31/07/2025
We have some big news to share!
This week marks Jake’s last week at Middle J Farms. This is a shift that we’ve been planning for since last fall, and have thus taken the time to really secure a smooth transition.
Jake and his wife have both been incredibly blessed to be working on their separate family farms. In 2024 they welcomed their first child to the world, and as they continue to grow their family, they’ve made a tough decision and decided the best thing for their family’s future would be to build a farm together. While Jake will be greatly missed at Middle J, we are beyond excited for his family’s future and what they will build!
As we embrace this change, we’d like to take a minute to reflect on the success story of Middle J Farms that Jake and Quade have so proudly built together.
We didn’t grow up on a farm. As kids, we worked for neighboring farms but we were never in a position to take over a family farm. We both went to college to pursue careers, but in 2017 everything changed. Our uncle Darren in Burlington gave us the incredible opportunity to lease 827 acres of ground with him and rent his equipment. That year we learned so much from our uncle, and we produced some outstanding dryland yields – 155 bu/ac corn and 63 bu/ac millet! This put us in the perfect position to go out on our own.
In 2018 we moved home, where we began leasing 316 acres from our parents while also working full time - Jake for the Kalcevic’s and Quade for the Epple’s. Over the next year we began leasing more ground from our cousin and our first dryland wheat crop averaged 91 bu/ac. It was at this point that we realized we were meant to be doing what we were doing. Our first three crops had been record yields, and we felt this to be a sign that the man upstairs was telling us to keep going.
By 2020 we had grown too big to just be weekend farmers. Quade left his job at Epple’s and became full time Middle J. In 2021 Jake followed suit. We purchased two used combines and started the custom work side of our farm - offering custom harvesting, planting, tillage, and trucking to anybody that would call. We advertised on Facebook, newspapers, magazines, and had flyers in every local business. We even had advertisement banners in our fields along busier highways. In that first year we completed several thousand acres of custom work.
Fast forward to 2022 and once again, everything changed. That February we secured a lease on 4500 acres of ground. This was huge. At the time we were only farming 4500 acres, so with the signature of a pen our farm doubled in size. We knew we had to make changes to handle the increase in acres. Over the next 4 weeks we sold our combines, our headers, our sprayer, a truck and a tractor, and we replaced them all with newer, bigger, and better models. We hired our first employee, Weston, and our mom resigned from her position at the local school (after 20 years of service) to come work with us.
The next two years were anything but easy. The new ground was in rough condition, and we ran ourselves ragged whipping it into shape while also handling the acres we already had and continuing our custom work. But that time was well spent, as the ground is now nearly unrecognizable compared to the state it was in just three years ago. You know this ground now as our Arapahoe County farm.
Today, we farm 11,000 acres and maintain a strong custom business. We employ two full time employees and a third during harvest. We implement the latest precision technology and have adapted sustainable practices such as the use of biologicals for nutrient management. We’ve established crop rotations and chemical plans that have made night and day differences in w**d control. And we attend conferences across the country where we continue to learn and adapt new practices.
If at any point you had asked us if we ever saw ourselves being where we are today, the answers would have been no. Hell no. We didn’t think it was possible - but we’ve proven it to be. We’ve poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this operation, and we are eternally grateful to those who have played a part in our journey.
As we step into this next chapter, we are excited to see both Middle J and Jake’s new farm continue to grow and to prosper.
We wish Jake the best of luck, and cheers to the past nine seasons of Middle J Farms!
