Local man reinvents family farm to offer unique services to others

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

July 29, 2024

BRILLION – Growing up on a 50-head dairy farm, William “Bill” Nate said agriculture has always been a part of his life.

And, in some way or another, it is something he’s always been interested in.

Nate said though he didn’t care so much about the dairy aspect of the farm, give him a tractor, and he could ride it all day. 

“My dad was the ‘cow guy,’ but the cows never interested me,” he said. “I always liked being on a tractor, out in the fields, working the land.”

Nate said his dad, Gary, eventually decided to lighten the workload on the farm by selling most of the cows.

At that time, Nate said his dad went to work for another local dairy farmer but kept 20 or so steer around his own farm as a hobby when he wasn’t working.

While in high school, in addition to working on his parents’ farm, Nate said he worked for a few different dairy farms – for a short while, even working on the same farm as his dad.

Nate said he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do after graduating high school, however, a tragic farm accident that killed his father decided his path for him.

Nate said he immediately took over the 110-acre farm and began doing some cash-cropping on it – but sold the cattle right away.

“I had no interest in keeping those – I wanted (to work the) land,” he said.

Nate said in addition to cash-cropping – growing a little of everything, but primarily alfalfa, and then rotating corn, wheat and soybeans – he was working full-time off the farm.

Though he said he felt like something was pulling at him to do more agriculturally, he wasn’t quite sure what – so, for six years, he worked a full-time job while figuring things out.

A new path

Nate said his vision was to provide some type of custom farming services for others.

“Someone told me that ‘everyone’s custom farming is getting done, so you need to give customers a reason to hire you or to buy something from you they need,’” he said. “At the time, I didn’t see – with my younger eyes – much of a need for anything in the area. But then in 2017, someone in the area got out of the business of doing big square baling. So, the first piece of equipment I bought in 2018 was a big square baler because I saw opportunities there.” 

Nate said he also bought a manure tanker for hauling manure – and, just like that, the Nate Farms Custom Ag operation was born.

With business booming, he said he added a second manure hauler in 2019 and a third one the following year, as well as hiring a full-time employee.

By April 2020, Nate said he had acquired enough business that he left his full-time job, and since then, has worked solely with Nate Farms Custom Ag.

“We’ve been growing ever since,” he said. “Today, I have two full-time people besides me. During busy times, I’ll have up to five or six part-time people, also. And we have 10 manure spreaders and two big square balers. The bulk of my business is doing customer manure hauling and big square baling for other farms.”

Nate said he also has seven large tractors, which is somewhat of a dream realized.

The farm he grew up on, he said, had old equipment – much of it from the ’70s, small and outdated.

“It was cool for me when I started to get into the custom work, and I bought all this big equipment to do other farmers’ work,” Nate said. “It was fun running over my own land with it, too, but at a much faster pace than growing up. With the equipment I have now, it makes for short work.”

Nate said he can remember dreaming of owning one 800-Series John Deere tractor someday. 

“Now, I have seven of them,” he said. “I never would’ve dreamed I’d have the fleet of equipment I do today… I’m sure (my dad is) proud of what I’ve done.”

Nate said it’s important for him to stay current with equipment and technology to serve his customers and care for the land efficiently. 

Diversification is key

Nate said he’s always looking for new, innovative services he can offer to customers.

At the moment, he said the farm services he provides include:

• Tractor/tanker liquid manure hauling
• Solid manure hauling
• Forage pushing/packing
• Forage hauling
• Mowing
• Raking
• Big square baling
• Spring and fall tillage
• Lawn mowing and snow removal

“My big focus in the beginning when I was getting started was to see what things we could do to keep busy year-round,” he said. “You don’t want to buy a bunch of things that could only be used in the fall. How could we spread out the work throughout the whole year? And snowplowing was the only good option in the winter. My goal is to be full-service and provide services few or no companies do.”

Nate said a huge part of his business in the winter is plowing snow from commercial properties.

“It’s a necessary evil, but it keeps cash coming in and provides hours for my guys to work in the winter months,” he said.

Though snow removal is only about one-tenth of his business overall, Nate said it is a huge part of his business in that it keeps them going through the slow winter months.

“We only plow commercial properties,” he said. “Two tractors go to De Pere and plow a large warehouse there. And some equipment goes to Neenah to plow a large commercial lot there.”

Nate said the equipment stays in those two locations throughout the winter.

“Then we have another tractor with a blade at my shop all winter for our yard and as a backup,” he said. “So, if one goes down, another one could be out there in a couple of hours plowing snow again. I enjoy doing it, but the hours aren’t always fun.” 

Nate said they also use the winter months to “go through all the equipment with a fine-toothed comb” to make sure everything’s ready to go again in spring.

“We do maintenance all winter, as well as cleaning up the equipment and repainting anything that looks rusty,” he said. “It’s important to prepare ourselves for a good start to the season in spring.”

In 2023, Nate said he had an opportunity to partner with an excavation company, and together, they work to close up abandoned manure pits at farms that aren’t operating anymore.  

“We’ll go and empty their manure pits for the last time, scraping every last trace of manure out of it,” he said. “The excavation company then fills the pit in with clay so it doesn’t just fill up with rainwater and other things over the years. That’s been fantastic for keeping us busy, as well. That’s not something I would even have guessed was a big thing when I started this business.” 

Nate said another unique service the company does is manure injection into the soil, something he started doing in 2021.

Manure injection, he said, is a method of applying manure directly into the soil’s root zone by inserting narrow troughs of liquid manure approximately six to eight inches deep.

Nate said it can be done with a tank or by pumping manure slurry through a hose on a tractor that injects the manure as it moves across the field.

“By injecting the manure, you get the nutrients below the surface of the soil, and you reduce the risk of the manure running off,” he said.

Nate said about half of his customers use this process on their farms.

“I’m the only guy in the area who will inject manure into the soil with manure tankers,” he said. “That was an important way for me to gain new customers.”  

Valuable lessons learned

Though he has only been in business for six years, Nate said he has learned a few important lessons already.

First, he has always practiced honesty with his customers.

He said if he doesn’t think they can handle a certain job or can’t do it in the timeframe a customer wants, he tells them so. 

“That way, they can call someone else if they want to,” he said. “I have gotten a loyal customer base by being honest with people, showing up when we say we’re going to show up and doing what we say we’re going to do. I don’t think all customer operators always operate that way.” 

The second lesson, Nate said, is that working in other jobs before starting his own business and seeing how many employers treated their employees, taught him early on how to treat his own employees – which has helped him retain his staff.

“I know what I liked and didn’t like about working for someone else,” he said. “And I try to treat my employees the way I want to be treated.”

Nate said he’s also learned it is important to grow.

“It’s also important for me to stay diversified and keep the income streams coming in from the cash crops and custom work,” he said.

Nate said it’s also important to remember the “old school” way of doing farming as well.

“One thing I always find interesting is, and I see it happening already, there are going to be a lot of these mega-farms where the kids who have grown up on them and are eventually going to be running them, have never milked a cow in their life,” he said. “Yes, we no longer do things old school, but it’s good to know how, just in case something should happen, and you’d have to resort to doing farm chores the old school way again.”

For more on Nate Farms Custom Ag, check out the company’s Facebook page.