OUR STORY
Circle C Farms began in 1985 when the Compton family moved from North East Kansas to Scott City. In it’s early years, Circle C was a custom harvesting business, ran by Ted Compton, running up to eight machines at a time.
After receiving a degree in agribusiness from Kansas State University, Steve joined the operation started the trucking division of the company. As one of the few larger trucking lines in Western Kansas at the time, Circle C was running 20+ trucks in the late 90’s.
Today, Circle C Farms is a wheat and row crop operation. Growing on both dryland and irrigated land, the farm is diversified between certified seed wheat, organic wheat, corn sold as feed product to feed yards, feed and food-grade milo, and non-GMO crops.
Press
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Water Technology Farm
There are several technologies and services being utilized including EC soils mapping of all fields, soil moisture probes, variable rate irrigation, iWobs and Bubbler nozzles, and aerial imagery, cover crops during the off-season. The larger (sectional) pivot in Scott County is utilizing various water application comparisons with different nozzle packages and variable rate irrigation.
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Handicap Plus Technology Equals Farming Success
“When it comes to technology, we put our money where our mouth is,” Compton stresses. “ ‘Bringing tomorrow’s technology to today’s farm’ is a phrase we use in our advertising and on our business cards.”
Steve Compton realizes that technology alone is not enough to ensure success. “Every good business must rely on its people,” he stresses.
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Depletion of major groundwater source threatens Great Plains farming
In the heart of the country, Great Plains farmers and ranchers produce a quarter of all U.S. crops and 40 percent of its beef. But they rely on a resource that has been slowly drying up, water. Stephanie Sy reports from Kansas for our series on the impact of climate change, Tipping Point.
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Precision Agriculture Helps Farms Save Time, Money, and the Land
In the past, traditional agronomy would dictate that you pull one or two samples per field and then make application recommendations off of the test results of that soil. Precision agriculture takes a much closer look at a larger area. The grid sampling system allows a producer to apply inputs only where needed. That portion of the field that doesn’t need inputs doesn’t receive any.
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Testing Irrigation Tech
Soil moisture probes also played a role on Steve Compton's Circle C Tech Farm near Healy, Kansas. "We wanted to determine if cover crops could be another way to save moisture and irrigation water, so we used probes in side-by-side plots and found they could. We were losing moisture to evaporation from bare soil even during the winter," he says.
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Steve Compton | Co-Owner
After finishing college, Steve joined the operation and began to build out the trucking division.
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Ted Compton | Co-Owner
Upon moving to Scott City in 1985, Ted started Circle C Farms as a custom harvesting operation. Now, you’ll find Ted taking calls, working alongside staff, and fixing equipment.
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John Payne | Agronomist
John received his degree in Agronomy from Fort Hays State University in 1993 and brings with him 30 years experience as an agronomist. He also runs a dryland farm and cow-calf operation in Ness County.
