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-: My name is Gary Lesoing.
I'm an extension educator in Nemaha County,
and also a Nebraska State SARE coordinator.
It was a pretty full day, I guess.
We started 7:30 and got back about 8:30 at night,
so it was very interesting.
We started, left East Campus in Lincoln at,
I say around 7:30, and we went to Robinette Farm
on Martell, Nebraska,
which is about 20 miles Southwest of Lincoln.
Between Lincoln and Crete, Nebraska.
Alex McKiernan and Chloe Diegel,
they have this farming operation.
They produce local food, some high tunnels
where they're growing different type of greens.
They have microgreens, they call 'em,
and at least it's organically certified,
and they grow a lot of tomatoes
and traditional vegetable crops as well.
I think they have over 80 different crops
that they grow, and they sell these with a CSA,
which stands for Community Supported Agriculture,
and also farmer's market in Lincoln that they sell at.
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Then we went to Rock Creek Aquaculture.
Scott Pretzer and his family, they're raising shrimp,
and it's also saltwater shrimp, a very unique operation.
They started in 2017, and we were fortunate to see
some baby shrimp that come in,
and they were like 1/8 inch long or so,
and I think in about five or six month,
they'll be ready for market (chuckles),
around there, so it's very interesting seeing.
They have to keep the water a certain pH.
And his daughter that's her job, to make sure
it's the right pH,
then also they feed three times a day,
so that's very important.
They have a backup system,
just in case electricity went off,
very high-management.
I think it's gonna work for them,
and they've sold a lot of shrimp,
and business is good for them.
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From then on, it was around lunchtime,
and we went to Lazy Horse Brewery and Winery,
near Ohiowa and Nebraska.
It was a beautiful setting there, and we had lunch.
They have a wood fire grill.
That wood-fired pizza that we had was very good,
and actually it was a special.
They aren't usually open at this time,
but they made their stops available for us.
So, they're getting known more and more.
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Then after lunch,
we went to Slezak Ag and Natural Resources,
which is a unique operation where they're trying
to develop a saw mill.
Kim and Gerald.
Kim actually has a degree in forestry
and has been a forester.
She's certified for several years,
and what they want to do is collect a lot of lumber
and don't let lumber go to waste.
And, they have a portable saw mill there,
and they'll be able to saw it up
and make kind of a lumber yard,
where people can use that, use in their home.
They're thinking about getting a kiln and drying it.
One thing they are interested in.
They received a grant from the forestry,
Nebraska Forest Service, to produce biochar.
Biochar just kind of the, I can say, charcoal
from burning wood, but mixed with like manure
and other compost.
It's a valuable nutrient you can put into the soil
and actually helped us, being research done with it.
But they wanna do some more and maybe produce biochar
in their operation.
So we spent some time there.
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And then we traveled over to Ralph Tate,
which is by Fairburn, Nebraska.
He has an interesting, about a quarter of a section there.
And it was cropland he converted into grassland,
and it's warm season grasses mostly.
There are some cool season grasses as well.
But he made that into a rotationally graze system,
and he custom grazes there.
He's been doing that for, I think about 10 years.
His neighbor puts Black Angus cattle on there
and they rise it and move the cattle once a day,
through the system
and actually there's increased in stocking rate.
You know, it's about one cow for two
and a half acres or so.
Most of the people in there,
it takes one calf or five acres.
They cattle are very docile and they have,
better feed and actually help improve their soil
by having this higher stocking rate.
We have this farm beginnings programmer
that we've been going since.
Think it's been about 10 years or so.
And he's actually one of the instructors,
for he talks about his holistic management, things he does
on his farm, and financial management as well
He's an excellent teacher, so that was a good stop.
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And our final stop for the day
was at a Broken Arrow Farm near Filley Nebraska.
This was Riley Reinke.
And yes, this is the Reinke Irrigation System.
His grandfather started a company Reinke Irrigation.
And he as a young man and has a farm,
its he's going toward organic.
It isn't organic, but he uses organic practices.
Sells vegetables at farmer's markets.
And he may have a small CSA as well,
but several different kinds of vegetables.
And he has like a equipment that he,
worked behind equipment
that he uses and it's irrigated land
that he sell or that he uses.
So it's very interesting.
He has some high tunnels that he uses as well.
And he's just kind of getting started
And he has some farmland,
that is organic as well,
in an area that he worked on to so.
And then we head on back to Linclon and so it was full day,
but I think people.
They got their money's work of it
and we hope we continue
on doing this as we move forward.
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