Pat & Karen Hageman chosen as 2021 Bankers Soil Conservation Award Winner

Pat Hageman and Karen McMullen Hageman have been chosen as the 2021 Bankers Soil Conservation Award Winners for Rooks County.

Pat grew up in a large family three miles north of Plainville. After returning home from the Navy in 1982, he started farming part-time with his two brothers, Jerry and Terry.

Richard Deschant Sr., a retiring farmer in the area, gave the brothers a chance to expand their farming operation by taking over his farm in 1988. In 2001, Pat bought out his brothers and started farming on his own. In 2005, he married Karen McMullen and now farms Karen’s ground in addition to his. Karen and her son, Carson McMullen, help in decision making on the farm throughout the year.

On roughly 3,900 acres of cropland Pat operates, he grows wheat, milo, soybeans, sorghum silage, oats and alfalfa. He also has a cow-calf cattle operation.

Pat has been 100% notill since 2001 and always tries to rotate his crops. He has seen improvement in his soil fertility over time and has witnessed the importance of conserving what precious rain we do get.

Through NRCS’s Con servation Stewardship Program, Pat has also planted cover crops, pollinator plots, native grass plantings for wildlife and practiced prescribed grazing.

The thing Pat enjoys the most about farming is after spending hours in a tractor planting or drilling, getting to watch the seeds germinate, take off and grow. He also really enjoys calving time in the spring.

Pat’s daughter, Elena Hageman, is a junior in college at Washburn. In addition to being a decision maker on the farm, Karen is an insurance agent at Plainville Insurance.

Thank you, Pat and Karen, for your devotion to conservation and congratulations for being selected as the 2021 Kansas Bankers Association Soil Conservation Award winner!