DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) -- A Mason jar of northern Alabama red dirt is Stuart Sanderson's favorite prop when he speaks to farming audiences. "Imagine a landscape picture of Mars, and there's a remarkable resemblance to our fields in the winter," said Sanderson.

"I've had farmers from other areas shake their heads and say there's no way that stuff should be called soil, let alone grow a corn crop," Sanderson said, acknowledging that dirt is still an acceptable term around these parts.

But boy howdy, can Sanderson and his farming partners grow crops! Henderson Farms, of which Sanderson is a partner, has garnered more than 80 corn, soybean and wheat yield contest awards from these Tennessee River Valley fields.

The team uses extensive on-farm testing to fine-tune production systems aimed at building soil organic matter while holding expensive inputs, such as nitrogen, to below-average use ratios. Aggressive grain marketing and inventory control through grain storage and sales to specialty grain customers are other pieces of the Henderson Farms story.

This crop season, readers will get a chance to learn more about Sanderson and the farm operations through DTN's View From the Cab feature. The diary-like news series covers current crop conditions and top-of-mind rural issues each week.

Welcome to the 21st year for the View From the Cab series, but the first year for an Alabama farmer to participate. Also reporting in on the project this year will be Ethan Zoerb, a corn and soybean farmer from Litchfield, Nebraska. Watch for a profile on his operation next week.

ALABAMA FARM ROOTS

Stuart's great-grandfather purchased the farm based near Madison in 1909, but as the story goes, a moonshine enterprise temporarily threatened the legacy. When Stuart's grandfather returned to the farm after World War II, he convinced bankers to stick with the family. Stuart's uncle, Mike Henderson, eventually stepped in as the third generation to keep things growing.

Today, Mike is the patriarch of the current operation and works in partnership with Stuart and Chad Henderson (Mike's son and Stuart's cousin), the fourth generation. Members of a fifth farming generation already have their boots dirty. Jackson, Chad's son, works at the farm full time. Stuart's son, Spencer, is a college student and pitches in when available.

Farming wasn't Stuart Sanderson's initial career plan. A graduate of the University of Alabama with a degree in business and marketing, he left for college knowing there was no space available at the family farm. "About time I was ready to graduate, my grandfather announced he was ready to step out and really wanted me to come back," he recalled.

NO REGRETS

That decision has proven good for him and the farm. College coursework in finance, management and marketing left him a strategic thinker and over the years, the farm has grown in new directions.

Henderson Farms stretches across Limestone, Madison and Morgan counties, which are all part of the Huntsville Metropolitan Area in north Alabama just south of the Tennessee state line. The area is rich with new business ventures, and that creates issues as land gets gobbled up for development. However, proximity to urban infrastructure and specialty markets such as high-end flour mills, pet food manufacturers and poultry feeders has also created opportunity.

"We've grown from the original 240-acre home place to more than 9,000 acres over the generations," Sanderson said. Included in that change has been leaving cotton behind to focus primarily on corn, soybeans and wheat.

These are grain customers with exacting quality standards that value dependable suppliers. Being able to store a crop for long stretches and keep it in condition can pay off. To capture those chances, the farm has built the equivalent of a commercial storage facility with the capacity of loading out 55 semitrucks per day.

"If I had to pick one thing that I specifically do for this farm, it is marketing. One of the keys to being a successful businessman or woman in agriculture today is controlling the things we can control," he noted.

"We can't control the weather or natural disasters, but we can mitigate those things by knowing what profit levels are for our operation and making sure we lock those in.

"I love the technical aspects of grain marketing. Getting the crop in the ground and up and growing is central to what we do, but it is risk management through marketing that is essential to keep the farm financially healthy," he said.

TO THE FIELD

Even the most avid marketer wants to get away from the desk for an actual view from the cab occasionally. "It's therapy for me to head to the field, and I'm often there during peak season," he said.

Chad leads agronomy and field operations, and the season heats up fast. The planting window can be as early as March 10, but typically dryland corn is planted between March 20-25, followed by irrigated corn up to about April 10. Temperatures can jump to 90 degrees Fahrenheit as early as mid-April. "We want corn pollinated by July 4," Sanderson said.

Soybean yields consistently bump 100 bushel per acre (bpa). They've hit 90 bpa double-crop soybeans after hard red winter wheat, which can yield 90 to 100 bpa. With average rainfall (56 inches per year), dryland corn averages 250 to 255 bpa. About 25% of the acres are irrigated, and 300 to 315 bpa is considered a good yield under water. Contest acres supplied with all the groceries have topped 355 bpa.

The soil is sticky, sandy clay with 6 to 10 cation-exchange capacity (CEC) and topsoil that may be no more than 6 inches deep. Back in the days when cotton was king, soil organic matter might run from 0.5% to 0.75%. More recent rotations of corn, soybeans and wheat have added valuable residue and gradually built the soil profile back to 2.2% to 3.2% organic matter.

"We've learned how to micromanage nutrients," Sanderson said. "Because we have fairly low CEC levels, we can move nutrients fairly well."

Depending on the parcel, the ground might be conventionally tilled or strip tilled. In recent years, they've moved mostly to an all-liquid diet for corn that includes some in-furrow, some 2-by-2 placement and a final in-season slurp through Y-drops. Sap testing helps determine fertility needs.

"We are working hard to be efficient by giving the plant what it needs to make it go, but people are often surprised at our low average nitrogen unit-to-bushel ratio. For example, two years ago, we had a 300-acre dryland field that averaged 268 bushels on an average of 0.6 units of nitrogen per bushel of grain. We've hit 350-bushel corn yields with 0.8 units of nitrogen per bushel," he said.

"I like to tell people that we farm almost hydroponically. We can get a 3-inch rain and be back in the field in three days. We can't hold water," he said.

"We just keep tinkering to see what we can do. For example, we have found we can make 250-bushel dryland corn yields by dropping 22,000 seeds per acre. To save on seed costs, we've started backing off population and selecting hybrids that flex," he explained.

So far, the 2025 season is rolling along well, Sanderson said. By April 24, about 90% of the farm's corn crop was planted and showing near-perfect emergence. Soybeans are also off to a good start.

The farm team also planted 100 acres of on-farm corn and soybean plots testing row spacings, population densities and micronutrient/fertility packages.

On Henderson Farms, playing in the red dirt is serious business.

For a DTN story about the Henderson Farms planter setup go to:

https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Find the 2025 introduction to View From the Cab here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @PamSmithDTN

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