It all started with one man and one cow.

That man was Robert Terwilliger Sr., the founder of Terwilliger & Sons. Although the operation had fairly humble origins back in the early 1940s, four generations of Terwilligers have transformed it into a 2200-acre farm that produces corn, soybeans, and alfalfa to support more than 1100 cattle that now call the acreage near Winfred, South Dakota home.

Robert’s great-grandson, Jason Terwilliger, 44, is continuing the family tradition, having grown up helping his elders with tasks on the farm. His great-grandpa was his most frequent companion growing up, and many of his strongest childhood memories are of tagging along as he tended to the cattle – tough work for many, but perhaps especially so for Robert due to having lost most of his sight from a young age.

“Grandpa was blind in one eye since he was a kid when he was shot in the eye with a bow and arrow while playing ‘Cowboys & Indians,’” Jason said. “Then, he lost his sight in the other eye in his 30s due to glaucoma. After that, he could tell if the sun was out, and that was about it. But he could find the way from the house to the barn and did that every day, and he milked those cows until he was 87 years old.”

Days like these, following in the shadow of his grandpa and dad, instilled within Jason the certainty that farming was the proper path for him.

“I grew up on the farm,” Jason said. “It’s all I really knew I wanted to do. You’re kind of born with it, and it’s an instinct for me, I suppose.”

With the certainty of knowing he wanted to return to the farm, upon graduating high school, Jason studied ag business at Mitchell Technical College to be better prepared to take the mantle of management and running the bookwork of the family farm.

“My grandpa did that, but my dad and uncle wanted no part of it,” Jason said. “But I kind of enjoy it, you know? Besides, Grandpa wanted me to do it.”

The example of his forebears shaking off such minor inconveniences as blindness in the pursuit of keeping the operation running instilled within Jason the same kind of determination needed on the farm – to always keep moving forward and improving.

“We’re always doing new things,” Jason said. “We were one of the first in the area to run our own self-propelled silage chopper. Back in the 80s when ridge-till came out, we tried that for a while, then switched to no-till in the 90s. After that, we tried strip-tillage, and we’ve done that for about 21 years now.”

The main reason the Terwilligers adopted striptill was to improve their fertilizer placement, as they did not like leaving it on top of the ground where it was vulnerable to erosion and farther from plant roots.

“We were looking for a way to put it into the ground, but we didn’t want to till it in like everyone else does,” Jason said. “So, we built our own toolbar and applied liquid P and K and anhydrous with it. After a while, we went to dry fertilizer. Then about five years ago, we bought a SoilWarrior, and that’s the best machine on the market, as far as we’re concerned.”

Not only have they improved their fertility placement, but their efficiency improvements have also made an enormous impact on their bottom line. On the whole, the practice has saved the operation a lot of money, although it does have some disadvantages when it comes to timing with other farm activities.

“We can put on way less fertilizer than anyone else and have the same yields,” Jason said. “We probably save $50 an acre on fertilizer every year. The only drawback is it’s time-consuming. If you can’t get it done in the fall, the spring’s too busy to get it done when you’re trying to plant. If it’s spring and the soil’s fit to strip-till, you should be planting corn instead.”

As part of their quest to reduce expenses on the farm, the Terwilligers started sourcing their ag chemicals from Hefty Seed Company in Baltic, South Dakota, and for nearly 20 years they’ve worked with agronomist Lee Fischer, building a trusting and valuable relationship.

“Lee really likes to talk, and he really knows his stuff,” Jason said. “He does a lot of crop scouting for us and lets me know about the different insects and diseases that are out there. If there’s a new chemical coming out, he tells us about it and puts together programs for us, and if it sounds like a good idea, we do it. There’s an extreme amount of trust. I know that if there’s a way to save some money, he’ll tell me because he’s not trying to make as much money on me as he can – he wants me to make the most amount of money possible at the least amount of cost.”

Over time, Jason also began procuring his seed from Hefty’s, purchasing Hefty Brand Soybeans, and after some encouragement from Lee, the Terwilliger farm eventually become a soybean seed production grower. Following the company’s rigorous seed production standards has ensured his soybean fields are kept clean from weeds, insects, and diseases. However, in spite of having continually positive experiences with the company, when Hefty Brand Corn launched a few years ago, Jason was initially skeptical of giving them a shot.

“When it’s not a big brand name on the corn, it’s hard to make that switch to it,” Jason said. “But Lee talked me into trying it, and it was our best corn, so we took off with it from there. I just liked that they come out with new hybrids every year, and I just really like the corn. It makes good money. I’m really impressed with all the seed treatments – it comes out of the ground right away, even when it’s a little cooler. In the past when we’ve planted corn in cool, wet springs, we wondered if it would ever come out of the ground. I’ve never worried about that with these. I usually go all in on stuff, so now I’m 100% Hefty Corn and Hefty Soybeans.”

In addition to the agronomy advice from his agronomist, Lee, Jason also watches Brian and Darren on Ag PhD TV and is a regular attendee of Ag PhD’s events, such as the Winter Agronomy Workshops and the Ag PhD Field Day, which allows him to scope out new potential hybrids and learn more about chemical programs. And as a farmer, Jason appreciates Brian and Darren’s focus on keeping things accessible and profitable.

“I enjoy their Roundup fill programs,” Jason said. “No other place that I know of does that, and that helps me save money every year. You can fill your Roundup tanks in September of every year, and I’ve been doing the program ever since they’ve come up with it. This year, it saved me about $21 per gallon on Roundup. I bought 750 gallons, so that’s $15,000 that they saved me just this year. I always trust that it’s the right thing to do, and it has worked every year.”

With everything Hefty Seed brings to the table, from valuable information and trusted agronomists to high-quality seed and prepay programs, the Terwilligers are looking forward to benefiting from their ongoing relationship with the company.

“They’re just good guys to work with,” Jason said. “They don’t only care about making a buck – they care about us making a buck, too.”