Benton Ag Plus - January 2, 2021

BENTON AG Serving rural Benton, Morrison, Mille Lacs and Kanabec counties

Sauk Rapids Herald | Saturday, Saturday January 2 2, 2021

Plus

Beef on the starting block

Heritage Angus Farms sees sales lift amid pandemic

Rubes Sponsored by Fluegge’s Ag

SAUK RAPIDS – It is not hard to find the detriments caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

There are over 5,000 deaths associated with its havoc in

Minnesota alone, and some small businesses, after being forced to shutter, are suffering revenue losses to the point they may not recover.

Yet, to every dark cloud there is a chance the sun will shine and create a silver lining.

That was the case for

Heritage Angus Farms.

The 40-acre farm – home to Patrick Hillman, Dr. Christina Mattson, their children and a budding beef operation – received a boost on the brink of the pandemic’s wrath.

“The pandemic was a demand.” springboard for us, for sure,” Hillman, a full-time said Mattson, who works framing subcontractor, agreed. full time as a veterinarian “It pushed us to make at St. Joseph-Cold Spring- bigger leaps,” he said.

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PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER

Dr. Christina Mattson and Patrick Hillman (left), owners of Heritage Angus Farms, are raising beef cattle on their 40-acre property in rural Sauk Rapids with the help of Elmer Schlangen. Heritage Angus Farms is seeing an uptick in beef sales amid the coronavirus pandemic thanks to their direct sales and delivery marketing strategies.

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Page 2B | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021| SAUK RAPIDS HERALD

Heritage Angus

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The story of Heritage Angus did not start in March, however. Four years of hard work, persistence and patience set the Sauk Rapids beef operation up for success.

Hillman and Mattson are not farmers by blood; they both attended high schools in the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Christina spent her teenage years participating in the arts, and Patrick engaged in hunting and fishing.

Yet, farming found the young family, and the PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER story started with one vet Beef cattle eat at Heritage Angus Farms in rural Sauk call in 2015.

Rapids Dec. 9, 2020. Patrick Hillman and Dr. Christina “He was calling to Mattson began the farm after purchasing property in have my boss out (to 2016. look at his horses) and he got me,” Mattson said.

“That’s how I met him.”

As the two began dating, agriculture was the topic of conversation.

“I pretty much immediately started peppering him with, ‘Are you interested in farming?

Are you interested in having some land?’”

Mattson said.

Mattson had been turned on to the agricultural lifestyle while

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A Summer Feast Box was one offering Heritage Angus Farms provided consumers in summer 2020. The farm sells direct to consumers via their website and delivers product to consumers’ doors.

working with producers through her studies at Iowa State University.

She specifically was attracted to the cowcalf beef model and the flexibility it allowed.

“It seemed like a workable agricultural system with other things people are doing in their lives,” Mattson said.

In 2016, Hillman and Mattson set their sights on a beef operation of their own when they purchased property in Minden Township, Benton County.

“The place that you see right now is not what we bought,” Hillman said. … “The feedlot wasn’t done. The bunks weren’t here. The gravel wasn’t here. Nothing was here.”

Mattson said “bones” of the property, such as an old barn and a couple outbuildings, were included with land but that most of what the

operation is today was built from the ground up.

Today, an 85cow herd of half registered Angus and half commercial Angus crosses inhabit the farm.

All the livestock born on the farm remains. Steers are fed-out for processing and replacement heifers are raised to develop the operation.

While continuing their careers off farm, Hillman is in charge of feeding and daily business operations, and Mattson is in charge of health and reproduction.

Elmer Schlangen, a retiree who grew up on a farm near Richmond, helps as needed with daily operations.

“This place would not run without him,” Hillman said. “He’s a vital part of our operation, 100 percent. He cuts hay in the summer; he is hauling silage for us right now out of Glencoe. He’s family.”

Mattson agreed.

“He’s our blessing,” she said.

An extra set of hands is not the only blessing the operators have received. Hillman’s forward thinking to change its business model to direct sales in 2018 and a consumer-friendly website that launched just ahead of the pandemic paved the way for profit in 2020.

