Family digs new farm based business

"For my future and my son's future we had to do this to stay in business," Jeff Lorberg said.

The Jackson, Mo., farmer is talking about the installation of a tile outlet system on their farm. The unique system they installed not only drains their bottomland fields, but it controls sub-irrigation during the growing season. This has dramatically increased the corn production on those acres.

It also provided a new business opportunity for the Lorberg family that is complimenting their farm income. Jeff Lorberg, his father, John, and his son, Tyler now have a business installing tile outlet systems for other farmers in southeast Missouri. The name of their business is JJT Tiling, LLC.

Lorberg purchased a self-leveling laser guided plow that digs the trench, installs the tile and backfills in one pass. He said when they purchased the plow they did not even own a tractor that could pull it. A friend loaned them a tractor and an operator who helped them install the first 15 acres of tile on their farm.

"We took a gamble and bought that expensive equipment," John Lorberg said.

Once their tile outlet system was in place, it did not take long for their neighbors to begin asking questions. The dramatic increase in corn yield, 75 bushels per acre increase the first year, caught everyone's attention.

"The business just fell in place after that time," Jeff Lorberg said.

"There was a lot of talk with the neighbors and in the community about what was going on here," Lorberg said. "It was the first time we had consistently broken the 200 bushel per acre yield level."

It helped that there was a cost-share program in place, in the Hubbell Creek Watershed, that would reimburse farmers 75 percent for their type of work. Lorberg said it also helped that they were the only people in about a 200 miles radius that had the equipment and experience to do the job.

Lorberg can install about 10 to 15 acres of tile in a single day. He said the tile system could be installed just about any time of the year, as long as weather permits.

"Very few people are willing to leave land idle in the summer months to install these systems," he said. "Summer is the best time, but we do most of the work in the spring or fall when we have everything else to do on our own farm."

The tile outlet system has improved yields on their farm and developed into a farm-based business for the Lorberg family.

Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com.

11/26/07
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Date: 11/21/07

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