Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2020

The Eastern Iowa Fall 2020
Farmer
®
A Publication of Sycamore Media
Tough times,
tough people
Eastern Iowa producers have rolled up their
sleeves, made hard decisions, and done
the dirty work necessary to overcome
not only a battered ag economy, but also
the season of Covid.
Valued partners: Long before
women gained the right to vote 100 years
ago, they played key roles on Eastern Iowa
farms.
Dear Diary: A local woman shares
how the pandemic has impacted life for her
family and their agricultural livelihood.
Country cookin’: Get tips on
making your own sourdough or try out
some hidden gems from local cookbooks.
Trudging through the timber:
Forestry management helps keep trees
healthy for wildlife habitat, recreation
and conservation.
PLUS:
Photo pages of your
friends and neighbors!

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Trait and Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers
Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship
Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. Commercialized products have
been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used,
processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing
biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position
for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.
B.t. products may not yet be registered in all states. Check with your seed brand representative for the registration status in your state.
IMPORTANT IRM INFORMATION: RIB Complete® corn blend products do not require the planting of a structured refuge except in the Cotton-Growing Area where corn
earworm is a significant pest. See the IRM/Grower Guide for additional information. Always read and follow IRM requirements.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW IRM, WHERE APPLICABLE, GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP PRACTICES AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS.
Roundup Ready® 2 Technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate. Glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Herculex® is a registered
trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design® is a trademark of BASF Corporation. Respect the Refuge and Corn Design® and Respect
the Refuge® are registered trademarks of National Corn Growers Association. Climate FieldView services provide estimates or recommendations based on models. These
do not guarantee results. Consult your agronomist, commodities broker and other service professionals before making financial, risk management, and farming decisions.
More information at http://www.climate.com/disclaimers. FieldView is a trademark of The Climate Corporation. DroughtGard®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2
Technology and Design, Roundup Ready®, SmartStax® and VT Double PRO® are trademarks of Bayer Group. ©2020 Bayer Group. All rights reserved.

Jeremy Miner
Agronomist
319-480-1465
Geoff Aper
Field Sales Representative
309-945-5222
Max McNeil
Channel Seedsman – Preston
563-357-2381
Bob Gannon
Channel Seedsman – DeWitt
563-357-9876
Spencer Hicks
Channel Seedsman – New Liberty
563-513-8005
Janell Slattery
Channel Seedsman – Maquoketa
563-357-4057

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A Foundation
for Giving
Sharing and caring:
You can
make a
difference
in so
many
ways
Roger Kurt
Attorney, Dubuque and rural counties
In my work, I meet with people as they plan their
legacies so when they are gone, their assets can
support those they care about.
Many want to leave their community a better place.
The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque is
a great option for giving, because it addresses a broad
range of needs in a strategic way. That gift will grow
forever and pay out each year to help nonprofits address
community needs.
A large estate isn’t necessary to make a big impact.
People of modest means have many options for giving.
It all starts with a call to the Community Foundation. The
staff is knowledgeable and passionate, and they can help
anyone leave a legacy of generosity.
What will your legacy to the community be? To start
planning, contact Faye Finnegan, director of donor
relations for the Community Foundation, at 563-588-2700
or faye@dbqfoundation.org.
The Community Foundation of Greater
and inspires giving along with affiliate

Responding
During Crisis
Strengthening
Communities
In rural towns, community foundations are meeting
the needs of people most impacted by COVID-19. The
LincolnWay Community Foundation, for instance, has
stepped up to help feed children and families.
“In March, we supported lunches for students in
Calamus and gave $5,000 to the DeWitt Referral Center
for food,” says Pat Henricksen, executive director of the
Foundation.
The Referral Center assists people experiencing
financial hardship in the Central DeWitt Community School
District with resources for medical care, housing, utilities,
clothing, transportation and food. In a year, it provided
9,295 cartons of milk at school plus 242 summer lunch
boxes for kids.
“The Foundation sees the difference the Referral Center
has made,” says Henricksen. The Foundation also has
pledged $6,000 to the Center for a new space that will
meet its needs better than its current home, an aging
former fire station.
Through many years of grantmaking, the Foundation
has supported the Referral Center and other nonprofits,
many of which are on the front lines of the pandemic
response. You can help with a gift to the Forever
LincolnWay Endowment. Contact Pat Henricksen at 563-
659-5039.
The Jackson County Fairgrounds were quiet this
August during the pandemic, but the Community
Foundation of Jackson County is still supporting
the fair — and the county — through grantmaking.
Though the fair was cancelled, 4-H leaders
planned an exhibition to showcase clubs around the county.
The Foundation’s Disaster Recovery Fund granted $2,500
to purchase safety supplies for the youth and volunteers
involved.
This fall, the Foundation will award its final grant of
$25,000 to Together We Build for the new Jackson County
Fair & Extension Outreach Center, which will strengthen
families, empower youth and grow communities by
expanding educational programs in health, nutrition, STEM
and agriculture. It’s also expected to draw new programs
and events to the area.
The Foundation’s mission to nurture charitable giving,
enrich quality of life and promote a sense of community
allows donors many ways to support causes they care
about. Local generosity supports grantmaking that
strengthens Jackson County for everyone, today and
tomorrow.
To learn more, contact Mary Jo Gothard, executive
director, at 563-588-2700 or maryjo@dbqfoundation.org.
An Affiliate of the
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
Dubuque strengthens communities
partners in surrounding counties.
dbqfoundation.org

