Making a difference in the community, this is Kirby Hakkesteegt who with his wife and family are NextGen farmers in Brighton.
Hakkesteegt’s Poultry Farm Ltd. goes back four generations and includes grandparents, parents, children, spouses and grandchildren.
Kirby and his wife Arlene joined his parent’s operation in 1987 and were part of its diversification to include beef farming and cash cropping (corn, soybean, wheat and forage crops.)
Their son Bryce and his wife Dana joined the operation and a few years later and began the transition from a laying farm to one that produces broiler chickens. A few years later, their daughter Angela and her husband Ryan McLeod came onboard as well.
Unlike many farms where the next generation needs to buy out the last, Hakkesteegt Poultry Farm works on a share system. When a new member joins the farm, they’re awarded shares whose value is based on the operation’s assets at their time of entry. As they work year-over-year, they earn a salary while their shares increase in value relative to the increase in the value of the operation from the time they joined.
Sitting at the kitchen table, which is where the family meets for coffee twice daily to catch up on what everyone is doing, we talked about the role of technology in their operations. Two main areas benefit from today’s latest tech. Firstly, GPS plays a role in the fields while sensors connected to a base computer in the office monitor operations in their chicken and cattle barns.
Secondly (and maybe even more importantly) it keeps everyone connected via smartphone technology. Kirby says they’ll continue to innovate in the hopes that the next generation will want to come on-board. With six of 13 grandchildren living on the farm already, chances are there will be no lack of bodies at future daily meetings.
To listen to the complete interview, click on the file below.
(Written by: Joseph Goden)
