Eastern Iowa Farmer Spring 2019

The Eastern Iowa Spring 2019
Farmer
A Publication of Sycamore Media
MANAGING
CHANGE
Through the years, how we farm in Eastern Iowa
has evolved. Equipment is bigger, technology
is more sophisticated, seed choices are
many, and growers face relentless
pressure to keep pace.
Calving: A rite of passage each
spring, farmers deliver new life on
the farm, spending many early, chilly
hours nurturing their newborns.
Ethanol: What’s happening
nationally with Renewable
Fuel Standards impacts Iowa’s
homegrown fuel.
Reflecting Rural Roots:
From feed sacks to tractors and toys,
farmers use some of their down time
to pursue interesting collections.
Farm Forestry: That wooded
area may not be as unproductive as
you think. For some farmers, timber
is a crop enterprise.
PLUS:
Six pages of photos of your
friends and neighbors!

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The Eastern Iowa
Farmer DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS
Abstract & Title ................................................... 16
American Mutual............................................... 137
Arensdorf Ag Lime............................................. 129
Arensdorf Rock Quarry..................................... 103
Beck’s Seed....................................................... 125
Bellevue Lumber................................................. 77
Bellevue Sand and Gravel.................................. 15
Bellevue State Bank............................................ 36
Bellevue/Preston Vet Clinic............................... 134
Bousselot Tiling................................................... 44
Braet’s Auto Services.......................................... 50
Brandenburg Drainage..................................... 100
Breeden Sales..................................................... 72
Burbs to Boonies................................................. 18
Butternut Hollow crafts........................................ 28
Cascade Lumber................................................. 69
Channel Seed........................................................ 2
Citizens First Bank............................................ 133
Citizens State Bank............................................. 90
Clinton National Bank.......................................... 66
Clover Ridge Place............................................. 84
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque.... 24
Community Foundation of Jackson County....... 24
Concept by Iowa Hearing Aid Centers............... 45
Cornelius Seed.................................................... 79
Countryside Feed & Supply................................ 89
Custom Dozing and Crane Service, Inc............. 43
Dale Junk - Wick Buildings................................... 4
Davisson Tiling.................................................... 81
Deep Creek Applicators...................................... 31
Delaney Ag Service........................................... 102
Delaney Auto & Ag.............................................119
Delmar Grain Service.......................................... 49
DeWitt Bank & Trust.......................................... 148
DeWitt Hospital Foundation................................ 19
Dosland Auction.................................................. 17
East Central Consulting...................................... 76
East Iowa Real Estate......................................... 30
Eastern Iowa Propane........................................ 92
Eberhart Farm Center......................................... 42
Farm Bureau Financial Services........................ 55
Farm Credit Services.......................................... 35
Farrell’s, Inc......................................................... 54
Fidelity Bank & Trust........................................... 46
First Central State Bank.................................... 135
Franzen Family Tractors..................................... 61
Friedman Group.................................................. 48
Genesis Medical Center - DeWitt....................... 58
Green Tech........................................................ 124
Heritage Mutual................................................. 131
Hermes Auto........................................................ 93
Highway 64 Auctions........................................... 61
Hostetler Precision Ag Solutions........................ 95
Iowa Concrete Products................................... 123
Irv’s Repair........................................................... 97
J&S Auto Specialists......................................... 134
Jackson County Fair........................................... 85
Jackson County Farm Bureau............................ 74
Jackson County Regional Health Center........... 73
Jen Fowler Painting............................................. 37
JJ Scheckel......................................................... 91
Jones County Community Foundation............... 24
Keeney Welding.................................................. 76
Ken Kruger.......................................................... 70
Kruger Seed.......................................................... 6
Kunau Implement.............................................. 127
La Motte / Andrew Telephone............................. 39
Legacy Insurance Group.................................... 23
Lincolnway Foundation....................................... 24
Low Moor Ag..................................................... 121
Mahindra.............................................................. 60
Maquoketa Feeds............................................... 68
Maquoketa Financial Group............................. 132
Maquoketa Livestock.......................................... 88
Maquoketa Lumber............................................. 77
Maquoketa State Bank....................................... 98
Martens Angus Farms......................................... 20
Meant To Be With Flowers.................................. 78
Melissa Burken Mommsen................................113
Midwest Metal & Supply..................................... 31
Miner, Gilroy, and Meade.................................... 94
Moore Family Farms........................................... 18
Nienke Services................................................ 107
Nienke Solar...................................................... 106
Nissen-Caven...................................................... 71
Ohnward Farm Management........................... 136
Ohnward Insurance Group................................. 50
Ohnward Tax & Accounting................................ 75
Ohnward Wealth Management.......................... 82
Osterhaus Pharmacy.........................................118
Park Farms Computer.......................................112
Peoples Company............................................. 146
Petersen Insurance............................................. 51
Pioneer Encirca - Michael Delaney.................. 142
Pioneer Seed......................................................115
PMC Agri-Service................................................ 89
Regency of Clinton.............................................. 47
River Valley Cooperative......................................11
Roeder Implement............................................... 33
Rolling Hills Vet Service.................................... 122
Scherrman’s Implement.....................................110
Schlecht Hatchery..............................................111
Schoenthaler, Bartelt, Kahler & Reicks.............. 29
Schueller & Sons Reconstruction....................... 57
Schuster & Co..................................................... 44
Scott & Oberbroeckling....................................... 87
Sheets Construction............................................ 34
Sheridan & Associates Insurance........................ 51
Spahn & Rose..................................................... 38
Spain Ag Service................................................. 83
Stickley Electric................................................... 99
Sub Surface Drainage......................................... 45
Sycamore Media................................................. 64
The Engel Agency............................................. 143
The Feed and Grain Store................................ 130
Theisen’s............................................................. 86
Thrivent Financial................................................ 59
Veach Diesel Repair.......................................... 101
Welter Seed & Honey Co.................................... 96
Wheatland Manor................................................ 22
Whispering Meadows Resort........................... 135
White Front.......................................................... 65
Wyffels Hybrids.................................................... 32
Zirkelbach Home Appliance...............................114
Farmer
The Eastern Iowa Spring 2019
A Publication of Sycamore Media
MANAGING
CHANGE
Through the years, how we farm in Eastern Iowa
has evolved. Equipment is bigger, technology
is more sophisticated, seed choices are
many, and growers face relentless
pressure to keep pace.
Calving: A rite of passage each
spring, farmers deliver new life on
the farm, spending many early, chilly
hours nurturing their newborns.
Ethanol: What’s happening
nationally with Renewable
Fuel Standards impacts Iowa’s
homegrown fuel.
Reflecting Rural Roots:
From feed sacks to tractors and toys,
farmers use some of their down time
to pursue interesting collections.
Farm Forestry: That wooded
area may not be as unproductive as
you think. For some farmers, timber
is a crop enterprise.
PLUS:
Six pages of photos of your
friends and neighbors!
Sycamore Media President: Trevis Mayfield
Advertising: Melissa Lane, Trevis Mayfield,
Rosie Morehead, Maggie Ward and Bob Wendt
Creative Director: Brooke Taylor
Editorial Content: Lowell Carlson, Kelly Gerlach, Kellie
Gregorich, Larry Lough, Nancy Mayfield, Trevis Mayfield,
Sara Millhouse, Adrienna Olson, Kristine Tidgren
Photography Content:
Kelly Gerlach, Trevis Mayfield, Brooke Taylor
Editors: Kelly Gerlach, Nancy Mayfield, Trevis Mayfield
Published by: Sycamore Media, 108 W. Quarry St.,
Maquoketa, IA, 563-652-2441
Cover: Trevis Mayfield, Brooke Taylor
View the entire magazine online: eifarmer.com
The Eastern Iowa Farmer is a specialty publication of Sycamore Media Corp., 108 W. Quarry Street, Maquoketa, Iowa 52060, 563-652-2441
or 800-747-7377. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility
of Sycamore Media Corp. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Sycamore Media Corp. cannot and does not
guarantee its accuracy. Sycamore Media Corp. cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by
advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.
8 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

The Eastern Iowa
Farmer
STORY INDEX
An old truck, and 10
a lot to process
Welcome to 12
the World
Land as 20
Legacy
Hay! 26
Steel wheels, 34
straight rows
A Collection 40
of Joy
Surprise Awaited 52
Note from CALT 56
How Eastern 62
Iowa Farmers
are Managing
Change
Ag on the 104
Airways
Priming the Pump 108
Backyard Assets 116
Ag and Art 120
Ag Bytes 130
Note from FSA 134
Family farm auction takes publisher
beyond equipment and into memories
of childhood.
Farmers keep vigil around the clock
during calving season, waiting for the
newest members of their herd to arrive.
While land values have dipped slightly
the past four of five years, the market
remains relatively strong.
As size of bale grew, so did quality
of hay.
Manufacturers struggled
to create the first row crop tractor.
From seed corn sacks to
toy tractors, collections represent
deep history in local ag.
The burgundy hat brought tears
to columnist’s eyes.
Key ag and tax developments impact
farmers in 2019.
Through the years, how we farm in
Eastern Iowa has evolved. Equipment is
bigger, technology is more sophisticated,
seed choices are many, and growers
face relentless pressure to keep pace.
Students produce weekly show
on relevant issues.
Pressure from oil manufacturers, politics
and market forces are impacting the corn
and ethanol industry.
Forestry professionals can make and
save farm woodland owners real money.
Local artist featured at Iowa State
University, AgArts fosters connection.
A roundup of accolades and activities
in Eastern Iowa.
During challenging times
agencies here to help.

MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
An old truck, and a lot to process
I
was able to walk past our modern stuff
– the tractors, the combine, the semis –
without a flinch. I made it past an assortment
of rusted chisel plows, cultivators
and hoes with a stiff upper lip.
Then came the old tan-and-black truck – a
1952 Chevy with an in-line six-cylinder engine,
a four-speed transmission and two-speed
gearing in its rear single axle. It had belonged
to my maternal grandfather before it belonged
to my dad. Until our family’s equipment
auction in November,
it for years had
sat idle behind the
old barn, serving
no purpose other
than giving shelter
to mice. But on that
cold, windy day at
the county fairgrounds
in Sullivan,
Indiana, despite a
Trevis Mayfield busted engine, the
President,
old truck took me
Sycamore Media Corp. on one last ride, in
reverse, through a
string of memories that made the tears begin
to well.
I held it in, at least for the moment. I didn’t
want to crack at my parents’ auction. They
deserved to be able to retire in good health and
enjoy themselves. Selling the equipment but
keeping the land was a good decision, and I
supported it. So, as I walked past the old truck,
I sucked it up. I decided to put off thinking
about it so I wouldn’t have to cry in front of
my parents and a bunch of guys wearing dirty
overalls and muck boots.
Since then, my mind has run through a list
of people with whom I shared that bench seat.
I remembered Earl Ridgley, an old man who
lived not far from us. He hauled corn to the
elevator for my dad, and my dad sometimes
picked his corn. Earl moved with a limp, the
result of a war injury from the Battle of the
Bulge according to those close to him. Earl
seemed nervous all the time. He reminded
me of Festus from the 1970s television series
“Gunsmoke.” He was always nice to me even
though I was probably a pest.
Clarence Ayon Dubree, my grandfather,
was also a decorated World War II veteran
who was awarded a Purple Heart. He was the
truck’s previous owner and sometimes drove
it for my dad, and he had the best middle
name of anyone I’ve ever known. Aside from
helping on the farm, he took me fishing and
nurtured my love of the outdoors. He sat next
to me in an emergency room waiting area
while my 13-year-old big brother, Doug, was
dying from a congenital heart defect. My parents
were with doctors trying to decide what to
do. Without my grandfather, I would
have been alone.
My mother, Delora, drove farm
trucks, too. Because my father was
always running the combine, my
mother handled hauling duties much
of the time. A slight woman, she
would muscle the big steering wheel
with both hands, lack of power
steering be damned, and put that
truck exactly where she wanted
it. She drove those old trucks
pretty much the same way she does
everything else in life, with lots of
determination. If you want to lose
a fight, pick it with her.
Because my dad, Bill, was
always running the combine, my
most vivid memory of him with
our old trucks was of him working
on them. Now, to be fair, I must tell you
that my father has a lot of good traits, maybe
even great traits, but back in the days when the
old Chevy was a meaningful part of our farm,
patience and good temperament were not always
among them, especially when equipment
was giving him trouble.
One particular day, he was working on
a piece of equipment and had a bunch of
wrenches resting on top of it. When something
went wrong, perhaps a wrench slipped off a
nut for the third or fourth time, he slammed
down the tool in his hand, accidently hitting
one of the other wrenches, which caused it to
fly back at him and open a bloody cut on the
top of his head.
The wound required stitches, and as we
waited for the doctor to sew him up, he looked
straight at me, knowing full well that I had inherited
his hot temper, and uttered an immortal
pearl of wisdom: “This is what temper will do
for you.” My dad and I still laugh about this
story. I wouldn’t have laughed back then. I
wouldn’t have dared.
The truck also connected me to my brother.
At 8 or 9 years old, we began “working the
truck” during planting season, dragging bags
of seed corn and granular fertilizer to the edge
of the bed and cutting them open with a pocket
knife. We would line up a specific number of
each so my dad could refill the planter boxes
with pitstop speed.
As the planter worked its way down the
field, Mom or Dad would move the truck so
we could be ready for the next stop.
Doug and I were also expected to use a
screwdriver to dig into each row on every pass
of the planter to make sure there was seed in
each row. That old Oliver planter was notorious
for getting stopped up, and we had the important
job of defending against what we called
“skipped rows.” My dad hated skipped rows!
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / TREVIS MAYFIELD
This 1952 Chevy sold for $200 at a family equipment
auction in November. It carried with it memories of
childhood and growing up on the farm in Indiana.
Most
of the time, though, Doug and I
waited around, drank pop, listened to the
St. Louis Cardinals on the radio and threw
dirt clods. The highlight for my brother was
burning the bags after Dad and the planter had
gone back to work. My brother loved fire!
So that’s it. I’ve now processed my feelings
about the auction, thanks to an old farm truck.
It sold for $200.
What fun we have producing this mag
We know the Eastern Iowa agriculture community
enjoys this magazine. We know that
because we hear it all the time, and we never
get tired of that.
We also never get tired of meeting farmers,
agriculture professionals and advertisers in the
course of our work. Simply put, it’s just a lot
of fun.
For this issue, we got to meet and write
about grown men who still enjoy toys (toy
tractors, that is), a couple who manages timber
as a cash crop and a good many other interesting
people who are involved in agriculture one
way or another.
These are the people who, beyond making
a living for themselves, fuel the economy, pay
taxes and support local causes. Without them,
this part of the country would not function as
we know it, and neither would this magazine.
Our staff is grateful for the generosity of our
sources. It is a heart-warming experience for
us that so many people are willing to share so
much of themselves with our readers. That’s a
big part of what makes this magazine what it is.
At least a bushel of gratitude is also owed to
our advertisers. Without them, this magazine
would not be possible. So, to all of you who
help breathe life into the Eastern Iowa Farmer,
thank you!
We hope you enjoy this issue.
10 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

We’re more than just another supplier. We work hard
every season of the year to be your local source of
confidence and peace-of-mind when it comes to your
agronomy, energy, feed and grain delivery and
marketing needs. Put the latest technology and greatest
people to work for your operation.

WELCOME
TO THE WORLD
Raising cattle in Eastern Iowa isn’t for the faint of heart.
Farmers keep vigil around the clock during the often cold
and frigid winter and early spring calving season, waiting
for the newest members of their herd to arrive.

BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
On a Sunday in early March last year, Sam Kuhlman
kept watch on a cow about to give birth in
his barnyard just north of Bluff Lake Restaurant.
Kuhlman had arrived before sunrise and monitored the
cow’s labor during the cold, sunny morning.
About noon, he noticed that the calf’s hooves were facing the wrong
direction. Most times, the animals give birth while no one is around, and
Kuhlman is often greeted by the newest herd member when he arrives for
one of his multiple daily visits during calving season.
But in cases like this one, he steps in to
help the process along. This day, he led the
cow into a wooden shoot and used chains to
pull the calf out.
“It was born backwards,” he said. “But it
pulled right out. I was surprised at how easy
“I spent the night
here.” The first cow
did not have its
calf until 5 a.m.,
“and one was born
after that every
hour until 1 p.m.”
— LOREN TRUELSEN
it pulled.”
Taking a short break to talk, Kuhlman
watched the calf frolic in the barnyard.
“He’s an active little fellow. It’s good
when they’re aggressive.”
An added surprise later that afternoon
— a twin was born.
For Kuhlman and other Eastern Iowa
farmers who raise cattle, the late winter
and early spring calving season means
predawn, cold mornings and long,
frigid nights checking on the expecting
cows every two to three hours.
Sometimes in snowstorms. Sometimes
in sleet or rain that makes for
muddy, miserable conditions. The
farmers, many of whom have full-time jobs off the farm, spend
hours waiting and watching and hours making sure the newborns
and their mothers are doing all right — getting enough to eat, not
exhibiting any signs of illness or distress. In subzero temperatures,
little ears can get frostbite. Overprotective mamas might
hide their new babies in a ditch, bush or trees.
“I’ve been known to sleep in my car or truck,” Kuhlman
Cody Dirks surveys the herd he and his family tend just after
calving season last spring on their farm outside of Wyoming.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTOS / BROOKE TAYLOR

WELCOME TO THE WORLD
Sam Kuhlman dreamed about raising his own cattle as a student in elementary
school. During calving season, the Jackson County farmer has been known to
sleep in his vehicle outside one of his barns as he waits for a cow to give birth.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / TREVIS MAYFIELD
“It’s amazing to
watch the process.
[The cow will] know
which baby is hers
and where it is
every minute.”
— CINDY DIRKS
said about keeping watch.
Loren Truelsen and his
extended family have five
cameras set up to give them
different vantage points of
the barn and barnyard at
their farm near Camanche.
He and his brothers Lance
and Lonny take turns watching. And
while the cameras are helpful to see what’s
happening from the comfort of indoors, they
must be checked round-the-clock; and someone
needs to be available to be onsite to make sure
all is well.
“Most of our cows know what to do, and
they do it,” Truelsen said. But occasionally
there are complications and when temperatures
are below freezing, farmers want to make extra
sure the animals are doing well in the harsher
conditions.
Truelsen recalled last spring in early April/
late March when several cows were due to give
birth. The weather was rough for the time of
year.
“I spent the night here,” he said. The first
cow did not have its calf until 5 a.m., “and one
was born after that every hour until 1 p.m.”
That is the nature of calving season, often
unpredictable and not necessarily convenient.
A cow and her calf stand in the barnyard at one of the farms operated by
the Dirks family outside of Wyoming. Cindy Dirks described the family’s
entry into the cow business as “4-H gone wild.”
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Truelsen
waited in the warmth of the nearby
shop until he had to venture out to the barn.
The distance between the shop and the barn
“doesn’t look like a long walk, but on a bitter
cold, windy day it really feels like one,” he
noted.
For the Truelsens, who also have a farm in
Jackson County, and other farmers who raise
cows and cattle, thoughts turn to the calving
season in May when breeding begins, either by
artificial insemination or by turning a bull out
with cows and heifers.
About nine months later, calving begins.
At the point labor is getting close, “we’ll
bring the (pregnant) cows off the stalks, and
they’ll be in the yard,” Truelsen said of moving
them from the field to the barn area.
How long the newborns and their mothers
14 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

WELCOME TO THE WORLD
stay in the barn depends on the volume
of births, but it’s usually two days. The
calves are banded and get an ID tag —
right ear for heifers and left ear for steers.
They also receive a shot within the first
24 hours.
“If they are up and nursing and doing
well, they’ll go to loft with other pairs for
a couple of days. Then they get kicked
out to the stalks,” he said. If the newborns
aren’t nursing, they are fed colostrum,
which contains antibodies and proteins
needed to protect them from disease and
is important for them to have in the first
24 hours. The calves are typically weened
by Labor Day.
For Truelsen, spring is one of his favorite
times.
“I really enjoy May when they take to
the grass and I can watch them,” he said
of the newborns. His kids — who are 11,
9 and 7 years old — like to help, especially
when the calves are running through
the shoot.
“This really is a family operation,” he
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Cindy and Steve Dirks share the work of calving and other chores with their sons Brandon,
far left, and Cody, second from the right, at their farm outside of Wyoming.
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 15

