In a two-story white house in the country near Milford, Nebraska you’ll find them – baby Bo and a toddler named Sterling, along with their parents, Joe and Megan Burkey.
Around them, you will find a farm that this young couple has dreams for and that hasn’t been easy to keep. But the Burkeys are determined because of their trust in God, their focus on soil health, and belief in each other.
Years ago, you would have seen young Joe running to be by his father’s side on this same farm – the same farm where his great-grandfather raised a family.
Family and making an honest living have always been the center of life on this farm.
“Yes, I grew up right here,” Joe said.
He was the youngest of three kids and was homeschooled. His dad started farming in the late 1970s, running a small farm and farrow-to-finish hog operation.”
While Joe was still young at his father’s side, the market crashed and his dad got out of the hog business in the mid-1990s.
“He sold his hogs right before the market crashed – his last load of fats,” Joe said. “It was a bad deal, a really tough time. The hogs were making the farm go and they fed the hogs 100% of what they raised.”
The next five years were tough, but Joe’s parents knew very well how to be wise with their money.
“My mom was very frugal,” Joe said. “I remember one story that the banker was so impressed with her one year because she had only spent $50 that year on clothes for the kids. I had a bunch of older cousins, and we got hand-me-down stuff. We just made do with what we had.”
They made do and it was a good life, Joe said – so good that he couldn’t get enough of the farm.
“I always remember that I had to be out there in the tractor with Grandpa and Dad,” he said. “One day we were cutting silage for grandpa’s cows, and I got to go out with him in the chopping tractor. We ate lunch with them, and Mom said I should go out and ride. Then it came time to go, and I was so ticked because I was not ready to go.”
Later in life, Joe would meet a young woman equally as determined to make a farm go. Megan grew up on an acreage east of Seward and originally thought she wanted to be a large animal veterinarian.
“Both my grandparents farmed and had livestock, and that helped shape my decision,” she said.
Megan started at Southeast Community College in Beatrice and ended up with an associate’s degree in livestock management. She interned with Hollman Angus, where she learned a lot about cattle and building fence, she said. Then she transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to pursue a degree in animal science.
“I ended up with a business degree instead because the science classes were far too challenging,” Megan said.
Joe and Megan met when she was working at a bank in the area to help pay for her schooling. The couple’s passion for all things rural connected them immediately, and they were married in April 2019.
Joe had earned a degree from Southeast Community College in Milford and continues to work as a toolmaker at Hughes Brothers in Seward.
Back in 2020, the couple also began the journey of purchasing 120 acres of the family land that was divided after Joe’s grandparents passed away.
“When I was 18, I started working for my dad and they paid me a wage. We agreed I would do the labor and dad would provide the equipment because he was tired of farming after 30 years of it,” Joe said. “I came along and was obsessed with the farming, so it all worked out pretty well.”
Even during college, Joe had those same passionate feelings about farming he had as a young boy. They got the better of him when he came home from college to study for tests.
“It was corn harvest time, and back then we hired a neighbor to combine for us,” Joe said. “When the combine pulled in, I couldn’t focus. Mom told me, ‘Go ahead and go help them.’”
He’s grateful his dad wanted him to take over and he’s not the type to be constantly looking over his shoulder, Joe said. He’s there to help, and a couple years ago was asked to pitch in for corn harvest.
“That was really fun because that was the first time since the early 2000s we had helped each other,” Joe said.
Today the Burkeys farm corn, soybeans and have a small-scale hay and cattle operation. They caught the soil health bug, too, and Joe began researching all sorts of resources online.
“We want to be good stewards of this farm and feel like we have been very blessed with the opportunity,” he said.
Megan got him some soil books for Christmas, but knowing you can only learn so much from books and the internet, she encouraged him to take a day off last summer and attend a soil health seminar. That event was the first Graze Master Group workshop to be held in Seward County.
“We were able to see what we had been learning about actually working in other people’s fields,” Megan said.
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Joe found the event informative and helpful in providing some perspective. He was also encouraged that he could make his small farm work.
