Farm name: Hit the Hay Farm
Farm location: Loma, Colorado
Names of farmers: Lowell and Phillis King and family
Farm size: 300 acres owned
Year established: 2005
Products: Premium horse hay; non-GMO corn, wheat and cover crops; grass-finished beef
Farm contact information: lowellnphyllking@gmail.com
Why did you begin farming? I didn’t stand a chance to be anything but a farmer! I was born and raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and became one of the main milkers the year I started 1st grade.
What do you most enjoy about farming? The best part of being a farmer is being able to raise our family in the country and involve our children in activities of work and play every day of the week. Being so involved in God’s creation and seeing life happen every day with the soil and baby calves, etc. is priceless.
What is your biggest current challenge? Finding time to do all the things I enjoy doing. I love running farm equipment, hauling our commodities, moving cattle, consulting and designing furrow-irrigated no-till equipment, among a host of other things.
What is the best piece of advice you ever received about farming? From my dad — have a planned crop rotation that works for you and don’t base it off of immediate commodity prices, as you will likely be one year too late on most price swings. The second-best piece of advice was to make the no-till drill as much a part of harvest as the combine by following the harvesting equipment with the drill.