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Walnut Grove FArms Schochoh, KY
“ Walnut Grove Farms is a family farm based in the community of Schochoh, KY, 50 miles north of Nashville, TN. It is managed by the 5th and 6th generations of the Halcomb family and farms on both sides of the state line.
One of the most relevant disciplines Sam and Stephanie brought home from an early career at Caterpillar, Inc. was the concept of Services Marketing. In 2006 Sam was fortunate to work directly with Valarie Zeithaml of the University of North Carolina learning about The Gaps Model of Service Quality, which begins with the Customer Gap. This is defined as the gap between the service a customer expects and the service he receives. Service providers close that gap by understanding customer expectations, designing services to meet those expectations, delivering service to the highest standard, and ensuring their promises have been kept.
Since returning home in 2010 Sam and Stephanie have utilized this model to move the family business from strict commodity production toward customers that value high quality grains as well as services. This transition continues to evolve but it begins with a simple premise. Commodity producers compete on quantity. Walnut Grove Farms competes on quality.
The local food movement and concepts such as traceability and sustainability are consumer trends the Halcomb's watch with keen interest. Using her engineering background Stephanie has implemented tools and processes to preserve grain identity from planting all the way to customer delivery. She is now working on metrics and tools to gauge sustainable practices on the farm.
Walnut Grove Farms and the Halcomb Family are honored to serve Sugar Creek Malt and other premium customers, and continually look for ways to better meet their needs. "
One of the most relevant disciplines Sam and Stephanie brought home from an early career at Caterpillar, Inc. was the concept of Services Marketing. In 2006 Sam was fortunate to work directly with Valarie Zeithaml of the University of North Carolina learning about The Gaps Model of Service Quality, which begins with the Customer Gap. This is defined as the gap between the service a customer expects and the service he receives. Service providers close that gap by understanding customer expectations, designing services to meet those expectations, delivering service to the highest standard, and ensuring their promises have been kept.
Since returning home in 2010 Sam and Stephanie have utilized this model to move the family business from strict commodity production toward customers that value high quality grains as well as services. This transition continues to evolve but it begins with a simple premise. Commodity producers compete on quantity. Walnut Grove Farms competes on quality.
The local food movement and concepts such as traceability and sustainability are consumer trends the Halcomb's watch with keen interest. Using her engineering background Stephanie has implemented tools and processes to preserve grain identity from planting all the way to customer delivery. She is now working on metrics and tools to gauge sustainable practices on the farm.
Walnut Grove Farms and the Halcomb Family are honored to serve Sugar Creek Malt and other premium customers, and continually look for ways to better meet their needs. "
Wynne FAmily Farms Avon, IN
For the Wynne family farming has been a decade’s long family affair. My father and mother immigrated from Ireland in 1939 and began farming in Avon Indiana. When you grow up on a farm it’s in your blood and I’ve been doing it my whole life. I farmed with my father up until he passed and eventually took over the family farm where my wife Stephanie and I raised three daughters and a son. My son Michael has always had a passion for agriculture and has been farming with me since he was a kid. After graduating from Purdue in 2013 he returned home to farm full-time with me. We grow corn, soybeans, wheat and now barley and enjoy the challenges that come with planting, nurturing and harvesting those crops.
We have had some experience growing barley in the past for cattle feedbut stopped because locally there wasn’t much of a market. When we were brought the opportunity to grow barley for with Sugar Creek Malting we jumped on it. Consumers are craving locally grown products and we want to provide the best quality barley for malting. Knowing that your products came from local farmer gives consumers a connection to the product and the farmer. Growing barley allows us to diversify our crop rotations and make land improvements such as sub-surface drainage during summer months when we are less busy. Knowing that the barley we grow is supporting and used by local companies is a proud achievement for our family.
Fiesbeck Farms
Worm Farms
Douglas Anderson
Anderson Family Farms specializes in fall ornamentals such as glass gem corn and miniature pumpkins as well as lavender and other flowers. Doug and Jessica Anderson operate the farm on family ground alongside Doug’s parents, David and Carol. Their three kids, Soleil (11), Bruce (5), and Penelope (2), love “helping” with the large scale harvest that relies on dozens of all local workers. The majority of Doug and Jessica’s crops feature hand picking and processing activities, such as husking and bundling Indian corn and hand picking miniature pumpkins. This will be their fifth year in operation, and they are thrilled to be adding barley to support the unique operation at Sugar Creek Malt Co.
Howell FArms Anderson, IN
Howell Farms was founded in 1972 by David and Mary Howell. They produced corn and soybeans on 300 rented acres using borrowed equipment and ran a small farrow-to-finish hog enterprise. An interest in horticultural crop production – and a fire which destroyed the farrowing house – led to the establishment of an onsite, retail farm market in 1977. Apples, sweet corn, pumpkins, tomatoes and melons were among the multiple fruit and vegetable crops grown for sale in the farm market. School tours and festivals were commonplace during the 25 years of retail sales. Production of Red Gold processing tomatoes was added in 1995. When sons Adam and Aaron returned from college to join the family business in the early 2000s, corn and soybean production grew along with a transformation to larger scale fruit and vegetable production.
