Five people who recently came back to family farms and agribusinesses say livestock made it possible. The five participated in a panel at South Dakota Livestock Development Summit, hosted by Touchstone Energy Cooperatives.

Adam Krause, Clear Lake, S.D., put up a pig nursery to complement his family’s grain production and hog finishing enterprises.

Kevin Deinert’s family, of Mt. Vernon, S.D., doubled the size of their beef feedlot to help make it possible for Kevin to return to the farm.

Derek Krosschell, Chandler, Minn., joined his family feed mill and grain elevator company. He worked alongside his father as a grain buyer and marketer. The family recently made Krosschell the manager. They have bought more elevators and feed mills in response to the rising demand for livestock feed.

Jared Knock, Willow Lake, S.D., started Dakota Vision Ag, an artificial insemination and cattle reproduction service and seed and inoculant retail business, when he wanted to return his family’s farm. The 600-acre farm was hard enough work for two families, but only enough income for about 1 ½ families, he said. They produce grain, finish about hogs a year and have a herd of commercial beef cows and a flock of sheep. They added sheep to use more of the forage produced by their intensive grazing and cover crops. Knock owns about one-third of the livestock.

Brooke Heisinger, of Scotland, S.D., and her husband, Jared, returned to her family’s farm near to work in the new hog barns her that parents, Frank and Brandi Pravecek, built. Brooke also works fulltime at a bank.

What you can bring
To come back to the farm, they all had to help figure out what they could do to increase the farm’s income.

You can’t expect to simply divide up existing income between more families, agreed lenders who spoke at the Summit. They included Terry Fjeldheim, vice president, Farm Credit Services, Watertown, S.D.; Ed Fiegen, senior agribusiness banker, First Bank and Trust, Brookings, S.D.; and Nate Franzen, agribusiness division president, First Dakota National Bank.

You have figure out of to generate more income without putting the existing operation at risk, they said.

Adding a livestock enterprise is a good way to do that because you usually don’t have to buy more land.

But simply being able to provide additional labor probably isn’t going to give beginning farmers the kind of income they expect and need.

“You're not a high schooler working for your supper,” Deinert said.

On the other hand, you should not expect to start in the corner office. You are going to have to ride on hayrack for a while, not in the tractor, Franzen said.

Start from scratch
It’s difficult, but not impossible, to get started farming if you don’t have a family farm to join.

The Farm Service Agency has a beginning farmer program and the state of South Dakota has a bond program to help banks loan money to beginning farmers. But you will probably need help from family members, outside investors or partners, the lenders said.

You should expect to have to “burn the candle from both ends” for a while, the lenders agreed. You or your spouse — or both of you — may have to work off the farm while you build your operation.

“There are opportunities out there,” said Tracy Erickson, South Dakota State University Extension dairy specialist, “but you have to be patient and you have to persevere.”