WELCOME TO THE WORLD
said. “It takes all of us in a busy season
to make everything run smooth.”
His brothers and their wives, he and
his wife, and his mom and dad all play
a role.
“Sometimes the women don’t get
enough recognition. But they certainly
deserve some, without a doubt,”
Truelsen said.
For Steve and Cindy Dirks and their
sons Cody and Brandon, calving is a
family affair. Cindy explained their entry
into the cow business as “4-H gone
wild.” The same is true of Truelsen and
Kuhlman, who started showing cows at
the fair as kids.
The Dirkses started their operation
with 14 bottle calves on rented ground.
Today they have six different farm
locations, with about 150 calves born
in the spring to their herd of 180 cows.
“It’s a lot of bouncing around,” said
Cody, 27, about the different locations.
They do the calving at the farm nearest
their home in Wyoming.
“We do that because we have access
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16 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

WELCOME TO THE WORLD
Loren Truelsen and his extended family have five cameras set up
at their farm near Camanche so they can keep an eye on their cows
in the barn and barnyard during calving season.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
all day long,” Cody said.
Cindy checks on the expecting cows throughout the
day, monitoring which animal is in labor and how things
are progressing.
Once the calves are born, the Dirkses enjoy seeing the
cows and calves bond.
“It’s amazing to watch the process,” Cindy said. “She’ll
know which baby is hers and where it is every minute.”
For all the families, watching their calves turned out to
pasture is a big moment.
“They kick up their heels and tear off,” Cindy said.
Seeing healthy animals more than makes up for the
long, frigid hours on watch and dealing with difficult
births and other problems.
For Truelsen, the Dirkses and Kuhlman, calving is
simply a big part of their lives.
“I’ve always dreamed about it since elementary
school,” said Kuhlman, who began working calving season
during his high school years.
Kuhlman and his wife Sara were putting the finishing
touches on their newly built house in the winter of 2013.
They hadn’t even moved in yet. But when a calf was
born in a fragile state, Kuhlman gathered it up, and, with
his chore boots on, set the animal up in his new bathtub to
keep it warm until it was stronger.
“You get to where you’ll do about anything,” he said. n
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 17

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When your values are clear to you, decisions become easier.
— Roy E. Disney
Land hold
While land
values have
dipped slightly
four of the five
years, the
market remains
relatively strong
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Chuck Schwager
bought a
143-acre farm
in 1981 — just
in time for the
farm crisis.
“The 1980s were hard
times, with high interest rates
and little money in farming,”
said Schwager, who has since
sold that farm and now keeps
cattle on 176 acres, renting
out the cropland to a young
farmer.
Land values in the state,
which averaged just over
$2,000 an acre in 1981,
plunged more than 30 percent
to $787 an acre by 1986, according
to several groups that
track values.
Prices have rebounded
since then, hitting highs and
then leveling back off as they
rise and ebb in response to a
variety of economic factors,
noted Schwager, who brokers
farm ground sales as the
owner of Maquoketa-based
East Iowa Real Estate. It’s a
job that gives him perspective
on how ground prices have
fluctuated over the years and
what factors impact them.
He’s also had a front-row seat
for how farmers adjust to the
circumstances — high or low
commodity prices, fluctuating
interest rates, leverage, etc.
“Throughout the history
of the farming industry there
have been profitable years fol-
AVERAGE VALUE
of farmland per acre in
Eastern Iowa counties
Source: Iowa State University Land Value Survey
20 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

ing its own
Chuck Schwager, owner of Maquoketa-based East Iowa
Real Estate, believes farmland is a long-term investment.
The most recent land survey results show prices per
acre have mostly held steady the past five years.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
lowed by losses. It’s a roller coaster ride
that most farmers know how to handle.
Farmers purchase land as a long-term
investment, to own and farm it. Land is
their legacy,” he said.
Figures released by the Realtors Land
Institute Survey and Iowa State University,
both of which track land values, show
a slight decline in the statewide average
price per acre — less than 1 percent —
from 2017 to 2018, following the trend of
a small dip the last four out of five years.
“Overall, there hasn’t been much
movement in values the past year,”
Schwager said. “If you look at the land
sales in Jackson County and surrounding
counties, you will see that there still
isn’t much land being sold. We are just
beginning to see more land becoming
available compared to the last four years.
The market is still good, although buyers
for farmland are not as aggressive.”
In 2018, the average price for an acre
of land in Clinton and Jackson counties
was $7,361 and $6,741 respectively,
representing decreases of 0.6 percent and
1.7 percent from 2017. Fifty years ago, an
acre in Clinton County cost an average of
$398, and in Jackson County an acre was
$339, according to Iowa State University’s
Farmland Value survey.
Whendong Zhang, an ISU extension
economist and economics professor, said
a combination of factors impact land
values, and it’s most important to look at
the percentage change year over year to
get an accurate picture.
“Yes, we are seeing downward
pressure and modest decline, but overall
we are seeing stabilizing land markets.
There’s no sign of sudden collapse,” he
said, in reference to any concerns that the
double-digit percent declines of 1980s are
replaying.
In the decades after the farm crisis, land
prices in Iowa climbed back up, reaching
a peak in 2013 of more than $8,000 an
CEDAR
1968 $533
1978 $2,095
1988 $1,289
1998 $2,312
2008 $4,943
2018 $8,386
CLINTON
1968 $398
1978 $1,688
1988 $1,073
1998 $1,864
2008 $4,208
2018 $7,361
DUBUQUE
1968 $370
1978 $1,606
1988 $1,054
1998 $1,863
2008 $4,705
2018 $7,744
JACKSON
1968 $339
1978 $1,450
1988 $940
1998 $1,607
2008 $3,882
2018 $6,741
JONES
1968 $366
1978 $1,541
1988 $980
1998 $1,773
2008 $4,121
2018 $7,431
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 21

“Farmers are
the buyers
for a big
percentage
of the land
changing
hands.”
— CHUCK SCHWAGER
acre, he noted. That increase was fueled in part by
the ethanol boom and low interest rates, as well as
strong commodity prices. But land values adjusted
back down as conditions changed.
What farmers are adjusting to now are commodity
prices that in many cases are too low to cover
operating expenses. As income shrinks, so do
margins.
Zhang noted that 82 percent of the farmland in
Iowa carries no debt. That means younger, beginning
farmers who tend to be more leveraged are
challenged.
“We are seeing an uptick in farm financial stress
for some,” Zhang said, adding again that it is not a
repeat of the farm crisis.
Today the major factor negatively affecting land
values — cited by realtors, bankers, farm managers
and others close to the agriculture industry
— is low commodity prices, which impacts farm
income. Higher long-term interest rates, thin profit
margins and less cash on hand for the farmers
were also noted. And weather is always a large
factor impacting yields one way or another in the
Midwest.
World trade fluctuations are impacting current
and futures markets.
“The tariffs are also causing uncertainty, especially
in the major export markets of grain, dairy
products and meat,” Schwager said.
The 2018 Farm Bill gives producers some
Whendong Zhang,
Iowa State University
extension economist
and economics
professor
safety net and allows them
to plan for the future, he
noted. The farm bill will
hopefully support trade
with other countries and
help in the trade disputes.
Also on the plus side,
people in the industry cite
limited land supply and
strong yields as positive
factors influencing the
land market. This is true
in East Central Iowa and
other parts of the state that
have had timely rains when
needed and good yields for three seasons in a row.
“Even with low grain prices there seems to
have been some profits,” Schwager said, but that’s
not necessarily true in the southeastern counties
of Iowa. They’ve been hit hard with drought for
three seasons, so farmers don’t have much cash on
hand.
“We are seeing a lot of land selling in those
southern counties and the market is not as favorable,”
he said. “Farmers are the buyers for a big
percentage of the land changing hands.”
Across Iowa the sales are somewhere between
70 percent to 75 percent farmers purchasing
the land. Investors are in the 20 percent range,
he said. n
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22 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

LOCAL AGENTS
WHO CARE ABOUT WHAT MATTERS TO YOU
Carolyn Dosland-Hasenmiller, Bryan Herington, Mark Schmidt, Chris Reed, and Grace Adams
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Sharing and caring: Farmers ma
The Harringtons
The Deutmeyers
Contribution:
Life insurance Policy
After many successful years farming, DeWitt
couple Charlie and Joann Harrington decided they
wanted to pay it forward and help strengthen their
community. they gifted a life insurance policy to
the LincolnWay Community Foundation, which
established three endowment funds totaling $140,000 each to
annually support the DeWitt Hospital Foundation, the DeWitt
united Methodist Church, and the Central Education Foundation
with preference given to agricultural programs.
Life insurance is a simple way for people to give a significant
gift to charity, with tax benefits during their lifetime
Donors who receive taxable income from life insurance policies
can take advantage of several tax-advantaged ways to make those
assets work for them and the causes they support. For example,
donors who give to endowments through the Community
Foundation benefit from the Endow Iowa 25 percent State Tax
Credit in addition to federal charitable income tax deductions.
Contribution:
Gift of Grain
Since troy and Shelly Deutmeyer began farming 11
years ago, they’ve been fortunate to have had good
harvests. When they had the opportunity to contribute
to the beckman Catholic Schools blazing Forward
Endow iowa Fund, they chose to do so with a gift
of grain.
“if everyone does a little bit, it adds up,” troy said of their
decision. He and Shelly said that rather than sitting down
and writing a check, donating about two bushels per acre of
their farm average is an easy way to support education. their
son, Shawn, is a senior at beckman Catholic High School,
so they’ve seen firsthand the value of the schools and were
eager to support the campaign through the Dyersville Area
Community Foundation.
Gifts of Grain help donors save on taxes as they deduct the
cost of growing the crops. the gifts are excluded from income
and are eligible for state tax credit.
An Affiliate of the
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
The Community Foundation of Greater
and inspires giving along with affiliate

ke a difference in so many ways
Don Hughes
Pauline Antons
Contribution:
Gift of Land
Don Hughes spent a lifetime working on the farm,
first his father’s and then his own operation
near Goose Lake. He and his wife Linda, both
deceased, opted to gift their portion of a family
farm inheritance to provide for their church,
the Salvation Army, and Maquoketa and northeast schools
through a gift of land.
the foundation’s Your Land/Your Legacy program allows
landowners to create a charitable legacy to benefit the causes
they love most in the community while retaining income from
the land.
Landowners retain control over the land knowing it will
support their favorite causes forever. the landowner’s tenant
farmer of choice keeps the land in production. in addition
to landowners receiving a tax deduction for the charitable
portion of the gift, capital gains taxes can be avoided
or reduced. the asset of farmland is removed from the
possibility of estate taxes.
Community Foundation of
Jackson County
An Affiliate of the
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
Contribution:
irA rollover
Pauline Antons’ love for the land runs deep, as does
her desire to preserve it for the next generation.
Having served on the Jones Soil and Water
Conservation District (SWCD) board of
Commissioners since 1990, Antons has worked to
help landowners implement conservation practices.
She decided to make a generous donation with an
individual retirement account (irA) rollover to help establish
the SWCD endowment, which is invested and will grow over
time. it provides an annual payout so that SWCD can provide
scholarships to promote conservation for the next generation,
ensuring the preservation of the land Antons holds so dear.
People age 70½ and older can transfer up to $100,000 per
year from individual retirement accounts (irAs) to charity
— without incurring federal income taxes today or estate and
income taxes in the future. Gifts to endowments may also be
eligible for the Endow iowa 25 percent State tax Credit.
Jones County
Community Foundation
An Affiliate of the
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
Dubuque strengthens communities
partners in surrounding counties.
dbqfoundation.org

Hay
Joe Sieverding, dairy farmer from Bellevue, uses
big round and square bales on his farm, along with
haylage. He remembers back in the 1970s when his
family would make small square bales and put them
in the barn with an elevator.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR

!
BY
As size
of bale
grew,
so did
quality
of hay
KELLIE GREGORICH
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Keith Barber, a 90-year-old
retired farmer from Oxford
Junction, reminisced about
the days when his family
made hay with a team of
horses, a 5-foot sickle mower, and a couple
hay racks.
Making loose hay in the 1940s was a
very different process than it is now. Barber,
his father, and a hired man would make
30 acres of hay every year.
“Back then you only mowed the amount
of hay that you could make in a day, which
was typically 10 to 12 acres,” Barber said.
“It took about a week to get all 30 acres
done.”
This 30 acres was equivalent to 100
loads of loose hay and about two or three
tons per load. All those loads of loose hay
then needed to be put into the barn. Thankfully,
he said, there were horses and hay
forks to help, but it was still a laborintensive
process that required a lot of
back work.
The process of making hay has changed
drastically over the last 60 years. Not
only has the size, quality, and form of hay
changed, but the equipment used has also
changed. Farmers have embraced changes
in hay production to make a more sustainable
product that requires less time and

HAY THROUGH THE YEARS
labor. They have gone from loose hay to
small square bales to big round bales that
weigh more than 1,000 pounds. These
days many farmers only use big square
and round bales or haylage. Some farmers
still use the small square bales; it just depends
on their operation and needs. Every
size of bale has its place.
Joe Sieverding, dairy farmer from Bellevue,
uses big round and square bales on
his farm, along with haylage. He didn’t
start out using these different kinds of hay
products, though. He remembers back in
the 1970s when his family would make
small square bales and put them in the
barn with an elevator.
Barber remembers when they switched
from loose hay to small squares that were
wrapped in wire. These bales could easily
weigh up to 100 pounds and still required
a lot of manual labor.
“I was sure glad to be rid of them,”
Barber said about the wire ties. It wasn’t
until the late 1960s that they started using
twine for wrapping.
Barber’s son, Steve, who took over the
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
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28 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

HAY THROUGH THE YEARS
Above, Keith Barber, a 90-year-old retired farmer from
Oxford Junction, is shown decades ago making hay
with the help of a team of horses. He’s seen major
changes in the process, including mechanization that
makes it much less labor-intensive.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Left, Steve Barber, Keith’s son, recalls the days of
small square bales that would be dwarfed by today’s
big, round bales. He’s invested in equipment that
gives him the best quality hay possible.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
family beef farm, clearly remembers the
days of small square bales. The baler
would pull a rack behind it, but it required
someone to stack the bales on the
rack. Steve said that each rack, holding
around 120 bales, would be put into the
barn using the same hay forks his father
used when they put loose hay in the
barn. He recalled one summer when five
farmers worked together to put up a total
of 23,000 bales.
It was in the late 1970s that the Barbers
went to big round bales. For Sieverding,
it wasn’t until the 1980s that he started
making big round bales and bagging
silage. It was a couple more years, in the
early ’90s, when Sieverding started to
make big square bales. When it came to
why they switched, both farmers had a
similar response. Smaller square bales
require much more work and hands.
“You can hire a guy to drive a tractor,
you can’t hire a guy to throw bales,”
Sieverding said.
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 29

HAY THROUGH THE YEARS
Corn Stalk
Bales:
These bales
can be used as
dry bedding.
They also
contain some
nutritional value
for livestock.
Square
Hay Bales:
These bales are
easy to store
and stack but
require more
physical labor.
They come in
both small and
large sizes.
“Nobody wants to work that hard anymore,”
Steve Barber said.
Nowadays Steve makes around 320 to 350 round
bales a year. He has upgraded his equipment through
the years, from a haybine to a discbine (“That’s a
dream,” said Keith Barber), to a bigger rake, and
invested in a hay tedder. He knew he was in this for
the long haul and needed to invest in equipment that
would give him the best quality hay possible.
“Good quality hay pays for itself,” Steve said.
His round bales are ground in a tub grinder and
stored underroof. He tub grinds his hay for multiple
reasons. There is a consistent intake of feed, and he
can better monitor that intake. It is also more efficient
because he can control how much the animals
get, and the cattle don’t waste as much.
Sieverding has his big round and square bales custom
baled every year, but he did invest in a chopper,
silage wagons, and a bagging machine.
As a dairy farmer he has to have multiple different
types of forage for his animals. The big square
bales are for younger calves that can’t reach the
center of the hay feeder. He has big round bales for
his dry cows and bred heifers because they are older
and can reach farther inside the hay feeder, plus it’s
convenient. The silage is fed to his milking cows
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30 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

HAY THROUGH THE YEARS
because it has a higher
moisture level, which is
an important aspect when
feeding dairy cows.
Both farmers, even
though they raise different
products, have a nutritionist
come to the farm to test
their hay products for their
relative feed values. This
allows both farmers to
make sure they’re giving
Keith Barber made their animals a balanced
loose hay in the diet to best fit their needs.
1940s with his dad “I believe you have to
and a hired man at make the best quality feed
the rate of 10 or so to get the best out of your
acres a day. livestock,” Sieverding
said.
Things have come a long way since the 1940s.
Thanks to the invention of the large round baler
at Iowa State University by Wesley Buchele
and a group of student researchers in the 1960s,
the process of making hay has not only gotten
easier, but it has become faster and less labor
intensive. n
Round
Hay
Bales:
This size and
shape takes
less time to
bale. This style
has become
the norm for
area farmers.
Haylage:
Haylage has a
higher moisture
level, which
is an important
aspect when
feeding dairy
cows.
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 31

Jim Holtz
563-593-1150
Loren Truelsen
563-221-3421
Shannon Frazier
563-275-0672
Mark Miller
563-590-6845
Chris Matthiesen
563-357-8303
THANK YOU
TO ALL OF OUR CUSTOMERS
Looking forward to the 2019 planting season!
Not pictured: Dave Boeding 563-343-1460; Roger Fredricks 563-349-1971;
Dana Zeller 563-579-5758; Landon Goettsch 563-370-6360

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phone
800-557-1184
FAx 563-583-1821

ROW CROP TRACTOR
Steel wheels an
LOWELL CARLSON
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
COLUMNIST
Manufacturers struggled to
create the first row crop tractor
With farming on the
verge of autonomous
tractors, a
shift away from
fossil fuels, and
unmanned machines performing field
operations, we’re at one of those dicey,
exciting moments in agriculture.
No one remembers the person who
tried to develop a soft drink called
6Up, but we all recognize the name
7Up. The point being the marketplace
rewards and punishes inventors
and manufacturers quickly.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
While scenic, the precisely lined rows of corn were a feat
of engineering for the farming industry.
On managing the next generation of construction:
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of work. We always have the right tools for the job, our staff is
trained to deliver the highest quality production, and we use the
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34 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

ROW CROP TRACTOR
d straight cornrows
Engineers and tractor companies are reimagining the
farm tractor, and it isn’t easy.
In fact, the industry has been at these kinds of shifts
in technology time and again, beginning with the effort
to create a successful row crop tractor design in the
1920s. International Harvester’s legendary Farmall,
with its steel pan seat and lug wheels, proved a commercially
successful tractor could cultivate corn and
cotton.
Competitors soon rolled out similar designs as the
broad outlines of a row crop tractor were accepted.
Mounted implements, belt and drawbar functions,
even power take-off shafts, were broadly agreed upon,
and horse-powered farming went into decline.
In the 1920s, as much to protect their plow, planter
and cultivator trade as any other concern, International
Harvester, John Deere and a list of smaller companies
focused on developing a gasoline-powered machine
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Evolutions in tractor design over the years have made some models obsolete as
technology has shifted. But, sometimes the old can be made new again in a sense.
Tom Marcus, of rural Andrew, donated this Allis-Chalmers pull-type planter to the
Andrew Lions Club’s Sweetcorn for Scholarships project last spring.
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SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 10/31/18 1:37 PM 35

ROW CROP TRACTOR
that would cultivate corn and
cotton. These companies
were already at work creating
smaller versions of gasoline-powered
tractors that
plowed and did drawbar duty.
In the winter of 1966, I
was working on my master’s
thesis, and John Deere gave
me the run of its corporate
library and archives in Moline,
thanks to an empathetic
librarian, Margaret Carlson.
In a bit of random chance, I
even stepped onto an elevator
with Deere CEO and Chairman
William Hewitt and
exchanged some small talk,
the equivalent of being a farm
machinery groupie I suppose.
Deere’s collection of images
and reports on experimental
models is a log of trial and
error, shop development and
field failure. But, there were
important breakthroughs and
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Columnist Lowell Carlson salvaged the best two-row units from the
planter donated by Tom Marcus to repurpose them. Steel frame
members were cut and repurposed to make the new two-row a
three-point lift planter for easier use in small plots.
defining events that, viewing
them in hindsight, led engineers
to the basic form and
function of the modern row
crop tractor.
Last year marked a century
of John Deere’s tractor history,
from the Froleich and Waterloo
Boy to more than 20
years in the field of auto steer
and autonomous tractors.
Deere’s involvement with
the production of tractors is
now worldwide, and it all
began in a board room in the
company’s one-time head
office not far from the Mississippi
River.
Deere’s initial involvement
includes some unique
experimental firsts. There
is engineer Max Sklovsky’s
one-piece, cast-iron body,
the first experimental tractor
to use such a frame. C.H.
Melvin’s integral power life
was unique when he experimented
with his model at the
Deere Plow Works from 1912
to 1914. Joseph Dain’s allwheel
drive tractor that could
change from low to high gear
without clutching was certainly
unusual at the time.
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36 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

