Our Story - The Full Version
Our Names
Daniel & Lydia Allgyer
Our Children
Rebecca Lyne, born 2016
Johnathan Lee, born 2017, died 2018
Calvin Jacob, born 2019
Our Farm & Business
Allgyer Acres - Beef Finishing and Processing
Prairie Foods - Owner & Founder
Our Story
We got married spring of 2015 and moved to the home farm where my parents currently lived. The farm was being leased out and we wanted to try our hand at farming, so we jumped in. The first couple of years we planted corn, beans, wheat, and made a lot of horse hay. We also grazed some dairy heifers on land less suited for farming. Since we did not know a thing about soil health or grazing, all our information was gathered from local farmers and salesmen. We got a crop consultant from the local fertilizer company to take soil samples and help us with fertilizer and herbicide recommendations. So we tried our best and spent whatever money it took to provide our crops and animals with the best of what conventional wisdom had to offer. After a few years we noticed the the hard work and money we were throwing at it was not paying off and we ended up going further into debt every year. At that point the future looked very hopeless, but with our love for farming we did not want to give it up. It was also around this time that my health issues got considerably worse.
My health issues started when I was a little boy. I was thrown off a hay wagon and hit my head on the steel wheels of a tractor, leaving a big gash that later got infected. We did finally manage to get it healed but I grew up with a lot of headaches. At the age of 14, I stepped on a nail and got an infection in my ankle. This time I ended up in the hospital and it took surgery and 2 months of antibiotics to get it cleaned up. So, at this point of my life I completely destroyed the microbial life in my gut. I had a lot of problems with fatigue headaches and sore muscles in my teenage years and never did enjoy working for someone. So I started my own business on the side and worked late nights and Saturdays, so even though I was at the point of exhaustion, most times it was a way to get away from the pain and throw my passion and interest into something. This led to even lower energy levels. But I discovered with enough coffee, energy drinks and MT Dew I could get through the day. This of course only worked for a while, so I threw alcohol and tobacco in the mix as well. Then I also fell off a roof, hitting my head on a railing on the way down, throwing my neck and spine way out of whack. As one can imagine, I had my body about maxed out by now externally and internally. I started to see doctors, because clearly something was wrong. I tried multiple doctors and chiropractors, did all kinds of tests and tried different supplements with no results. I finally kinda gave up and figured maybe I was just lazy. After we got married it did not take my wife long to see something was very wrong. She noticed it took all my energy just to focus on what was in front of me and what needed to be done at the moment. We ended up in the hospital a few times, once because of unbearable headaches and once because of a complete nervous breakdown. Both times we did more tests but, according to the doctors, nothing was wrong and they always prescribed me with a fix and sent us home. We were finally introduced to a homeopathic chiropractor by a friend and for the first time in my life I found relief. But it still did not cure the problem. He seemed to get me to a certain level but I could not get to the problem.
This is where we will pick the farming up again. I always had an interest in soil health and was certain the only way to improve profit was to improve soil health. So I started attending seminars and reading books. It did not take me long to discover a whole new world of farming, one that seemed to have a lot more to offer. We started replacing synthetic fertilizer with more natural sources, eliminating as many herbicides as possible and growing a bigger mix of cover crops.
At this time I was invited by a friend to attend a local grazing meeting since we were grazing some dairy heifers during the summer. I took the chance and was exposed to a whole new world of other info. So, I read a bunch of books, did a business school, purchased some more cows and started dividing paddocks and stringing fences. I soon discovered grazing was a lot easier and more fun than making hay or planting corn. It also reduced the work load and with my current energy level I really liked what it had to offer. I also soon discovered soil health and grazing went together, so in the spring of 2018 we completely quit growing crops and started grazing the whole farm. At this point we were grazing about 200 acres with mostly custom cattle, but we really wanted to direct market our own products. We read more books and visited other farms, made a vision and mission statement and founded Prairie Foods. We were doing a lot of things at this point, trying to grow beef, pork, chickens and eggs and get them to a farmers market. We soon discovered we had to cut back, do one thing correctly before we tried to do it all. We also found that a lot of farmers in our community were wishing to make a living on the farm, but lacked the market to do so. With the small farms dying fast, a lot of the culture formed by our forefathers of a simple life at home with the family was getting lost as our people got off farm jobs. So we kind of rewrote our vision and mission and teamed up with other like minded farmers to grow some things for us with the hope and intent to not only keep one small farm alive but help keep a culture and a simple lifestyle alive as well.
Back to our health journey. By 2018 I had found a little relief, but something was still clearly wrong. We also lost our son in a farm accident that year, so with grief thrown in the mix along with fatigue headaches, depression and sore muscles, mental illness set in. We did more tests, absolutely nothing came up. We had already tried every supplement and health product on the market with little or no result.
We were by this time really getting into soil health and discovered how human health was tied to it. We also discovered that no matter how organic or healthy the food we were eating, if the soil the food came from was not healthy the food was going to be missing a lot of the phyto nutrients and minerals the body needs to really function well. Although we had by this time eliminated a lot of food from our diet and I was no longer on caffeine, alcohol or tobacco, we took it to the next level and made it a goal to grow, or know the person who grew, all of our food. We also got counseling at this point, which really helped my body release a lot of past hurts and set it up to begin healing. It was not something that took place overnight, it is a journey we are still on. But, by healing my gut microbial life with clean food, letting go of my past hurt and with a good chiropractor to revive my energy flow, I was able to get my life back.
It was with this story and a lot more effort plus meeting and teaming up with some great people that the Prairie Foods you see now came to be. It is my intent to provide small farmers within our communities with a market and advice to grow clean healthy food while living the plain and simple life our forefathers taught us that we cherish so much. It is also my intent to provide clean healthy food and support to anyone that is on the journey we went through. Although food is not the only key to being healthy, the power of good nutrition to the mind, body and soul should never be underestimated. We are here today because of what we went through and the prayers God has answered and are offering clean, safe food to the best of our knowledge, with the hope to enhance anyone's life that consumes it.