The history of the farm began in 1921 when 160 acres were purchased and a two story, white house and a red barn were built. They are close to the small town of Breckinridge which is known as the "Breckinridge Flats". This area has very fertile soil and has always been considered very good wheat and cattle country. This farm, now known as The Benkendorf Family Farm (BF Farm, LLC), has grown to approximately 1,200 acres in size and has seen its growth come "full circle".
During the first 28 years (1921-1949) this farm had no electricity and was operated in a very subsistent mode. Money was very scarce and family members lived and ate from the land. Milking cows and selling milk and/or cream, trading eggs for grocery staples, raising cows and pigs for meat, and raising wheat with no inputs like fertilizer and chemicals.
Then came the 50's and the advent of commercial fertilizer, chemicals, and bigger machinery - a farming revolution that has accelerated and has lasted to this day. But in the latter part of the 20th century, a really big change began occurring. Fertilizer, chemicals, and machinery that were once very inexpensive began to get more and more expensive putting constant pressure on bigger and bigger yields. Farmers had to farm more acres just to make a go of it, making farming big business instead of the once family farm held so dear to many. The constant push for bigger yields and adding more chemical fertilizer and other inputs caused an even bigger problem. To get these bigger yields, we were mining nutrients out of our soils. Our soils were becoming sick, evidenced by weed pressure and crop failure. Chemicals became a necessity, adding more expense. The family farm of years past was gone.
The Benkendorf Family Farms fell into this trap too. But in the year 2000 family members knew this wasn't the way they wanted to go and began looking for options. Answers weren't easy to come by and experiments didn't always work. But then something amazing happened. The family farming history was revisited.
Those first 28 years (1921-1949) were revisited. Those years that most would call "old fashioned" started looking good again. There were no input costs and there were many income sources. There was diversification and, though we didn't know it at the time, we were not hurting the soil. In fact, we were probably adding fertility to the soil with diversification of livestock and crops. But the real eye opener came in 1998 when we saw an aerial infrared photo of farms in the area. This photo showed the calcium, phosphorus, and potassium levels in the soil thus allowing a farmer to put nutrients only on the land that needed it. This photo seemed strange at first because there were these small areas on almost every map that showed no nutrients needed. After some study these small areas were where old homesteads were once located where a diversified way of life occured. (The same life that existed the first 28 years of the Benkendorf Farms.) We thought, "Could this be the answer?" What if we were to run our entire farming operation, all 1,200 acres, in the same manner as the areas around those homesteads of yesteryear?
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