ROW CROP TRACTOR
Even the name
“tractor” was not that
widely accepted.
Engineers talked
about “motor plow”
and “motor cultivator”
to describe the
strange machines
being assembled
in back bays at the
Deere Plow Works
in Moline.
— LOWELL CARLSON
Board members expressed
real concern about retaining
Deere’s important position in
the implement trade. It was
only prudent to anticipate
the potential change tractors
might bring to the implement
industry and Deere’s future.
Engineers and designers went
to work.
Even the name “tractor”
was not that widely accepted.
Engineers talked about “motor
plow” and “motor cultivator”
to describe the strange
machines being assembled in
back bays at the Deere Plow
Works in Moline.
Deere pursued both designs
from 1912 to 1921. When the
company acquired the Waterloo
Gasoline Engine Co. in
1918, most tractor work was
focused on the redesign of the
Waterloo Boy, the forerunner
of the famed “D.”
There were actually a
number of so-called motor
cultivators on the market by
1916. International Harvester,
Moline Universal (Moline
Plow Company), B.F. Avery,
Emerson-Brantingham, Toro,
Allis-Chalmers, Parrett and
Bailor all produced one- or
two-row models. The Model
D Moline Universal, introduced
in 1916, was the
best-known motor cultivator.
This primitive tractor was the
first to use a storage battery
for starting, ignition and
lighting. Unfortunately, the
cross-mounted motor had
no air cleaner, and limited
forward vision decreased its
usefulness.
The International Harvester
motor cultivator had a high
center of gravity, so much
so it was actually dangerous
to operate it on hilly ground.
The small, rear-drive wheels
left objectionable ruts in the
field. Later models of the
International model had a
power take-off.
Everything is prologue,
in life and in invention. The
motor cultivator concept
followed the pattern of horsedrawn
cultivators except a
steering wheel replaced the
reins.
The first man to place a
pivot axle cultivator ahead of
a tractor was J.B O’Donnell
of Sheldon, Iowa. He is a reminder
of how farmers, with
no formal engineering education,
have cropped up time
and again with breakthroughs
in machinery development.
The concept of laterally
swinging cultivator
units is the result of trial and
error by Deere engineers
and others. A 1916 sketch,
the equivalent of drawing
on a napkin over lunch, is
the first recorded image of a
front-mounted cultivator. It
was drawn by Deere board
member Joseph Dain.
Theo Brown, an engineer at
Deere’s Marseilles Plant, designed
the first actual motor
cultivator. Made with parts
from a horse cultivator, a
seven-horsepower New-Way
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 37

ROW CROP TRACTOR
air-cooled engine and a chassis that used
manure spreader wheels, the machine
was hauled to a nearby cornfield. Deere
estimated the machine could be sold
for $300; a big share of the cost of the
engine, $115.
The Ronning brothers, engineers with
Deere and Co., won the five-way race
to secure a patent for a front-mounted
motor cultivator. The patent, issued in
1925, came the same year International
Harvester sold its first 250 Farmall
row crop tractors, which were found to
infringe on the Ronning patent. International
Harvester was forced to pay $1
per tractor, whether it was equipped with
a cultivator or not, to the Ronnings.
In all this effort was the beginning of
intracompany standardization.
Theo Brown’s design was extensively
rebuilt to make it suitable for manufacture.
A more powerful motor built under
contract by Associated Manufacturers
in Waterloo proved to be a failure when
tested in the field, and McVicker, of
Minneapolis, was retained to build a
new design.
In the meantime, experimentation with
the Brown motor cultivator continued.
Engineers ran the machine backward
in the hope it could be adapted to
moldboard plowing, as well as adapted
to a horse-drawn mower. Instead it
made mowing a two-man operation, a
non-starter for a machine that is supposed
to reduce horse and manpower on
the farm.
In 1916, Deere’s board gave approval
for construction of 25 one-row Brown
“Tractivators” to be built at the Marseilles
plant. The first machine came
off the line Feb. 17, 1917. Two of them
were shipped to San Antonio, Texas,
for testing. R.L. Clausen, named to
the board of directors in 1919 and vice
president in 1921, was placed in charge
of the project and followed its progress
through the cropping season in 1917.
It was a disappointing experience for
Clausen. Hopes for a commercial tractor
vanished with one failure after another.
The one-speed transmission was too
slow, daily capacity was less than a man
with a one-row horse cultivator, the
engine lacked enough power for hilly
ground, lubricating oil consumption was
excessive, and two gallons of cooling
water evaporated each hour. A leaky carburetor
was indicative of how plagued
this machine really was.
In evolutionary terms, every one of
the design initiatives seemed to be abject
failures. In hindsight, Deere now knew
what didn’t work, and money and effort
were directed toward the design of an
entirely new tractor at the newly acquired
Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. In
the mid-1920s that resulted in the introduction
of the Model D and the Model
GP, both of which missed the mark with
their three-row concept.
Motor cultivators were an indispensable
link between the lumbering
fixed-axle behemoths that looked more
like the steam engines they replaced than
the tractors still to come. They anticipated
front-mounted cultivators, power
to the drawbar and belt, and even power
take-off. They were devoid of comfort
and especially safety features, but that
would come with competition. n
38 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

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A colle

ction of
JOY
From seed corn sacks to toy tractors,
items represent deep history in local ag
BY KELLY GERLACH
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Collections begin in many ways.
David Olson saw a stack of cloth
seed corn sacks neglected on a pile
at an auction. He was drawn to them,
bought them, and was hooked.
Yogi Braet’s passion began in 1976 when a
Case salesman near DeWitt wanted to place a
Spirit of ’76 Star Spangled Banner tractor on
Highway 30. Braet bought the 1570 tractor, one
of 300 painted by Case for the United States’
bicentennial celebration. He turned it into a
vast collection of toy tractors and farm tractors
as well.
They’ve amassed such sizable collections of
David Olson surrounds himself with well over 1,000 seed corn sacks, as well as various other ag-related
memorabilia, housed in an ever-expanding, heated metal shed on his rural Jackson County property.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR

COLLECTIONS
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
The collection of Yogi Braet, a Case and Farmall enthusiast, includes more than 40 full-size tractors as well as over 1,000 toy and pedal tractors.
seed corn sacks and ag-related
memorabilia that both men
constructed buildings to house
it all.
Many people find themselves
drawn to items that are unique,
but more often to things that
evoke memories, especially
from their childhood.
On the following pages are a
look at a couple Eastern Iowa
men who amassed collections
of ag-related memorabilia and
gadgetry that brings them joy
and preserves one segment of
the history of agriculture.
“When I got into it, I liked the
pretty graphics. You’d think
with something like this it would
be a boring thing, but it’s not.”
— DAVID OLSON
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42 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

COLLECTIONS
The King of Seed Sacks
David Olson’s collection
When you first step into the
steel shed where David
Olson stores his seed corn
sack collection, you might
think it’s quaint, hyper-local, and somewhat
small.
Signs from current and now-defunct
local dealers line the walls, and some seed
corn sacks hang on a rod attached to the
wall.
But hold on.
You step into a second room with walls
that seem to stretch forever. They are
defined by horizontal lines of hundreds
of white and beige one-bushel sacks in
every variety and size, printed with seed
company logos in red, yellow, blue and
green. The logos catch your eyes.
But wait. There’s more.
More sacks lie in piles atop tables in
the room. They are covered with a tarp to
protect them from humidity and the farm
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Three separate bags, one company: David Olson’s collection of seed corn bags displays the
evolution of advertising and design. For instance, the Pioneer logo on the right was one of the
earliest of the three shown. Over the years, the logo spread out, consuming more of the bag,
and eventually became colorized to draw more attention. The company’s preferred spelling of
“hybrid” also changed.
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COLLECTIONS
cats that wander in and out of the building.
Glass-fronted display cases hold John Deere watch fobs, license
plate toppers, stick pins, medals, thermometers, cufflinks,
dealer notebooks, pencils, playing cards, postcards, and ag-related
salt-and-pepper shakers. Ag advertising thermometers and
rain gauges hang on peg board and walls, along with cornhusking
pennants.
Some new ag treat awaits in every corner of the jam-packed
room.
It all started when Olson saw a stack of old, neglected seed
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Olson’s collection is not limited to seed corn bags but various
ag-related trinkets, including pins, watch fobs, clips, pins, cuff links,
buttons — anything with ag company logos on them.
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44 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

COLLECTIONS
corn sacks at a sale one day and bought them.
“I just thought they were neat,” Olson said. “When I got into
it, I liked the pretty graphics. You’d think with something like
this it would be a boring thing, but it’s not.”
At 60 years old, Olson lost count of the number of sacks in his
collection but knows there are more than 1,000 and knows the
history of each sack and the company.
“I come out here and cry and go back the other way,” he said,
laughing at himself. “What turned out from one little, bitty collection
turned into a headache.”
He also knows he owns duplicate sacks, but they serve a
purpose. Many detail variances over the years, with older logos,
company name changes, or dealers from different towns or
states.
Olson’s collection spans the gamut from crop production and
genetics to marketing, design and history.
His collection also chronicles the history of seed corn businesses,
which often began around the kitchen table on a farm
where owners thought they grew the best corn.
He owns a Behan and Helfert sack from a defunct seed dealer
in Sabula. There’s a Lloyd Guyer Tip-Top Hybrid sack from
near Nashville, Iowa, one from McNelly’s formerly of Hurstville,
and Naeve’s of Bryant.
Before the 1960s, most companies sold their seed in cloth
sacks. The cloth often was repurposed into clothing, towels or
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 45

COLLECTIONS
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Cornelius Seed of Bellevue, and various other seed
corn dealers, advertised their quality and brand on just
about everything, including these license plate toppers
nailed to a board in David Olson’s ag collection.
other items. In the 1950s, companies
briefly experimented with plastic sacks,
but if the seed corn was left outside in
the sun, it germinated in the bag, Olson
explained.
By the 1960s, paper sacks became
the norm and many companies still use
them. However, larger farms buy in
bulk and companies deliver the product
in reusable plastic containers.
“Eastern Iowa Farmer” writer Lowell
Carlson spoke to Olson about his collection
in 2013 and best described the
history documented in the names on
those sacks.
“First, it is a seed corn grower’s
name. Then, it is the grower and sons,”
Carlson explained. “After that the company
name on the bottom of the seed
sack possibly is moved to a new location
in the Midwest. Then, the company
is acquired by another seed company
and disappears or is merged into a
newly formed corporation. Independent
seed companies are grouped by a large
agribusiness corporation. And finally,
as in the case of Pioneer and other
major brands, these seed companies are
acquired by a chemical company.”
Olson’s collection doesn’t stop with
sacks. Corn literature and various other
old manuals are tucked inside display
cases, plastic protective sleeves, and
plastic totes. Flipping through one
stack, he uncovered a 1904 Funk’s
Bros. Seed Co. catalog. (That company
formed in 1901.)
More than 400 dealer signs and ag
advertisements line the walls inside his
steel building.
An average price is about $30 per sack.
Olson has paid more for unique pieces.
Some of the sacks even have their
original price tags, showing a sale price
of $12 a bushel when current seed corn
prices can be around $300 a bushel.
He searches trade magazines but
mostly online collectors’ sites and eBay
to find his next treasure. And he prefers
to trade with people.
“There’s lots of us oddballs out
there,” he said, laughing.
One of Olson’s motivators is the hunt
for something new and unexpected.
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46 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

COLLECTIONS
“That’s half the fun, the chase of finding
them,” he said.
However, preservation is most important.
“I don’t want to see these sacks cut up
and turned into purses, backpacks or anything
else,” he said. “I want to preserve
them.
His collection is so vast that he’s building
a 12-foot-by-58-foot addition to one
of his steel sheds. He’ll re-alphabetize
his sacks and hang them in the addition,
freeing up space for his train collection.
Maybe. If there’s space.
“If I go belly-up, the girls [his family] are
gonna kill me,” Olson said with a laugh.
Tractors of all
shapes and sizes
Yogi Braet’s collection
Yogi Braet has called Calamus
home since his birth 83 years
ago.
So it seemed only natural
that when his collections became unruly,
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
This 1976 Star Spangled Banner Case started Yogi Braet’s passion for collecting. His collection
includes more than 20 Case tractors, about 10 Farmalls, and more than 1,000 toys.
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COLLECTIONS
Yogi Braet of Calamus stands amid the
more than 1,000 toy and pedal tractors he
amassed in the last 40-plus years. The toys,
some of which are wood and some metal,
are neatly organized inside the special steel
building he had constructed for that purpose.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
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48 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

COLLECTIONS
he constructed a building to house them all — the
toys and the real tractors.
Braet’s parents farmed south of Calamus for 60
years. He and his younger brother helped to raise
livestock, grind feed, bale hay and cultivate. And
as most towns fielded a baseball team, he went to
games two or three nights a week.
He went to college for a year but returned to
help his parents on the farm. They drove Farmalls:
a series 300 utility tractor, 350, 450, 656, and 806,
all with A.M. radios on the fender, Braet recalls.
He bought that 1976 centennial Case from the
dealer, and it sparked his passion for collecting.
He bought mostly toy tractors, although there are
some pedal tractors tucked along the walls circling
his display shed.
“They [toy tractors] kept coming through the
door,” Braet said.
In the ensuing 42 years, he amassed a collection
of more than 1,000 toys in various conditions. He
hasn’t taken the time to count them all, he said. Most
are Farmall and Case tractors, but Braet also owns
tractors of other colors as well.
“It’s always fun to show friends and their
friends,” Braet explained. “Everybody that wants
to look at them has also worked on or grown up on
a farm.
“One of my favorite toy collections is a set of
Case tractors that are hand-carved – 12, not by me.
I have another set of a heavy [metal] casting; they
feel very sturdy.”
In the meantime, Braet also practiced his love
of music, and his sense of humor shines through
in the music he would sing at weddings, funerals,
and various other community programs. He kept
adding to his collection.
Braet wanted to share his joy of collecting with
others.
“I enjoyed going to toy shows around the state,”
he said. “Met a good group of collectors and enjoyed
what they were doing.”
In 1981, he paired resources with the Calamus
Lions Club to organize the Calamus Toy Show at
the elementary school. The Lions hosted the show
for the next 25 years, introducing new generations
to the hobby, showing off their collections, and educating
collectors and the public about the pastime.
And of course, Braet bought more tractor toys.
His love of collecting escalated.
“Toward the end of [the toy show] I always
liked Case tractors, so I started collecting full size
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COLLECTIONS
tractors: 430, 400, 530, 730, 930, 1960 models,” Braet said.
He now owns 30 full-size tractors: at least 20 are Case tractors
and the rest Farmalls.
He’s willing to show his collection to anyone who calls.
His dad’s collection seemed a bit out of the ordinary to Dirk
Braet.
“I remember during Christmas at Grandma’s,” Dirk recalled.
“Grandma had socks and T-shirts for me, and my Dad was
getting toys in his 50s. At that time there was something wrong
with that picture.”
Such a large collection takes up space.
“About 15 years ago I finally had to put a building up to put
them in,” Braet said. “Today there is not much room for much
more. So yes, it has been fun.” n
Kaleb Henry and dirK braet
Because I’m from a family
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My parents, Ruth and Yogi, pose in
front of their antique tractor collection.
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EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Toy tractors line the shelves of Yogi Braet’s shop in Calamus. The
memorabilia collector has amassed over 1,000 toy items.
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The burgundy hat
brought tears
to my eyes
BY KELLY GERLACH
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
It’s funny how a burgundy,
corduroy hat can affect you.
David Olson’s feed sack
collection moved me to
tears when he shared a piece
of it with me — a piece I
hadn’t thought about since
I was an 8-year-old girl
tagging along behind my
dad on our family farm
between Bellevue and
Preston.
I drove to Olson’s
rural-Maquoketa house to
interview him about his
vast collection of seed corn
sacks and other ag-related
memorabilia. He owns well
over 1,000 sacks, and that
doesn’t include the other gadgets,
knickknacks and memorabilia
filling one of his steel buildings.
52 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / KELLY GERLACH
My dad, Roger Gerlach, never worked outside without a hat on his head. Farmers know that’s
the best way to beat the heat in the summer and retain heat in the winter. He’s shown here atop
his John Deere 530.
We had walked into the addition he’s building to accommodate
his burgeoning collection. Olson opened a plastic tote filled
with random assorted items he’d purchased at a sale. In it were
manuals and charts, signs and graphics, chore gloves and ball
caps advertising ag companies.
“The hats don’t really do anything for me,” Olson said. “I
don’t really collect them, but I couldn’t pass up this bag of them.
And sometimes people just give them to me so they can be rid
of them.”
Seeing the assortment of hats took me straight back to my
childhood on the family farm.
One of Dad’s brothers sold seed corn. I don’t remember which
variety because it didn’t really matter to the little kid I was back
then. So Dad always had a stack of trucker hats with seed dealer’s
names emblazoned on the front.
Dad wore the same hat day after day until Mom finally
burned it, then he was on to the next.
But there was one hat he would not wear, and I
latched onto it and made it mine.
The Northrup King hat was fashioned of burgundy
corduroy with mustard-colored piping and stitching.
Dad thought it looked too spiffy to wear outside in the
muck and manure. And it would have been too warm
for summer wear.
So I claimed it. I wore it outside on occasion as I
tagged along with him. But I didn’t wear it too often because
I wanted to keep it clean and beautiful.
The hat disappeared over the years. I have no idea where
it went. And I forgot about it.
Until that December day in Olson’s steel building surrounded
by seed corn sacks and dealer hats.
And I mentioned that hat to him, how I had loved it and wondered
if such a one existed.
“Just a minute,” he said, holding up a finger and beckoning
me to follow him.
I obliged.
He opened another plastic tote and began sorting through
more hats.
I saw a hint of burgundy. Naw, that’s just some hat, I thought.
But Olson pulled out the hat, brushed off some dust, and
shook out the foam padding that had deteriorated after repeated
wear. And he handed it to me.
A couple of tears rolled down my face as I recognized the
burgundy corduroy.
“I don’t really collect hats. Take it with you. But I wouldn’t
put it in the washing machine or anything because you want to
keep it intact,” Olson advised, continuing to preserve history
with that simple instruction.
I gratefully accepted his gift.
That small piece of his collection, a hat that someone else
would have thrown away and he chose to save, meant the world
to me in that moment.
The hat is now in my burgundy-colored bedroom, unwashed
per his instructions. When I see it, I see the child I was a few
decades ago on the family farm, following my dad from the
hog house to the barn to the machine shed and into the house,
burgundy Northrup King hat atop my head. n
David Olson and Kelly Gerlach pose for a photo with the Northrup King hat Olson gave to Gerlach after she shared a childhood memory.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 53

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About
CALT:
By KRISTINE A. TIDGREN
Staff Attorney
Center for Agricultural Law & Taxation
Iowa State University
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
As we begin 2019, a number of agricultural
and taxation developments
from the past year continue to impact
agricultural producers. Following is a
summary of seven key issues to watch.
Tax Cuts & Jobs Act significantly changes
tax rules for agricultural producers.
The most sweeping legal change applying to
most agricultural producers in 2018 was the implementation
of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act signed
into law Dec. 22, 2017. The full impact of this
new law, however, is now being felt as producers
are beginning to file returns. In general, the new
law provides modestly lower tax rates for individuals,
a new 20 percent deduction for qualified
pass-through business income, a 21 percent flat
tax rate for corporate income, and a number of
changes impacting depreciation, expensing and
losses. Despite the fact that we are in the 2019
filing season, a number of questions still remain.
We have only proposed regulations for the new
199A Qualified Business Income deduction and
bonus depreciation, and we have not received any
guidance on the complex fix to the grain glitch.
Several questions present special difficulties:
• What rental income qualifies for the 199A
deduction?
• How should we allocate income and expenses
under the grain glitch fix and what is the
full impact of the Domestic Production Activities
Deduction (DPAD) transition rule on cooperative
patrons?
IRS will continue to provide guidance as the
year rolls on. Producers should stay in touch
with their tax professionals to make sure they
are adapting their business to best respond to the
new laws.
Key ag and tax
developments
impact farmers
New Farm Bill passes, making modest
changes.
The year ended with President Donald Trump
signing a new farm bill into law on Dec. 20. The
Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, generally
referred to as the 2018 Farm Bill, stems from
the work of a conference committee convened to
reconcile differences between Senate and House
versions passed earlier this year. The final bill is
a compromise, prompted by the need to implement
programs to assist farmers struggling with
market and price uncertainties. Generally, the
bill veers little from status quo. The conference
committee eliminated provisions that would not
gain bipartisan support, including stricter work
requirements for SNAP recipients. The Senate
passed the final bill by a margin of 87–13 on
Dec. 11. The House followed suit on Dec. 12,
by a margin of 286-47. More than 75 percent of
the $867 billion price tag over a 10-year period
funds the SNAP program.
The new act overhauls the failed dairy margin
protection program, legalizes the production of
hemp as an agricultural commodity, and tweaks
funding for various conservation programs. The
new law does not, however, change payment
limitations or enhance “active participation” requirements.
In fact, it extends an exception from
“actively engaged in farming” requirements to
first cousins, nieces, and nephews within family
farming operations.
Proposed rule would narrow the scope of
WOTUS.
On Dec. 11 the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
proposed a revised definition for “waters of
the United States” or WOTUS. This definition,
if finalized, would determine which waters are
subject to the jurisdiction of the federal Clean
Water Act (CWA). As proposed, the rule would
significantly narrow the scope of WOTUS,
particularly in comparison to the 2015 Clean
Water Rule.
n The Center for
Agricultural Law and
Taxation (CALT)
at Iowa State
University was
created in 2006.
It provides timely,
critically objective
information to
producers,
professionals and
agribusinesses
concerning the
application of
important
developments in
agricultural law and
taxation (federal and
state legal opinions
of relevance, as well
as critical legislative
developments) and
is a primary source
of professional
educational training
in agricultural law
and taxation.
Contact CALT:
Iowa State
University
2321 N. Loop,
Suite 200
Ames, IA 50010
Phone:
(515) 294-5217
Fax: (515) 294-0700
www.calt.iastate.edu
56 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

