Farming is a family business, and as time passes,
EACH GENERATION MUST FACE ITS OWN CHALLENGES.

Fortunately, as challenges present themselves, technology brings improvements and fresh eyes come up through the ranks to tackle challenges and implement change to bring further success.

Brian and Sarah Tweeten are father/daughter partners raising corn and soybeans on about 1850 acres near Kensett, Iowa. The farm was established in 1958 by Brian’s father, Stanley, and grandfather, Gilbert, and Brian’s upbringing set him on the path he still walks today.

“I always wanted to be a farmer,” he said. “I started driving a tractor when I was six. We did a lot more as kids, as far as help. It wasn’t demanded of us, but it was just part of our lives. That’s just what we did. I never found it as a burden to help and enjoyed working with cattle and hogs and corn, beans, and hay. It was always something different every day. We just had a good family life.”

Farming practices were a bit different back then. Although machinery was available, much of the work was still done by hand, and it wasn’t always fun.

“I didn’t really care for picking rock and walking beans,” Brian, 65, said. “Herbicides have changed that. The rocks are still there, though…”

Eventually, Brian went to Iowa State, graduating with a degree in Farm Operation in 1982. He always intended to return home, and the knowledge he brought to the operation in the areas of business and finance was instrumental in helping the Tweeten family navigate the farm crisis of the 1980s.

On the other hand Sarah, 32, had a less direct path back to the farm. Growing up, she had a similar upbringing as her father and enjoyed the farm life, but her older brother, Ben, was on the farming track, as well.

“I would help with the same jobs every year, helping to pick rocks and clean grain bins and maybe run the stalk chopper,” she said. “I always enjoyed it, but in my mind, I always thought Ben would be the farmer.”

Knowing she wanted to stick to a career supporting agriculture, Sarah eventually went to Iowa State and studied agriculture communications, graduating in 2015. By that time, her brother had come home to work on full time on the farm, so she took advantage of having the freedom of a recent grad to explore the world a bit. In her senior year, she attended a school career fair, which led her to discovering AgriCorps, an organization that brings ag education to developing countries.

“The career fair at Iowa State University is the largest ag career fair in the nation,” she said. “I went to their booth just to get my jitters out, and that turned into something I wanted to do. I figured it seemed like the right time in life to do something before I got established.”

So, after graduation, Sarah lived for a year and a half in Ghana, Africa, teaching agriculture in high schools and within the community working with farmers. While there, she observed some stark contrasts in both the local perception of farmers, as well as understanding of its possibilities.

“It was a unique experience,” Sarah said. “Agriculture there is a step back in time. It’s a poor man’s job. It’s not viewed as a business. There are lots of barriers to people working over there, but it was a very rewarding experience.”

Chief among the barriers Sarah attempted to break down in her time in Ghana was the stigma of being someone who produces a living off the land. By legitimizing agriculture as a field worth building upon for a successful life, Sarah worked to make inroads for local ag development.

“I encouraged my students to view farming as business,” she said. “With subsistence farming, they only grow enough to feed their family. There are a few colleges in Ghana that offer agriculture as a field of study. I encouraged people to pursue that if they had the means to do so; and if they didn’t have the means, to try to go back to their hometowns to share what they’ve learned about different practices, different varieties, and things like that.”

After returning to the United States, Sarah continued working in roles that supported ag, such as in the Worth County Extension and Outreach office, the Cerro Gordo County Farm Bureau, the Iowa Corn Growers Association, as well as helping occasionally on the farm. Eventually, however, her brother decided that managing the home farm wasn’t the life for him, and he started to look for other opportunities. That’s when Brian approached Sarah and her other siblings to see if they were interested in being part of the family business.

“My dad approached me and asked if I was interested in coming on full time,” she said. “Every year, we’d run the operation in our percentages. He’d turn over a percentage to me each year and I’d take on more. You take on more expenses, but you get more income, too. I had to do some math and figure out my health insurance and what it would cost me, but it is really nice to have that opportunity to be here full time. I’d have to make up for time lost in my younger years, but the best way to learn is to be here and do it firsthand.”

A big part of Sarah’s role is helping to implement new practices and technologies as the Tweeten Farm finds new ways to keep growing and addressing its challenges.

For better fertility management and erosion prevention, they did strip-till trials, eventually buying their own bar and bringing it to all their acres. They’ve also started variable rating corn population and making prescriptions for seed and fertility.

“These are decisions we arrive on together, but I know my dad very much prefers when I set up monitors for him and assist with the technology side and things like that,” Sarah said. “We both have interest in adopting new technologies, but I’m kind of the on-farm tech support.”

Brian compares his experience these days to when he started farming with his father. Although Brian was open to changes and finding ways to keeping the farm more efficient, he was more limited by technological capabilities at the time.

“Back when I started, it was pretty much all moldboard plowing,” he said. “I did not like the wind erosion and pushed to transition into more conservation-minded tillage practices and focused on the business and marketing.”

Although the Tweetens may not always be the first adopters, they are always willing to prove the effectiveness of something out in the field. One of the biggest impacts of new technology has been the ability of precision agriculture to make every application more efficient.

“What’s made the most difference has been applying fertilizer, variable seed and fertility rates, and working with what the soil is capable of rather than putting on a blanket rate or planting at the same population,” Brian said.

One of the local partners the Tweeten Farm use to help with new opportunities is their local Hefty Seed Company store in Rockwell, Iowa. Their agronomists, Tim Nuehring and Stetson Rueth, bring forward educational opportunities that provide them with the new information they need to keep improving their operation.

“One thing we both appreciate about Hefty’s is that Tim and his team at Rockwell put on a lot of workshops for farmers to come in and learn, and we appreciate the opportunity to learn more about products and fertility,” Sarah said.

Through the help of their Hefty agronomy team, Brian and Sarah have been able to improve analysis of their farm’s costs, even starting up on the VRAFY platform to maximize efficiency as they work to apply fertility with their strip-till machine.

“Before we had our co-op broadcast dry on top; now that we have strip-till, we can do it ourselves,” Sarah said. “We’re starting to see some things, and we’re making fewer passes across the field and using less fuel. Some of these things with soil take time to fully reap the benefits of, but so far what we’re seeing we’re really excited about and looking forward to continuing it.”

The Rockwell store and the Hefty brothers themselves have been a continuing source of information for the Tweetens.

Brian has watched the Ag PhD TV show for more than 15 years, and Sarah often catches the Ag PhD Radio Show on Apple podcasts. Both appreciate the knowledge they gain for their farm about new ways they can continue adapting to the ever-changing landscape of new practices and technologies.

“I’ve always enjoyed their radio show and I watch the Ag PhD channel on AcresTV, “Brian said. “They’ve been pro strip-till and tile, variable rate nutrients, variable seeding rate, and understanding your fertilizer recs beyond what the co-op tells you. They want us to understand it more so we can benefit and know exactly what we’re doing. I think they both are good teachers. They are not afraid to express themselves and their knowledge, and I very much appreciate it.”