During those transformative years, Adam and Aaron also originated an investment company to purchase and operate a large farm in Bahia, Brazil. Aaron and his wife, Katy, moved to Brazil to manage this farming company. They steered the farm from bare land to a productive operation growing cotton and soybeans. With this rigorous management, hard work, and persistence the goals of the Brazilian venture were met and Aaron and Katy were able to return to the Indiana farm after five years.
Howell Farms of Crossroads LLC emerged in 2013 as the operational entity for the farm. It remains a diversified, family farming business headquartered in central Indiana. Production includes Red Gold tomatoes, corn, non-gmo soybeans, wheat, barley, and a diverse mixture of cover crops. David and Mary have continued their involvement in the farm while Adam and Aaron are providing the management of the operation.
Despite the many challenges, we are excited about the future of production agriculture. Rapid consolidation of the U.S. agriculture industry, shrinking farmland base, strong global demand for high protein diets, and rapid technological advancements are factors which present opportunities for farmers who are positioned to operate in this market and prepared to adapt to market changes . We plan and work to responsibly maintain a competitive advantage and secure our place in the agricultural industry of the 21st century.
The land we farm is revered as our most valuable natural resource to be cared for without exception. Intensive sustainability is a goal which pervades naturally in every facet of planning and operations; we are driven to continually increase production per unit of input . We believe this model will answer critical, global food demands of the future.
We are thankful for the opportunity to grow for Sugar Creek Malt and excited about the challenge of consistently producing the high quality grain that Sugar Creek demands. Barley production is a great fit for our family farm. It has the potential to be a profitable enterprise for us while at the same time helping us to meet our goals of protecting and improving our soil. Barley growing in the late fall and early spring is scavenging and storing up any unused nutrients our summer crops left behind, it provides cover for our soil protecting it from erosion, its roots are providing an environment for the microbial life in the soil, and it continues to capture solar energy late into the fall and early in the spring that would otherwise go unused. Rather than allowing this solar energy to be wasted barley is using it to grow a valuable grain while pumping carbon into our soils and feeding valuable soil microbes that play a vital role in sustaining and nurturing all future crops on that land. Hopefully in addition to diversifying our crop rotation, and improving our soil, we will be growing an ingredient that will make it into many of the locally produced Midwestern craft beers.
During those transformative years, Adam and Aaron also originated an investment company to purchase and operate a large farm in Bahia, Brazil. Aaron and his wife, Katy, moved to Brazil to manage this farming company. They steered the farm from bare land to a productive operation growing cotton and soybeans. With this rigorous management, hard work, and persistence the goals of the Brazilian venture were met and Aaron and Katy were able to return to the Indiana farm after five years.
Howell Farms of Crossroads LLC emerged in 2013 as the operational entity for the farm. It remains a diversified, family farming business headquartered in central Indiana. Production includes Red Gold tomatoes, corn, non-gmo soybeans, wheat, barley, and a diverse mixture of cover crops. David and Mary have continued their involvement in the farm while Adam and Aaron are providing the management of the operation.
Despite the many challenges, we are excited about the future of production agriculture. Rapid consolidation of the U.S. agriculture industry, shrinking farmland base, strong global demand for high protein diets, and rapid technological advancements are factors which present opportunities for farmers who are positioned to operate in this market and prepared to adapt to market changes . We plan and work to responsibly maintain a competitive advantage and secure our place in the agricultural industry of the 21st century.
The land we farm is revered as our most valuable natural resource to be cared for without exception. Intensive sustainability is a goal which pervades naturally in every facet of planning and operations; we are driven to continually increase production per unit of input . We believe this model will answer critical, global food demands of the future.
We are thankful for the opportunity to grow for Sugar Creek Malt and excited about the challenge of consistently producing the high quality grain that Sugar Creek demands. Barley production is a great fit for our family farm. It has the potential to be a profitable enterprise for us while at the same time helping us to meet our goals of protecting and improving our soil. Barley growing in the late fall and early spring is scavenging and storing up any unused nutrients our summer crops left behind, it provides cover for our soil protecting it from erosion, its roots are providing an environment for the microbial life in the soil, and it continues to capture solar energy late into the fall and early in the spring that would otherwise go unused. Rather than allowing this solar energy to be wasted barley is using it to grow a valuable grain while pumping carbon into our soils and feeding valuable soil microbes that play a vital role in sustaining and nurturing all future crops on that land. Hopefully in addition to diversifying our crop rotation, and improving our soil, we will be growing an ingredient that will make it into many of the locally produced Midwestern craft beers.
Michalke FArms
We at Sugar Creek Malt Co. do raise our own grain on our family farm, but we are always looking for more farmers who would like to grow unique malting grains! Spreading out our farmers will reduce our risk of weather related issues as well as help boost the economy of the local rural community. If you are interested or want more information please go to the contact page and submit the contact form or simply email us at caleb@sugarcreekmalt.com. We can give you all the information to help you start raising quality malting grain!