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DEVELOPMENTS
WOTUS has been the subject of
litigation and controversy since the final
Clean Water Rule was unveiled on May
27, 2015. Because of the pending litigation,
the 2015 rule is currently in effect
in only 22 states. The rule is stayed for
the remaining states because federal
courts have determined that states challenging
the rule were likely to succeed
on the merits of their legal claims. In
those states, a pre-2015 legal framework
applies. Specifically, these states have
alleged in their complaints that they are
harmed because the Clean Water Rule
expands the number of waters subject
to federal jurisdiction, erodes states’
authority over their own waters, increases
the burdens on the states to administer
federal water quality programs, and
undermines state sovereignty. The 2015
rule unleashed a complex procedural
saga that is still unfolding. The proposed
rule, if finalized, would end that chapter
of legal wrangling, and perhaps begin a
new one.
In particular, the proposed rule would
restrict CWA jurisdiction over adjacent
wetlands to those with a direct hydrologic
surface connection to jurisdictional
water. It would also prevent isolated
ditches, lakes, and ponds from being
subject to federal regulations. The
agencies hope to finalize the new rule by
year end.
U.S. Supreme Court may decide
whether Clean Water Act jurisdiction
exists over point source discharges
passing through groundwater.
Although the proposed WOTUS rule
specifically states that groundwater
itself, including that drained through
sub-surface drainage tile, is not WO-
TUS, it does not answer the question of
whether groundwater as a conduit for
pollutants can lead to CWA liability.
This is an issue that the agencies are
separately considering.
On April 12 the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Fourth Circuit vacated a district
court’s judgment and held that a discharge
that passed from a point source
through groundwater to navigable waters
could support a CWA claim. The Fourth
Circuit in Upstate Forever v. Kinder
Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. became
the second federal court of appeals to
make such a ruling in 2018. The first
was the Ninth Circuit in Haw. Wildlife
Fund v. Cnty of Maui. On Sept. 24 the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit took a different approach and
held that the CWA does not apply to pollutants
that travel through groundwater
before entering navigable waters. Tenn.
Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA,
No. 17-6155 (6th Cir. Sept. 24, 2018);
Ky. Waterways Alliance v. Kentucky
Util. Co., No. 18-5115 (6th Cir. Sept.
24, 2018). These cases, in addition to
the EPA’s recent request for comments
regarding this issue, signal a push for
certainty on the long-time question of
whether indirect discharges from point
sources, through groundwater, and into
navigable water are subject to regulation
under the CWA.
Petitions for certiorari are currently
pending before the U.S. Supreme Court
regarding this question. We should find
out shortly whether the high court will
take up the issue in 2019.
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58 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

DEVELOPMENTS
Trade disruptions trigger
Market Facilitation Program
payments.
2018 was a difficult year
for producers. Commodity
prices remained low, in part
driven down by a trade dispute
with China. On Aug. 27,
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue announced details
of new programs designed
to assist farmers in response
to ongoing trade disputes.
USDA authorized $12 billion
for three primary programs:
• A new Market Facilitation
Program (MFP) to provide
payments to corn, cotton,
dairy, hog, sorghum, soybean,
and wheat producers, beginning
as early as last fall.
• A Food Purchase and
Distribution Program to purchase
the unexpected surplus
of affected commodities.
• A Trade Promotion
Program designed to restore
lost markets and develop new
export markets for U.S. farm
products.
On Dec. 17 the USDA
announced that President
Trump had authorized
the second round of MFP
payments to be made. These
payments were to be issued
based upon the remaining 50
percent of total production,
multiplied by the MFP rates
for the commodity. Many of
these payments unexpectedly
hit mailboxes by year-end,
triggering 2018 tax liability
for their receipt. MFP payments
are subject to federal
income tax and self-employment
tax. For cash method
farmers, they are taxable in
the year of receipt. There is
no income deferral available.
The deadline was Jan. 15
to apply for inclusion in the
MFP program. At the time
of this writing, it is unclear
whether that deadline was
extended because of the partial
government shutdown.
Producers have until May 1
to certify 2018 production.
More information on this
program is available at farmers.gov/mfp.
Final approval granted
for $1.51 billion Syngenta
settlement.
On Dec. 7 Judge John
W. Lungstrum granted final
approval in the $1.51 billion
Syngenta settlement pending
in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Kansas. The
approval authorized $5.03
million in attorney fees to be
distributed from the settlement
fund. “Reasonable attorney
expenses” will be paid
separately from the fund.
Eligible producers who
filed a claim by Oct. 12
should receive a payment
from the remainder of the
fund in 2019. It is estimated
that the payments may be
made in the second quarter
of the year.
Ag nuisance verdicts
worry producers.
In 2018, three nuisance
lawsuit verdicts rendered by
North Carolina juries rocked
the agricultural sector. The
sum of the verdicts against
Murphy-Brown, a subsidiary
of Smithfield Foods,
exceeded $500 million. Murphy-Brown
has filed a notice
of appeal to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Fourth
Circuit. In December, a
fourth jury rendered a verdict
in favor of eight plaintiffs,
but the award was much
more modest: $100,000
in compensatory damages
and no punitive damages.
Approximately two dozen
cases remain to be tried in
North Carolina. A new right
to farm law passed by the
North Carolina legislature in
2018 does not apply to these
pending cases. These cases
involve more than 500 plaintiffs
alleging that the use and
enjoyment of their property
was impaired by the defendant’s
open-air hog manure
lagoons and other practices.
The impact of these cases
on agricultural producers in
other states remains to
be seen. It is an issue, however,
that we are watching
closely. n
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How are Eastern Iowa farmers
MANAGING
CHANGE?
Father and son
work together
to perpetuate
farming legacy
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
When newlyweds Eric and
Rachel Manson bought their
farm just south of the Jackson/
Clinton County line a few years
ago, it was a leap of faith.
The landscape of the agricultural industry
had changed dramatically from when John
Manson, Eric’s dad, bought his first farm
in Eastern Iowa in the early 1970s. He paid
$48,000 for his first 80 acres.
“Financially things have changed. Practices
have changed,” said Eric, 29. He knew there
would be challenges, but, while working
alongside his dad over the years, he’d silently
harbored dreams of operating his own farm
someday.

Through the years, how we farm in Eastern Iowa has evolved.
Equipment is bigger, technology is more sophisticated, seed choices
are many, and growers face relentless pressure to keep pace.
At about 4 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon
in late October, Eric and John Manson
were finally able to fire up the combine
and pick corn after hours spent working
on a mechanical breakdown. As the
moon rose on the horizon, they were
racing against the clock to pick corn
after a week of rain saturated the
ground and delayed work in the fields.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR

MANAGING CHANGE
John
and Eric
Manson
Maquoketa
Eric and Rachel, who travel frequently for their full-time
jobs as engineers, believed that when ground came available,
along with barns and a farmhouse, it was an opportunity
they could not pass
up. Eric and John work
their farms together, with
John sharing the equipment
he’s bought over the
years and the knowledge
he’s gained through seasons
of raising cows and
growing crops.
Through the years
much has changed
throughout the Eastern
Iowa farm scape. Equipment
is bigger, technology
more sophisticated,
seed choices are many and more complicated, and growers
face relentless pressure to keep pace.
For any young couple looking to buy ground and begin
raising crops and livestock, uncertainty exits, said Brandi
Janssen, director of the Iowa Center for Agricultural Safety
and Health at the University of Iowa.
“It’s not new that farming is volatile. We know that markets
shift and the weather shifts. In some ways that volatility
gets predicted,” she said. But today, with low commodity
prices, high financial barriers to entry and global impacts,
there are very different challenges than there were 50 years
ago, she said.
Farmers, at least most of them, have always had to manage
debt at some point during their careers, but today that
task has additional complications. There’s the cost of pricey
equipment and inputs like fertilizer and seed. Global markets
and trade uncertainty are the new backdrop. Time — to
tend to animals, plant, harvest and maintain equipment and
fences — is at a premium because of the demands of offfarm
jobs that are often necessary for people to have health
insurance and meet loan obligations.
The next generation of farmers, Eric believes, can learn
from the veterans, as he does from his dad.
“He’s a good resource,” Eric said. “He’s a huge help on
the financial part of the stuff. He’s conservative on spending.
Usually he points me in the right direction and pushes
me toward the right things.”
While John, 69, “hates debt,” he knows “it’s a reality”
for a beginning farmer today. While he is thrilled that the
family’s three-generation farming legacy will continue, he
acknowledged that changes in the agricultural landscape
over the years make it a difficult career.
“My dad would really be happy if he knew that farming
in our family would continue. Up until several years ago, I
thought this is the end of the line. That happens so often,”
said John, who grew up on a farm in Fayette County. But
Truth.
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The Observer
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118 S. Second Street • Bellevue, IA 52031
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64 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
as he looks to retire, he sees Eric’s entry into
farming as an opportunity for them to help each
other.
“Probably the biggest barrier for young farmers
is the finances. Eric has a lot of my machinery,
and he uses a lot of my machinery because
in today’s world it wouldn’t be possible for him
to do this otherwise. It is next to impossible for
young people to start farming unless they have
help,” John said.
Aside from helping each other plant and harvest,
Eric has about 30 cows and John about 45.
“We combine them,” John said. “I bring them
over here when they are weened, and he feeds
all the calves out.”
They differ on a few things, such as the
amount of stress they feel to get crops in and
out.
“He doesn’t get as stressed at crops as I do,
but he does have the financial stress,” John said.
Eric agreed.
“I get less stressed than he does. I don’t get
as worked up at getting crops in or getting crops
out,” Eric said, although he noted that beans are
definitely a priority and he does like having the
corn out by Halloween. Bad weather the first
Brandi Janssen,
Director of the Iowa
Center for Agricultural
Safety and Health at the
University of Iowa.
part of October made it
difficult this year.
John also knows that
someday Eric might
want to use more advanced
technology.
“The combine I’ve
got has GPS, and I unplugged
that and put it in
the toolbox. I told Eric
‘It’s all yours because I
don’t want anything to
do with it,’” he said.
John, who taught
high school for 37 years
before farming full-time,
said he is happy to share
his knowledge with Eric. He’s taught him about
the soil conservation practices he’s passionate
about and other nuances. In return, he reaps the
benefits of the two of them working together, especially
in the physically demanding aspects.
“I’ve got lots of creaks in my bones, and I’d
probably rent my farm out.” he said, noting his
age. “I wouldn’t be farming now if Eric wasn’t
involved.” n
“It’s not new that
farming is volatile.
We know that
markets shift and
the weather shifts.
In some ways
that volatility gets
predicted.”
— BRANDI JANSSEN
FEEDTHE
FIELDS
AND THEY’LL FEED YOU
901 Johnson St. SW • Cascade, IA
(563) 852-7559
wfront@netins.net
• Dry & Liquid Fertilizer • Seed
• Custom Dry Fertilizer Application
• Dry Fertilizer Spreader Rental
• Chemicals
Feeding
fields for over
40 years!
Call or stop by to talk with one of our salesmen
to see how they can help your dollars grow with a
PERSONALIZED HERBICIDE PROGRAM!
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 65

MARK
MILDER
Your
Partners in
Financial
Success!
JOEL
KACZINSKI
RITCH
SKRIVSETH
Clinton National Bank www.clintonnational.com 563 243-1243
Andover Camanche Clinton Delmar Miles Preston Sabula
Member FDIC

MANAGING CHANGE
Jason
Spain
Welton
Jason Spain
came back
to the family
farm in 2007,
right about the
time tractors
and other
equipment
started
getting bigger
and more
technical.
EASTERN
IOWA FARMER
PHOTO /
BROOKE
TAYLOR
Embracing technological changes
Spain family uses equipment larger and more high-tech
than they ever imagined as kids
BY KELLIE GREGORICH
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Red International tractors
as large as buildings,
tires that make the
ground rumble as they
roar by, and engines that have
enough power to pull thousands
of bushels of grain fill large sheds
on a farm in northern Clinton
County.
Welcome to Spain Family
Farms where tractors can drive
themselves, field maps contain
intricate details about the soil,
and a single seed can be planted
with precision.
Brothers Woody, Larry, and
Terry Spain are third generation
farmers who grew up doing a lot
more manual labor than many
young farmers do now. As young
boys, they picked corn with a
two-row mounted picker that
pulled a 150-bushel wagon behind
it. They stored the ears in a
corn crib and never dried a single
kernel.
Today, their operation uses
larger machinery and high-tech
equipment that is more advanced
than anything they ever imagined
as kids.
“The whole precision piece of
farming is an example of something
that has taken the planting
operation to a new level,” said
Mark Licht, an assistant professor
of agronomy at Iowa State
University.
The way farmers operate
and the equipment they use has
changed a lot over the centuries,
Licht said.
Farmers in Eastern Iowa work
differently than their ancestors
did in the 1800s when hand-held
iron tools such as rakes, hoes
and sickles were used, and
oxen, mules and horses pulled
Mark Licht,
Iowa State University,
Assistant Professor
of Agronomy
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 67

See Maquoketa Feeds for all
of your spring seed needs!
• Large inventory of Welter’s Seed
• Most Welter Seed 5% off suggested retail
• N/C Jerry Oats ................. $8.75 while supplies last
• N/C INO 9201 Oats ........... $9.25 while supplies last
• 919 Gold Alfalfa .............. $155 00 / 50#
• 919 Alfalfa ..................... $145 00 / 50#
• Good inventory of Beck’s Seed Corn
and Soybean Seed
• Lawn Seed
— CAITLIN DENGER —
Your local Beck’s Seed salesperson for Maquoketa Feeds
WELTER SEED
& HONEY CO.
Maquoketa
Feeds
903 E. Platt, Maquoketa, IA 52060
Phone: 563-652-4981
Locally owned and operated for four generations!
Proud to be a local supporter of numerous
local charities, benefits, county fairs, and more since 1842.
equipment. Steam engines
gave way to gas-powered
engines, and advancements in
steelmaking improved tractor
and implement quality. Today,
precision farming computers,
GPS and other advanced tools
are mainstream. Keeping up
with new technology and
modern equipment has become
increasingly important to efficiency
and yield.
Some families nurse older
equipment along for years;
others find having newer,
bigger machinery is crucial to
keeping up with the demands
on the farm. Many do a combination
of both.
In 1974 the Spain family
bought their first combine to do
beans and oats. A few years later
they started combining corn.
Equipment on the farm
stayed similar until Larry’s
son, Jason, came back to the
farm in 2007. That was when
tractors and other equipment
started to get bigger and more
technical.
“It wasn’t me persuading
them, but by the time I came
home the precision products
were more versatile,” Jason
said. Not only could the products
be used on their already
existing fleet of equipment,
but Jason had the knowledge
to guide the brothers.
Larry has pretty much
always run the planter on the
farm and noted the evolution
of that implement.
“We went from a 38-inch,
four-row planter to a 30-inch,
24-row planter,” he said.
Larry wasn’t always keen
on the new equipment, though.
Auto steer on the tractors was
one of the things he fought the
most.
“The first year we had auto
steer I always used the gauge
markers. It took me a year and
a half to not use the marker
because I didn’t trust auto
steer,” he said.
The Spain brothers may
have not trusted or understood
the new technology, but they
embraced it.
One of the biggest reasons
MANAGING CHANGE
they decided to dive into precision
technology was that the
window to get their crops in
and out seemed to get smaller
every year. They wanted to
do whatever they could to be
more efficient in both areas.
“Every piece of machinery
that is bigger allows for a faster
planting and harvest season,
plus better yields,” Jason said.
The new technology has
drastically changed things on
the farm for the better.
Woody said he really likes
the precision equipment and
can see the benefits. Larry said
he won’t even drive the tractor
if the auto steer doesn’t work.
As for Jason, he said that
things have come a long way
from the days of using a pen
and paper.
So what happened to the
older tractors? The ones that
the three boys grew up on and
first learned how to drive?
They’re still on the farm, serving
a valuable purpose.
“They may not be the main
machine on the farm, but they
still have a use – that’s why
they’re still around,” Jason
said. n
68 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
Larry Spain is part of the third generation of
farmers in Clinton County. He and his brothers
Woody and Terry grew up doing a lot more
manual labor than they do on the farm now as
equipment has become more advanced.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTOS / BROOKE TAYLOR
Cascade
Lumber Co.
BUILD YOUR FUTURE WITH US
Here for your farm in 1953,
STILL HERE FOR YOU NOW!
First known to our customers as “Your Yard on the Highway,”
Cascade Lumber officially opened on May, 19 1953 and would serve
the townspeople and farmers of the surrounding area. While we still hold
our core company values, we have kept up with the needs of the
modern-day farmer. When it comes to your next building project,
trust us, we’ve been around the block a time or two — just ask!
563-852-3232
800-943-4685
Hwy. 151 E. • Cascade, Ia
caslbr@netins.net
www.caslbr.com
Melvin Staner
Ag Sales/ Estimating
Aug. 31, 1967: Materials supplied from Cascade Lumber
Sept. 14, 1967: Materials supplied from Cascade Lumber
Brad Gehl
Sales/ Estimating
Barney
Dirks
Counter
Sales
32’x40’ open sided pole cattle shed on farm of Bert and Butch Coakley of
Otter Creek. Wood truss rafters were used to give open clear span construction.
2017: Materials supplied from Cascade Lumber
45 foot wide combination hay and cattle shed on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Al Althoff
of Zwingle. The closed back side of this building is two feet higher than the front...
providing more bale storage space. These open clear span wood truss rafters were
made in the Cascade Shop.
2018: Materials supplied from Cascade Lumber
Building owner Ron Hartman of Key West
Building owner Jerry Schau of Monmouth
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 69

MANAGING CHANGE
Seeds of change
Science has come a long way over the last century, and developments
in hybrid development and biotechnology give farmers more options.
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
In 1915, Charlie Cornelius began
experimenting with open-pollinated
seed, gaining recognition
for what began as a hobby at
local and state competitions.
Twenty years later, his son Gilbert
began producing hybrid seed on six
acres, and a business was born.
Fast forward to fall 2018. Charlie’s
great-grandson Chuck, the president
of Bellevue-based Cornelius Seed
since 1994, and his wife, Chris, the
company’s executive assistant, sit in a
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
In the early days, corn was dried in the back attic at Cornelius Seed in Bellevue. Today, the
company and other seed producers have come a long way from the days of open-pollinated seed.
Biotechnology and hybrid development continue to advance the agriculture industry. Left to right
are Emil Kruger, Lawrence Cornelius, Gilbert Cornelius, and Charlie Cornelius.
When you need your
farm land appraised
CALL KEN KRUGER
Your local eastern Iowa farm appraiser,
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Other services Ken provides include:
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as well as licensed for life insurance,
long term care insurance and annuity sales.
Independent Licensed
563-349-3150 • DeWitt, Iowa
Certified General Appraiser
70 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
Cornelius
Seed
Bellevue
Cornelius Seed has evolved
over five generations, as
the local company adapted
to advances in science and
technology. Pictured are
members of the Cornelius
family involved in the business
today. Seated are Chris and
Chuck, fourth generation, and
standing are James, Janie
and Will, representing the fifth
generation.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR
94 YEARS
in business...
We’ve just about
seen it all!
Whether it’s your home, buildings,
machinery, livestock or even your
agri-business, nothing catches us by
surprise. We’ve spent decades helping
farmers through the ups and downs of
their careers. Let us help you, too.
PROUD TO BE SERVING FARMERS SINCE 1925
Nissen-Caven Insurance and Real Estate
563.652.5171 • nissencaven.com • Call Judie, Chris or Kristi for more information
MANAGING CHANGE FOR GENERATIONS
John L. Jones,
Catherine
Nissen Jones,
Founder, 1925
Donald
Nissen
Owner,
1948
Bob
Caven
Partner,
1966
Chris Nissen
Owner, 1990
1925 2019
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 71