The Eastern Iowa
Farmer®
Directory of advertisers
Abstract & Title Guaranty Company....54
AgWest Commodities..........................95
American Family Insurance.................29
American Mutual Insurance.................51
Anamosa Silo Repair, LLC..................15
Andy McKean......................................60
Appliance Solutions.............................57
Arensdorf Rock Quarry &
Ag Lime Application........................32
Beck’s..................................................33
Bellevue Herald-Leader.......................44
Bellevue Lumber................................107
Bellevue/Preston Veterinary Clinic......38
Bellevue Sand & Gravel......................15
Brandenburg Drainage........................61
Breeden’s Vermeer..............................88
Brent Kilburg for Sheriff.......................42
Brent Kilburg for Sheriff.......................98
Burger Chiropractic..............................56
Burger Shoe Repair.............................56
Cascade Lumber.................................55
Channel Seed........................................2
Citizens First Bank...............................81
Citizens State Bank.............................76
Clinton County Farm Bureau...............99
Clinton National Bank..........................11
Clover Ridge Place..............................64
Community Foundation
of Greater Dubuque .........................6
Community Foundation
of Jackson County............................6
Countryside Feed & Supply.................80
Custom Dozing and
Crane Service, Inc..........................87
Dave River Construction....................110
Davisson Tiling, LLC............................63
Deep Creek Applicators.......................18
Delaney Ag Service.............................35
Delaney’s Auto & Ag............................25
Delmar Grain Service, Inc...................77
DeWitt Bank & Trust..........................132
East Central Consulting.......................16
East Iowa Real Estate.........................24
Eastern Iowa Propane.......................119
Eberhart Farm Center..........................26
Farm Bureau Financial Services.........82
Farm Credit Services.........................118
Farrell’s Inc..........................................22
First Central State Bank......................38
Franzen Family Tractors......................43
Funk’s Frontiersmen..........................125
Gateway Door Company.....................59
Green Tech Spray Foam Insulation.....93
Heritage Mutual Insurance..................47
Holdgrafer Grain Systems, LLC...........74
Hostetler Precision Ag Solutions.........15
Iowa Concrete Products......................28
Invisible Fence Brand..........................75
J.J. Scheckel Performance
Angus Genetics..............................14
Jackson County Democrats.................62
Jackson County Farm Bureau.............99
Jackson County Regional
Health Center..................................66
Keeney Welding................................100
Ken Kruger........................................100
Kunau Implement................................50
Liberty Ag & Excavating.......................91
Legacy Insurance Group................... 111
LincolnWay Community Foundation......6
Low Moor Ag Service.........................106
Maquoketa Financial...........................89
Maquoketa Lumber............................107
Maquoketa Sentinel-Press..................44
Maquoketa State Bank........................97
Martens Angus.....................................92
Meant To Be with Flowers...................39
Merschman Seed..............................121
Miner, Gilroy & Meade.......................117
Moore Family Farms............................58
Nissen-Caven Insurance
& Real Estate..................................90
Ohnward Farm Management...............69
Ohnward Insurance Group..................23
Ohnward Tax, Accounting
& Business Services.......................86
Ohnward Wealth & Retirement............49
Osterhaus Pharmacy...........................79
Peoples Company.............................130
Petersen Insurance Company, Inc......71
Pioneer..............................................115
Regency..............................................94
River Valley Cooperative.....................48
Roeder Brothers................................124
Rolling Hills Veterinary Service............65
RPJ Repair & Warehouse...................72
Scherrman’s Implement.......................68
Schlecht Farm & Hatchery...................96
Schlecht’s Lunch Wagon.....................38
Schoenthaler, Bartelt, Kahler
& Reicks..........................................78
Schueller & Sons Reconstruction......101
Schuster & Co PC.............................109
Sheridan & Associates Insurance........71
State Farm ..........................................16
Steve Bradley......................................92
Stickley Electric...................................30
Sycamore Media................................113
The Eastern Iowa Farmer..................122
The Engel Agency...............................19
The Friedman Group...........................41
The Obsever........................................44
Theisen’s.............................................31
Titan Pro..............................................17
Tri-State Building Corp..........................4
Veach Diesel & Automotive Repair......40
Wag More............................................37
Welter Seed & Honey Co....................46
Wheatland Manor Care Facility.........103
Whispering Meadows Resort...............23
White Front..........................................36
Wyffels Hybrids....................................83
Zirkelbach Home Appliances...............73
view the entire magazine online
eifarmer.com
8 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Story Index
coronavirus
52
shockwave
Before COVID-19 was even talked about, Eastern Iowa’s farmers were grappling
with low prices and trade war uncertainties. Now, the pandemic has delivered yet one
more layer of difficulty as farmers learn how to strategically operate in the new normal
Valued
Partners
12
Long before
women gained the
right to vote 100 years
ago, they played key
roles on family farms
through
the timber
45
Forestry management
plans help landowners
make the most of their
hills and hollers
dear
diary
84
Ashley Johnson
chronicled her young
family’s daily joys
and struggles as they
faced major impacts
21 Lights, Camera, Action
Students gain filmmaking experience while
showcasing local livestock exhibitor
27 A self-sustaining ecosystem
Our old, abandoned barns transform over the years
as nature and weather leave their marks
34 Comfort Food
When yeast supplies disappeared from shelves,
this cook simply grew her own
102 New Iowa laws impact agricultural producers
104 The Rural Reader
From weeds to axes to chickens, these books tell a story
108 Pitching In
Students find more time for chores during COVID
112 Ag in the Classroom
Ag education helps shape college, career choices
114 FSA technology saves time, helps
people avoid trip to town
116 Country Cookbooks
Cookbooks shape local kitchens
120 What in the derecho
On top of everything else that has happened in 2020,
in August hurricane-force winds struck yet one more blow

