Outstanding in their field

Heins family recognized for conservation practices

BY GRACE JEURISSEN | STAFF WRITER

ALTURA – What started in 2015 as 20 acres and a vision, has now turned into a continuous opportunity to learn and experiment with land, crops and cattle rotation.

Eric and Michelle Heins and their three children, Brayden, Adelyn and Grayson, run Hoosier Ridge Ranch near Altura in Wabasha County.

Their ranch is based on rotationally grazing their herd of 25 Normande beef cows, creating a 100% grass-fed market animal for butcher. They also offer custom grazing during the growing season and manage the custom grazing herds separate. They run a total of 350 acres.

“Our ultimate goal is to graze nearly every square inch of the acreage we run, including the wooded areas, to help minimize inputs,” Eric Heins said. “We can feed cattle using the pastures and crop residue, sell their meat to customers, all while adding valuable nutrients back into the soil.”

From the beginning of their farming venture, the Heinses knew they wanted to rotationally graze and find a niche in the grass-fed beef market. Their efforts earned them the 2022 Outstanding Conservationist Award for the Southeast region of Minnesota. Needing some guidance on fencing, pastures and water line/management in the beginning, they sought help from their local Natural Resource Conservation Service. The NRCS helped them get started on their venture, and they have continued to learn from, and grow, their operation.

Now, nearly 8 years after they started their farm, the Heins family accepted the conserva- tionist award Dec. 14 in Bloomington during the 86th Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts’ annual meeting.

They were among eight farms to be recognized statewide. The award recognizes farms and people for their accomplishments with implementing conservation practices and improving the land around them. The Heinses were nominated by Terri Peters, manager of the Wabasha Soil and Water Conservation District.

“We haven’t been doing this very long, so we felt surprised that we were nominated for the award,” Eric

Heins said. “It’s an honor to be recognized for what we are trying to achieve.”

The Heins family centers its operation on the Normande beef cows they pasture yearround, only bringing them into the barn for wind protection during extreme winter weather and for annual herd health and maintenance checks.

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Heins from front

“Our ultimate goal is to be as efficient as possible,”Heins said. “Rotating our herd between paddocks takes about 15 minutes every few days.”

During summer months, cattle are rotated between green pastures. Following fall harvest, the herd grazes crop residue until there is no longer sufficient feed for them to forage. From there they are fed bales out on the fields that will be planted in grains the following spring.

Rotating the cattle on fields during the winter means less manure handling for the Heinses. By the end of winter, Heins said there is a small compost manure pile they have to handle, which eventually gets spread on the fields for fertilizer.

Heins is working to analyze approximately how much manure the cows are creating each day on the fields that will be planted in the spring. The total manure can be calculated to find out how much nitrogen and other nutrients were added to the soil over winter. Once spring planting starts, they can use that number to assess if additional nutrients need to be applied to the land to maximize the yield potential in the field.

The fields in which the cows are being wintered were on a conventional corn and soybean rotation before the Heinses started renting it. Food grade oats were grown there in 2022 followed by a cover crop for fall grazing. In the future they plan to add different crops to the rotation.

“We are looking into adding a few small grain crops into our operation,” Heins said. “Last year we planted food-grade oats on one of the fields.”

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Heins

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Heins said foodgrade oats is not a common crop for the area they are in; most farms plant on a corn and soybean rotation, something they don’t have the equipment to do.

“Right now we have to custom hire the corn and soybean fields,” Heins said. “We would like to plant some additional acreage into kernza and try canola because it works really well with how we want to graze our cattle on the crop residues.” eyes. ed some beef At Hoosier Ridge Ranch May pastures turity. high-quality grasses cows that are demand gy. possible,” Heins said. “All our cattle calve on pasture where they are relaxed and calm. This way we don’t need additional barn space to do so.”

Their herd of Normande beef are a hardy breed, dual purpose and exceptional grazers, Heins said. The Normande cattle breed is recognizable by the circles of color around their eyes. The Heinses wanted to branch away from some of the traditional beef breeds.

Ranch cows calve in May and June when the pastures at their best maturity. They utilize the high-quality pasture grasses when the cows calve because that is when they are at their highest demand for energy.

According to the North American Normande Association, Normande beef originated crossbr an produce mande high-qu adaptab materna in the Normandy region of France and are presently used in a variety of crossbreeding programs in dairy and beef herds. Beef producers that raise Normande cattle enjoy their high-quality carcasses, adaptability to climates, maternal instincts and ficiency. grow in popularity in the near future. work with nature as much as

Over the years, they have fine-tuned their operation, expanded, and, in 2020, built a homestead on 80 acres they purchased. This is where they built a new barn for managing their herd and a new house for their family.

“We try to work nature much

Customers of Hoosier Ridge Ranch can purchase hamburger, cuts, quarters, halves or whole carcasses. All of the cattle raised for market at the farm are processed at Dover Processing.

“We give every firsttime customer of ours a book on how to cook grass-fed beef,” Heins said. “Grass-fed beef is leaner than a traditionally raised feedlot animal. Low and slow is the trick to enhance the true flavor of the

Cu R hambur es. All mar process cessing “W c grass-fe “ leaner t f slo th meat.”

“I like to joke that this is my retirement plan,” Heins said. “In reality, I’m being serious because in the future I want to be farming full-time. This is something that keeps me busy and feels fulfilling.”

On th egg chicken pasture ho

On top of grass-fed beef, the Heinses are raising egg-laying and meat chickens, also raised on pasture. It is something they hope will continue to f