By Rae Wagoner, Kentucky Soybean

If you ask folks where western Kentucky is, you may get a number of different answers. Some folks will say Bowling Green, because Western Kentucky University is located there. Those who are more geographically savvy might name Paducah or even Graves County. 

If you look at the map though, you’ll see this blue section which denotes the Purchase Area, and Lukas and Caleb DeWeese farm in three of the four westernmost counties in the Commonwealth – Fulton, Hickman, and Carlisle.  What this map doesn’t show is what lies directly west of these counties, and that’s the mighty Mississippi River. 

Farming in bottom ground, or “gumbo” as some farmers call it, presents challenges and opportunities unlike any other soil type. Yes, river bottom ground is often some of the most fertile soil to be found, but – as is top of mind for so many Kentuckians – Mother Nature can be fickle and unkind in flood-prone areas. In addition to the frequent flooding, heavy rainfall can cause smaller rivers, creeks and streams to overflow. Backwater standing in crops is a concern, as is the narrow range of workability due to the soil’s high clay content and susceptibility to compaction and slow drainage.   

The DeWeese brothers take it all in stride. They’ve been dealing with the pros and cons of farming in the bottom ground since 2005, just a year after their father, Mike, passed away. Caleb was already active in the operation, and Lukas – although young – was already working just like the rest of the family. They weren’t left to figure things out on their own, though. The brothers who own and operate DeWeese Farms have four generations of farming experience on both their father’s side of the family AND their mother’s side, and many of their relatives are farming in the vicinity to this day. 

“Our family has been farming that Hailwell ground since the late 60s, early 70s,” Caleb said, “and the river bottoms since the 60s. It’s really all we’ve ever known and all I ever wanted to do, so we take the bad with the good and just roll with it.” 

While the DeWeeses also have hill ground and various other soil types to work with, the river bottoms are tricky. Like many other row crop farmers in the far western portion of the state, the DeWeese brothers have turned to contract growing of hogs in order to diversify their operation and maximize their profit margin. 

“We raise full-season beans and corn,” Lukas said, “and we grow out hogs for Tosh Farms.” Contract growing for Tosh has been so good for the operation, Lukas said, that the brothers have decided to more than double their swine production capacity. The brothers’ first pigs arrived in 2019, and they’ve been busy with that part of the operation ever since. 

“Some of the houses are in my name and some will be in Caleb’s name,” he said, “but we are in it all together. Once this expansion is complete, we will have capacity to grow out 25,000 pigs a year.”

The DeWeeses, like so many other contract growers, hold the Tosh family in high regard for their commitment to environmental stewardship, including detailed attention to nutrient management and preservation of land, air, and water quality. 

 “My wife Payton and I have 2 little girls, and Caleb has a boy and a girl, and we want to be good stewards and leave this land in good shape for them if they decide to farm,” Lukas said.

Caleb added that DeWeese Farms utilizes a number of best management practices through the use of precision ag techniques. “We want to put just what the crop needs right where it needs it,” he said. “That includes crop protection products and the fertilizer generated by the hog barns.” 

In addition to the expansion of their hog operation, the DeWeeses have just completed the construction of a 170,000-bushel on-farm grain storage and handling facility. As readers of this publication know, not only does an on-farm grain storage facility come in handy during harvest, it also enables the farmer to take advantage of forward contracting options and filling contracts for delivery in months when lines at the elevator aren’t so long and the law of supply and demand forces grain prices to go up. 

“We have more than doubled the acres we farm over the past few years,” Lukas said, “and putting in this system on a ten-acre piece of ground up close to our shop just made sense.” He noted that they have room to grow their storage capacity, and that having a wet tank and Shivers dryer will allow them a lot more flexibility when it comes to handling their grain this fall. 

 While Caleb and Lukas are definitely looking to the future, their roots run deep. “Our granddaddy was advanced for his time in raising hogs,” Caleb said. “He had a pretty large farrow to finish operation. I sure wish he was here to see our hog operation today – I think he’d be proud of us, and I know he would be amazed at how people are raising hogs these days.”