What do you do when you want to farm, but your family’s operation is too small to take you on full time?

Phil and Jon Eggers found themselves in that position.

Their father, Tim Eggers, of Renner, S.D., worked in town and also operated Eggers Southview Farm. He raised registered Hereford cattle, but the enterprise wasn’t big enough to support three families.

So what to do?

Phil’s and Jon’s strategy was to farm part time while working other jobs and managing other businesses.

Phil is a now a partner in Southview Farm with his dad (they have about 100 registered and commercial cows). He also is a real estate agent, a partner in a video auction company (The Livestock Link) and owner of a cattle grooming business. He grooms about 2,000 animals each year for sales and shows.

Jon and a high school friend formed a partnership and started renting pasture from family members and buying commercial Angus cows.

“It was tough in the beginning, and it still is,” says Jon, who is married and has two children. His business partner, Kelly Lyons, is also married and has children. “We didn’t have anything. We didn’t buy anything. My wife was finishing college. Thank goodness for student loans.”

One day, his grandfather took him to lunch with neighbor and the talk turned to the trouble the neighbor was having getting his crop sprayed.

“You ought to buy a sprayer,” the neighbor told Jon.

So the next year Jon did — and that was the beginning of a custom spraying business.

“I just hit it at the right time,” Jon says. “A lot of seed dealers in the area were branching out into selling chemicals, and they needed somebody to do the application.”

Juggling act
Jon and Phil say they have been able to juggle multiple businesses because they have help.

Jon’s business partner likes cattle, and he is in charge of the cows. His partner also runs the tender truck for the sprayer. Jon is more in charge of the crop and hay side of things, and helps out with calving and other cow chores.

Phil’s father is majority partner in the Hereford business and covers chores when Phil can’t.

The brothers’ ventures have different busy seasons from the farm, too.

Custom spraying for Jon begins after most of their commercial cows are done calving but before they have to start putting up hay.

The real estate season gets into full swing for Phil after the cows finish calving in April. Peak times for video cattle sales and cattle grooming are in the fall and winter.

“These three jobs fit pretty well together,” he says.

Jon and Phil say if you want to farm, but don’t have a big family operation to join, don’t sit back and wait for something to happen. If you see an opportunity, try it — even if it isn’t a full-time position. You never know how it might turn out and where it can lead.