Eternal optimism is one of the ties that bind that the family's farmers

TANGENT — In the Koos family, what goes around, comes around.

George "Kim" Koos, 58, and his brother, Kerwin Koos, 48, are the third generation to raise grass seed on the family farm in Tangent. They took over the work from their father, also named George, now 90. Kim's son, Dawsen, 31, has joined the effort, and Kerwin's son, Kaleb, 18, isn't far behind.

In many ways, the family patriarch, also named George Koos, wouldn't recognize his farm today. His grandsons and great-grandsons use tractors instead of horses and chemical fertilizer instead of manure. They pore over computer printouts and keep their cell phones handy.

But the Koos family has found some of Grandpa George's farming methods work as well or better than strategies today. They're bringing those methods back into fashion at the 89-year-old family farm.

The Koos family established its first farm in the Plainview area in the late 1880s. The elder George Koos was the younger brother of that family, so he moved up the road to Tangent about 1920 to start his own farm. Today, Kim and Kerwin travel to the farm to work, and their parents still live on the family home there.

In the old days, farmers would plant two crops — say, wheat and tall fescue — in the same field. That way, they'd have two cash crops at two different times while saving planting time.

Interplanting went out of fashion when farmers began specializing, worrying that one crop would rob the other of nutrients, water and space to grow. But the Koos family has decided to give it a try again this year by interplanting meadowfoam and tall fescue.

Old-time farmers knew you had to let fields rest from time to time to restore the soil's nutrients. Later farmers figured you could make up the difference with the right kind of fertilizer.

The Koos brothers prefer the old system. They rotate white clover into their fields of annual ryegrass, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue, which fixes nitrogen into the soil. They then harvest the clover seed to sell to other farmers who want to do the same.

"You can't grow the same crops forever in the same place," Kim Koos said.

Clover also provides pasture for sheep, and their constant nibbling helps produce more seeds. But while Grandpa George would have kept his own animals — maybe not sheep, but horses, pigs and chickens for family use — the Koos brothers go the modern route and rent their fields to others.

Grandpa would have had a deep sense of the land and the weather, the brothers agree. He would have known, almost by instinct, where to fertilize and how much, which places were too wet and which too dry.

The Koos brothers say they have developed much of that same sense — but they also rely on GPS locators coupled with yield maps. That allows them to show others where to go and what to do.

They also have a high-tech approach to fertilizing soggy fields. Where Grandpa and his horses would have just slogged along, Kerwin spreads fertilizer with a "Rubber Duck," a rig with rubber tires like oversized innertubes.

The ground is also drier, thanks to perforated plastic piping under the soil, which drains the extra moisture away.

A member of the water and soil conservation district, Grandpa George would have approved. He was a big conservationist, the brothers say, someone who understood the big-picture ecosystem.

He always put out water sources for pheasants and foxes, knowing they controlled bugs and smaller vermin that would get into crops, Kerwin said. That's something the brothers don't do, but Kerwin did plant fir trees as a visual barrier that also provides habitat for various critters.

One tradition all farmers in the Koos family will always share: eternal optimism. That's the only way to make it in the business, the brothers say.

"Spring's coming again. It is a life and death cycle," Kim said.

Added Kerwin: "There's always going to be a better crop next year.

Jennifer Moody has been a reporter at the Democrat-Herald since 1996.