Taking Agriculture to the Next Level
March 9, 2021
“In all my travels, I get the chance to meet a lot of amazing people. Just recently, I had an opportunity to visit a farm in western Kansas where an individual really stuck out as someone who is amazing and wants to do the right thing. This is Chris Soehner’s story, someone who is making a difference, not just for him, but for all of us.” Del Ficke
By Kerry Hoffschneider
Chris Soehner said one of the most valuable lessons he ever learned was from his dad – Jim.
“I forgot to water the bulls one day and he came into my bedroom and flicked on the light at 11:30 p.m. I never forgot to water the animals again.”
Soehner did not stray from the lessons he learned about dedication to caring for crops, livestock, family, and a commitment to community from his father Jim, mom Judy, and grandparents Kale and Beulah growing up near Idalia, Colo. just a mile west and a mile north of the state line on Highway 36.
“Back home they still have a cow/calf operation and grow wheat and dryland and irrigated corn. My mom, Judy is the backbone of the family. I have an older and younger brother – Curt and Craig. Craig is in banking and we farm together. Curt also farms on his own.”
After high school, Soehner headed to Colorado State University where he graduated with an agronomy degree and played football, “After we graduated from college, dad had a rule – you went out and got a job to figure out if you wanted to farm or work 9 to 5 p.m. because he was not going to stand in our way of what we wanted to do.”
Forever the farmer at heart, Soehner opted to for sure keep farming but also jumped on an opportunity when Bill Shields called him to offer him a position with UAP, “Bill asked me, ‘Are you going to do this job or not?’ So, I took it. At the time, my territory was from Goodland, Kan. to Limon, Colo.”
Soehner also married his first wife Julie during this time and they had a daughter, Taylor, “I worked for UAP for 10 years and another salesman there, Jeff Terrell, left and went to Pioneer. A Pioneer dealer in Goodland passed away and John Murray then gave me the opportunity to become a Pioneer sales rep.”
Today, Soehner owns a Pioneer seed dealership – Seed Solutions and farms three farms – one of his own, one with his brother and one with his father-in-law. Proving he is a farmer through and through, Soehner said the day he married his wife LeAnna, “I was drilling wheat that morning. I told myself, ‘I have to get this field done and then I am headed to Colby to get married.’”
Soehner and LeAnna have two daughters – Libby and Pyper. They also shared the same battle with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Twenty years before LeAnna was diagnosed, Soehner went through his cancer battle in his 20s, “My leg kept swelling up and they thought it was arthritis. I actually went to the doctor for four months and eventually went back to my team doctor from college and he did an MRI. He had me do a special MRI and that showed the shadow on my bone.”
In 2015, LeAnna was dealing with a stress fracture in her hip and was placed on crutches for about five weeks, “We went to Denver for her pre-op on her hip and they did another MRI up there. That doctor called us at 10:30 p.m. and said you are not coming to our place; you are going to Colorado Limb Consultants. I knew exactly what the deal was, and my heart sank. We walked in there and they would not let her walk out – the cancer was that bad. She had three spots on her spine and two-thirds of her liver. We both went to the same oncologist. I broke down and she said, ‘God’s got this.’”
The Soehner team was not willing to give up on life and both are cancer survivors. Soehner is also not giving up on finding better ways to farm. One thing led to another and Soehner met up with Arman Miller – the founder of Elevate Ag, “We had mutual friends and I sat on the bank board with Arman. We would visit about different things.”
One of those “things” was making changes in agriculture, he said, “I always felt like in agriculture I was trying to do things the exact same way my dad did them and my granddad. We always applied anhydrous ammonia and liquid fertilizers and I always thought there had to be more to the story. That’s when I really started talking to Arman.”
Investing in Elevate Ag was an easy decision because of the depth of conversations he had with Miller, “I always knew Arman had been very successful in his entrepreneurial ventures and I knew I could trust him. He was not some fly by night salesman selling snake oil.”
Soehner was also not willing to promote anything he had not thoroughly tested himself. He started with Elevate Ag’s Hyprgrow Stimulant, one of the company’s Bio-Stimulant line that was developed with farmers’ bottom line in mind while also helping them to become less dependent upon synthetic products – ultimately moving them towards more resiliency and profitability in their operations.
“I started with Hyprgrow and utilizing it on different situations while gathering as much data as I could. I was not going to sell anything I wasn’t believing in,” he said adamantly. “I gained a lot of on-farm experience doing it myself and as we began to combine the results of other members’ of Elevate Ag doing the exact same thing in the mix, the data became more accurate very quickly.”
“I would do in-furrow trials at planting, over the top trials and with or without herbicide on both corn and soybeans. Where I really changed my mind was when I started playing with it on soybeans, putting it on the ground in the fall to degrade the stocks and releasing it back into the soil quickly. You could just see the difference in the soybeans in the spring, they looked phenomenal with a great stand. We knew we were going to have a good bean crop. Even on the corn, the difference in the initial plant stand emergence within 24 hours was more uniform than without the product and you could see an increase in plant height in the treated vs. untreated,” he said.
Soehner was most excited in seeing the difference with his customers. This was evident in a farmer he served in Wray, Colo. dealing with spider mites, “He had heavy mite pressure and we stopped them. We are scratching the surface when it comes to these products.”
