Kastens Farms

03/22/2026

02/18/2026

Thank you from the Kastens Farm
We are humbled by the immense community support in helping extinguish a fire that began on our land northwest of Herndon on February 17. Surrounding county fire departments came to the aid of our own Rawlins County Fire & Rescue groups. Each of those numerous volunteer fire fighters dropped what they had intended to do that afternoon to come to the aid of folks they knew only as neighbors. Farmers came from miles around to provide tractors, equipment, and water tanks to aid the process. Our county’s emergency preparedness group immediately set up a rescue location in Atwood for those Herndon residents who knew little about the fire’s size or exact location, only that their lives might be in danger if the fire made it to their town. Local citizens provided food and transportation for those heeding Herndon’s evacuation notice. Thankfully, we live in a rural community where so many people are so willing to aid each other in a time of crisis. And, thankfully, the fire was contained before it reached Herndon. Our community is truly one where love thy neighbor is not something folks wear only on their sleeves.

From the bottom of our hearts, Thank You from the Kastens Farm!

05/02/2017

Interesting research by researchers Jude Kastens and Chris Brown using MODIS satellite data looking at the impacts of the 2006 Soy Moratorium on trends in Moto Grosso Brazil . FYI Jude is my brother

https://news.ku.edu/2017/04/24/unique-data-researchers-track-impact-brazils-soy-moratorium-advancing-agricultural

05/01/2017

The storm began in earnest on Saturday April 29th and we recorded exclusively rain on this day. On Sunday morning the snow began to fall and the winds picked up. In Atwood, we ended with with 10.5" of snow while Gary Kastens reported 12" for the farm. Well over 2" of moisture was gladly received, but we'll have to wait to see the wheat damage before we know what that moisture cost us.

03/29/2017

Spring Activities on the farm. We've had a busy spring again in 2017. Warm, dry conditions allowed us to get a lot of repair/upkeep tasks accomplished like fixing gully's, rebuilding trail roads, and pulling old fence lines out. We started spraying in late February already and we started planting yellow peas on March 7th, and finished on March 20th. We had a good run but it was really cold most of the operation. In fact we got snowed out for most of one day during planting. With peas in the ground, we turn our efforts towards corn planting that will begin in about 20 days.

01/27/2017

Excellent article on where food preference seems to be heading at the consumer level.

http://www.chsinc.com/our-company/news-and-media/news/2017/01/20/future-of-food

06/15/2016

KSU Spring Crop Plot tour North of Atwood.

Rawlins County, Friday, June 17 at 8 a.m.

Field pea seeding rate study and variety performance test with 18 entries
Lentil variety and seeding rate study
Demonstration strips of flax, Austrian winter pea, faba beans, and spring forage pea
Directions: From the intersection of Hwy US 36 and K-25 in Atwood go 6 miles north on K-25, 1 ½ miles east on Road X, South 1 ¼ miles on Road 22. Refreshments provided.

https://www.facebook.com/NWKSAgronomy/

Serving 29 counties in Northwest and North Central Kansas with applied research and extension in crops, range, and soils to improve the productivity and profitability of our agriculture industry.

06/06/2016

Good reference material from KSU on fungicides for next year.

We're often peppered with questions and misinformation about curative vs. preventative and residual life of fungicides. All fungicides are best used as a preventative, you cannot turn dead tissue green. Also, all fungicides rated as excellent for stripe rust generally have at least a 21 day residual. That gets us through the most critical part of grain fill.

04/21/2016

04/02/2016

Uncle Dennis Kastens requested some aerial shots of the bin facility. Winds were 20-25 mph during the capture with a DJI Phantom 3 this morning. For reference, the top of the loop is a about 80' above ground. (040216:DLK)

03/20/2016

BRRRR! Hard freeze last night measured 11.1 F at 6:25AM this morning at Kastens Grain weather station!

03/18/2016

Pea planting came about 10 days early due to warmer than average temperatures typical of El Nino winters. We plant yellow peas and this year planted these varieties: SW Midas, Salamanca, and Spyder. As a non-GMO crop, our peas often end up in the pet food sector, but we have seen some go into the human consumption sector as well. Peas are harvested at the same time as winter wheat and this is our eighth year growing yellow peas so I guess they are no longer a "new" crop for us. Peas are planted at a rate of roughly 3 bushels/ac and we put down 5 lbs/ac of granular inoculant at the same time so that the Pea plants can fix their own nitrogen.