![]() ![]() The Beguins’ cowpea seed goes to customers who grow the plants, then chop them young for tender salad greens.ĭaughter-in-law Shelley and daughter Barb pitch in as well: They sell the family’s bean-soup mixes over the Internet, at area craft shows and during community events. They ship their brown and golden flaxseed to Internet markets, their blue corn to chip-makers, their millet to California bakers and Japanese snack-makers, their radish seed to overseas sprout buyers, their oil and confection sunflowers to Minnesota, their dry beans in 2,000-pound totes to the West Coast and their pea seed to local cattle-feed and green-manure users. Now the Beguins sell their cleaned, organic wheat for $6.75 a bushel rather than $2.50. With only 120 cow-calf pairs on their 2,000-acre ranch, the family had depended on its trenching business to “keep everything else floating.” It still does, but the Beguins’ agricultural enterprises have become significantly more profitable since they went organic in 1996 and since a SARE grant helped them market their new value-added products and obtain equipment to outfit a 2,160-square foot cleaning and bagging facility. The Beguins had one compelling reason to diversify: “We wanted to keep the ranch,” said Robert Beguin of Rushville, Neb. ![]()
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