MANAGING CHANGE
meeting room at the company’s corporate headquarters
on the same property where it all started. Their
sons, Will and James, the fifth generation of family
members to join the business, are there as well to talk
about the changes the seed industry has undergone
over the past eight decades.
“When they did open-pollinated seed, they were
drying the corn in the back attic,” Chuck said, referring
to seed pollination that occurs through insects,
birds, wind or humans, as compared with the controlled
methods used to develop hybrid seed.
A wooden dryer built in the 1930s for the hybrid
business burned down in 1945 and was replaced with
a cement block structure still used today. The generations
of entrepreneurs have added on to the drying
facility with warehousing, storage and office space, as
well as upgrading facilities as needed.
Over the years, science has made big leaps and
bounds in both hybrid development and biotechnology,
Chuck noted.
“There has been steady improvement in corn breeding
over the years,” Chuck said, from double crosses
all the way to single crosses that took a lot of work to
get an in-bred seed that produces the needed yields.
The introduction of round-up ready soybeans
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Gilbert Cornelius, shown here in the 1970s, began producing hybrid seed on six
acres more than eight decades ago, and a business was born. Cornelius Seed still
operates in Bellevue with operations that have expanded over the years.
2019
Sure, equipment will change over the years,
but our dedication to providing you with
a quality product always remains the same
1974
504C
BREEDEN’S
VERMEER
breedensales.com • email: c4balers@netins.net
Calvin, Bob, and Josh Breeden
563-686-4242
17047 167th Ave.
Maquoketa, Iowa
72 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

What’s 15 minutes
of your time worth?
A lifetime
By getting your 15-minute,
3D mammogram at the
Jackson County Regional
Health Center you can
secure some peace of mind
when it comes to your health.
This advanced technology
produces the most accurate
results and early detection.
Jackson county
Regional HealtH centeR
GENESIS HEALTH SYSTEM
What is 3D Mammography?
3D mammography is a far superior
mammogram. In fact, the Hologic
3D mammography exam is the only
mammogram proved to find 41% more
invasive cancers, earlier, while reducing
the chance that you will need to be called
back for additional tests by up to 40%.
This saves stress, time, anxiety, and out
of pocket costs for unneeded follow up.
What makes it different?
The difference is that the 3D exam
captures multiple images from several
angles, creating a multi-layered breast
image. The radiologist who reads your
exam can review the breast one thin
layer (1 mm) at a time, almost like
turning the pages in a book, which helps
them to make a more accurate diagnosis.
Call for an appointment!
700 W Grove St, Maquoketa, IA
(563) 652-2474
genesishealth.com/jacksoncounty

MANAGING CHANGE
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
James Cornelius talks about how corn is processed in the conditioning
tower at Cornelius Seed in Bellevue. Seed is sorted by size, shape and
color to ensure accuracy for the farmer who will plant it.
(resistant to Roundup herbicide)
in 1996 marked the
introduction of biotechnology,
which today has expanded corn
and soybeans’ defense against
insects and disease and environmental
and climate stresses.
“Biotechnology traits were
the next big thing that made a
dramatic shift in not only how
farmers did their operations
but on how we did business as
well,” Chuck said.
As the industry became
more intricate and complex,
Cornelius grew its facilities
and added employees.
It is one of the few independent
seed companies that does
its own production, processing
and marketing of hybrid seed
corn and soybeans. At one
time, there were more than
750 seed corn brands in the
United States, and now that
number is under 200, as consolidation
and other market
forces narrow the field.
Last year Cornelius Seed acquired
the retail sales division
of Munson Hybrids in Illinois
and southern Wisconsin,
combining the retail businesses
of two independent,
family-owned seed companies.
The move expanded the
footprint of Cornelius Seed —
which markets corn, soybeans,
alfalfa and grass seed primarily
in Iowa, Wisconsin and
Illinois.
The company pays attention
to having products that fit its
geographic footprint.
“The thing about agriculture
is that it’s all micro-environments
and micro-climates,”
said Will, who joined the company
in 2009 after graduating
from Iowa State with a degree
in agronomy and seed science.
“It’s not like the car industry
where a Chevy Silverado
drives the same in New York
as it does in California. In
agriculture, it’s very different
because of the rainfall, heat
and altitude. All of that makes
a difference,” he said.
Part of the company’s
focus is to develop inbred
lines to create new hybrids,
he explained. That involves
selection and observations to
find new products that work
for farmers as others become
obsolete.
“There will always be new
and better genetics coming
out,” Will said.
It’s imperative in their business
to keep up with the latest
ONE CENTURY STRONG
Since our start in 1918, the Jackson County Farm Bureau
has worked to support farmers, families, education and
economic development in our communities. Together,
we plant the seeds of success that bring a better quality
of life for all Iowans.
The Jackson County Farm Bureau salutes you, the proud
families who’ve held the plow steady for 100 years.
Together we embrace the strength and future
opportunities that will grow from being One Century Strong!
jackson.county@ifbf.org
563-652-2456
74 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
“The thing
about
agriculture
is that it’s
all microenvironments
and microclimates.”
— WILL CORNELIUS
science, Chuck said. They attend a lot of seminars.
“It’s really about just studying what is going on
in the industry and staying the expert in our field.
There are a lot of late nights reading and a lot of
weekends working on staying current.”
That includes with machinery as well, noted
James, who came on board in 2011 after graduating
from Iowa State with a degree in agronomy and ag
systems technology. One of his roles is overseeing
the conditioning facilities.
On an October day, he gives guests a tour of the
conditioning tower, where corn is sorted by size
(big or little), shape (flat or round), and color (light
or dark) to ensure accuracy for the farmer who will
plant it.
A state-of the-art color sorter — which takes a
picture of every single kernel to decide if it’s in
the right color spectrum — is being installed and
tested.
Fungicides and insecticides are applied directly
onto the seed before it is bagged for shipping.
The business is a combination of literal handson
work and high-tech equipment, keeping in line
with the company’s emphasis on quality, he said.
“There is significant human inspection all the
way through it. We try and use mechanics to aid in
the process as much as possible for capacity, but
there are always people watching it to make sure
the machines are doing what they are supposed to
do,” James said.
Janie Cornelius, who is married to James, serves
as the company’s technology lead. She works
closely with customers on the digital technology
platform the company uses called Climate Field-
View.
“What it does is allow you to put all the different
operation layers that you do on your farm into
the system,” she said. “Then you are using it to
make data-driven decisions.”
While farmers still have “boots on the ground,”
the technology can provide specific information
on such things as a wet spot on the field, a disease
presence or insect pressure.
“Digital ag and data management is changing so
rapidly,” she said.
For example, farmers have been recording yield
maps since the ’90s.
“For the longest time, all we ever did with
recorded data was print out a map, look at it, throw
it in a book and put it in a shelf. Now we are taking
all that information that they’ve been recording and
turning it into data-driven decisions,” Janie said. n
On using Ohnward Tax, Accounting and Business Service in Maquoketa:
“This is one of the best things I ever did
in my life. The best. It used to be a total
nightmare at tax time. If MSB ever stopped
this service, I’d be in trouble. I’d be lost.”
Bob Weber
Bellevue, Iowa
(866) 872-3979
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 75

MANAGING CHANGE
Tim
Johnson
Bellevue
Tim Johnson raises
cattle on his Springbrook
farm. He pays attention
to genetics, using tests
that help him figure out
which animals produce
the best offspring.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Profitability is a key component in maximizing stability
in all forms of agri-business.
SERVICES PROVIDED: FORMULATIONS,
COW/CALF AND FEEDLOT MONITORING SERVICES.
CUSTOM FEED BUSINESS
Keeney
Welding
SINCE 1953
All feed plans formulated by
Steve Tebbe,
Beef Production &
Cow/Calf Specialist
563-357-3784
Web: eastcentralconsulting.com
Email: eastcentralconsulting@gmail.com
Steel Fabrication
Portable Service
Steel Sales
MIlES, Ia 563-682-7699
76 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
Breeding the best cattle
Producers hone the right genetics
to harness the best return
BY KELLIE GREGORICH
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
For Eastern Iowa cattle farmers,
science and profitability
have intersected over the last
70 years. While farmers in the
1950s generally kept it simple with
one bull to breed, today they hone
economically important genetic traits
to keep their business thriving.
Tim Johnson, a farmer from
Springbrook, is constantly working
with cattle genetics on his Red Angus
seed stock operation. Cattle are always
trending in different directions,
according to Johnson. An important
aspect of breeding cattle is knowing
how they’ve changed over the years
and what genetics worked the best.
Cattle from the 1950s were extreme
in frame size, and this reversed in the
1980s when cattle were tall and had
no belly, Johnson said. This trend
continued into the 1990s, and in the
2000s cattle started to become smaller.
Bellevue
Lumber
563-872-3750
bellevuelumberia.com
Maquoketa
Lumber
563-652-5155
maquoketadoitbestlumber.com
Quality...
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If you want nice, clean,
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that comes a little cheaper.
Serving Clinton, Dubuque, Jackson and Jones counties in Iowa since 1947
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 77

MANAGING CHANGE
“Genetic evaluations
have improved
performance of
cattle a great
deal, too. Carcass
weights are
substantially higher
now, along with
ability to marble.”
— BRAD SKAAR
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Successful cattle farmers use nutrition plans and science to their advantage to breed cattle that have traits
desired by the industry.
Producers are now focusing on capacity and
belly size. Cattle are heavier muscled than in
the past.
“They have changed a great deal. Cattle are
definitely bigger (now). I am sure cow weight
is at least 100 pounds heavier on average than
then,” said Brad Skaar, associate professor
of animal science at Iowa State University,
Meant
If it’s
To Be
you will find it here!
Pictured: Owner Lisa Duffy
Hours:
Monday-Friday
9:30-5:30;
Saturday
9:30-3:30
810 6th Ave.,
DeWitt, IA
563-659-1429
Kevin & Lisa Duffy
WIND CHIMES • BENCHES • LANTERNS
STONES • CANDLES
Memorial Gift Ideas — Fresh flowers
Floral Arrangements
meanttobewithflowers.com
78 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
describing how cattle have changed since the 1950s.
“Cattle then were short, compact, and quick maturing. Subsequently
they were (by today’s standards even) over-finished
compared to now,” he said.
“Genetic evaluations have improved performance of cattle a
great deal, too. Carcass weights are substantially higher now,
along with ability to marble. Breed diversity is much greater,
too now than then,” he said, adding that there is much more
European breed influence now — Charolais and Simmental
are most notable in the U.S. commercial industry.
In the 1950s producers bred their cows the natural way with
one of their home-raised bulls or possibly
a neighbor’s bull, and hoped for
a good piece of meat in the end. There
wasn’t much science behind it.
The development of better, higher-quality
cattle is recent because of
the improvement in breeding. Johnson
said the use of artificial insemination
(AI) and embryo transfer has resulted
in superior genetics across the country.
With AI, producers are able to use a
better bull on their herd to produce
Brad Skaar,
Iowa State University,
Associate Professor
of Animal Science
better quality calves.
Along with better breeding practices
producers have much more information
at their fingertips, Johnson said. He
noted two tests that are instrumental in
helping farmers figure out which animals are producing the
best offspring — genomics tests and progeny tests.
Genomics look at all the genes and how they interact to influence
growth and development of an animal. Progeny testing
is information that can help a producer figure out which bull
and cow are putting out the best offspring in a herd, Johnson
explained.
Not only has how producers breed cattle changed, but how
they feed them has changed as well. Producers in the 1950s
didn’t have as specified nutrient plans for their cattle.
These days producers have a nutritionist who helps them
figure out how much feed each animal on the farm should be
taking in each day. They also discuss how much of each feed
source (corn, hay, silage, protein, mineral, etc.) each animal
should have a day. This ration is evaluated multiple times to
make sure it’s meeting the animals’ needs throughout their
lives.
“The ’50s saw the real birth of the American feedlot. So
cattle now are much younger on average as they enter full
feed (usually right after weaning in the upper Midwest), and
not so often ‘grown out on grass’ prior to feedlot entry. We
push the limit of energy concentration much harder and faster
now than then. And we have more precise measurements of
feed delivery, so we have a better handle on cattle predicted
performance, and this allows us to market more effectively
at the optimum time. Implant and growth promotants use is
standard now (not then) and this has given us an average of 10
to 15 percent increase in feed efficiency,” Skaar said.
When it comes to making that “perfect” animal Johnson
said, “Complement your cattle to have the traits desired by the
industry.” n
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 79

MANAGING CHANGE
Park
Farms
Computer
Systems
DeWitt
Justin Stolk, a
precision ag
product specialist
from Park Farms
Computer Systems,
works on installing
an autosteer
system on Ron and
Ian McDonald’s
combine last fall
in preparation for
harvest.
EASTERN IOWA
FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR
High-tech return on investment
Ag electronics pave the
way for improved efficiency
and increased yields
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
On an overcast day in September, Ron and Ian
McDonald, armed with a crowbar and drill,
climbed and crawled over a combine at their
farm just south of Maquoketa as they prepared
for some adjustments to be made to the machine.
Time was of the essence. There were beans to be
picked, and rain was in the forecast.
“Soybeans,” Ron McDonald said with a glance skyward,
“are a fair-weather crop.”
Thanks to some warm weather, he and his son, Ian, had
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Mike Hofer, his son Logan Hofer, and his dad Ken Hofer stand in a field at their
Clinton County farm. After Ken died in 2014, Mike continued farming the family
ground and working with his mom Phyllis to bring ag technology to customers
through their business, Park Farms Computer Systems.
80 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

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MANAGING CHANGE
gotten an early start on combining last fall, and they were eager
to keep moving.
Justin Stolk, a precision ag product specialist from Park Farms
Computer Systems, was an important part of their plan. He pulled
up in his truck, hopped out and got right to the job at hand.
“I’m installing an auto steer system on their combine so they
can harvest more efficiently,” he explained.
As he and Ian worked on putting in a new cable, Stolk
grabbed his side-cutters from his belt.
“This time of year, these never leave my side,” he said.
Whether it’s planting season, harvest or anytime in between,
Park Farms, located at 2498 340th Ave. in DeWitt, assists farmers
with ag electronics hardware and software. In addition to
selling ag electronics, Park Farms also does in-house and on-site
installations and training.
Keeping up with changing technology
and implementing precision planting
with help from companies such as Park
Farms is one way farmers in Eastern
Iowa improve efficiency and increase
yields.
“Technology in some cases, like with
auto steer, has made things easier, but it’s
also made farmers more efficient,” said
Mike Hofer, co-president of Park Farms.
“Technology improves your return on
investment.”
The role of computer software and
hardware in farming was just creeping
into the industry in 1982 when Ken and
Phyllis Hofer, Mike’s parents, started
Mike Hofer,
Co-President,
Park Farms
Computer Systems
Park Farms Computer Systems in the basement of their home.
A third-generation farmer, Ken understood how technology was
playing a bigger role in farming and could help manage data and
help farmers use it to improve their business.
The business is located at the farm where Ken grew up and
later farmed with his dad and two brothers: Paul, Art and Rick
— hence the name “Park” farms.
When Ken was asked to try out some German software for
sow breeders to see how it would perform on a working farm,
“he was bit by the computer bug. He just loved it,” said Phyllis,
who also is co-president of Park Farms.
The company morphed from a home computer system provider
to strictly serving the ag sector. In 1993, it moved from the
basement to a building on the farm. An expansion followed in
2010.
“In the early days, we were kind of a minority and there was
a lot of trying to talk farmers into accepting what role technology
was going to play,” Phyllis recalled.
Early computer programs for farmers included accounting
software that helped organize and keep a history of inputs,
production, prices, etc. Park Farms still sells farm accounting
software that is upgraded several times a year.
“You had to keep good books in order to make it,” Phyllis said
of the 1980s Farm Crisis. “I think it saved some farms because
they were able to show the bankers that ‘yes, we can make it.’”
Today, the technology available to farmers is nuanced and
wide-ranging, covering planting, fertilizing, spraying and more.
“GPS allows the planter to turn on and off when it’s supposed
to so there’s no overlaps,” Mike said. “Seed placement is
precisely where it is supposed to be. The depth and the distance
82 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
between each seed is perfect. That all
means better returns on better yields.”
When Mike graduated with an ag
business degree from Kirkwood Community
College in 1993, he went to work for
the family business, which still includes
growing acres of corn and soybeans. After
Ken died in 2014, Mike and Phyllis have
continued to bring the latest in ag technology
to customers.
“We didn’t know then how big it was
going to be. Technology breeds technology,
and it just keeps multiplying,” Mike said.
Equipment has evolved from “old,
clunky yield monitors to touch screens
and more advanced applications,” he said.
With wireless capabilities, operators
can access information in the field versus
having to be in an office. No more downloading
and then printing out pages and
pages of documents.
“You can have all your data in the field
or when you are marketing grain or working
with your crop insurance agent. All
the data transfers seamlessly to an iPad.
It’s all there,” Mike said. n
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Ron McDonald, left, and his son Ian McDonald raced against the weather to get their soybeans
out of the field last fall. Ron, who started farming in 1968 when his dad died, said equipment has
changed a lot over the years. The combine he uses today is much larger than the one he started
with, allowing them to cover more ground in less time.
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 83

MANAGING CHANGE
Bloom Family
Descendants
DeWitt
Standing at the site of the family
farm north of DeWitt are three
generations of descendants
of Bill and Gertie Bloom. Lori
Burks, her daughter Jacquelyn,
her mom Cathy Bloom, her son
Jacob Burks, and her brother
Robert Hoepner. Lori Burks wrote
a poem memorializing “the house
on the hill” after the original
farmhouse and barns, built in the
late 1800s, were torn down.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR
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84 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
‘The House on the Hill’
The farmhouse where Bill and Gertie Bloom raised their
family holds special memories for generations
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Lori Burks’ memories of her grandparent’s country home
north of DeWitt run deep.
Bill and Gertie Bloom raised their four children —
including Lori’s mom Cathy — in the white foursquare
style house that sat on a hill overlooking rolling fields
dotted with stands of trees.
Four rooms upstairs, four rooms downstairs, and a stairway in
the middle, the house was a hub of activity through the years as
generation after generation farmed the surrounding 160 acres,
which were settled in 1871 by Gertie’s family, who hailed from
Ireland.
When the home and barns were torn down last year, it was bittersweet
for the family, although they knew it was time. Burks
Gertie Bloom’s grandmother
Mary Jane (Mulholland) Murtogh,
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MANAGING CHANGE
wrote a poem, “The House on the Hill,”
that captured the essence of what it meant
to her.
“The poem really is about the people.
It’s sad when things change, but there
were so many wonderful family memories
there,” she said.
Summers and holidays spent playing
n Read
Lori’s
poem on
page 89
at the creek or in the
hay mow with cousins.
Christmas Eve dinners
featuring a special red
punch and oyster stew.
Helping with chores, and other recollections
of the people and activities that
wove the fabric of her childhood.
That the farm is still in the Bloom
family is something they are proud of and
grateful for, said Bill Bloom Jr., Bill and
Gertie’s only son. How it operates has
evolved as times have changed. Many
family farms in Eastern Iowa have transitioned
from being grain and livestock
operations that sustained a single family
to being cash rented, custom farmed or
part of a bigger, consolidated operation.
Today, Bill Jr. has
the 140 tillable acres
custom farmed by a
neighbor he hires to
plant, harvest and
do other work. He
manages the details
with the local
farmer he employs
from his home
almost 200 miles
away. He “farms
by phone,” as he
likes to say, but he
values the ability
to be able to make
decisions about how
to take care of the
land. One of his sons, Mike, lives nearby
and helps with logistics.
Mike and his wife, Stacy, stayed connected
by buying five acres a few years
ago on the family farm and building a
home for their family. Their children ride
horses on the land, and thier son, Blake,
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Mary Jane (Mulholland) Murtogh married Dennis Murtogh
February 12, 1878. Dennis died May 6, 1903. Mary Jane had been
a widow about seven years when she had the house built in 1910.
hunts
on it. The generations adapt
to the times. Mike’s daughter is now a
freshman at Iowa State pursuing a career
in agriculture.
“As the years go by, farming changes,
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 87

