A family tradition

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The Raikes Family has been farming in Saunders County, Nebraska since 1900. We currently operate 4,500 acres of organic and conventional farms, with a goal of reaching 100% organic by the late 2020’s.

Justin’s grandfather Ralph was an early adopter and producer of hybrid seed corn in the mid 1930’s, and built a seed cleaning plant which we are using equipment from today. Justin’s father Ron was an early adopter of soil conservation practices and started our first soil conservation business in the 90’s.

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We started our first organic transition in 2016, and have been growing our organic footprint ever since.

Our desire was to meet consumer demand for organic products, enhance our stewardship of our farm footprint, and improve profitability. Justin and the team have quickly built up experience in a number of different cover cropping systems as part of our organic footprint, and also utilize cover crops in our conventional farms for cattle grazing.