“It really simplifies the customer’s experience,” Mattson said of the website that allows consumers to order specific meat cuts and have them delivered directly to their doors.

“When people were looking for a local beef option, we were right there to make it very simple for that customer to order through us.”

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PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER

Heritage Angus Farms beef cattle stand inside the feedlot Dec. 9, 2020, at the farm in rural Sauk Rapids. Currently an 85-cow herd of half registered Angus and half commercial Angus crosses inhabit the farm.

BENTON AG

SAUK RAPIDS HERALD | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021 | Page 5B

BENTON AG Plus

We want your As we head into the new year and begin our fifth year of Benton Ag Plus in February 2021, Star Publications would like our readers to share with us their insight on how we can improve. We strive to engage our readers in every issue and are

feedback!

setting goals to continue telling the stories of our area agricultural community.

Typically, in a year not plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, we can have these conversations face to face at business expos, county fairs

and farm shows. That was not the case in 2020.

Please help us by sharing your thoughts on the below template or by emailing us directly at natasha@ saukherald.com.

We greatly appreciate your readership.

1. What topics do you most enjoy reading about in Benton Ag Plus? ____________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Is there a type of livestock you feel is missing from our coverage? If so, what? ___________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What non-livestock topics do you wish we covered more of?

(Farm succession planning, regulatory changes, crop disease, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. We cover Benton, Morrison, Mille Lacs and Kanabec counties and some areas of Stearns and Sherburne.

Of those counties, is there an area you wish to read more about? ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Do you know of a farm family in your community that we should feature? Why? (Please include contact information if you feel comfortable doing so.) __________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Additional thoughts? ________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________

Please send comments to: Sauk Rapids Herald, 2 Second Ave. S. Suite 135 Sauk Rapids, MN 56379 Or, email them to natasha@saukherald.com

BENTON AG

Page 8B | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021| SAUK RAPIDS HERALD

Seeds from page 7B In the past, I have used wood chips between beds as a way to keep the garden clean and reduce weed pressure, but this year, I am going to use white clover. Clover adds organic matter to the soil over time, and if left to flower,

provides valuable nectar to pollinators.

Do not feel like you need to plant a cover crop in every bed. Challenge yourself to start small with one bed and build toward more as you get the hang of it.

Minimize disease pressure Did you have any particularly challenging pathogens in your garden in 2020? If so, I hope you took the time to identify them. If you know which diseases you struggled with last year, you can look for resistant varieties to plant in 2021.

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Seed catalogs include information about resistance traits, but I tend to start with this (https:// www.vegetables.cornell. edu/pest-management/ disease-factsheets/diseaseresistant-vegetablevarieties) resource from Cornell, which provides a long list of varieties from many companies. It is a great place to start if you are looking for resistance to a specific pathogen.

In addition to resistant varieties, remember to rotate your crops. An ideal rotation is three to four years, so if you planted tomatoes in your garden bed last year, try not to plant anything from the solanaceous family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, potatoes) in that spot for the next few years.

Have fun Gardens are therapeutic. They bring us joy for a wide variety of

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Heirloom dry beans can be stored long after the garden is dormant. Natalie Hoidal, University of Minnesota Extension Educator, encourages people to explore varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers to see which they might most enjoy growing.

reasons. colors and textures.

Some people find Rainbow carrots the greatest joy in flavor, may yield a bit less than others find garden joy in standard orange carrots, but if it makes you happy to pull purple, yellow and red carrots from your garden, plant them.

When I started gardening, I had a utilitarian approach. I felt like I needed to maximize production from my small space. But over the years, COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL EXCAVATION I have begun to add more flowers and plant fun • Site grading varieties just for the joy of it.

• Ditch excavating In particular, I have • Road/driveway construction invested more space this year into heirloom dry • Clearing/grubbing land beans. Not only do I love growing beans, but it brings • Demolition me joy to see them in my • Construct building pads cupboard all winter long.

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