GOSHEN COUNTY – Farmers from Goshen County and the surrounding area gathered at the Meyer’s Seed warehouse for great food, good company and most of all a sense of community on Saturday, Aug. 26. 

The Meyer Seeds’ ninth annual Field Day kicked off with a time for everyone in attendance to enjoy the friendly atmosphere, socialize and ask questions about Meyer’s Pioneer test plots. 

Before dinner, Linda and Brett Meyer welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming. While many of the guests were more local to the area, some came from as far as Kaycee and Alcova. 

“Thank you, guys, so much for coming,” Brett said. “We put a lot of effort into this and you guys always respond well. I tell you every year, ‘I don’t have customers; I have friends.’ Thank you for your business. I appreciate it very, very much.”

Brett explained that this year has been a very rough year for many farmers in the area. Many folks were hit hard by massive hailstorms this year. Various people had to replant seeds.

“This hail has been ferocious,” Brett continued. “So, let’s remember our brothers and sisters that didn’t get a beautiful crop this year. [In addition,] prices are kind of low right now, so things aren’t great.”

Field day is a great time to decompress from a tough year in a fun way with others going through similar experiences. 

Before dinner, Brett took the time to talk about their Pioneer test plots outside of the warehouse. In the plot, Meyers had grown several different types of Pioneer corn seed to test their productivity and yield. 

The harvest of the plot will be done differently this year.

“When it’s time to harvest that plot, I’m going to send out the invitation out to all you guys to come over here,” Brett explained. “We’ll feed you lunch and then we’ll harvest that plot together.”

Each step will be done together. However, when it is time to harvest, only half of the plots will be harvested. The process will then be repeated again in January to harvest the other half. This will provide extra data to learn more about these specific seeds. 

“Right now, Pioneer is just kind of blowing me away,” Brett said. “We have a corn seed now that has unbelievable traits below ground with the RNAi protection, which was reducing beetles up to 99%.”

“I’m very happy with where we’re heading,” he continued.

Also, he said they are doing trials with soybeans trying to figure out how to better grow these seeds in this area. The soybeans he tried to grow in his test plot did not grow, however, he did them to grow in a different field not too far away. 

“We are getting closer to getting it figured out,” Brett said. “Soybeans are a great option because you can spray them with roundup, 2, 4-D and Liberty.”

“The weeds this year have been bad,” he continued. “We’re not getting great kills because we’ve had so much rain that they keep coming back. If you’re going to go in with edibles or something next year, you’re going to have a catastrophe. So, soybeans are an option to look at.”

As with previous Meyer events, Linda introduced Bioenergetic Medicine Doctor Jessica Botsch and invited those in attendance to sign up for an appointment with her. Everyone was welcome to either see her during the event or sign up for an appointment for another time.

As Linda had explained during this winter’s “Crop Shop,” more than a year ago Brett had significant heart problems. After his surgery, he saw Botsch and was able to greatly improve the health of his heart.

Botsch listens to the different chambers of the heart with a heart sound recorder, a device similar to an EKG, and then prescribes minerals to improve certain heart conditions. During the appointment, Botsch has her patient take specific minerals and then listens to the heart again to reevaluate.

More information on Botsch and her work can be found at www.empowered-biofeedback.com or by calling 303-243-1143.

The Meyers thanked all of their wonderful family and volunteers for their help to put together this event. They also thanked Al Unverzagt for volunteering his time again to make a delicious meal.

During the event, the Meyers had Pioneer Territory Manager Casey Jagers pay respects to Gordon Stroud who had recently passed away from cancer. Stroud was a Pioneer representative similar to Brett. 

Before releasing everyone to fill a plate of their “Famous Cream Can Dinner,” Dan Fitz did a demonstration with his agricultural spraying drones. These types of drones allow farmers to monitor crops and livestock conditions from the air to watch out for potential problems and spray pesticides. 

After dinner, the Meyers had a special performance planned by the Peterson Farm Bros. The Peterson Farm Bros are a group of three brothers that farm in central Kansas and entertain and educate others through parodies about farming. Two of the brothers, Greg and Kendal Peterson performed several of their music videos, spoke about their farming journey and interacted with the audience. 

“We started making music videos 11 years ago, in 2012, when I was in college,” Greg explained. 

Their first video was called “I’m Farming and I Grow It,” a parody of “I’m Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO.

“I was majoring in ag communications at K State and we were talking in class how a lot of people in today’s day and age don’t know anything about farming,” Greg said. “There’s a lot of people, especially in the big cities, that have never been to a farm; never met a farmer. They don’t know where their food comes from.”

The first music video was created to be a fun way to educate and spread awareness about the agriculture industry. At the time, the brothers had not planned to continue to make music videos. It wasn’t until the first video went viral on YouTube that they decided to continue. 

Now 11 years later they have made 32 music videos and are still going. A few of the songs they performed included “I’m Farming and I Grow It,” “Farmin’ Like” and “Chore.”

“What you guys have done on social media, congrats,” Brett said. “There’s a big disconnect right now between the farm and the grocery store, because people in the city don’t know where their food comes from anymore. So, thank you for what you’re doing.”

“[Meyer Seed was] founded in 2016 by a fifth-generation farmer and it operates on a foundation of integrity and service,” according to the about page on meyerseeds.com. “Our customers are our neighbors and friends, so we take a personal interest in helping them succeed.”

In a previous interview, Linda explained that it wasn’t until Pioneer asked Brett to be a representative that they started down this path. Pioneer said they knew his reputation in the area and thought he would be a perfect candidate to represent them. When they opened Meyer Seeds, they began doing a Crop Shop and a Field Day each year.

“[We hope our customers], enjoy themselves,” Linda told the Telegram. “Farming is a tough life. A good life to raise kids, but it’s not always easy.”

“We always want our customers to have a good night,” she continued. “The other thing we want is for our people to get together and be a community. These people don’t always get to see each other, but with this event, they can come over and have food, talk and catch up. I definitely think you get a sense of community that you would miss without it.”

Also, Linda said it is a time that her family gets to come together. Throughout the planting and harvest season, there are many different jobs that need to be done. More times than not, she said everyone is working in different places on different things. These events are a time when everyone in the family comes together to work on the same goal in the same place. 

“Throughout Pioneer, we’re pretty unique,” Linda said. “We’re farming with Pioneer in Wyoming; we’re the little guys. But [even though we’re small], we’re not aware of anybody else who does this.”

Meyer’s goal is to be the farm hub of Goshen County. If someone has any questions about anything farm-related, like crop insurance, government programs or new products, they want to be able to provide that information.

Meyer Seeds is located at 3758 Highway 156 outside of Torrington. For more information visit meyerseeds.com or call Brett at 307-575-0325 or Linda at 307-575-0324.