MANAGING CHANGE
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Cathy Bloom grew up on the family farm just
north of DeWitt with her three siblings. Last fall
she visited the former site of the farmhouse,
which was razed last year, and shared
memories of her parents, Bill and Gertie Bloom.
but the respect for the land remains. The
idea that the farm has survived is special
to me,” Bill Jr. said. “If you look at any
century farm, there’s been [economic]
depressions, deaths, marriages, etc. that
have impacted them.”
During the years Bill Jr. was growing
up with his sisters Mary, Cathy and
Helen, and for years before that, the farm
provided for the family.
“It was definitely a working farm,” he
said. They raised hogs and cattle, dairy
cows, chickens, corn, soybeans and oats.
While much of what they produced went
to feeding the family and the livestock,
they also sold eggs and cream.
When his father had a heart attack
at age 52, Bill Jr., then a senior in high
school, took on the role of running the
farm. His dad was able to help with
management decisions, but he wasn’t
able to do any of the physical work. Bill
Jr. decided to attend school locally, first
at Clinton Community College and then
at St. Ambrose, so he could keep running
the farm.
He got a degree in business administration
and worked full-time on the farm.
He later moved to Des Moines for his job.
Up until a few years ago, Mary and Helen
lived in the house on the property. Bill
credits all three of his sisters for the farm
remaining in the family.
Mary, the oldest of Bill and Gertie’s
children, helped with the cooking and
cleaning while she was growing up and
her mother worked outside. She remembers
getting indoor plumbing and a bathroom
when she was about 19 years old.
Bill Jr. remembers helping dig the hole
for the septic tank. Cathy recalled learning
to drive a tractor — a Farmall F-20 —
when she was 10, although her dad had
to help her shift because she wasn’t quite
strong enough.
When it was time to get electricity,
Mary said, all the farmers in their
neighborhood helped clear trees from the
narrow road so the utility poles and wires
could be placed.
The memories are many: Playing
cards to the glow of gaslight lamps and
listening to big band music on the radio.
Threshing days that were community
events. Their mother waving a white dish
towel to signal to their father that it was
time to come away from the fence where
he was talking with a neighboring farmer
because supper was ready.
“Mary has always called us dear ones,
and I wanted to capture that,” Lori said
of her tribute poem to the farm. “It was
about the people. Every time you went,
there were fabulous great times.” n
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88 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

The house on the hill she will
always be,
Held close in my heart, forever
in my memory.
The house on the hill she held
so much love,
Good times, sad times, and
blessings from above.
A pork roast and beef roast
cooked together for you,
Or tomato soup made just for
two.
Iowa games on a little TV,
With loud crazy cousins, was
where I longed to be.
Cheese puffs tossed high in the
air,
Apron strings tied tight on a
chair.
East porch screen door banging
and slamming,
Bicycle riding, racing and
ramming.
Grandma’s phone call on
Mary’s lunch hour,
A Christmas cactus with a
single flower.
Chickens to butcher with
cousins and aunts,
A bountiful garden to harvest
and plant.
Apple and cherry trees to climb
and pick,
A creek to jump over, or is it a
crick?
A barn to play in, with a high
hay mow,
Grandpa giving me my own
baby cow.
A porch swing, for swinging,
talking or singing,
A desk for drawing, writing or
scribbling.
Trucks, cars and tractors up and
down the lane,
A rosary during storms and
later prayers for rain.
MANAGING CHANGE
The House
on the Hill
Chasing cows and sorting pigs,
Trying on Mary’s coats, hats
and wigs.
An Easter egg hunt with one
hidden in the spreader,
A childhood really can’t get
much better.
Farm reports on KMAQ,
A bedroom window with a
favorite view.
Christmas cookies frosted just so,
Country albums on the stereo.
Christmas punch with
maraschino cherries,
Bushel baskets to load and to
carry.
An old-fashioned rose bush with
dainty red blooms,
A house with a story in every
one of her rooms.
Freshly wrung laundry hung on
the line to dry,
Stunning sunsets splashed
across the sky.
Generations before us living
their life,
William Joseph Bloom loving
his wife.
Just four walls and a roof, that
house on the hill,
So much more, a loving home for
Mary, Helen, Cathy and Bill.
The house on the hill, a
comforting place for so long,
She fulfilled her duty, she was
stately and strong.
The house on the hill, she will
surely be missed,
But our true love is for dear
ones we have hugged and
kissed.
The house on the hill she will
always be,
Held close in my heart and
forever in my memory.
— Written by Lori Burks
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 89

MANAGING CHANGE
An education
Many paths lead to farming
careers in Eastern Iowa
BY SARA MILLHOUSE
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
If you talk to a 75-year-old farmer, there’s
a chance you’ll hear a little pride in only
having an eighth-grade education, in being
a self-made man. There’s also a good
chance that he encouraged his own children to
get off the farm and go to college, even if those
kids planned to come home and get into the
family business.
Today when you talk to young farmers,
you’ll find as many educational paths to agriculture
as you’ll find young farmers. None of
those paths are easy.
Potential farmers must carefully weigh
educational benefits versus college costs that
have exploded in the last decade. Add on startup
livestock, equipment and material costs, and
young farmers risk a potentially overwhelming
debt load.
It’s a different scenario from 50 years ago,
when many farmers grew up working side-byside
with their dad or other relatives and shifted
Pictured: Business owners, Dustin and Lyndsey Eberhart
and Citizens State Bank representative, Tony Portz.
Helping eastern
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succeed for
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“These guys believed in us and
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— Dustin and Lyndsey Eberhart
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Rural Maquoketa
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90 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

MANAGING CHANGE
Farming
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Peosta, Luxemburg, Farley
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 91

MANAGING CHANGE
“I wanted to farm
in the worst way.
It was more of a
challenge to keep
me in school.”
— MATT RINIKER,
LUXEMBURG, IA
into full-time farming because the help was
needed. Many never left their family operation,
making the transition seamless.
To run your own operation today, it sure
helps to have a family foot in the door, and
that’s no guarantee of success. But Alex Waller
found her way into agriculture through personal
commitment, education and long-standing relationships.
Now, she’s a herdsman on D Gaul
Farms south of Peosta, mixing feed, managing
the computer systems, working with breeding,
calvings, the registry and anything else she
needs to do to get the job done.
“She’s my right-hand man,” said Elizabeth
Elsinger. Elsinger grew up on D Gaul Farms
and manages the 350-cow dairy farm with
her husband Andrew Elsinger and dad Dale
Gaul. Her mom DeeAnn Gaul does the books.
Elizabeth went to Iowa State University with
Andrew and appreciates the scientific grounding
and personal connections her four-year
education provided.
“I’m a very science person,” Elizabeth said.
“That’s my background. I love science. A lot
of times, if a cow is sick, I can figure out why
she’s sick. If I didn’t care about science, I’d be
calling the vet a lot a more.”
It also helps to have a veterinarian friend,
whom she met at Iowa State, who can walk her
through a caesarian if she needs to do it.
“It wasn’t the classes so much at Iowa State
as the contacts,” Elizabeth said. She continues
to make new contacts, serving with Andrew
as the president of the Dubuque County Dairy
Association and finding emotional support in
today’s tough dairy climate through a women’s
dairy group on Facebook.
Two-year college graduates in farming emphasized
the hands-on experience the program
provided and encouraged young students to
look carefully at specific programs before
selecting a school.
“I actually got to drive a combine,” Alex
said of her Hawkeye Community College
program.
“That’s why Alex and I work really well together,”
Elizabeth said. “She has the practical,
and I have the science background.”
Waller needed that practical education because
she didn’t grow up milking cows.
“I grew up in the middle of Dubuque,” she
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MANAGING CHANGE
said. “I knew I didn’t want to work in
town for the rest of my life. I didn’t want
to work at a desk like my mom does.”
That made her take her education more
seriously than some students born into
farming, she said.
Matt Riniker, of Luxemburg, graduated
from Kirkwood Community College,
coming home almost every weekend to
help care for the 240 head of cattle he
split 50/50 with his brother-in-law Jonny
Link.
Both Elizabeth’s and Riniker’s parents
encouraged them to explore options for
making a living off the home farm. Riniker’s
parents nudged him toward other
jobs during high school, from working at
a golf course to a job at a dairy farm.
“I had fun, but at the end of the day,
I wished I would have been at home,”
Riniker said.
Elizabeth and Andrew farmed 100
Jersey cows for five years near Keiler,
Wisconsin, milking in the afternoon after
finishing finals in the morning and learning
their own management style before
returning to D Gaul Farms, where they
learned how to manage a bigger herd.
Transitions are quick in dairy.
“That morning we milked 100 cows in
Wisconsin, and that evening, we milked
350 here,” Elizabeth said.
Despite encouragement to explore
other options, Riniker was committed
to farming at a young age, starting with
15 Angus steers in eighth grade. Nathan
Simon, of Simon Bros. Custom Farming
in Farley, started young, too.
“I wanted to farm in the worst way,”
he said. He started his business when he
was 16 or 17, he said, combining it with
his brother Nick’s at the age of 18. “It
was more of a challenge to keep me in
school,” he laughed. Life was calling.
Simon Bros. does custom manure
pumping, custom planting, custom
anhydrous, custom combining, excavating
and crop farming. “That’s a lot,”
Nathan said. “The rounds never seem to
get done, but that’s what it takes to make
cash flow.”
Simon Bros. has 16 part-time employees.
“If you asked me when I turned
18, would I be where I’m at, no, I never
wouldn’t have dreamt it,” Nathan said.
He’s now 25, the business growth in
the past seven years a result of relentless
work and word of mouth from one
customer to another. “Everybody told
me I was crazy, and now I believe them,
because I created a monster,” he joked.
“I learned a lot on my own way, the
hard way,” he said. “The expensive
way.” He learned from talking to older
farmers, too, and he encouraged young
people to ask lots of questions.
Dave Baker of the Beginning Farmer
Center at Iowa State University Extension
and Outreach counsels young people
trying to break into agriculture. He
encourages them to “share these thoughts
and ideas with others, whether family
members, friends, neighbors, acquaintances,
strangers. Not to keep your ideas
secret.”
After all, you never know what door
that conversation might open, or which
road might lead to the farm. n
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MANAGING CHANGE
Earl and
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MANAGING CHANGE
A Way of Life
Couple witnessed many evolutions in farming through
the years, including larger operations and automation
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Every hour on the hour, the John Deere
clock in the living room of Earl and
Katie Kilburg’s cozy Preston apartment
makes the sound of a different tractor
engine instead of a traditional chime. It’s a fitting
way to mark time for the couple, both of whom
grew up on local farms during the Great Depression
— the whir of farm machinery is one of the
soundtracks of their lives.
The clock hangs on a wall next to a picture
of the couple celebrating their 67 th wedding
anniversary last summer and a photograph of the
1956 John Deere Model 60 that they bought new
for $2,600 when corn was $1.26 a bushel.
“When I got it, it was during combining time.
My dad come down with my brother and they
combined my oats. I came with the new tractor,
and my dad said to me, ‘You’ll never get that
paid for with 16 cent [per pound] hogs,’” he
recalled.
His son, Marty, still uses the tractor, which has
its original rear tires.
“It’s never been overhauled,” Earl said. “It was
used for farming — for pretty well everything.”
He and Katie disked, plowed, and furrowed with
the tractor, as well as planted and picked with a
two-row mounted planter and picker.
“I was with the old time,” Earl said, noting
that the tractor is a real workhorse.
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MANAGING CHANGE
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Pages from the many scrapbooks kept by Katie and Earl Kilburg
document the changes they made when they were farming full-time. They
recalled carrying pails of water from their spring to fill barrels for use in
the barn and in the house, as well as the days before four-wheel drive
when they would hook a tractor to their pickup to get it through the mud.
That also would be an apt
description of the couple who
spent decades immersed in
farm work, first on family
farms — Earl, 90, in Springbrook
and Katie, 88, in Sugar
Creek — and then on their
own 180 acres.
Their history in Eastern
Iowa goes back to a time
when small family farms
included gigantic vegetable
gardens, cattle, dairy cows,
hogs, chickens, oats, corn and
soybeans. The Kilburgs, like
their neighbors, grew food and
produced vegetables, meat
and milk for their family, sold
some to others, and used the
rest to feed their livestock.
Today, there are fewer farms
but larger farms, and they are
more specialized, said Chad
Hart, a grain marketing economist
and assistant professor
of economics in Iowa State
University’s College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences.
“I think when you are
looking at the data, it’s been a
long-term trend whether times
are good or rough. We’ve been
building productivity and using
new technology. Typically,
what we find in agriculture is
the larger you are the easier
it is to be more competitive.
When you put all of that
together, that’s the trend. Not
only nationwide but globally,”
he said.
In 1900, there were 2,786
farms. The number of farms in
Clinton County fell by more
than half from 2,786 in 1900
to 1,244 in 2012, the most
recent year statistics are available
from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. New farm
census information will be
released this spring.
In Jackson County, there
were 2,637 farms in 1900,
compared with 1,255 in 2012.
In 1900, the average-size
farm in Clinton County was
152 acres and 150 acres in
Jackson County compared
with 335 acres and 262 acres
respectively in 2012. Hart
noted that on either end of
that spectrum are a growing
number of small farms, under
50 acres, as well as operations
that farm more than 1,000
acres. Those things impact the
average.
Brandi Janssen, director of
the Iowa Center for Agricultural
Safety and Health at the
University of Iowa, said more
people are moving into the
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MANAGING CHANGE
specialty farm category as they move
into a second career or look to generate
extra income from a smaller operation.
“We are seeing an uptick in small
farms. There is definitely a ‘back-tothe-land’
movement among young
people as well,” she said.
The Kilburgs farmed for about 25
years before moving to town and getting
into the concrete and construction
business full-time. Now retired, they
laugh as they tell stories and go through
scrapbooks filled with black-and-white
photos that document their country life.
They recall throwing small hale bales
that are dwarfed by today’s large, round
bales; carrying pails of water from their
spring to fill barrels for use in the barn
and in the house; the days before fourwheel
drive when they would hook a
tractor to their pickup to get it through
the mud.
Earl, one of 13 children, and Katie,
one of 14 children, remember doing
chores from a very young age and living
without plumbing and electricity.
Katie recalled milking cows every
morning and night, washing the
separator, and other chores. When her
older sisters married and began having
children, she and some of her younger
siblings would go live with them to
help.
“We’d stay there all week and go to
school from there,” she said, adding
that they went home on the weekends
and enjoyed a big Sunday meal featuring
friend chicken.
“We had no electricity. Nothing,”
Earl said of his childhood. “I remember
1936. It was so hot that year, and for
20 days it didn’t get under 90 degrees.
We slept outside under the shade tree.
There were no fans, no water, nothing.
I would take my dad a fresh team of
horses every hour and a half [while he
was working in the fields so the animals
wouldn’t overheat and could drink
water]. I was only 8 years old. In those
days, age didn’t make any difference.
If you were big enough, you were old
enough.” n
“I remember 1936. It was so
hot that year, and for 20 days
it didn’t get under 90 degrees.
We slept outside under the
shade tree. There were no fans,
no water, nothing. I would take
my dad a fresh team of horses
every hour and a half [while he
was working in the fields so the
animals wouldn’t overheat and
could drink water].”
— EARL KILBURG
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Ag
ON TH
Students produce
weekly show on
relevant issues
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
It’s an early frosty morning in
December, and Robert Bertram,
news and sports director
at KCLN, leans into the microphone
on his desk in the
broadcast booth.
He reads the latest corn and soybean
price reports, as well as a
livestock update. Then he introduces
the next segment of the Clinton radio
station’s morning lineup:
“It’s 7:33. That means it’s time
now for the Current Ag Concerns
Program.”
He cues the two Northeast High
School students positioned in front
of microphones in the small office to
start their weekly show. And they’re
off.
On this day, they discuss the impact
of pork prices in Argentina.
For other episodes, they might talk
about trade or ag technology or commodity
prices, said Jenna Stevens,
their adviser.
It’s all about the students learning
more about the issues ag professionals
are dealing with today while honing
their research and interview skills,
said Stevens, who works for Clinton
County Farm Bureau. She also serves
as a volunteer and mentor for students
involved in local FFA chapters and
other programs.
“They do all the research themselves,
so they really learn about
the issues,” Stevens said of the four
students who make up the staff of
Current Ag Concerns. They include
senior Nathanial Lange, and sophomores
Kesley Holdgrafer, Robert
Schaefer and Beth Lamp.
The show, which started as a podcast
(a digital, downloadable audio program),
celebrated its one-year anniversary
Nov. 16. It started out as a way
to help students communicate more
fluently about agriculture and get them
more involved in the industry.
The students use government and
university-based documents, as well
as interviews, to put the shows together,
Stevens said.
“They get experience using
high-quality sources, and they are
more in tune with the media and news
related to agriculture,” she said.
In addition to having recently
joined the National Association for
Farm Broadcasters, the group had the
chance to be media interns at the
National Western Stock Show in
Denver in January. They attended
104 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

E AIRWAYS
the International Livestock Forum,
a livestock conference hosted by
Colorado State University, which
runs in conjunction with the National
Western Show, the largest show of
its kind in North America. As guest
media, their work was featured on the
Colorado-based ag program “In The
BARN.”
The group also has interviewed
some noteworthy individuals in the
industry, including professionals
from the USDA and the Farm Service
Agency in Washington D.C. In
December, they also did an hour-long
interview with Ag Today, which is
based in Ohio.
Current Ag Concerns air every Friday
morning at 7:30 on KCLN 1390
AM. n
A group of Northeast High School students
team up to produce a weekly radio
program called “Current Ag Concerns” on
KCLN in Clinton. Shown in the broadcast
booth are Kesley Holdgrafer, Beth Lamp,
Robert Schaefer and Nathanial Lange.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO /
TREVIS MAYFIELD
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Bob Bowman stands in one
of his many fields of corn
outside of DeWitt last fall. A
board member of the National
Corn Growers, Bowman is
also involved in other industry
organizations that work to
promote ethanol.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR
PRIMING
THE PUMP
Corn is king in Iowa, and ethanol production is an
important part of its reign. Pressure from oil manufacturers,
politics and market forces are impacting the industry.
BY LARRY LOUGH
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Of all the things Iowa does well,
corn production might be No. 1.
“Farmers have gotten real
good at growing corn,” said
Curt Mether, president of the Iowa Corn
Growers Association.
Chad Hart, an agriculture economist
at Iowa State University, said Mether was
being too modest.
“We are GREAT at growing corn,”
Hart said of Iowa, the nation’s largest
corn producer. “Year after year after year
of bin busting.”
That’s not just bragging.
According to the National Agriculture
108 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

Statistics Service of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Clinton and Jackson
counties are part of a 10-county region of
east-central Iowa that increased per-acre
yields by 60 percent from 2012 to 2017.
And what about this past fall?
“It was as good as last year,” said
Jayson Willimack, whose family farms
corn and beans at Willimack Farms near
Oxford Junction.
Although estimates indicate the 2018
yield might be down slightly, it will still
be near historical highs that have produced
what Mether called “an oversupply.”
Corn farmers have, to some extent, become
victims of their own success.
The move to ethanol
Ethanol as a transportation fuel was
developed about 40 years ago.
It’s basically ethyl alcohol made from
corn, the same kind of alcohol used in
beverages you can pick up at the neighborhood
liquor store.
“It’s a big part of the corn market,”
ISU’s Hart said of ethanol.
In fact, more U.S. corn goes to ethanol
production than any other use, about 40
percent; 36 percent is used for cattle feed,
and the rest for food.
In the U.S. today, 98 percent of gasoline
sold is blended with ethanol, usually
not more than 10 percent.
In most parts of the U.S., blends of up
to 15 percent ethanol are available – but
at less than 1.5 percent of the more than
120,000 fuel retailers nationwide.
President Trump has ordered that the
federal ban on E15 summer sales in highsmog
areas of the country be lifted before
the June 1-Sept. 15 restriction period of
2019.
According to Iowa Secretary of State
Mike Naig, that could drive demand for
an additional 2
billion bushels of
corn nationwide
each year.
As a biofuel
additive for
gasoline, ethanol
is attractive in creating
an alternative
to fossil fuel
in that it reduces
not only U.S.
Curt Mether,
President,
Iowa Corn Growers
Association
dependence on
foreign oil but also
greenhouse gas
emissions released
in the atmosphere.
Ethanol’s ozone-damaging properties are
generally considered less harmful than
oil’s contribution to global warming –
though oil companies will argue.
But ethanol’s threat to oil imports also
means it cuts into the market for domestically
produced oil, which has attracted
political enemies in Washington from an
influential special interest.
“[Oil companies] have a lot of political
power,” said Bob Bowman of DeWitt,
a former president of the Iowa Corn
Growers and now an at-large member of
the state’s Corn Promotion Board.
“I can’t blame them,” current Corn
Growers President Mether said of U.S. oil
refiners. “We’re hurting their demand. ...
But we’ve got a little [political] influence
ourselves.”
The conflict between
science and politics
Mether, who farms corn and soybeans
with his wife on 1,200 acres in Harrison
and Monona counties in far-west Iowa,
called the battle between U.S. corn
farmers and oil producers “a political hot
potato.”
ISU professor Hart said the ethanol
debate had long been caught in the conflict
between science and politics.
“It got mixed up in that pretty early,”
he said, “and it’s still that way.”
Bowman, who farms in the DeWitt
area with his son, Chris, is also a board
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 109