Always seeking for a better way and excited to involve more people with their dreams, the Soehners brought on Tyson Davis to their team to eventually become the successor of their Pioneer seed business down the road and to currently help envision how Elevate Ag can grow to serve their customers too, “Tyson’s wife Katherine was our babysitter at the farm for years. When she was babysitting, she was dating Tyson and we went to a Bowl Game in Dallas. Tyson comes from Burlington, Colo., and all he ever wanted to do was be in the seed business. When we got home from the trip, I said, ‘That’s my guy.’ He is a rock star and is excited about the Elevate Ag side of things too. He’s already talking about expansion and where we can go from here.”
Where they can go, is to never stray from that lesson Soehner learned from his dad years ago – if you have a job to do, follow through. Making sure the job gets done in the best possible fashion is what drives him every day, “The biggest reward any time is having the opportunity to better someone else’s farm for them. It makes me so happy to be able to do that. I love the challenge and any time you can increase profitability you are just developing stronger relationships with your customer base.”
“Agriculture changes. It’s about adaptation,” Soehner said in closing. “If you do the same thing over and over and expect different results, you’re not going to see them. I want to take agriculture to the next level and that’s where Elevate Ag comes in.”
elevateag.com
Del Ficke – 402-499-0329
Thank you Amber and Michael Weber for coming out and exploring Ficke Cattle Company with me. They were brave enough to follow me with a video camera too. If you are hard-up for some time with Del, you can listen to their interview with me here:
Del Ficke Interview
Thank you Green Cover Seed!
We had a great time at the Green Cover Seed conference held recently in Iola, Kan. What an inspirational group of farmers and ranchers focused on soil health and improving farm and ranch profitability.
Also, you don’t want to miss checking out the super awesome:
2021 Green Cover Seed Soil Health Resource Guide!
Travis Kraft visits with an enthusiastic attendee at the Green Cover Seed event. Kraft is the nuts and bolts expert on all things Elevate Ag! Please connect with us and see some of the exciting things we are doing at
Elevate Ag
We’re all Growing Hybrid 85
When Alan Williams was looking for a new seed company to buy from, he had a few questions for us. But even before his field test results came in, Alan’s neighbors were asking questions.
A corn farmer in Delta, Utah, Williams feels most at home when he is in his fields, “Connecting with the earth and being a steward of the land and taking care of it, is a big honor for me. I take it very seriously.”
So, when it comes to what he puts back into the land, he focuses on quality.
“You have to respect the land you’ve been given and treating it well starts with what you plant on it,” he said.
Williams called up Hybrid85 and asked questions about the product, and about the results he might anticipate getting on his land. Satisfied, he purchased two varieties for a field trial.
He planted Hybrid85’s 114- and 109-day hybrids versus a leading competitor’s 111-day for silage. The result was Hybrid85’s 28.2 ton and 26.3 ton vs. the competitor’s 22.8 ton. Hybrid85 yielded 24 percent more at a fraction of the input cost — something Williams said he is grateful for.
“It completely paid off, and it did great for me,” he said.
His yield weight difference had even his neighbors asking questions.
“They asked me what I planted, and I told them Hybrid85 and now that’s what we grow,” he said. “We’re all growing Hybrid85.”
If you’re ready to farm for net but have questions, reach Nate Belcher at corn@hybrid85.com or call him at 402-580-0015.
Some Upbeat News for 2021
By Kirk Peterson
| It
can be easy to overlook the nation’s solid economic fundamentals when
the financial media splashes stories every day about an army of amateur
traders, short-selling mania, and initial public offerings (IPOs) that
double in price on the first day of trading. But a recent survey by The Wall Street Journal showed just how upbeat economists are about 2021.1 Here’s a quick summary of the highlights: Increased projected economic expansion. Economists now expect the economy to expand by 4.9% this year, an increase from their estimate of 4.3% last month. The forecast has brightened due to the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations and the prospect of additional fiscal relief. They are less optimistic about employment. The group sees 4.8 million jobs to be added this year, versus a January 2021 forecast of 5 million. There is an ongoing worry that jobs may take longer to return to certain industries, such as leisure, airlines, and restaurants.2 Brace for higher inflation. They project a 2.8% increase in consumer prices in June 2021 compared with a year earlier. Decreased chance of an economic downturn. The economists believe there is a 17.5% chance of an economic downturn in the next 12 months, an improvement from the 21.2% risk estimate in January. Vaccines and the prospect for new federal spending are driving the optimism. While the consensus is upbeat about 2021, it’s important to remain vigilant as economic trends unfold this year. An outside force can cause a sudden shift in sentiment, which is why we monitor surveys like the one conducted by The Wall Street Journal. Keep us in mind as you read information about the economy. We’d welcome the opportunity to hear your thoughts. |
| 1. The Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2021 2. S&P Global Market Intelligence, September 21, 2020 |
Kirk Peterson | kirkpeterson@woodburyfinancial.net | (402) 519-0330 | http://www.petersonassetprotectiongroup.com/ |
Anchor Meadow Farms Connections
We look forward to seeing spring rainbows over our neighbors at Anchor Meadow Farm. Don’t forget to follow them on Facebook. The Hendls help market Graze Master Beef and also raise kunekune pigs.
Kunekune is gourmet, pasture-raised, heritage breed pork. Please call Emely Hendl at 402-613-5483 for pricing, pickup and delivery information. They have honey and eggs too!
You can follow all the exciting Anchor Meadow Farm happenings at: https://www.facebook.com/Anchor-Meadow-Farm-245014352709769/
Short and Sweet Cow Talk with Del
Thank you for reading. See you soon!
Del Ficke – 402-499-0329
No electronic or mechanical reproduction of The Liberator is permitted without direct consent of the author, Ficke Cattle Company. Contact (402) 499-0329 or fickecattle@outlook.com Thank you so much for reading!