Family and Land Stewardship Priorities at Pochop Farm and Ranch

Lincoln Pochop said the services Graze Master has to offer reflect the values at the Pochop Farm and Ranch, “They are aligned with more of the things I am interested in. From a farming and cattle standpoint, I want to be able to work with mother nature and not against her. Throwing more chemicals and fertilizers on everything wasn’t working for us anymore. It just started making a lot more sense to change.”

Pochop knew after he earned his Farm and Ranch Management degree and Associates in Ag Science degree from Colby Community College, that he was meant to work outdoors and in agriculture, “I love learning, but the college environment wasn’t for me. In high school, I was in 4-H and FFA, but my plan was originally not to come back home. Then I changed my mind I decided this is the life for me.”

Today, Pochop and his family reside near McDonald, Kan. close to where he grew up and where his parents – Gerard and Anita still live, “I work closely with my dad. When I came back, we did not farm a lot at that time. Dad also had around 80 to 100 cattle, and I knew I could help him, but I was also going to have to figure something out on my own too.”

It all started with some replacement heifers his father helped him secure, “Dad had bought a yearling bull, a really nice bull at the time. We stuck it out with the heifers and within 90 days, we didn’t recognize the bull anymore. It just fell to pieces. That’s when I got into the seedstock business. We were done buying yearling bulls and we wanted to build something that would last. We wanted to breed animals that didn’t need pampering. Our motto is, ‘Sound, reliable, and built to last.’”

“We have focused since on raising cattle that are working for us. We are not working for them,” Pochop said adamantly.

The Pochops fall calve in September and October and spring calve in April and May, “The fall herd stays on grass year-round. The spring herd we run out on stalks during the wintertime and feed from mid-to-late March to the first of June. We are trying to get that time period shortened.”

Attending soil health conferences and seeking resources is how the Pochops are learning how to maximize their management. That is another reason they sought Graze Master Transitional Ag Consulting Services and are interested in the Graze Master Genetics® Certification Program, “There are not a lot of people going down a more soil health and regenerative path in our area and when Vance McCoy and Del Ficke with Graze Master came out it really reassured me we are on the right track.”

“We didn’t deplete our soils overnight and we cannot rebuild them overnight,” he went on. “Vance and Del have been very generous about any time I need something I can run it by them. We also talk about different biology products to use. I have come to find out that a lot of these biological products you can’t just run 20 miles to town and find.”

The Pochops have a compost extractor and have also tried molasses, fish oil, dry calcium, and more, “I appreciate that I can ask Vance about these products and what has worked for him and what hasn’t.”

Pochop noted that he was also able to sign up for a carbon program with guidance from Graze Master, “Del has vetted a lot of carbon programs, and we were able to choose the one that would work for us. I was concerned about getting tied in with a program that was part of the government, and we found an option that works for us.”

“Del likes to talk farming too, but he is more into the cattle,” Pochop added. “He went through the cow herd and was very helpful and assured us we’re on the right track. Del appreciated that our cattle are 1,150 to 1,250 pounds, which leads to more efficiencies in the way we want to graze more in tune with nature. I also sell bulls private treaty. I know Del will be able to expand the range of people I can get in front of because he knows far more people looking for these types of cattle. He has already asked me about a couple of my heifers for a potential sale coming up.”

“People want to go the soil health route, but they don’t know where to start,” Pochop pointed out. That’s why he said it’s helpful to build relationships with people you trust. “Del and Vance are very good at keeping the communication going. It’s so worth knowing there is someone out there to call if you have a question and having that resource so accessible.”

The Pochops are well on their way in the soil health and cattle arena. They are not worried about perception in the industry and are always seeking to diversify. In addition to the cattle operation, they also farm wheat, milo, corn, oats, and are drilling Sorghum Sudan as a cover crop to graze this winter, “Dad also grows organic wheat, and we are looking to add a few more grain bins so we can market more organic crops more effectively.”

This year, the Pochops expanded to around 450 acres of cover crops for grazing, “This will have Sorghum Sudan, mung beans, sunflowers, Sunn Hemp, and German millet, among some other seeds. We figure with the way the commodity prices are looking, and the cattle prices are looking, it’s wise to keep the cattle around and to keep working on improving our management of them.”

“We have also been messing around with more intensive grazing,” he noted. “We took a chunk of about 50 acres out of a bigger pasture and divided it up to graze a portion of the time and to allow the other part to rest and see if the grass comes back any stronger. Last winter we grazed milo stalks and gave the cows six to 10 acres for three to five days. It’s just dad and I so the daily moves aren’t going to be as feasible because days just don’t always go as planned.”

Reflecting on how they used to operate, Pochop said, “I remember back in 2012, when I was first getting started, we fed cows for 365 days. It was during the drought that I kept asking myself, ‘Why are we doing this?’ The first cattle check I got; the whole thing went back to feed. That’s why the changes we are making now with our grazing management make so much more sense.”

“Our goals on the cattle side are to have fewer feeding days and to graze them more on what we already have. We don’t need more land because more land doesn’t always equate to more money. It’s about management. I changed my paradigm of thinking on what I wanted out of life. More cattle and more ground just equate to more work. My parents were wonderful examples to us that family needs to come first. I am not going to miss my kids’ activities because I have to go out and farm all the time. It’s my job to learn how to manage better and work to produce more with what we already have,” Pochop said.

“On the farming side, I want to also work with what we have,” he went on to explain. “Making a profit is an obvious end goal, but realizing we can do that with what we are already working with is very important to me. We are not strictly on the same rotation every year because our weather patterns are changing and it doesn’t always make sense to plant the same crops year after year. Just because wheat went into a field for one year, does not mean a fall commodity will go there again the following year. We are going to do what’s best for the soil and what makes sense.”

You also have to realize there are success in the “wrecks,” “Sometimes there are opportunities in what originally seems like challenging situations. One year, for example, we had an oat field get really weedy. My dad farms organic so there was no spraying it. So, we stuck the cows out on it and grazed it. We saved money on feeding cows and took care of the weed problem. Did it look terrible for awhile? Absolutely it did. But people get too caught up in what their neighbors are thinking, but the neighbors are not writing the checks for us.”

Pochop said a big reason Graze Master consulting services are effective, is because plans are customized for each farm and ranch, “When Del and Vance come and visit, they fully realize the environment I am in. They are not basing their talking points and advice on where they live. The ideas and suggestions they give are suited for specific environments. They are very good about understanding the lay of the land and your climate. That has been one of the biggest positives I have taken from their services. Every farm is different and everyone farms differently. They take types of soil, precipitation, evaporation rates, and other factors all into consideration.”

Pochop said his biggest goal is to make sure he and his wife Brenda and their children – Landon, Breckyn, and Leo, stay close-knit as a family first, “What’s the point in life if I can’t be there for my family first.”

That’s why he said it’s important to choose advisors who truly understand what you value the most, “It’s about building relationships and friendships that carry forward for years to come. It’s about being able to call Vance and ask a question or ask Del if he knows anyone that may want a bull to buy. Everyone needs connections. None of us are going to be able to do this by ourselves in agriculture. We only have so much time on this earth and God put me in this place to care for his creation.”