South Dakota Soybean Stories: The Greenways

This year, we met with Brent and Mollie Greenway to talk about their operation near Mitchell, South Dakota, where their main focus is sustainability and animal care.

Sustainable practices are prevalent in the Greenway family operation. When Brent and Mollie started taking over more responsibility on the farm, they knew it was important to bring soy and sustainability into everything they do on their operation. 

“With sustainability, something that we tend to overlook on the cattle side of things, is that cattle are using pasture land that would otherwise not be able to be used for something else.”

From growing soybeans, grinding soybeans into meal for their pig crop, and using the pig manure as fertilizer for next year’s crop; every practice has a purpose and benefits another element of the farm. 

“Animal husbandry to me means taking care of our animals to the absolute best of our abilities.”

Recent technology advancements the Greenways are implementing with their modern confinement building, sends an alert if there’s a future trouble to address or current emergency.

“We’ve invested in modern technology that has safe guards with it. If a fan were to happen to quit and it would get too hot; or the barn would run out of feed; it alerts us that an issue might be coming up, or there’s an emergency that needs to be addressed right away.”

The Greenway operation has been in the family for four-generations and will be recognized as a centennial farm in the next ten years.