For fee, companies will do field work for farmers

BROOKLYN, Wis. — Wilfred Wendt is, by definition, a farmer. He lives in the same white farmhouse where he grew up just outside the village limits here, and his farm includes 200 acres split evenly between corn and soybeans, some well-kept outbuildings and two impressive silos.

But Wendt’s only farm machine, besides his riding lawn mower, is a handy Kubota tractor with a loader in front and a weed-wacker on the back. He doesn’t need anything more because he pays Klondike Farms of Brooklyn to plant and harvest his crops.

The closest Wendt comes to doing the actual work on his land is when he climbs into the combine to ride with Klondike owner Kevin Klahn during the corn harvest. The arrangement works well for the 73-year-old Wendt, whose big tractor, planter and other farm machinery wore out a long time ago.

“Well, I’m making a living on it,” said Wendt, who will soon count his farm as his only source of income because he’s planning to retire as a bus driver for the Oregon School District. He has driven school buses for 50 years and counts Klahn among the thousands of students he has transported.

Wendt is an example of the positive aspects of custom farming, a growing trend among part-time farmers as well as major operations that hire out virtually every task — from crop planting and harvesting to forage harvesting and bagging, baling, tillage, trucking, manure handling and spraying.

It works because both sides benefit.

It would cost Wendt about $200,000 for a new 12-row planter and a new 150-horsepower tractor to pull it, said Ken Ziems of Carl F. Statz and Sons, an implement dealer in Waunakee.

Instead, Wendt pays Klondike Farms $12 to $15 per acre to plant his corn and $14 to $15 per acre to plant soybeans each spring. That does not include the cost of seed. Then he pays $30 an acre to have the crops harvested in the fall. So it costs Wendt around $9,000 a year to have his crops planted and harvested.

“It just makes sense, especially for guys like me with 200 acres,” Wendt said.

Klahn said custom farming is one-third of Klondike Farms’ business, which includes farming on 5,800 acres and trucking. He said it’s also the most stable part of the business that has grown from four to seven employees over the past five years.

Klondike has two 24-row corn planters that will plant 4,500 acres of corn and one soybean planter that will plant 4,000 acres of soybeans this spring.

Klondike will plant an additional 2,500 acres of winter wheat in the fall. The company will use three combines to harvest the crops in the fall and has seven tractors when needed. The business also cuts 300 acres of hay.

Klahn said that, in order to attract customers, Klondike’s equipment must be among the newest and best, and have state-of-the-art options like GPS that precisely guides where the seeds are planted. His oldest piece of equipment is 12 years.

“I just leased a new tractor this spring and it was (valued at) $230,000 for a middle-sized, front-wheel-drive tractor. Prices have gone crazy,” said Klahn.

Ziems agreed. He said an average 24-row corn planter costs around $165,000, and a self-propelled forage harvester costs around $500,000.

Klahn said it’s great to work with new machinery, but he called it a double-edged sword. “We use custom work to give our farming operation access to the new technology and the new equipment,” he said. “But then you’re covering so many acres and in so many hours that you are wearing it out, too. So, you have to upgrade faster. It’s an interesting balance. “

Cutting hay isn’t a big part of Klondike’s business. One reason is that it sometimes looks like there’s a forage harvester parked in every barn in the state.

“There are more forage harvesters in this state than any other one,” said Adam Danzinger, who sells them for Claas of America.

Forage harvesters, which can be attached to a tractor or a self-propelled unit, chop and blow silage out of a chute and into a wagon connected to it or driving alongside it.

Danzinger, who is a corporate representative director for the Wisconsin Custom Operators trade group, said the Midwest has fewer custom operators than the West, which counts on irrigation systems for much of its watering. That helps with scheduling.

“In Wisconsin, if we get a three-day window to chop hay, everybody has to chop at once and sometimes the custom operators can’t get to everybody,” Danzinger said. “The more arid it is, they are just turning water on and off with an irrigation system or whatever it may be. So they can plan it out better. A guy can come in and do 20 farms in a row and everybody gets their crop at an ideal point.”

Danzinger said custom operators have a high-stress job. Not only must they plant, cut and harvest exactly when their customers want it done, despite problems with weather, but they must have top-grade equipment and understand nutrient management situations. “It’s becoming more and more technology-based with those custom guys,” he said.

Not to mention managing people. “That’s pretty much all I do,” Klahn said.

Most of Klahn’s day is spent checking soil conditions, meeting with customers and making sure everything is ready when the planters or combines show up.

“People really like to have that contact and feel important rather than having us come in there, do our stuff and be gone with no personal contact,” he said. “That’s something I had screwed up on when I was younger. You are providing a service for them and they like to talk about it and feel important and feel like part of the process.”

That’s how Wendt feels when Klahn stops by. After hip and knee surgeries, Wendt has trouble getting on a tractor these days. But he’s still a farmer and Klahn treats him that way.

“I like to sit in the combine and ride along with him,” Wendt said.