“I thought that if I didn’t farm thousands of acres, it may be tough to make it, but the event made me start to think differently,” he said.
I started thinking of ways he could add value to what they were already doing.
“I had accepted the fact that I couldn’t compete with the big guys, and I really don’t want to either,” he said.
Last Christmas, Megan had another gift idea for her husband. This time she reached out to the Graze Master Group to see if Del Ficke, co-founder of the group and owner and manager of Ficke Cattle Company, could come out and give them some direction. Ficke agreed brought along his new consulting partner, Vance McCoy of Triple Creek Cover Crops. Megan was enthusiastic about the additional set of eyes and surprised her husband who was equally excited to sit down with the two men.
Joe’s dad had started no-tilling back in the early 2000s, so they were already on the right course when it comes to soil health.
“He kind of raised some eyebrows back then with some neighbors, but the no-till has worked out,” Joe said.
The Burkeys wanted to go further though and try cover crops and some different inputs. They talked about changing their approach to fertilizer. The Graze Master consultants recommended going from using anhydrous to liquid nitrogen.
“They had a lot of suggestions about how to be creative with what we are doing,” Joe said.
They also talked about how Megan could add some supplemental income to the farm. She started a YouTube channel and always wanted to make that a part of their income someday. Ficke and McCoy suggested planting pollinator strips and having people come out and pick flowers.
“We have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of options out there,” Megan said.
The couple also wants to expand their cattle herd. They raise enough for the family now, but they both agree there is room to grow.
The Graze Master team encouraged them to focus on building a healthy farm with healthy soil, taking growth incrementally, and not worrying about an organic label.
“It was all very good reassurance and very helpful having someone else’s perspective,” Megan said.
With new ideas on the table and the ongoing support of their new friends at Graze Master Group, the couple is confident about the future. Joe will continue working his full-time job and will keep the farm going with Megan’s help as farm partner and full-time mom. As their children grow, they will keep broadening their goals. They both said their biggest dream for the farm is that their sons can have an opportunity there if they want to pursue agriculture as a career.
“We have a budget,” Joe said, hearkening back to the frugal skills he learned from both his parents. “Every week Megan and I have an impromptu ‘business meeting’ to go through everything and to see where we are at for the month. Working at the bank also really helped Megan know how to handle a lot of the financial issues.”
They used to hire out their harvesting because they didn’t own a combine, but Megan knew Joe would want to do the job himself. Then one Sunday at church, a neighbor from a couple miles away asked if they wanted to buy his and gave them a good deal.
“Those moments remind me we’re supposed to be here, and we’re supposed to be doing this,” Megan said.
“God has been so good to us through all of this. From the very beginning we have been blessed, ever since Joe got to start leading the farm early because of his dad and even when we went to the bank to sign up for our loan, we were able to get one of the lowest fixed rates Farm Credit Services has ever given out.
“I have always thought moments like that were divine intervention.”
Ficke and McCoy agree the Burkeys make for a wonderful farm family with just the right foundation in their hearts and minds to make it work.
“The Burkeys are a great young family who desire to build a legacy,” McCoy said. “I am excited to be a small part of what they are doing.”
McCoy loves watching their YouTube videos, seeing the work they are doing, and how they interact as a family. Small farms like theirs have opportunities that big farms sometimes miss, he said, like repairing their own tractor at home with toddlers running around in the shop, and so many other things that can be taken for granted, he said.
Ficke also shared encouraging words about the couple.
“I love finding hidden gems and to help people discover they have way more opportunities than they think,” he said. “It’s refreshing to be around a young couple with ears and eyes wide open, which is your first pillar of success to building a strong foundation.”
Little ears and eyes are wide open on the Burkey farm, too, as little Bo and Sterling watch their parents work hard to build the soil and a healthy and fruitful life for them as they grow older.
“You have to be willing to put the work in, and it’s worth it,” Megan said, holding Bo at the kitchen table. “They are worth it.”
Joe added, “And we don’t want to be afraid to try new things.”
“The fact we’re on this farm is not by chance,” Megan relayed faithfully. “If we can pay our bills and survive another year, God still wants us here.”