Agronomist & Farmer

 Agronomist & Certified Crop Advisor: Now With Valley Ag Supply in Gayville, SD, and starting his own custom strip till business, Diversified Agronomics

Farm: Family Farm near Elk Point, SD

Row Crops: Corn & Soybeans

Acreage: Under 200

Family: 3-year-old son, Austin James Hanson, who wants to be on the family farm 24 hours day.

History: Joey’s grandparents started the family farm in the 1940s. After Joey’s dad died in a farming accident in 2006, Joey moved back to the farm in 2007. He and his brother, James, who is a precision ag technician with International Case in Sioux Falls, manage the farm together.

Conservation: Will start over cropping this summer, followed by strip tilling in the fall.

Why are you participating in the Conservation Exchange?

I have a small farm and am just starting conservation practices. I hope to gain more knowledge and expertise from those who have been doing it for some time. It opens up another door for long-term ag sustainability here in south Dakota. 

What do you hope to learn?

I want to learn about some of the issues they are having in the Gulf: hypoxia and water quality issues that stem from practices a couple thousand miles north of them. I want to learn how it’s affecting their practices; how it’s changing their practices; how government looks at it.

And I want to learn about their culture of agriculture. So much of agriculture has turned into business: agribusiness. I want to learn how we can help each other…what we can do to become better stewards.

What Else: Joey knows the other South Dakota participants through the South Dakota Agriculture and Rural Leadership program.