Push Performance Higher

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ADVERTORIAL

What happens when three accountants, a dentist, and a medical doctor within a family manage a farm business? You get a scientific research-oriented farm that relies on a trusted agronomic advisor to help examine products and practices to boost crop performance and profit potential on their Michigan farm.

Set along the Thornapple River, about 25 miles southeast of Grand Rapids near Middleville, the McKeown Brothers family farm is unique since all partners have or had off-farm careers. "We realized land expansion wasn't in our plans, so we focused on maximizing the efficiency of our no-till crops over 1,300 acres," says Brian McKeown, about their fourth-generation operation.

ON-FARM TESTS GUIDE DECISIONS

Conducting yearly on-farm tests helps tweak agronomic success in their sandy, low organic matter soils. "In these leachable soils, the McKeowns aim to spoon-feed the right nutrients in the right amount when the crop needs it, and I think that's made a big difference," says LaRaine Salmon, Nutrien Ag Solutions(R) crop consultant, and longtime farm advisor to the farming operation.

"LaRaine deserves much of the credit," McKeown says. "She has worked with both my grandpa and dad (Scott) to help our farm improve irrigation, fertility, disease and insect protection, and hybrid/variety selection."

For example, the McKeowns and Salmon analyze biweekly tissue tests and fertigate through the center pivots to make nutrient adjustments four or five times during the growing season. "Understanding past and current results, watching for deficiencies, and learning how micros [nutrients] can benefit the crop and soil are key to removing any weak links in the chain," McKeown says.

Being a science guy (a dentist), McKeown appreciates Salmon's problem-solving nature no matter what challenge is presented. He desired research data on how and when specific Dyna-Gro hybrids flex their ears, and she delivered.

"Her resources across Nutrien and Dyna-Gro in Michigan and other states have really helped us explore different solutions to push efficiency, sustainability and yield," McKeown says.

COLLABORATION PROPELS SUCCESS

In this humid climate only 45 miles from Lake Michigan, the written annual farm plan that Salmon and the McKeowns' devise often fluctuates due to disease and other challenges. "We were one of the first farms in the area to discover tar spot. We deal with resistant insects, Western bean cutworm, and nematodes in beans -- every year, it seems to be a new problem," McKeown says.

Fortunately, their collaboration with their Nutrien Ag Solutions ag consultant keeps corn yields pushing above 280 bushels per acre. Searching for suitable new hybrids for their sandy soils led Salmon to recommend the McKeowns try some Dyna-Gro(R) Seed hybrids in a test plot.

"We were growing another corn brand that wasn't holding up against mold like we wanted," explains McKeown. "Dyna-Gro did well in our plot, so we planted more. Then we hit 299 bushels per acre and won the state National Corn Growers Association yield contests in 2021 and 2022, and second place in 2023 with Dyna-Gro 45TC55. We kept planting more because it does well in numerous environments and resists Western bean cutworm," McKeown says.

PROFITABLE RELATIONSHIP

Conservation, preserving rural heritage, educating the public, and passing down an improved family farm drive every member of McKeown Farms.

"We've grown up canoeing and hunting; we've achieved farm verification from the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, and the whole family loves to share our agricultural story where we work," McKeown says. "Even the teenagers we employ to handle and sell our sweet corn understand and pass along our farm's story to consumers."

Building trust, whether in a CPA office, a dentist or doctor's office, out the back of a sweet corn wagon, or checking crops in a field, is all about relationships. "We're fortunate that LaRaine has our best interests at heart, backed by many great resources across Nutrien and Dyna-Gro that benefit us practically every day," McKeown says.

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