Lexington Clipper Herald
by Robert Pore, World-Herald News Service
GILTNER – More than 20 years ago, Paul Huenefeld knew he was on to something good.
Back in the 1980s, Huenefeld decided to convert his five-generation farming operation to an organic operation.
And it all had to do with Huenefeld deciding that it wasn’t safe for his kids to play in the same soil that he planted his crops.
“One thing that traveled around in my mind was I had a couple of small children at that time (1980s) and they would come out and bring lunch to me in the field,” he said. “I would not let them play in the dirt, and I realized that we were growing food for the world, but yet it wasn’t safe for your own kids to play in the ground that we grew our food in.”
While it took more than a decade to certify his crop fields for organic farming, now Huenefeld’s total operation is organic. He raises organic corn, soybeans, alfalfa, hay, popcorn and wheat.
Huenefeld gave a workshop and tour of his organic operation Tuesday to a group of more than 30 farmers and government officials.
Funding for the event was provided by a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund. Local support was provided by the South Central Nebraska Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council.
Coordinating the tour and workshop was Tom Schwarz of Bertrand. He is an organic farmer and an organic technician for a group of RC&Ds.
The whole idea for the workshops and tours is to help promote the transition of conventional farmers who are interested in going organic, Schwarz said.
“Paul has been on the cutting edge in lot of the developments in terms of organic operations,” Schwarz said. “We wanted to show people some of the newer things that are out there.”
While some of the techniques that were demonstrated Tuesday have been around for some time, such as flaming (burning the weeds off a newly planted field), composting and interseeding, Schwarz said they just haven’t been adapted as readily.
“But Paul has made it work and I think it’s something people need to take a look at for their own operations, whether it’s organic or conventional,” Schwarz said. “There’s some really good opportunities here to benefit the soil and their operations.”
One of the benefits is doing away with petrochemicals and synthetic fertilizers that some people have blamed for both health and environmental problems.
As a farmer, Schwarz said he has been asked, “Why do you use all of these chemicals and poisons in agriculture?”
“I was very blunt at the time, and I said, ‘You know why? We don’t have any particular love for them. If anybody is at risk from those kinds of things, it is those of us who are farmers because we are working with the raw material'” he said. “I said, ‘If we can develop a market where we don’t need those things, we would be fine doing it another way.'”
And society is catching up with that frame of mind of a more natural way of farming as the consumer organic market continues to grow.
But Schwarz said that in Nebraska it has been very slow process convincing farmers to transition from a conventional farming operation to an organic operation, despite growing consumer demand for the products.
“A lot of conventional farmers are a little bit more dubious about it,” he said. “They look at organics and they think weeds. That’s the biggest thing. We have a mindset in our farming community that we just hate weeds with a passion. It’s just hard to get over that mindset.”
Huenefeld said his family farm is now a fifth generation farm with his son James entering the operation.
Through the generations, Huenefeld said his family has always had a strong interest in conservation, such as the tree wind breaks that surround the farm.
While Huenefeld said he has been farming “before I could reach the clutch on a tractor,” it wasn’t until he was doing it on a full-time basis that he and his family decided to turn his farming operation organic.
He said farming is fascinating and “something we will never fully understand.”
“But organic farming to me is working in harmony with creation and I’m excited about learning more about how God designed this Earth and how we can work with it,” Huenefeld said. “We can be good producers and good stewards of the land because it is a good place to be.”
And while farming, whether it be organic or conventional methods, isn’t without its challenges, Huenefeld said his family enjoys what they are doing.
“Even though there is definitely stress and a lot of hardwork with it, yet there is a lot of aesthetics that makes it most enjoyable for us, and as a family we have enjoyed it,” he said. “It has also opened up a whole new family of people – the consumers – who have been looking for organic and natural foods. We have met a host of people we do business with from all around the country.”
Additional tours and field days, featuring organic crop and livestock production techniques are planned in Central Nebraska during June. Contact the South Central Nebraska RC&D at 402-845-6678 or 308-379-4027 for more details about the tours or additional assistance available with organic production or the organic certification process.