Farmer
The Eastern Iowa Fall 2020
A Publication of Sycamore Media
Tough times,
tough people
Eastern Iowa producers have rolled up their
sleeves, made hard decisions, and done
the dirty work necessary to overcome
not only a battered ag economy, but also
the season of CovId.
Valued partners: Long before
women gained the right to vote 100 years
ago, they played key roles on Eastern Iowa
farms.
Dear Diary: A local woman shares
how the pandemic has impacted life for her
family and their agricultural livelihood.
Country cookin’: Get tips on
making your own sourdough or try out
some hidden gems from local cookbooks.
Trudging through the timber:
Forestry management helps keep trees
healthy for wildlife habitat, recreation
and conservation.
PLUS:
Photo pages of your
friends and neighbors!
The Eastern Iowa
Farmer
®
Sycamore Media President:
Trevis Mayfield
Advertising: Jeni Joos, Trevis Mayfield,
Brooke Taylor, Dean Upmann,
and Bob Wendt
Creative Director: Brooke Taylor
Editorial Content: Elliot Bibat,
Lowell Carlson, Megan Clark, Kelly
Gerlach, Ashley Johnson, Dale Kilburg,
Kris Koth, Nancy Mayfield, Trevis
Mayfield, Sara Millhouse, Jenna Stevens,
Kristine Tidgren
Photography Content:
Kelly Gerlach, Ashley Johnson, Nick
Joos, 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
Travis Till, model
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.
view the entire
magazine online
eifarmer.com
®
Message from the Publisher
Everything has changed,
at least for a little while
This issue was supposed to be focused
on weather patterns and how they
have affected the lives and practices
of Eastern Iowa’s farmers over the past few
years, and how those farmers have found
ways to roll with the metaphorical punches.
We had taken note of how resilient area
farmers have been in making adjustments as
weather patterns shifted and weather events
slapped them silly from time to time. Because
this magazine is a year-round effort for
us, we had already begun working on stories
for that issue when a natural disaster of a
different sort changed everything.
As a new and dangerous virus began
leaching its way around the globe like the
parasite it is, everything, at least for now, has
changed, and the cover story for this magazine
is the least of it.
No part of our agriculture community
has been spared
from the emotional,
economic and
health challenges
that COVID-19 has
wrought.
For our staff, it
has meant social
distancing from
each other and our
Trevis Mayfield
President,
Sycamore Media Corp.
customers, more
time on the phone
and no handshakes.
We have washed
our hands until they
are raw, and when we’re in the presence of
others, we have worn masks, a practice that
seemed bizarre at first but now feels almost
normal. And despite those efforts, multiple
employees have been exposed to the contagion,
including me, twice.
One of our employees tested positive,
which sent five others to get tested. All of us
had to work from home for 14 days as we
quarantined.
As we very carefully visited farms and
advertisers to take photographs and talked
with sources and advertisers through digital
means, we heard the same thing over and
over.
From hog and cattle farmers to corn producers
to haulers and everyone in between,
one sentence popped up in almost every
conversation: “It’s been a real roller coaster.”
That ubiquitous comment is why we shifted
course with our plans. Given how broadly
this issue is impacting the farming community
in so many ways, how could we not
document it, and farmers’ efforts to deal with
it, in a timely manner?
As the pandemic stretches into the fall,