PRIMING THE PUMP
member of the National Corn Growers
Association. He groused about “RIN
waivers” – the government’s increasingly
generous practice of allowing oil refiners
to violate ethanol blending requirements
under Renewable Identification Numbers,
which are used to monitor compliance
with federal Renewable Fuel Standards.
He blames lax enforcement of blending
standards for the recent struggles of
ethanol plants to make a profit.
Pacific Ethanol reportedly laid off
nearly half its 60 workers in December
at an ethanol plant in Aurora, Nebraska,
because of poor performance in the biofuels
market. The sixth-largest U.S. ethanol
producer also idled nearly a third of its
production capacity of about 155 million
gallons a year at the Nebraska plant.
“Low corn prices should help them
make money,” Bowman said, “but if the
blenders don’t have to use [ethanol]. ...
That’s demand that should have happened
for our corn.”
Corn was selling around $3.85 a bushel
in early January, less than half of the
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110 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

PRIMING THE PUMP
Jayson Willimack
farms with his
extended family
outside of Oxford
Junction. He said
ethanol expansion
is important to corn
producers in
Eastern Iowa.
EASTERN IOWA
FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR
peak in the summer of 2012.
Hart attributes that directly
to Iowa’s prolific production
of corn – and in spite of the
emergence of the ethanol market,
which includes 43 ethanol
plants and 12 biodiesel plants
in the state.
“We have been able to
grow more corn each year, ...
and it’s hard for markets to
improve,” the ISU professor
said. “The supplies grow even
faster [than demand].”
While farmers have seen
lower prices recently – $3.25
in the fall of 2016 – they now
also face a shrinking global
market amid the U.S. trade
war with China and other key
trading partners.
That’s causing some
farmers, like Willimack, to
hold on to their grain until
conditions improve and prices
rally. At the first of this year,
he estimated his family had
about a million bushels stored,
90 percent of it corn.
Garnering government
support
Money is the root of all
evil intentions in Washington,
D.C.
The federal government
provides generous subsidies
to energy producers – established
oil, gas, and coal on one
side, and emerging renewable
sources such as wind, solar,
and ethanol on the other.
Each side has lobbyists on
Capitol Hill to argue against
the other in competition for
government dollars. The fossil
fuel industry, with the support
of conservative think tanks,
also has worked to discredit
ethanol as fuel, frequently
labeling government funding a
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 111

PRIMING THE PUMP
Chad Hart,
Iowa State University,
Agriculture Economist
“boondoggle.”
Ethanol’s subsidies have included tax
breaks, grants, loans, and loan guarantees,
in addition to the 2007 federal mandate
to blend biofuels into traditional motor
fuels.
Iowa also has a Renewable Fuels
Infrastructure Program that helps gasoline
stations expand access to biofuels. Since
2007, the program has provided almost
$40 million to promote ethanol and
biodiesel projects, according to Iowa Ag
Secretary Naig.
Hart said it was no secret why Iowa is
home to 20 percent of the nation’s ethanol
plants.
“Ethanol located here because we
have a good supply of corn,” he said.
Willimack calls ethanol expansion
“very important” for Iowa farmers.
“It’s a mature market,” he said, “that
still needs a little bit of help to keep them
competitive.”
That is also a goal of the Corn Promotions
Board.
“We have worked hard on that,” Bowman
said, “to get
some grant money,
put some of these
pumps in.”
Bringing it to
the pump
Government’s
ban on E15 sales
during summer
months has affected
large urban
areas with smog
problems, which
most of the nation
– including Iowa
– don’t have. The fuel has been available
year round locally – but at only a handful
of stations: Kwik Star in DeWitt, Clinton
and Maquoketa, as well as a Murphy
station at Walmart in Clinton.
Motorists also can find E15 at more
than a dozen Kum & Go convenience
stores in Iowa, but none east of Iowa City.
The state’s 99 counties have only
about 160 sites in total that offer E15.
ISU’s Hart said the low number of
outlets was a matter of economics.
“Fuel infrastructure moves more
slowly than you expect,” he said, noting
stations were hesitant to take on the
expense of converting existing pumps.
“It does take time to invest in that kind of
infrastructure. The installation has got to
last a long, long time.”
In October, Casey’s convenience store
chain announced it would expand its 2017
experiment with E15 at 17 stores to make
the blend available at 500 of its 2,000
stores in the Midwest over the next two
years. That could establish Casey’s as the
largest ethanol fuel retailer in the country.
“I’m excited about that,” Mether said.
“We don’t have as many [E15 outlets] as
we could have.”
Willimack agreed.
“That would be great,” he said when
he learned of Casey’s plan. “Every little
bit helps.”
Hart sees slow, steady growth at stores
such as Casey’s.
“But they move at the speed of a convenience
store,” he said. “They change
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112 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

PRIMING THE PUMP
their product mix fairly slowly.”
Casey’s has stores throughout Clinton and Jackson
counties, but no announcement has been made
about which stores will be the first to sell E15.
Aside from the investment involved to install
E15 pumps, ethanol expansion has other challenges.
“The blessing and the curse of ethanol,” Hart
said, “is it’s both a good fuel and a good solvent.”
That means it flushes accumulated contaminants
from gasoline tanks that can clog fuel lines,
part of the reason E15 gas is not recommended
for vehicles made before 2001. Because of that
history of problems, even motorists with newer
cars might be hesitant to use higher blends of
ethanol.
And, Bowman said, consumer acceptance
was discouraged by high prices when ethanol
was introduced, pricing that resulted from “market
forces.”
“It was not priced as it should have been,” he
said from the farmer’s point of view. “It’s about
access, not profitability.”
Challenges ahead
Recent political developments also have
created problems for ethanol.
The partial government shutdown that started
during the holidays was expected to delay the
EPA’s work to present a final rule in May that
would allow the higher ethanol blend starting
June 1. Because the agency was largely shut
down for weeks, the regulatory change might not
be ready by this summer.
And even if the regulation is changed, it’s
likely to be challenged in court by oil interests.
The shutdown also threatened the second
round of government payments designed to
offset the effects of the trade war, adding further
pressure on farmers after farm income in the
U.S. dropped five of the past six years.
The ongoing trade war also has limited
exports of ethanol. Like soybeans and pork,
ethanol has been hit with stiff tariffs from China,
a market that Mether estimated could open U.S.
export of 4 billion gallons a year.
He also feared trading partners would find
new suppliers during the interruption in trade.
“Trade is a tough and complicated issue,”
Mether said. “I don’t see any easy end to it soon.
We’re caught in the crosshairs, ... and it’s going
to hurt demand for a long time, I’m afraid.” n
“We have been
able to grow
more corn each
year... and it’s
hard for markets
to improve.
The supplies
grow even faster
[than demand].”
— CHAD HART
It’s never too early to plan
for your family’s future.
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to keep your farm in the family.
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Attorney At Law P.C. • Preston, IA • 563-689-3456
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 113

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BACKYARD
After David and Betty Schroeder recognized that some 225 acres of timber was a valuable part of their Bellevue-area farm, they retained a forestry
consultant to help manage it. David Schroeder, shown here, says it’s a good day when he’s in the woodlot working among the trees and in the outdoors.

ASSETS
Forestry professionals
can make and save
farm woodland
owners real money
BY LOWELL CARLSON
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
David and Betty Schroeders’ timber acres might
have once been seen as a shaded pasture for
cattle, a place to hunt squirrels or cut some
firewood. That might have been the mindset
years ago when timber buyers swooped in and took the
best trees, leaving farmers with a logged-out woods full of
essentially valueless trees.
That kind of woodland ownership served no one in
the end, not the land owner, not the forestry industry and
certainly not the nurture of rugged ground that needed
to remain in forest. The amount of forage cattle gleaned
from the woodland acres was miniscule at best, Schroeder
noted.
The Schroeders recognized the approximately 225 acres
of timber were a valuable part of their farm operation and
moved to comply with Iowa’s Woodland Reserve provisions.
They shut the gate to cattle and made sure fencing
requirements were met.
David and Betty said one of the most important decisions
they made was to retain a forestry consultant. They
work with Kevin Oetkin of Woodland Forestry LLC in
Monmouth.
While you might wonder how a forestry specialist
makes a living here in the middle of a commodity crop
universe, Oetkin and his staff are often stretched to the
limit with their almost turnkey array of services for woodland
owners. Forestry consultants like Oetkin can provide
services ranging from planting to marketing logs.
“Kevin has done excellent work, and I never doubt the
decisions he makes on marking trees for sale or doing TSI
(timber stand improvement),” David said.
The woodland management Schroeder and Oetkin developed
includes participating in the USDA’s Conservation
Reserve Program (CRP). The long-term goal of CRP is to
re-establish land cover to improve water quality, prevent

BACKYARD ASSETS
“We have
planted a few
walnut trees,
but we’ve found
squirrels do the
best job.”
— DAVID SCHROEDER
soil erosion and reduce loss of wildlife habitat.
One thing the Schroeders did, for example, is
incorporate a riparian buffer along a stream.
“We have done several tree stand improvements.
The NRCS cost shares this, and Kevin
did the work. We have planted a few walnut
trees, but we’ve found squirrels do the best
job. Deer are the major problem, they damage
young walnut trees,” Schroeder said. NRCS is
the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Oetkin has arranged the bidding and supervised
several tree sales on the property in the
years he has managed the woodland. Schroeder
noted those sales include a range of tree
species and not just high grading — harvesting
only the most healthy or valuable trees —
the walnut in the woodlot acres. The demand
for good quality veneer and saw log lumber
from Iowa’s Mississippi River corridor is
literally worldwide, and Oetkin and other
professional foresters can provide a world
market. Schroeder woodlot walnut veneer
logs have been exported to Germany.
Schroeder said the increasing talk of zeroing
out the Woodland Reserve tax reduction is
focused on the loss of tax revenue in counties
here in the Driftless area of Iowa where little
or no glacial drift left steep, forested ridges
and deep river valleys. The program is used
extensively by landowners who do have
rough, wooded land. The Jackson County retired
farmer says that is a sign the provision is
doing what it was supposed to do — encourage
landowners to protect Iowa’s precious
little remaining woodland.
Schroeder says it’s not a case of sitting
back and watching an investment increase in
value by any means. Woodland acres can be
very labor intensive. The retired farmer cuts
and processes firewood from cull trees. Erosion
is a worrying, intensifying challenge.
Torrential rains in the last several years
caused ditches to get deeper and access to
some areas of the woodlot more difficult.
The growing threat from invasive alien
species is another concern. Buckthorn is a
major problem. It’s easy enough to kill but
accessing the dense thickets of the spreading
brush species can be hard at times. A closing
tree canopy has helped retard the spread of
multiflora rose in the timber.
There will be other invasive and disease
challenges ahead assures Schroeder, but
it’s still a good day when he’s in the
woodlot working among the trees and in the
outdoors. n
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Our Pharmacist team pictured with medicine bottles
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118 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

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Ag and Art
Soybean painting by local artist
installed at Iowa State University
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Artist Rose Frantzen stands with Joe Colletti, interim dean of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, beside Rhythms - Bean Fields at Sunset.
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Maquoketa artist Rose
Frantzen spent
hours upon hours
in Jackson County
soybean fields the past several
years. She and her artist husband
Chuck Morris “would run out
to all the hillsides in Jackson
County” taking photographs of
bean fields in all sorts of light at
different times of day.
Those photographs — more
than 2,000 — were composition
studies Frantzen used as inspiration
for a painting that now hangs
at Iowa State University.
The newest addition to the Art
on Campus Collection is called
Rhythms - Bean Fields at Sunset,
2018, Oil on board
Rose Frantzen (American, b.1965)
Commissioned by the College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences and the University
Museums for the Advanced Teaching and
Research Building. In the Art on Campus
Collection, University Museums, Iowa State
University, Ames, Iowa.
120 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

Ag and Art
Rhythms - Bean Fields at Sunset.
Last fall it was installed in its new
home in the east atrium of the
Advanced Teaching & Research
Building (ATRB), which houses
offices and bioscience labs. The
painting was commissioned by
Iowa State’s College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences (CALS),
in partnership with University
Museums.
“Rhythms - Bean Fields at
Sunset celebrates the important
role that crops play for the state of
Iowa, the nation and the world,”
said Joe Colletti, interim dean of
CALS. “And, in my own interpretation,
I believe it also celebrates
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen speaks during the unveiling of
Rhythms – Bean Fields at Sunset by Rose Frantzen.
the vital, underlying roles and
accomplishments of the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
What we do in research and extension
to support the productivity
“My grandpa Ted says
he loves his customers ALMOST
as much as he loves me!”
— Cole
We work hard to
build valuable
relationships
with our friends
working out
in the fields.
Low Moor
AG SERVICE, INC.
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Cole and Ted are pictured by
a 1966 Ford 3000 tractor that
originally belonged to Ted’s
father, Leroy. It was the
family’s work machine,
restored and passed down
through the family. The Ford
is still working daily on the
Low Moor Ag grounds.
FERTILIZER AND AG CHEMICALS • ROCK HAULING AND AG-LIME
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 121

Ag and Art
and profitability of soybean growers — and
all Iowa farmers — is embedded in Rose’s
new artwork.”
At a reception held Oct. 31 to debut the
painting to the ISU community, Frantzen
read a poem she wrote about the painting:
I wonder, as I stand at the crest of this hill
in the song of sunset with the music of the
birds, and the silence of the beans growing,
if the farmers know they are artists, drawing
with their tractors, designing fields which
reveal the rhythms of these Iowa hills, accommodating
the waterways, the valley, the
trees. The hilltops crescendoing in sunlight
their shadows supporting like the bass,
keeping time, reminding me with its enveloping
movement, that yes, yes, yes, you are
here witnessing the end of another day. n
AgArts fosters
connection
Group looking for local
farmers to host artists
at their homesteads
BY NANCY MAYFIELD
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Mary Swander is
always looking
for ways
to combine
Iowa’s rich agricultural
history with its equally rich
arts community. AgArts, a
nonprofit which Swander
formed with several colleagues,
is fostering connections
in just that way.
The group has several
initiatives focused on harnessing
the power between
art and agriculture, said
Swander, Iowa’s poet
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Ag and Art
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TAYLOR
Mary Swander, a writer who lives on a small farm outside of Kalona, is one of
the founders of AgArts. The Iowa-based group has several initiatives focused on
harnessing the power between art and agriculture, including Farm-to-Artist residencies.
Farmers have important stories to tell, said Swander, who is Iowa’s poet laureate. She
encourages people to check out the organization and opportunities at agarts.org.
laureate who lives in Kalona.
One initiative is Farm-to-Artist residencies,
Swander said. AgArts is looking
for farmers who would be willing to
open their homes to an artist for a week
or two during the year. It’s an immersion
experience that allows writers, painters,
sculptors, musicians, etc., the chance to
dig deep into agriculture and learn about
a rural way of life.
“The artist gets to know the farmer and
the issues, and then creates art based on
their experience,” Swander said. Often
performances and workshops at other
Iowa locations are part of the program.
The first AgArts residency was in
Maquoketa several years ago. Suzanne
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 123

Ag and Art
Rogers, a jewelry designer and
sculptor from Dublin, Ireland,
conducted several workshops and
spent time on the Stewart farm.
The Connemara Lads, a musical
group from Ireland, performed in
Dubuque and Maquoketa last fall
as part of their Farm-to-Artist residency
at a New Hope farm.
Farmers interested in hosting
an artist can contact Swander. For
more information, visit her website
at maryswander.com and click on
“Contact Mary.” For more information
on AgArts, visit agarts.org.
Swander is an accomplished
playwright and no stranger to
Eastern Iowa. Her play “Map of
My Kingdom” was performed in
DeWitt and Maquoketa in February
2015. Performances of the
one-woman play about land transition
were followed by discussions
during which local farmers, bankers
and others shared their own stories,
asked questions or gave tips
on how to navigate these waters.
Her play “Farmscape” was performed
by the Peace Pipe Players
community theater group in Maquoketa
last year. Swander wrote
that play with assistance from
her 2007 Iowa State University
creative writing class based on a
series of personal interviews with
Iowans connected to farming.
Her newest venture is called
“Farm-to-Fork Tales.” Produced
by her Swander Woman Productions,
the show changes in each
community where it is performed.
Four or five local storytellers
work with a professional storyteller
to create a performance that
also includes local musicians and
local food. More information
on that program can be found at
maryswander.com. n
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124 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

FARMERS AT HEART
DOING WHAT’S
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Our employees and local dealers are the heartbeat of our company.
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126 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

NING
with
Frosty
the cow
(Left) Julie Willis takes her turn at
a calving simulation in February
at Maquoketa Community High
School’s agriculture building.
Frosty, a life-size cow model, and
her calf allow people to see how
to help a cow through delivery if
the calf is turned the wrong way.
(Bottom left) Caitlyn Wiley
demonstrates some of the tools
needed to ease calving, including
chains and handles. Wiley, a
clinical assistant professor at
Iowa State University, was one of
several presenters who covered
nutrition and management for
late gestation and early lactation,
as well as neonatal calf care,
handling difficult births, first aid
and emergency care. (Bottom
right) Jamie Preston got some
practice putting chains on the
hooves of a soon-to-be-born
calf using the life-size models
provided by Iowa State University
during an advanced calving
seminar. The event covered
nutrition and management for
late gestation and early lactation,
neonatal calf care, first aid and
emergency care.
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO /
BROOKE TAYLOR
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 127

The Eastern Iowa
Farmer
Anywhere, Anytime
with our online edition
Read an exact digital replica of the latest Eastern Iowa Farmer
wherever you are with your computer, tablet or smartphone. Catch
up with past issues of the magazine or submit your story ideas
and favorite photos for consideration in future editions. Share the
magazine with family and friends with only a couple clicks.
For an enhanced reading experience, visit:
www.eifarmer.com

A Dan Arensdorf Construction, Inc. company
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Pictured, on machine:
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Standing: Elle, Briggs,
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Ag Bytes
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED
Representatives of the Wyoming Fair accepted the 2018 Blue Ribbon Fair Award from the
Association of Iowa Fairs (AIF) in December. Pictured from left are Joe Yedlik, AIF Northeast
District director; Wyoming Fair Board Members Kris Gobeli, Guy Petersen, Mike Franzen, Steve
Agnitsch, Shirlee Brunscheen and Jason Zamiastil; Rick Palmer, AIF Northeast District director;
and Tricia Rosendahl, 2018 AIF President.
Wyoming Community Fair
receives blue ribbon fair award
The Wyoming Community Fair was
awarded the 2018 Blue Ribbon Fair
Award by the board of directors of the
Association of Iowa Fairs (AIF).
The award was presented to the fair’s
board of directors at the AIF’s 2018 conference
and annual meeting, which was
held in December in Des Moines.
The AIF divides the fairs in the state
into six districts; and in each district,
one fair is selected to receive this award
each year. The Wyoming Fair is in the
Northeast District.
The winning fairs must have shown
progress in providing service to the 4-H
& FFA programs and service to their
community.
Since joining the AIF in 2009, the
Wyoming Fair Association has invested
nearly $300,000 in buildings and
grounds improvements including a
new beef barn and wash rack, two new
restroom facilities, and a food service/
tractor pull entry building.
The Wyoming Fair includes a parade,
a kids’ pedal tractor pull, an ATV and
garden tractor pull, a 4-H horse show,
a 4-H and FFA steer and heifer show,
a goat and sheep show, a bucket/bottle
calf show, a rabbit show and a poultry
show. It also has kids’ games, team and
calf roping events, and a junkyard art
contest.
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Brigham Moore
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Brett Moore
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Brandon Moore
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Sam and Joanne Lee
415 1st St, DeWitt, IA • (563) 659-9236
130 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

