and focus on the business of farming earned him the title of the 2019 Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award winner. Watch a video to learn more about his operation.

Sponsored by Pioneer , the Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award recognizes a producer under the age of 35 who demonstrates excellence in the business of farming. This includes marketing, farm finance and technology, as well as family and employee relations. Applications are received from young farmers across the country and judged by a panel of industry experts.