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Farmer/banker still puts farming firstBy Larry Dreiling Despite his presidency of a bank that has grown tenfold in a dozen years, Alan States remains a farmer at heart. States, president of the First National Bank of Hays and Plainville, Kan., maintains a residence at his farm near Logan, Kan., nearly an hour away from Hays. His farmstead is well lived-in and comfortable, with a round top and grain bins just across the road. The States family has been farming and ranching in the Logan area since 1878. The operation now totals about 6,000 acres, most of it rented. States takes care of most of the operation himself, using limited hired workers and planting all of his crops in no-till to reduce long-term costs and increase production in moisture-limited growing seasons. "I grew up on the farming side of the operation," States said. "My uncle's family had the cattle. When I came back from the service, I evolved into a farmer." States recalls coming home from military service the very day, in July 1972, the Nixon administration announced the beginning of three years of wheat sales to the Soviet Union. States, an agricultural economics graduate of Kansas State University, served a year in Vietnam and returned home with the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army. "I had $10,000 in my pocket. I used it as a down payment on 400 acres and bought some more land on contract. If I had done all that in 1979, a few years later, it would have broken me." Renting as costs escalate As he began to make some money in farming, States began renting additional land. He would also attend area sales of farmland. But his efforts to purchase were thwarted because of escalating land costs, brought on by the Russian wheat deal and calls to plant fencerow to fencerow. "I would often question my judgment, at land sales in the late 70s, about purchasing land," States said. "My closing top would always be opening bid. Then the bust came. I had something in reserve and wasn't overly in debt. I was making my payments, most of which were fixed rate. I didn't go through that period leveraged to the hilt." States, who acquired a bank in a foreclosure, recalls acquiring a large amount of rental land through his local bank. "I got to the point where I had rented about 1,000 acres when the bank in Logan asked if I'd custom farm some land for them," States said. "I told them no, because I would take care of my land first and they wouldn't be happy. Eventually they came back and had me share crop it. In one day, I doubled the size of my operation. I've never been aggressive in buying land. "A big chunk of this farm is rented, mostly cash rent rather than shares because landlords these days are shocked at the size of chemical and fertilizer bills. It's a lot easier to protect them with cash rent." Giving no-till a try States said he began experimenting with no-till in 1977, planting a half-section of milo directly into some stubble. "I sprayed some atrazine on it first and planted it. It worked. So, the next year, I bought a Buffalo slot planter. That was in the days of wheat, sorghum and fallow. I did that for a while. It's what most of us out here could only do under no-till, back then. "The problem was in not having the equipment. We had to wait for the technology to catch up with the farmer's imagination." Then came the John Deere 750 series planters, which States said was a revolution in the industry. It allowed him to do much of his planting labor himself. "The bad part about no-till was that, out here, we had to really wait on the equipment to fit our needs. When you really get down to it, it's only been a decade that we've been doing no-till, though we worked with it long before then." Today, under no-till, States runs an operation that is planted one-third corn, wheat, and soybeans each. States admits he's pushing his land. "The problem is in getting wheat in a timely manner following beans," States said. "This year we are sort of in a wheat-wheat-corn-bean-corn-bean rotation. Next year, it will be wheat, corn, beans and forget the stacked wheat. That's really pushing it." A big test is ahead After six years of drought, States celebrated his more than satisfactory wheat harvest of 2007 last month. His crop averaged 44 bushels per acre. "We made some mistakes with our wheat," States said. "We overstayed our Jagalene. We saved some out from last year and it lost its rust resistance. It taught us to buy more certified seed." After abundant spring rains, States said his fall crops can always use some moisture to build on this crop and, because of no-till crops yet to come. "This year will be a big test," States said. "We are going to see if no-till and spring rains conserved any moisture and see how long our fall crops will survive without rain. They can use a drink." When you get down to it, States also has taken on a temporary expansion of his operation. "My current tillable acreage is 7,000 acres. I've been taking care of some land that belonged to my brother, who died last year," States said. "His kids are getting out of high school soon and will be taking that work; so I'll be back to 6,000 acres fairly soon." States said he looks back on all his work, since returning to farm, in amazement. From soldier to farmer to policy advocate to bank executive and community leader, he said he can't believe he's done what he's done. "Through all this time of boom and bust and boom and bust and maybe boom again, we managed to make money," States said. "With marketing, good insurance, getting a yield when we can, we've done it." Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.
Date: 1/8/08
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