Ag Bytes
Mary Jo Weis retires from
Jackson County Farm Bureau
Mary Jo Weis retired
from the Jackson
County Farm Bureau
Federation in January
after 36 years of
service. She began
working in the Jackson
Mary Jo Weis
County office on May
10, 1982, and she has
seen many changes
over the years in Farm Bureau, agriculture
and technology.
ICGA recognizes recipients of
2019 “seeds of change” award
John and Joan Maxwell of Donahue
were recognized recently with an Exceptional
Educators “Seeds of Change”
Award from the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
They were among five leaders
noted for their commitment to soil health
at the ICGA’s Soil Health Summit in
January in St. Louis.
“The Maxwells take the initiative to
tell the story of what’s happening on their
farm to anyone and everyone, from local
kindergarten students to visitors from
Brazil,” the ICGA noted. “They love to
share how a successful dairy and crop
farm can sustainably feed the growing
population while caring for the land.”
The awards were created to identify
partners who are committed to soil
health. Each recipient has demonstrated
excellent voluntary efforts to help keep
soil healthy.
Iowa Soybean Association
launches “The State of Soy”
“The State of Soy,” a fast-paced and
timely videocast featuring expert insights
on state, national and global soybean
issues, recently premiered on iasoybeans.
com.
Produced by the Iowa Soybean Association,
the videocast features a roundtable
discussion format hosted by ISA
Communications Director Aaron Putze.
Each monthly episode includes timely
perspectives from farmers, state and national
soybean organization staff, industry
personnel, traders and academics.
“Soybean farmers value a variety of
opinions and insights on issues impacting
their bottom line,” Putze said. “‘The State
of Soy’ is dedicated to helping farmers
make more informed decisions.”
Panelists answer questions posed from
farmers, with each episode identifying
key action items farmers can use to make
their operations more productive and
competitive.
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eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 131

Ag Bytes
“Farmers want the best information to
help make their operations more profitable,”
said ISA President Lindsay Greiner
of Keota. “‘The State of Soy’ is TV made
for farmers who wish to remain competitive
during challenging economic times.”
Viewers are encouraged to forward
topic ideas and questions for panelists to
Putze at aputze@iasoybeans.com.
Help available on new crop
insurance options
The Center for Rural Affairs has a
new helpline available for farmers and
ranchers.
Farmers and ranchers need to manage
risk, whether from weather, markets, or
other forces. Crop insurance can be used
to manage some of their risk.
“There can be several reasons why
many farmers and ranchers don’t buy crop
insurance,” said Anna Johnson, policy
manager with the Center for Rural Affairs.
“Maybe they haven’t found an option that
covers their operation. Maybe they don’t
know how to find a crop insurance agent to
work with, or don’t know what questions
to ask when they meet with an agent.”
Staff on the helpline can address
questions on available crop insurance
options, how crop insurance works, and
how to decide which option is right for an
operation. Farmers and ranchers may call
the Center for Rural Affairs’ crop insurance
helpline at (402) 687-2100 ext. 1027
or 1012.
In early January, the Center for Rural
Affairs hosted a three-part webinar series,
covering crop insurance for beginners, an
introduction to whole farm revenue protection,
and livestock insurance options.
Questions on these topics are also welcome
on the crop insurance helpline. Recordings
of the webinars can be accessed
at cfra.org/crop-insurance-resources.
Farm Rescue accepting livestock
feeding assistance applications
Farm Rescue is currently accepting applications
for livestock feeding assistance.
The nonprofit organization provides
planting, haying and harvesting assistance
free of charge to farm and ranch families
who have experienced a major illness,
injury or natural disaster,
The program, now in its second year,
provides volunteers and equipment to
support livestock feeding when a rancher
is unable to perform the work, due to a
crisis.
The North Dakota-based nonprofit
provides support to six states, including
Iowa. All its services are provided
through the work of volunteers. Anyone
interested in joining the Farm Rescuer
family of volunteers to help ranchers
should submit a volunteer form at www.
farmrescue.org. n
Maquoketa
Financial Group
You spend a lifetime making your farming
operation successful. Doesn’t it make sense
to spend a little time to make sure it stays in
the family and passes to the next generation?
We work as a team with other professionals to make sure
the plan meets your family’s goals and objectives.
See Paul and the team at Maquoketa Financial Group
to help establish a plan!
Paul C. Miller
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www.maqfinancialgroup.com • 563.652.3513
714 W. Platt St. • Suite 5 Maquoketa, IA
Paul Miller and Steven Powell are Investment Advisor Representatives and Jarod Powell and David Enos are Registered Representatives with and offering Securities and Investment Advisory Services Through Royal Alliance
member FINRA/SIPC and a Registered Investment Advisor. Non Securities Products and Services are not Offered Through Royal Alliance. Maquoketa Financial Group is not affiliated with Royal Alliance. 199-20170905-396847
132 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

For all of your ag lending and crop insurance needs,
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1442 Lincoln Way, Clinton, IA 52732 | 1329 N 2nd St. Clinton, IA 52732 | 403 S Washington Blvd, Camanche, IA 52730

By ADRIENNA OLSON
Jackson County Executive Director
Farm Service Agency
adrienna.olson@ia.usda.gov
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Farmers have been facing financial pressures
as commodity prices have fallen,
disasters have amplified, and input costs
have risen. It is typical of a farmer to look
to new markets, incorporate different farming
techniques, or look for increased protection to try
to capture a profitable margin.
However, this can be costly to start, and trying
something different and unfamiliar can come with
risks. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the
Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
have many different programs that provide financial
assistance and technical support for farmers
that many may not know about.
The FSA has two sources of programs: commodity
programs and farm loan programs.
Between commodity programs and farm loan
programs, the FSA administers more than 40
different programs. Visit your local USDA
Service Center for any questions you may have
on programs offered by FSA.
The most popular commodity programs FSA
During
challenging
times agencies
here to help
administers locally are the Agriculture Risk Coverage
and Price Loss Coverage Program, Conservation
Reserve Program, Farm Storage Facility
Loans, Margin Protection Program for Dairy,
and Nonrecourse Marketing Assistance loans. A
few programs that are less common but can be
very beneficial during times of a disaster are the
Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), Noninsured
Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP), and the
Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees,
and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP).
The LIP provides financial assistance to livestock
producers who lost livestock due to a natural
disaster event in excess of normal mortality
rates. For eligible livestock, disaster events, and
other information regarding LIP, visit disaster.fsa.
usda.gov.
The NAP provides insurance opportunities for
crop types that are unable to obtain federal crop
insurance. Landowners, tenants, or sharecroppers
who share in the risk of producing an eligible
commodity are eligible for NAP. To learn more
about NAP, visit fsa.usda.gov/nap.
The ELAP provides financial assistance to
eligible producers of livestock, honeybees, and
farm-raised fish for losses due to disease, certain
adverse weather events or loss conditions determined
by the USDA secretary. ELAP assistance is
If you have
any questions,
please contact
your local
FSA Office.
Cedar County
205 W. South St.,
Ste. 3, Tipton, IA
52772
(563) 886-6061
Clinton County
1212 17th Ave.,
DeWitt, IA 52742
(563) 659-3456
Dubuque County
210 Bierman
Road, Epworth, IA
52045
(563) 876-3328
Jackson County
601 E. Platt St.,
Maquoketa, IA
52060
(563) 652-3237
Jones County
300 Chamber Dr.,
Anamosa, IA
52205
(563) 462-3517
J&S Auto Specialists
401 E. PLATT JEFF & SHERRY BAKER, OWNERS
MAQUOKETA, IA 563-652-6100
Oil Change,
Lube & Filter
Tire Sales,
Repair
Wheel
Alignment
Engines,
Transmission
Repair
Tune Up
for Cars
and Trucks
Auto Sales
Bellevue/
Preston
Veterinary
Clinic
Dr. Chris Paulsen
Dr. Susan Pond
Dr. Paul Bulman
563.872.4710
563.689.3121
134 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

provided for losses not covered by other disaster
assistance programs. To learn more about ELAP,
visit disaster.fsa.usda.gov.
The FSA Farm Loan teams offer an array of
loans including but not limited to Beginning
Farmer Loans, Direct Farm Ownership or Operating
Loans, and Guaranteed Farm Ownership or
Operating Loans.
Beginning Farmer Loans are made or guaranteed
by FSA for beginning farmers who are
unable to obtain financing from commercial lenders.
A beginning farmer has not operated a farm
for more than 10 years, meets the loan eligibility
requirements, substantially participates in the
operation, and for farm ownership loan purposes,
does not own a farm greater than 30 percent of the
median size farm in the county.
To qualify for a direct loan, the applicant must
be unable to obtain credit from commercial credit
sources, able to show sufficient repayment ability
and pledge enough collateral to fully secure the
loan. Direct ownership loans are made to purchase
farmland, construct or repair buildings and other
fixtures, and promote soil and water conservation.
Direct operating loans are made to purchase livestock,
farm equipment, feed, seed, fuel,
farm chemicals, insurance, and other operating
expenses.
FSA Guaranteed loans, either ownership or
operating, provide lenders with a guarantee of up
to 95 percent of the loss of principal and interest
on a loan. Farmers apply to an agricultural lender,
which then arranges for the guarantee. The FSA
guarantee permits lenders to make agricultural
credit available to farmers who do not meet the
lender’s normal underwriting criteria.
For more information on the loan options listed
and additional loan options not mentioned, visit
fsa.usda.gov/farmloans or visit your local USDA
service center.
The NRCS implements the Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which is
a voluntary conservation program that helps
producers make conservation work for them.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides producers with
financial resources and one-on-one help to plan
and implement improvements, otherwise known
as conservation practices.
There are approximately 200 practices associated
with EQIP depending on where your land
is located. Implementing EQIP practices on your
farm can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier
soil, and better wildlife habitat. Eligible conservation
practices are, but not limited to, buffer strips,
cover crops, erosion control, manure management
systems including storage structures and barnyard
runoff protection, and nutrient management.
For more information regarding EQIP, visit nrcs.
usda.gov/EQIP or visit your local USDA Service
Center. n
The FSA has two
sources of programs:
Commodity
Programs
Farm Loan
Programs
Between commodity
programs and farm loan
programs, the FSA
administers more than
40 different programs.
Visit your local USDA
Service Center for
any questions you
may have on programs
offered by FSA.
Relax, Refresh
and Recharge
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for stronger communities...
GENERATION AFTER GENERATION
Set on 200 wooded acres, we are a rustic resort just miles
from a timber reserve, Maquoketa Caves State Park
and two nearby ski resorts. Homey cottages feature
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a 6-hole golf course, plus air-conditioning.
34580 100th St. • Spragueville, Iowa • (563) 357-3784
whisperingmeadows@yahoo.com
whisperingmeadowsresortia.com
Visit us at one of our
convenient locations!
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DeWitt • Goose Lake
LeClaire • Long Grove
(800) 262-3141
www.firstcentralsb.bank
Kathy Sellnau
ksellnau@firstcentralsb.com
Scott Wiley
swiley@firstcentralsb.com
Leo McGarry
lmcgarry@firstcentralsb.com
Matt McGuire
mmcguire@firstcentralsb.com
Tom Free
tfree@firstcentralsb.com
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 135

Ohnward Farm Management team Greg Bopes, Paige Somerville and Dean Engel.
Ohnward Farm Management:
Supporting family farms from generation to generation.
Constant Communication
Executed with detailed reports, personal
phone calls, and regular visits with clients
and on the farm.
Professional Accounting
Including monthly and annual financial
statements, along with income and expense
summaries.
Hourly Consulting
Secure the idea of a professional for short-term
decision making or special management problems.
Collaboration
Operator collaboration between farm
manager, farm owner, and farm is key
in successful management of your farm.
Customer Satisfaction
Significant customer satisfaction is our
priority. We want every client to be proud
of the fact that their investment is being
taken care of and improved constantly.
Farm Visits
Farm visits are a priority for our farm
managers.
Personalized Farm Management Program
When we assume management of your farm, a complete inventory is made to identify the
specific objectives you have for the farm. This provides the background information for future
management recommendations and decisions.
GREG
BOPES
CCA-IA, 4RNMS
563-652-2491, ext. 4149
866-320-6327 (toll-free)
gbopes@ohnward.com
DEAN
ENGEL
563-652-2491
866-320-6327 (toll-free)
dengel@ohnward.com

Some things are just meant to last
for generations...
How you farm and how your ancestors farmed has changed over the years.
You have to keep the farm going through yield variables and recessions,
fluctuating markets, and unpredictable weather. But one thing you can be sure of,
American Mutual Insurance Association has been by your side through it all.
As a mutual policyholder you are an owner of American Mutual Insurance
Association. As an owner you can have the confidence that our decisions
are always based on what’s best for you, your farm, and your family.
Come see why, since 1878, your neighbors have trusted American
Mutual Insurance for their farm insurance needs.
Grand Mound, IA
563-847-2000
Find a local independent agent
amutualinsurance.com
Find us on
Facebook
American Mutual Insurance Association is reinsured by Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, an A.M.
Best “A” rated company since 1991, which lets you know we’ll be there when you need us most.

(Left) Cole Tobey gets busy planting his
sweet corn patch with a one-row planter.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY MICHELLE TOBEY
(Below) Carson Tobey poses for a photo
with his his steer, Bo.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY MICHELLE TOBEY
(Above) Shawn Tubbs takes a break from the action to smile for the camera.
PHOTO BY BROOKE TAYLOR
(Right) Joe Johnson fills up the grain truck during the fall harvest of 2018.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY JAYMEE JOHNSON
138 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

(Left) It’s not all work and no play. The families of
Joe Johnson and James Johnson decided to take
in a little sledding while checking on the cows. The
picture includes Carter and Caden Johnson, sons of
Joe and Jaymee Johnson, as well as Ty and Lane
Johnson, sons of James and Ashley Johnson.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY JAYMEE JOHNSON
(Above) Dubbed “the frosty lady in waiting that froze her moo,” Serenity,
a cow at Whitney Way Red Angus in Maquoketa, continued her waiting
through two of the coldest days Eastern Iowa had seen recently. She
delivered an 84-lb. bull calf at 2 p.m. on Jan. 31 (at a balmy -12 degrees).
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY JEAN WHITNEY
(Left) A foggy morning, while sitting in his skid loader moving snow north
of Elvira, leaves a picturesque scene for this photographer.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY DAVE FARRELL
Submit your photos for our fall issue
to eifarmer@sycamoremedia.net
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 139

(Left) Starting early: William Till gets a lesson in heavy equipment
operation. He is the son of Kaitlin and Mike Till of rural Maquoketa.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY ALLISON JOHNSON
(Right) Cody Walker, on the sprayer, and Marcus Killean
on the pedal tractor are all smiles for the camera.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY JULIE WALKER
(Below left) Jonah Ewers holds a lamb.
(Below right) Kyle Fitzgerald heads out to do chores.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY SIERRA RODRIGUEZ
(Above) Cole, Logan,
Brody and Jordan Green stand on the
family’s century farm in Maysville, Iowa, previously owned by their
great-grandparents Arnold and Viola Rock. 2018 was the first year that the boys helped farm
the field as their parents are now the owners of that farm.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY KIMBERLY GREEN
(Right) Sutton Moore, daughter of Brandon and Heather Moore of Maquoketa, has no choice but
to wait in the milk house for chores to be done — not that she minds.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY HEATHER MOORE
140 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2019 eifarmer.com

(Top) Ideal weather conditions call for farmer Luke Grantz to
work long hours and get his corn in the ground while time permits.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY AMY GRANTZ
(Above) Myles Schnoor gets creative when playing in the “hay
fort” around the farm.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY LORI SCHNOOR
(Left) Grandpa John Wilson and Maddie Bopes taking a break
from cleaning the shop.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY KATIE BOPES
eifarmer.com SPRING 2019 | EASTERN IOWA FARMER 141

For confident data driven decisions in
business, agronomy and land valuation.
MICHAEL DELANEY
563-543-1376
CREATE A PLAN FOR GREATER PROFITABILITY
In today’s markets, success depends on getting the most from every input dollar. Seed and
nitrogen are primary crop inputs that must be managed correctly to maximize yields.
Your local Encirca certified services agent will work with you to create a plan customized
to the exact needs of your operation. Working together, we can help make your next crop,
your best crop yet.
Encirca.pioneer.com 1-844-744-7333 Follow us @EncircaServices
EXPLORE. EVOLVE. EXCEL.
Encirca SM services are provided subject to the terms and conditions of purchase which are part of the purchase documents.
®
, TM , SM Trademarks and service marks of DuPont, Pioneer or their respective owners. © 2017 PHII. 17D-1013

It is Your Livelihood.
Make Sure You’re Protected.
Whether you are a local grower or a large cultivator, we understand the value of insuring
your greatest asset. At The Engel Agency, Inc., we are dedicated to providing the agricultural
coverage and services you need to keep your farm or ranch protected – so you can focus on
maintaining a smooth operation.
INSURANCE
• Farm Owners Insurance
• Livestock Insurance
• Equine Insurance
• Farm Blanket Insurance
• Dwelling Insurance
• Structure Insurance
• Auto Insurance
• Umbrella Insurance
• Liability Insurance
• Crop Insurance
REAL ESTATE
Our team of real estate agents
works closely with you and for
you to make sure you find the
property that is just right. You’ll
experience the quality service
and attention to detail that you
can only find with a locally owned
and operated real estate agency.
Our Team, left to right: Chris Schaefer, Fred Droste, Jennifer Machande, Shawn Blake,
Abby Schueller, and Lisa Bormann
Maquoketa
INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE
210 W. Platt • Maquoketa
AgENCy
• Jennifer Machande
815-541-3037
• Chris Schaefer
563-320-6205
www.engelinsurance.com
• Fred Droste
563-543-4461
• Abby Schueller
563-599-3688
Office 563-652-5684 • 800-684-0693

(Above) Alan Wood and
his grandson, Mayson
Wood, ride together in
the tractor while planting
alfalfa earlier last year.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY
MELISSA WOOD
(Right) Bill Borrenpohl of
rural LaMotte checks in
on a group of steers in a
grazing paddock. Bill and
his wife, Stacey, operate
Woven Strong Farm in
rural LaMotte.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY
STACEY BORRENPOHL

(Far left) Boer goats
enjoy some playtime
in a wagon at Joel and
Melissa Wood’s farm east
of Baldwin.
(Left) Maranda Wood gets
up close and personal
with her baby Boer goats.
She is the daughter of
Joel and Melissa Wood
of Baldwin.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
BY MELISSA WOOD
(Above) Staying with the Rose
family, India Arriaga gets a picture
taken in the bean field. India resides
permanently in Spain.
(Left) Jacob Rose and his grandpa
Joseph “Mattie” Rose take a walk
through the harvested field.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY MELISSA ROSE
(Below) John Wilson shows off his
rainfall records for 2018.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY KATIE BOPES

Peoples Company
LAND BROKERAGE & AUCTIONS
Licensed in 20 states, Peoples Company is a leading
provider of land brokerage and auction services. A
core advantage of choosing Peoples Company is our
ability to utilize the most appropriate sale method for
our clients’ specific situation.
LAND MANAGEMENT
Land Management is an asset management strategy
utilizing farm-specific systems and practices to increase
the property’s annual income and produce premium
appreciation.
APPRAISALS
Peoples Company employs a network of real estate
appraisal professionals and consultants who are
licensed in seven states and are ready to provide clients
with an accurate property valuation.
2013-2016
YeggeMcNeilLand.com | 563.659.8185
formerly Total Realty Co.

One of the nation’s fastest growing land services
organizations offering land brokerage, land management,
land investing, and appraisal services.
TAMI GUY
563.659.8185
tami@peoplescompany.com
ALAN MCNEIL
563.321.1125
alan@peoplescompany.com
DOUG YEGGE
563.320.9900
Doug@peoplescompany.com
563.659.8185
700 6th Avenue | DeWitt, Iowa 52742

Many things have changed
in agriculture over the years…
…but one constant is our commitment to farmers. You can count on DeWitt Bank & Trust Co.
for quality banking and business services that will help you be successful today and for years to come.
Photo taken at Timmerman Seed in Bennett, Iowa.
Pictured: Joel Dieckmann,
Bridget Maher, Bill Vetter,
Greg Gannon, Kathy Rollings,
Roger Hill, Tina Lively,
Mike Dunn and Marty Murrell.
dewittbank.com
563.659.3211