Not so for Dwayne Ostrem. For him, 60 sounded like a good age to start farming.

Dwayne grew up on his family’s farm north of Lanesboro, Minnesota, which has been farmed continuously by members of his family since it was homesteaded in 1858 – more than 166 years ago. He fondly recalls raising cattle and hogs, riding and wrestling with the livestock along with his brother, taking inspiration from the local county fair and rodeos.

“We used to try jumping on the sows, but that didn’t go so good,” Dwayne said. “As we got older, we tried to bulldog the calves, where we would run alongside them and try to bring them to the ground. We never got hurt more than a little bit of bruising, so it was pretty fun.”

As Dwayne grew up, he began helping out with the animals in a more constructive way, working to put up hay and chop forage.

However, in 1976, as he approached his high school graduation, he wasn’t fully convinced that farming was the future he wanted, even though he was certain he didn’t want to leave the country life behind.

“I loved the outside, I loved the outdoors, and I loved the forest,” Dwayne said. “So, I thought forestry would be a great alternative to farming.”

So, Dwayne attended the University of Minnesota in Duluth for pre-forestry while putting himself through school as a construction worker building big, blue Harvestore silos. As he gained some experience and perspective, he had a change of heart regarding his career path.

“Once I discovered there were no jobs in forestry back in the 70s and I was getting paid more working construction than the starting pay of a ranger out of college, I started looking elsewhere,” Dwayne said.

He took a gap year from college to re-evaluate his path forward, while working construction full time. Dwayne knew he wanted to maintain his connection to rural life, and that was at the core of his decision to ultimately to switch schools and change majors.

Ultimately, Dwayne resumed college at the University of Minnesota St. Paul, graduating in 1983 with a degree in Ag Economics, something he refers to as ‘an applied science’.

“I love the business side of any industry, but I especially enjoyed learning of the science of grain handling and the business side of agriculture, so I overlaid that into the banking industry,” he said. “I started off as a lender, but I always had the intention or the hope to run a bank.”

Dwayne entered ag banking right during the height of the financial crisis of the 1980s, and he witnessed firsthand the devastation brought to the rural communities he cared for.

He worked his first banking job for less than a year before it failed and was sold off. This tumultuous time has shaped his community banking philosophy to this day.

“In the local area where I grew up, I saw the economic pain of the families I went to church with,” Dwayne said. “I couldn’t help wondering – where did we go wrong here?”

In the 1970s and into the 1980s, the prevailing goal of farm financial management was to avoid paying income tax as much as possible by keeping cash flow to a minimum. Prior to this time, if a farmer felt they needed more income, they would plant more acres or add more livestock to make it. But once the farm economy came to a screeching halt, many businesses didn’t have the working capital to pay back term debt and went under.

As Dwayne grew in his career, eventually achieving the title of bank president, he continued working in small banks preferring to help friends and neighbors finance their success.

Even as he helps banks grow, Dwayne prefers the impact he can have managing smaller community banks.

“I’m a farm kid,” he said. “I like community banks, and I fit better in a community-style bank, not necessarily a larger regional bank.”

Although his career in ag banking spans more than 40 years, Dwayne realizes the farm kid mentality never really left him. After his father, Richard, passed away in 2010, the family’s 400 acres passed to him, that desire to farm grew ever stronger in the back of his mind, and he became interested in soil science and practices to improve ground, attending a session led by Ray Archuleta on reducing soil erosion.

“I went home from that meeting and talked to my wife, Mona, and told her, ‘If we want to have anything left of our farm after erosion, I’m going to have to do it – and beyond that I WANT to do it.’ That’s how it started.”

In his long career in ag banking, Dwayne had saved up money with the intention of returning to the farm someday. Once he decided on his path, he bought as much equipment as he could afford within his budget and informed his renters that he would resume farming his ground beginning in 2019. After that, he got to work studying what it takes to raise a great crop. His first stop was an Ag PhD agronomy seminar in Rochester, Minnesota, and he took the information from that meeting to heart, frequently referencing the event workbook as he created his management plan. Dwayne also worked religiously to catch up on years of Ag PhD TV content.

“I drove my wife crazy watching all the Ag PhD videos on YouTube,” he said. “My family didn’t want to be around me because I kept watching all those videos and listening to Brian and Darren. I listened to them over and over and over – I watched them a lot, let’s just put it that way.”

With a fresh education in mind and a focus on erosion control, Dwayne decided to run a no-till operation and utilize cover crops.

He also began soil sampling in 2.5-acre grids, a practice he continues to this day to focus on fertility and monitor his soil improvement progress with balance and organic matter. In his first season, he went all soybeans and averaged 55 bushels; after that, he went into a 50/50 rotation with corn and sold an average of 201 bushels per acre. Now, Dwayne is 66, in his sixth season of farming, and has no regrets.

“There’s a disadvantage to starting to farm at age 60, but there’s an advantage because I came with no reference on how I might have been doing it for the last 30, 40 years,” he said. “I came with an open palette and got ready to paint a picture, trying to understand the science of what causes what and how things react. I think that is the economic side of me just being a student and trying to figure out the microeconomics and the macroeconomics of farming.”

In his quest for more information, Dwayne started working with Grant Lunning at the Hefty Seed Company location in LeRoy, Minnesota. After trying various products over a couple short seasons, he’s gone all in on Hefty Brand Corn and Hefty Naturals. His meticulous and inquisitive nature pairs well with the transparency and local focus Hefty’s brings to the table.

“The more I learn, the more I want to understand the technology of the seed,” Dwayne said. “At Hefty’s, they’re very open and will tell me how hybrids will react and flex in different management styles. They can tell me what will happen if I do above-average management out in the field. I like that. I want to know what’s happening out there. That’s the economist in me. I want to know what I can do that will push the end product, what actions to take that will provide a return.”

With his emphasis on soil and crop health, Dwayne has also concentrated on building microbial activity in his fields, which makes Hefty Naturals options a natural fit.

He uses D-Comp in the furrow and makes in-season applications of Boost 10, Heat Shield, and AMASS, and he appreciates the value his farm has gained from the relationships he’s formed there.

“I think the greatest resource that Hefty’s has is they’re forever learning and testing, and they’re hands on. You’ve got Darren and Brian, and they’re farmers. What they’re doing impacts their livelihoods. I think that’s a valuable asset. I don’t know how they store all that stuff in their brain, though, it’s amazing to me.”

“I think they’re brilliant people, and I like listening to their perspective on things,” he said. “You can have an idea and if you ask them, they’ll say what they think will happen or tell you they haven’t tried that yet. I am 66. I don’t want to make too many more mistakes. If I’m thinking of things incorrectly, I want somebody to say so. But I’m having a great time learning.”