2019 fall farm

2019 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News Nov. 1, 2019 Page 39 seeing the fruits of his labor carted off the farm, as Libby’s has been busy harvesting the pumpkins and taking them north to the canning plant in Morton. That canning plant produces Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie, which is one of the most widely recognized products on the market. Sahs is in his third year raising pumpkins for Libby’s and it’s obvious he is enjoying the opportunity to feed the world, all because a neighbor introduced him to the idea. “We are talking about pumpkins today because I have a neighbor, Jeff Elsas, who has a friend that is a salesman who gets customers to raise pumpkins,” began Sahs, “and he told me about the pumpkins and the contract and how much money could be made with pumpkins. The profitability of corn and soybeans was at a low level and the pumpkins were a lot better, so I decided to try it. This is the third year that I have raised pumpkins and this year was my best year. We’ve had almost 30 ton to the acre, which is pretty good for pumpkins.” In the beginning there was some risk, as with anything in farming, but Sahs was up for the new challenge. “There is risk in anything when you’re trying something new,” said Sahs. “Anyway, I thought let’s give it a shot. The first year we did it we were very fortunate we didn’t have any bad weather.” That first year Libby’s contracted Sahs to plant 80 acres of pumpkins. That first year was very successful and that led to another year with Libby’s. Sahs made the necessary adjustments for year two and put the seeds in the ground. “You cannot raise pumpkins on the same field two years in a row,” Sahs explained. “You have to wait three years to grow them on that same farm again. So you are three years out once you raise them on that farm. Next year as an example, I can go back to the farm that I did the first year that I raised them, if I want,” said Sahs. “The first year I had 80 acres. The second year they had an over-production and they cut us back to 40 acres. This year we raised 100 acres. So it keeps fluctuating. We never know. So we have to keep getting ground approved. They have soil tests they do on the property to make sure there’s no levels of heptachlor and chemicals that have a rough half-life, they don’t want that in the pumpkins. It has to be less than one percent.” So just how profitable is raising pumpkins compared to other crops? Continue 8