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Farm Beginnings™ Profile: Lyle Kruse
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Lyle Kruse |
In western Minnesota’s Lac Qui Parle County, next to the South Dakota border, flat acre after flat acre is devoted to corn and soybeans. There’s a lot of chemical-biological-financial energy associated with these crop farms. But in late fall, after the harvest is in, the human activity level around these operations is next to nil.
And then there’s the Lyle and JoAnn Kruse farm.
It’s November, and about 100 acres of the 200-acre farm is dormant for the winter; the corn, soybeans and small grains that were grown on those acres are harvested. But the other 100 acres is still providing feed to a 30-head herd of brood cows via rotational grazing. Lyle is busy in his diesel shop working on tractors for customers. On the other side of the farmstead, hogs are rooting around in the open, while the 70-head goat herd that’s managed by the four Kruse children munches on hay. JoAnn, a Mary Kay Cosmetics Beauty Consultant, does the books for the farm and diesel shop.
“It’s hard to find a farm that has any activity,” says Lyle while standing in the midst of tractors in various stages of disassembly. “I like having activity on the farm.”
And Kruse also likes having all this activity present in one place. He sees the farm as a collection of interrelated enterprises.
“You will always have one thing that won’t quite work, so you rely on another enterprise to pull you through,” he says.
Kruse learned about the importance of seeing a farm as a whole system consisting of connected enterprises while taking the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings™ course in 2001. The program provides participants an opportunity to learn firsthand about low-cost, sustainable methods of farming. Students take part in a course that teaches goal setting, financial planning, business plan creation, alternative marketing and innovative farming techniques. Established farmers and other professionals present at the seminars and provide a strong foundation of resources and networks for those interested in farming. During that winter, Lyle made the 30-minute drive to Montevideo to listen to established farmers talk about how they were making it on the land and to brainstorm with other beginning farmers about what enterprises can work on a Minnesota farm.
Kruse, 40, already had extensive experience when he took the course. He grew up on the farm he currently lives on, and started farming when he was 15 on his grandfather’s place. After graduating from high school in 1983, he trained as a diesel mechanic and worked for implement dealers. He even operated his own shop for a time before it burned down in 1990. One can make a decent living as a diesel mechanic in an area dominated by large, iron-centered cropping operations, but farming kept calling to Kruse.
“You know, you’re standing on somebody’s combine on a service call and you wished you were running the combine,” he says.
So in 1990, the Kruse family returned to the home farm and began raising crops and hogs conventionally. But a lot had changed since Lyle was younger. Chemicals seem to dominate more, and that bothered him, especially when he ended up in the hospital once after applying herbicide. Plus, the cash flow just wasn’t there, especially after the hog market crash of the late 1990s.
“I was just seeing it wasn’t working,” recalls Lyle.
They began converting their acres to organic production while Lyle taught diesel mechanics at a local community college. But he soon realized that going the organic route required information and experience not easily attainable through the usual channels such as Extension or even neighboring farmers. Kruse says that’s what prompted him to take the Farm Beginnings course.
“You get these farm magazines all the time that have all this advice for you, and they’re all doing the same thing. Farm Beginnings really gets you to step out of the box and look at things differently.”
Through Farm Beginnings, Kruse became convinced that having various enterprises on the farms was a good use of human and natural resources, plus a way to diversify cash flow. So, in 2002, after budget cuts got him laid off at the community college, Kruse erected the shop on the farm. Today he has a steady customer base from a 60-mile radius, and the “phone rings off the hook” every day. Kruse likes how mechanics can diversify his income, particularly during the winter months. He particularly likes having the shop on the farm, where his children, ages 2 to 16, can participate in the small business.
“They are my clean-up crew. My 5-year-old does sink duty,” Kruse says with a smile, looking around the immaculate building. “The kids are very involved in our farm. I guess I have the attitude this is for them.”
As a Farm Beginnings graduate, he also qualified for a Heifer International no-interest loan that helped him get his beef herd started with 15 cows. Kruse rotationally grazes his growing herd to reduce erosion and extend his pasture season. He says it also helps him raise the animals without the use of hormones or antibiotics. Kruse admits he knew next to nothing about rotational grazing when he got started, and was a little vexed about the idea of breaking a big field up into several paddocks. But Kent Goplen, a neighbor who rotationally grazes beef cattle, has been an important mentor.
Currently, the Kruses’ pasture and hay ground is certified organic, and they are working on converting more acres in the future. Lyle is also transitioning more crop acres into grass and hay.
“Every time I’m out tilling I’m thinking it should be under grass, especially with $3 diesel.”
That statement is influenced by another lesson Kruse took away from Farm Beginnings: the importance of taking the time to monitor various enterprises and determine if all that sound and fury being created is producing forward motion, or just digging a deeper rut.
Says Kruse, “A lot of times you can be working your tail off and be so busy you don’t realize if you’re making money at that enterprise.”
— Originally published in the Jan./Feb//March 2006 Land Stewardship Letter
Click here for more on Farm Beginnings™. You can also call 507-523-3366 in southeast Minnesota or 320-269-2105 in western Minnesota.
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©Land Stewardship Project, 2001
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