Hewitt Farms Inc. of Minnesota!

Today we welcome a great farming family from Minnesota! Meet Sara and Mark Hewitt!

Welcome to life as a young farm wife in rural, southern Minnesota! My name is Sara Hewitt and I farm with my husband, Mark, his brother, Ray and my in-laws on a 3,000 acre corn and soybean farm called Hewitt Farms, Inc. in Le Sueur, Minnesota. My husband and I were just married in September so we are still newlyweds on the farm!

I am a 5th generation farmer, growing up on a soybean, corn, cattle and hog farm. My husband and I currently rent the land that my parents used to farm. My parent's farm has been in our family for over a century now and was inducted into the Century Farms program! In fact, my family lives in the same house my great-great grandfather built in 1906! My husband is a 3rd generation farmer growing up around crop farming. Farming has a special place in our hearts as we continue the traditions our grandparents and great-grandparents started.

I grew up with all kinds of animals. I don't think my mom was too happy that I insisted this baby lamb come into the house with me.

Both my husband and I have jobs off the farm. My husband is a diesel mechanic for Ziegler CAT, working on farm equipment and heavy machinery. I work as an intern for the Minnesota Farm Bureau. My job at the Minnesota Farm Bureau involves working on the Ag Cab Lab. It is a tractor cab and a combine cab that allow children to get in and virtually plant or cultivate a field. It is really exciting to watch the kids interact with the game and the discussion that is sparked with their parents. Hopefully one day, some of these children might find themselves working in agriculture too!

This is an applicator, a piece of equipment we use to help combat weeds and bugs in our fields. We also do custom application for other farmers.

Something unique out about our farm, is our agriculture business that we have too. Hewitt Drainage Equipment specializes in water management for farmers all across Minnesota. We sell tiling equipment, Golddigger tile plows, tile stringers, and do custom tiling. We do a lot with GPS technology and mapping tile lines as well, making it a lot easier for farmers to know where their tile is and fix it when a problem arises. We think it is pretty cool that through agricultural tiling, we help the soil act like a sponge, soaking up more water preventing run-off, soil erosion, and reducing flooding. 

Our jobs on the farm change on a daily basis. I do a lot of marketing and media for both our farm and for Hewitt Drainage Equipment. I do everything from managing our Facebook pages, to updating our blog Hewitt Farms, Inc., to designing banners and flyers for the many farm shows we attend throughout the year. I also help during planting and harvesting season by driving combine, tractor and rock picking with the skid loader. My other job during those two seasons: professional sandwich maker. I can pack a lunch or supper for the guys complete with hot coffee and fresh baked brownies like no one's business.

One of my jobs on the farm is driving the combine.

My husband does a lot of upkeep on all of our equipment on the farm. He does routine maintenance work, but also fixes the combines, tractors and planters when they break down. During planting season, he is usually out cultivating fields. Planting takes us about two weeks if the weather is cooperating, and three to four if Mother Nature decides to throw some rain our way. During fall, he is often driving combine, working to harvest our crop.

Ray, can often be found driving semi and hauling our crop to be sold to the local elevators. A lot of our corn crop goes to the local ethanol plant to be made into fuel. Ray also has his applicators license so he is our fertilizer and crop protectant guy on the farm. Ray also sells seed corn, so he is out delivering seed to local farmers to help them get their crop in the ground.

Kevin, my father-in-law, is usually busy with our agricultural water management business. He does many farm and trade shows throughout the year selling tile plows and other tiling equipment. He drives all over Minnesota and often into other states, delivering Golddigger Tile Plows. He makes his way into the tractor during harvest to help pull the grain cart.

Last summer our U.S. Senator, Amy Klobuchar visited our farm to learn about our farming operation, agriculture business and some of the issues and problems we face today in agriculture. Pictured are Mark, Kevin, Jeanette, Ray and our hired-hand Nathan with Amy.

No farm is complete without animals. We raise a small flock of chickens so we have plenty of fresh eggs for our own family and friends. We also raise a pig or steer every other year to help feed our family. We take very good care of our animals making sure they have fresh water and plenty of food at all times as well as adequate shelter. We also have three dogs running around the farm: Cass, Denali and Charger. We have one Lionhead rabbit named Waffle. We also have plenty of farm cats.

We are constantly checking our fields, soil, and crop. Crop health is very important to us.

I am currently working on my Masters degree in Agricultural Education and Communication. At Hewitt Farms, we never stop learning. We are always looking to improve our practices and become more efficient and effective. We embrace technology on our farm because we know it is an important part of our overall farm's operation. Technology allows us to be even better stewards of the land because we can pinpoint areas where our soil needs more nutrients or reduce overlap or only use a select amount of fertilizer.

My favorite thing about farming is being able to work outside and always being busy. I don't have much down time and I enjoy that. I have to be productive with my time and farming allows me to do that. I love being outdoors so being able to work in an environment I love means a lot to me. I love looking out the tractor cab window to see a bright blue sky with a hawk soaring back and forth in front of me and a doe with her fawn standing off into the prairie grass curiously watching while I cultivate the dark, rich soil beneath me. There is nothing better than the views you get from the seat of a combine or tractor.

This is my husband Mark & me with one of the many dogs running around our farm. His name is Charger and he is a chocolate lab. The tractor in the background is a 1949 D Case that we are working on restoring.

You can find us on Facebook both at Facebook or Facebook.com/HewittDraingeEquipment. You can also follow some of my stories about farming, life and work at www.hewittfarmsinc.wordpress.com.

Signing off from rural Minnesota! Don't be afraid to stop by for a visit!

Thank you Mark and Sara for this great feature! Thank you for all your hard work! Good luck with the 2013 crop year!!

