Through his agribusiness supervised agricultural experience (SAE), Aaron Deunk of the Norris FFA Chapter said he is getting closer to his dream of being a farmer, a vision he has held since childhood growing up with on the family farm in Nebraska.
“I just used FFA and used other things to be able to start this business and things like this that just allow me to actually put myself in position to achieve my goal of farming,” Aaron said.
His business is D&D Custom Applications, LLC. The service Aaron provides is custom applying dry fertilizer with anhydrous ammonia, doing both fertilizer applications in one pass.
“The main thing was I found a niche market for it because it hadn’t been done in our area,” Aaron said. “It’s just working through the local co-ops and farmers, and then the co-op takes care of all the fertilizer … then I just apply it.”
Aaron said the dual application on fields allows farmers to use a little less chemical in the process, and he has seen his clients’ crop yields increase.
His clientele has grown over the years; Aaron started working for his father and some neighbors, and now he works with several co-ops to provide his fertilizing services.
Aaron said his high school ag classes taught him basic management skills, plus FFA brought him the opportunity to make purposeful connections.
“[FFA] just taught me to reach out and talk to the other area businesses, and just really connect with agronomists, seed salesmen and co-ops around, and the networking part of FFA—nothing else can really do that,” he said.
As a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Aaron intends on finishing his agribusiness degree and continuing his work with D&D Custom Applications.
“I hope to maintain the amount that I’m doing and not necessarily get too out of control … but more just focused on being efficient and doing a good job at what I’m doing.”
