Field popcorn must be grown with love and care, as it will not reach its full potential if the quality of the crop is not up to standard.
For Zach Tanner, president of Fancy Farm Popcorn in Burnie, Missouri, the attention to detail in his specialty products starts with planting. He farms approximately 7,500 acres of popcorn, rice seed, and soybeans with his wife Rebecca and his sons Zachary and Luke. That’s why the Tanner family takes great care to grow their crops on schedule.
“Planting in early April instead of May allows the popcorn to pollinate before the warmest temperatures arrive, allowing for on-time rice and soybean harvests,” Tanner explains. “We’re trying to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.”
Speed of planting is essential to harvest crops on time and stick to schedules. To do this, Tanner leverages the latest technology.
Checking the planters: Zach Tanner gets out of his cab and digs into the soil to check the depth and spacing of the planters.
Technology drives production
The family started with an old planter that varied speeds from 5 mph to 5.7 mph and tracked accuracy and skips during planting. it took time.
Currently, we have installed 2130 cases of IH high-speed planters. “At 100% ground contact he can run 9mph, 10mph, even 11mph while achieving 9.5% accuracy,” Tanner says.
He monitors the planter remotely via his smartphone, monitoring what’s happening inside the cab and checking its screen for accuracy.
“Then I can be on site and basically investigate exactly what’s going on in the planter and keep things moving,” Tanner says.
Last year, they planted at 11 miles per hour. “That was our highest yielding farm,” he added. “Additionally, the center filling of this planter allows for longer run times between fills, making filling very quick.”
focus on emergence
As with field corn, Tanner focuses on uniform emergence and spacing, noting that it’s even more important when planting popcorn.
Without consistent popcorn, he explains, some crops will produce small ears while others will produce large ears. Different sizes of ears will not thresh evenly, resulting in more threshing and increased header loss.
Tanner says, “If the spacing and depth are equal, the emergence and ear size will be equal.”
When speed and accuracy are critical, Tanner says this is one way they can control the quality of their grain as it is harvested, processed and sold to customers.
Quality Products: The Tanner family owns Fancy Farm Popcorn, a business the family started in 1987. Currently, they are selling popcorn kits that are shipped directly from the farm to the customer’s home.
move your business forward
The family founded a popcorn company, Fancy Farm Popcorn, in the 1980s.
“We had to figure things out while hitting hard,” Tanner explains. “We added value-producing seeds for soybeans, wheat, and rice, and we grew corn and sent it to the elevator. Popcorn allowed us to utilize our corn acres.”
Initially, their crops were sent to movie theaters and grocery stores. Currently, most of the company’s popcorn is sold as packaged kits containing popcorn, coconut oil, and salt and provided to customers at various kiosks.
The company has been making kits since the mid-1980s and was one of the first companies to invent these packets and perfect the process, Tanner said. This pack ensures that the quality of the popcorn is consistent no matter who is popping it. The company also sells popcorn by truckloads of tote bags containing 50-pound bags.
“We believe that if you can’t do it right, it’s better not to do it at all,” Tanner adds. “Our dedicated employees have perfected the layout of the kit, especially the packaging.”
Learn more about Fancy Farm Popcorn. fancyfarmpopcorn.com.
