Audio Clip
An epic rainstorm in 2014 was a wakeup call to Shawn Feikema and his family. Watching precious topsoil wash off their southern Minnesota farm was the beginning of the family’s sustainability and ag advocacy journey, which includes starring in a documentary about agriculture and rural communities.
In this episode of the It Takes a Co-op™ podcast, Feikema discusses why abandoning conventional tillage and adopting strip-till, no-till and cover cropping was an agronomic and economic necessity on his family’s farm. He also talks about the importance of a film documenting that process and the symbiotic relationship between farms and nearby towns.
“We saw an erosion problem and we saw a way to make our operation more economically sustainable and that is what led to where we are today,” says Feikema, a cooperative owner.
Ag advocacy
near Luverne. Minn., grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa and small grains, including some raised for seed companies. The operation includes a 4,000-head beef feeding enterprise.
The Feikemas are passionate about soil health and feeding families. Too few consumers understand how food is produced, Feikema says.
That’s why the family hosts farm tours and participated in the documentary, a film documenting their adoption of more sustainable farming practices and the symbiotic relationship between farms and nearby towns.
“At the heart of it for me and for our family is we love agriculture,” he says. “For us to be able to tell the story about what agriculture really is, that we are humans, and we are families farming the land (is important).”