YOU could be the next FOA feature! Contact us today!!!!

Lara Durben and Minnesota Turkey Growers!

Please help welomce Lara Durben of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. Lara grew up on a farm and her passion for agriculture has led her to an exciting career promoting the poultry industry in her home state!

Greetings from Minnesota – home to more turkeys than any other state in the U.S.! I grew up on a crop farm in western Minnesota and knew absolutely nothing about raising turkeys (or chickens, for that matter) when I applied for a job nearly 18 years ago with the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. In fact, I had never even been close to a poultry barn. But, I had a couple of things going for me – I was a farm girl, which provided an instant connection with the turkey farmers hiring me, and I loved communications. Nearly two decades later, I’m still working for Minnesota’s turkey farmers and I love to help share their stories in a variety of ways.

As the Communications Director for my organization, I wear (as the saying goes) many hats. Truthfully, it’s probably too many to count some days, but that’s why I love my job – the variety is amazing, I am always learning (seriously – every day!) and I feel like my extended family has grown over the years to include so many of the farmers I work on behalf of.

I coordinate all of the communications efforts for Minnesota Turkey as well as two other poultry organizations – the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota and the Midwest Poultry Federation. I often refer to our office as “Poultry Central” because, well, it is – at least in Minnesota.

On a daily basis, I am trying to keep with all of our social media tools, including (deep breath, here) four Facebook pages, three Twitter accounts, one Pinterest account and two YouTube channels. Plus, we have three different websites to maintain and keep updated. From a sheer time standpoint, it can be daunting (I won't lie about that!), although I can tell you I am ridiculously enthusiastic about social media and love trying to keep up with it all.

Lara in her office. 

I also coordinate a monthly printed publication, Gobbles magazine, for our Minnesota Turkey members that’s been around since 1945 and a weekly email newsletter for nearly 1,000 of our members and friends of poultry who like to receive updates about what’s going on in our organizations along with various links to poultry and general agriculture news from around the world. I am also the first point of contact with reporters who call or email, looking for stories and answers to their poultry-related questions. Because Minnesota ranks #1 for turkey production in the U.S., we do get media calls from all around the U.S. – especially in November.

Oh, and did I mention that at Thanksgiving, my job rocks?

Beyond that, I have several other career passions, including coordinating an annual trip for some of our members to Washington DC to meet with our Congressional leaders and attend the National Turkey Federation’s Summer Leadership Conference. I actually get energized every time I visit our nation’s Capitol and I find it gives me a much broader perspective when I am able to meet with our leaders to talk about the issues that are important to us, both turkey-related and agriculture in general.

My other big passion is coordinating the details for the largest regional poultry convention in the U.S., the Midwest Poultry Federation Convention, held in Saint Paul, Minnesota in March every year. Our office works with many volunteers to bring over 2,100 people together to learn from experts on a variety of poultry-related topics, network with other farmers and colleagues, and visit with companies in the exhibit hall. The details that go into making this show a success are mind-boggling and I am so fortunate to work with amazing team of four other people in my office to get the job done. We love this show – and we especially love to arrive onsite and see all of our industry friends connecting with each other. Farmers, I have learned - both from my own father and from the poultry farmers I work with on a daily basis - are constantly learning and evolving and improving what they do.

My newest adventure is the debut of my blog last fall – www.myothermoreexcitinglife.wordpress.com. It’s been a personal goal of mine for a quite a while, but it wasn’t until I attended a conference with some amazing role models – the AgChat Foundation’s Agvocacy 2.0 Conference last August – that I truly realized I could make this happen. It’s always a work in progress, of course, but I like to include a mix of topics – from living life as “MNGobbleGal” (my Twitter handle, by the way) to sharing “my other more exciting life” as a wife and mom who is a bit shoe-obsessed; loves running, gardening, wine and shopping (not necessarily in that order); and also happens to Instagram way too many photos of our senior citizen pug dog named Earl. I think a blog is a great way to connect with a variety of people about poultry, agriculture and my daily life – and I love how I can show all the different sides of “me”.

The Family!

As long as we're on a personal note here, I live in Buffalo, Minnesota – about 25 miles west of the Twin Cities – with my husband (“Teacher Man” so-named in my blog) and our nine-year-old son. I am still a farm girl at heart and am glad to see my brother continuing the crop farm in my family, along with my Dad who isn’t quite ready to retire fully yet. They raise nearly 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans in western Minnesota and we visit often. My mom is a former home economics teacher, gourmet cook, quilt designer and master gardener - she keeps the farm looking beautiful all year-round and I like to think my green thumb for gardening comes from her.

I can’t tell you how many times someone has jokingly asked me, “Do you want to talk turkey?” or “Are you the princess of poultry?” But the truth is, I never get tired of it. When I was in college, the professor of my very last journalism class found out I grew up on a farm, pulled me up in front of the entire class (mostly urban kids) and told the class: "Farmers are true gamblers. They gamble every year on the weather, on the bank, on their animals and on their crops. What they do is amazing." To be honest, I had never really thought about it in quite that way and I am quite sure, at that time in my life, I took my own farm upbringing for granted. But his comments struck a chord with me then and I've never forgotten what he said. I'm very glad I am able to work in agriculture today, and I am grateful, after all these years, for the opportunity to help share the stories of an amazing group of farmers.

Lara on the farm as a child. 

Thank you Lara for the great feature! You can learn more about Turkey production by visiting Minnesota Turkey Growers Association webpage and the Minnesota Turkey Facebook page. You can also follow Lara on her personal blog, twitter(MNGobbleGal) and check Pinterest account!

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