Posted: 10/3/06
Deters earn conservation award
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Common sense.
Thatís one of the many things that makes Howard Deters tick.
Throw in a love of nature, respect for the land, and an adventurous farm spirit and you start to get a feel for this Spring Grove farmer. Deters is the 2006 Root River Soil and Water Conservation Districtís Outstanding Conservationist Award.
His credentials are impressive, as the sidebar that accompanies this story shows. His improvements run the gamut of good farming, from waterways and ponds to woodlots and native grasses.
A visit with him and his wife, Mary, and tour of their land will tell you even more.
Like that common sense. Howardís dad, Albert Frank Deters, had it, Mary said during a visit on a beautiful September 25 afternoon. said. So did Howardís grandfather, Albert Walter Deters. Grandpa Deters bought the farm in section nine of Spring Grove Township in 1928, and a few years later was putting in contour strips. That was an innovative practice at the time, and there was a big push to do that, Howard said.
Many farmers will plant right next to the woods, Howard said. But that corn wonít be good. ìIt looks nice but it isnít,î he said.
So why not leave a 50-foot strip? It will help the quail population - Howard had been to a quail meeting the night before -and your profitability will go up.
Same with plowing up potholes. Youíll get about one good crop out of five. ìYouíre throwing away your profits for the acres that arenít in the pothole,î Howard said. So why not leave it? Common sense.
ìWe owe something back,î Howard said. ìWeíre using the land.î
Howard Deters knows his land. He was born and raised in the house in which we sat. How he uses the land now centers on prairie grasses and flowers. Big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, prairie dropseed, sideoats grama are some of his main crops. There are legumes too, like purple prairie clover, white prairie clover, Canada milk vetch, and white false indigo.
They are part of a business that Howard co-owns with Jim Hunzeker called Shooting Star Native Seed. The headquarters are located at the intersection of Highway 44 and County Road 33, a mile west of Spring Grove.
It started back in 1988 with seeds that Howard and Hunzeker collected by hand. First they planted small plots, an acre or two. The plots increased in size as they figured out how to harvest them. Shooting Star sold seeds to individuals and to seed companies.
They moved into mixes that could be used for land reclamation with agencies like the Minnesota Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the CRP program.
It gradually grew to become a major supplier of native grass and wild flower seed throughout the upper Midwest. It now has 600 acres of native grasses and wildflowers in field production.
Lots of fun
ìThis is the most fun Iíve ever had,î Howard said.
He spends an hour or two at the plant doing seed and Sodko business.
Sodko is a sod-raising and landscaping business which Howard started in 1978 with Hunzeker, who now runs Sodko.
After that, Howard does conventional farm work like planting, spraying, and harvesting. He prefers that part of the business.
Itís the same as a regular farm, he said, except they are raising a specialty crop.
ìThat takes a little closer watch than farm stuff,î he said. He paused, then added with a laugh, ìNobody else has got a clue.î
The fields are monocultures. For example, there are 100 acres of big bluestem and 100 acres of sideoats grama. They can be pretty sights when they are in bloom, Mary said.
Sometimes people will stop and ask them what the crop is. Take a drive north of Highway 44 on County Road 33 to see them, or look for them west of the Skyline Supper Club on Highway 44.
Howard likes the conservation angle of the crops. ìSome of these things, weíve got fields we seeded in 1990 that we havenít reseeded,î he said.
Mary thinks they have more songbirds because of the crops.
Another thing they both like tat is a big part of their beautiful farm yard: a pond. It was another common sense move. The spot had been a 10-acre livestock area that had a spring flowing through it.
The spring would sometime freeze in the culvert under the driveway, causing it to heave and collapse. Sometimes water would flow over the driveway.
So the Deters raised the driveway, and had a draw-down culvert system built. It dammed up the spring, creating an 11í deep pond that is about an acre in size.
Itís a great draw for waterfowl and wildlife, and holds rainbow trout that some neighbors and their kids go fishing for. Howard has to pump water for his livestock now, but he and Mary would not trade the pond for anything.
Howard and Mary have three children. Their daughter Rachel and her husband, Mark Udstuen, live in a house next door with their two children, Jonah and Benjamin. ì[Itís] A real bonus to have them this close,î Mary said as we watched them walk past the kitchen window. Jonah was on his way to check out a tractor.
Rachel and Mary also work together at Spring Grove High School Jane is the curriculum director, and Mary teaches Latin part-time. Mark is the manager of Shooting Star Native Seed.
Mary and Howardís other children are daughter Jane and her husband, Jim Tuomi, who live in Anchorage, Alaska; and daughter Emily and husband Randy Pollard, who live in Rochester.
Mary, whose maiden name is Henzler, describes her role on the farm as playing devilís advocate and talking through ideas. ìI guess Iím just more of a listener,î she said. She grew up in Iowa, about seven miles south of their present farm.
After our interview, Howard took me to a field where Gerald Oakes was harvesting Canada wild rye. He drove a New Holland combine that was fitted with a special head for harvesting the grass seeds. Deters owns three combines.
Then we drove a mile southeast to the processing plant and storage facility on Highway 44. It has several rooms. A loading area holds bags of seeds waiting to be sold. One room has opened bags used for filling orders. Another has shelves stacked with dozens of plastic bins, each filled with a different kind of seed. Two big chest freezers hold more seeds.
In the middle of all this is an array of shaking, clattering, blowing machines that start with raw seeds and end up the finished product.
The plant was originally set up to clean vetch by Calvin Ernst, who operated Ernst Conservation Seeds in 1997-1998. Three shifts of workers work at the plant.
A good steward
Here is how Howard Deters is described in the nomination form for Conservationist of the Year: ìWhen someone mentions the word ëconservationist,í you automatically think of someone who is a good steward of the land, a wildlife enthusiast, a ëvisionaryí of the future, and someone who puts all these traits into action. Howard Deters fits this definition quite well. He cares for the land he owns as well as the land he operates. Heís made wildlife habitat common place with his farming and business operations. Heís been instrumental in helping native grass prairie gain a foot-hold once again and heís shown us all how it ties together on the land.î
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