By Leslie Reed
Omaha World-Herald

Melisa "Misy'' Fulton is a town kid who fell in love with farming, though not the high-tech, high-dollar and high-risk world of conventional agriculture.

She and her husband, Terry, moved back to his hometown of Auburn, Neb., in 2000 to partner with his father on 1,000 acres of conventionally raised corn and soybeans.

The young couple, who previously lived in Lincoln while Terry Fulton worked in construction, had dreamed of returning to the family farm someday. But "someday'' came sooner than expected when Terry Fulton's grandfather, his dad's previous partner, fell ill.

As Terry Fulton worked to buy into his father's operation, Misy Fulton and their five children began what she calls "homesteading.''

"I started getting chickens and animals, and gardening, taking advantage of being on the farm and living on the farm,'' she said. "I got a Jersey cow and started making butter and cheese.''

But conventional agriculture proved a tough row to hoe, particularly with the drought adding expense and risk just when they were getting started.

"My husband liked conventional farming, but at 1,000 acres, it was very difficult,'' said Misy Fulton, 31. "I loved everything about the farm, although I was seeing a lot of things conventionally that I wasn't sure I was comfortable with as a young farmer. You've got to get big. You've got to buy equipment, you've got to buy land. You've got to borrow a lot of money.''

Looking for a different path to keep them on the farm, Misy Fulton signed up in 2005 for an alternative agriculture class, "Farm Beginnings,'' offered by the University of Nebraska Extension Service through the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

The 10-week class, which resembles a college course, is scheduled to be taught a second time beginning Saturday in Syracuse, Neb. Students will be taught a holistic management approach to farm planning, said teacher Gary Lesoing, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension agent based in Nemaha County. The course, which includes sessions on business planning, finance and marketing, will finish with tours of organic and alternative farms in Nebraska.

A small but growing number of people in Nebraska are converting to organic and alternative agriculture, Lesoing said. Some get into it because they're attracted to the "local food'' movement of raising and eating food grown close to home; others because they're looking for ways to farm on only a few acres of land. Still others are motivated by the potential for higher profit margins because of the higher prices paid for organic grain and meat.

Fulton, who grew up in nearby Johnson, Neb., and who holds a biology degree from UNL, said the class changed her thinking about farming -- and it changed her life.

She decided she didn't really buy into the "feed the world'' philosophy typically seen in conventional agriculture. Her goal is to provide quality food for people who live nearby.

The Fultons scaled down their operation to the 80 acres that they are now buying. While Terry Fulton returned full time to his construction business, Misy Fulton became the family farmer. They keep about 18 head of grass-fed Scottish Highland cattle and 150 free-range chickens on 30 acres of pasture, while raising crops on 40 acres.

Fulton also has a "hoop house'' -- an unheated greenhouse where she keeps goats for milking, having sold the Jersey cow because she feared her small children -- who ranged in age from 18 months to 10 years of age -- might get injured while she milked the large animal.

Fulton sells eggs through a local grocery store, a farmers' market and the Nebraska Food Cooperative. The couple are building a store on their farm, "Grazin' Acres,'' where they will sell their produce, eggs and beef, along with pork and other products raised by their friends. They hope to open the store next year.

They also hope to have their operation certified as organic next year, even though that wasn't necessarily their goal when they started out.

Fulton said organic farming hasn't gained much of a foothold in southeast Nebraska, with few customers in the area yet willing to pay the extra cost for organic food.

The eggs aren't organic yet, Fulton said. She said organic chicken feed is costly and hard to find -- and she fears it would push her egg prices too high for customers.

Fulton said her father-in-law, Bill Fulton, continues to farm conventionally -- and seems to enjoy helping his son and daughter-in-law on their venture.

They don't grow genetically modified crops that tolerate chemical weed killers. Her husband must drive a tractor with a cultivator through the fields to till out weeds -- and she and the children walk the bean fields to chop out the weeds. "My father-in-law has been fantastic about helping us -- so many of the things we're doing he remembered doing years ago,'' she said.

"I think we're trying to go backwards, we're trying to go back to the way farmers always farmed.''