With principal involvement in three busy agricultural enterprises, Jason Mauck, has to be constantly thinking, planning and doing to keep all the balls in the air as he juggles traditional family farm management, off-farm agronomic innovation, and the headaches and highs of innovating a new direct-marketing meat business

Mauck manages day-to-day operations of Mauck Land, Hog and Cattle Co., a multi-generational corn and soybean farm near Gaston, Ind. In addition, the farm finishes 25,000 hogs per year and meets much of the corn and soybean nutrient needs with effluent from the livestock. 

He’s also a partner with Jonathan Lamb in Constant Canopy, a non-traditional “innovation farm” where the pair is producing wheat and soybeans interseeded on the same fields. Plus, he spearheaded the renovation of Munsee Meats, a long-time local meat supplier to the area restaurants, transitioning it into a cold storage outlet to deliver direct-to-consumer locally-produced farm products through social-media-driven online sales.

Fork In the Road

Agriculture, Mauck says, is at a fork in the road where the choices are “get bigger and swallow smaller operations” or move closer to the customer and harvest additional dollars through direct marketing. 

“My focus is complete vertical integration and building a strong customer base,” he says.

“The older farm generation faced different circumstances as they grew their farms and involved their children and their families in the business. We can’t do that today. We can’t grow 100-bushel corn and make a 40% margin,” he explains.