FROM THE FIELD: David Petersen of Blue Grass

Integrating enterprises key to success

By Laura Miller
Newsletter Editor

Management practices that David Petersen began using 22 years ago out of necessity have turned his family farming operation into a model for sustainability.

He uses almost no purchased fertilizer. Instead, he uses livestock manure from his small dairy operation as injectable fertilizer and has produced high-yielding corn crops. More than one-third of his 430 tillage acres are rotated with forage crops - alfalfa, oats and rye - which are big components in building low-cost rations for his dairy herd and replacement heifers.

The result is a successful business that has provided full-time employment and no need to resort to off-farm income for David and his wife Amy; part-time employment for their two children and three employees; and the financial means for three other family members to retire. Plus they've been able to maintain two Century Farms in a rapidly-growing area west of Davenport in southeast Iowa.

"I like to call myself a total resource manager," said David Petersen. "The cows feed the land, the land feeds the crops, and the crops feed the cows."

Petersen said that he and his wife had few options but to use all available resources when they began farming in 1980 as new graduates of Iowa State University. They accepted an offer to rent 160 acres from Amy's mother and began farming on their own in 1981. Later that year they moved 24 cows and 12 heifers from David's 4-H project to their farm and established Majestic Manor Dairy.

"We operate a dairy business in a non-dairy neighborhood, but it provides several benefits," he explained. "First, we had full-time employment for both of us, and we could enhance soil quality by producing forage and using manure from the livestock. We also had a lab to develop a cattle seedstock business, and we add value to the crops and the land."

In 1982, they purchased the 10-acre farmstead and built a silo, adding a manure pit and free-stall housing the next year.

"Majestic Manor operated effectively for more than 10 years on only160 acres and 50 cows," Petersen said. "We also could be business partners and stay-at-home parents."

Their daughter Dana recently completed her first year in agricultural business at Iowa State University, and their son Nolan is a fifth grader at Blue Grass Elementary School. They are in the process of building a $150,000 liquid manure storage facility so they can increase the size of their dairy herd from the current 90 cows to 115 cows. They also plan to purchase an uncle's Century Farm where much of their replacement heifer herd is housed.

Over the past two decades, Petersen said he's seen the organic matter of his farm's soil increase from an average of 2.14 percent to 3.38 percent, which he attributes to the manure and forage crops. He estimates that he uses 90 percent of the livestock manure as injectable fertilizer for crops, and has invested $20,000 to improve field drainage and waterways. He has sold genetic seedstock in France, Germany and Australia, and provided the first embryo transfer Holstein calves born in Turkey.

"In a production agriculture system, the high road to efficiency usually rewards those who choose to get bigger," Petersen said. "We've taken the 'road less traveled' by using a systems approach to add value and achieve efficiency by integrating enterprises, not simply getting bigger. We think this integrated approach to managing a family farm results in a holistic, sustainable business model."