farmers have found creative ways to manage
their crops and animals against the backdrop
of low prices, disrupted supply chains and
all kinds of uncertainties. They’ve buckled
in and are holding on tight. State and federal
aid is helping in the short-term, but farmers
are riding on some thin rails as they navigate
the twists and turns of the future.
But one thing is clear. Farmers are tough
people, and they will survive these tough
times.
As this scourge drags on, we get closer to
its end. Yes, it will end, we just don’t know
when. In the meantime, we hope this magazine
lifts your spirits. We hope in it you find
stories to which you can relate, stories that
make you smile and stories that show you
are not alone in your struggles.
At the end of this letter, I often thank
our advertisers who make this magazine
possible. For this issue, in these challenging
times, there are no words that could fully
capture our appreciation of your support, so
I’ll keep it simple.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Sincerely,
Trevis Mayfield,
Sycamore Media president
10 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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Valued Partners
Long before
women gained the
right to vote 100
years ago, they
played key roles on
family farms
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
There’s a much-loved story about
Eloise Tabor Stewart in family
lore. It was 1920, and her father
was haying on their farm near
Baldwin.
Deciding he needed a few more men for
the task, he asked Eloise, then 10 years
old, to drive into town to pick up some
more laborers.
“We laugh to think of this little girl
driving a car into town, wondering how
her feet could even reach the pedals,” said
Jennie Stewart, reminiscing about her
mother-in-law who died at age 99 in 2009.
This is one of many stories passed down
in rural families that show how women
from a young age were an integral part of
life on the farm, from daughters helping
with chores to wives being valued partners
with their husbands in keeping the business
humming on all fronts.
It seems fitting that little Eloise, who
12 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Eloise Tabor Stewart works with her
father-in-law, James Stewart, on the
family’s farm in Preston. Besides driving
a tractor, Eloise did many chores and
particularly liked working with cattle.
Eloise drives the tractor while James
mans the oat binder.
Eloise Tabor Stewart,
right, poses with one
of her friends in the
flapper-style clothing
that was popular in
the 1920s.
(Below) Amelia
MacDonald Cutler
authored this suffrage
handbill, “Six Reasons
Why Farmers’
Wives Should Vote.”
Courtesy of the Virginia
Commonwealth
University Libraries.
Eastern Iowa Farmer
photos / Contributed
decades later ran a farm herself after
being widowed, drove that car to town
the same year the 19th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution passed giving women
the right to vote. Rural Iowa played a
role in that pivotal moment in history.
Political roots
Eloise’s father, George Washington
Tabor, was a state senator from 1929
to 1933 when he lost the Democratic
primary to Carolyn Campbell Pendray,
who was from Maquoketa.
In a letter to Eloise after the election
her mother wrote, “Your dad
didn’t like being beat by a woman.
He went to bed for three days.”
Not only was Pendray the
first woman elected to the state
Legislature (she was sworn into
the Iowa House in 1929), she
later became the first woman to
preside over the Iowa Senate,
pointed out Linda Stewart, who
is married to Eloise’s grandson
Tom.
“Carolyn Pendray was a
pioneer,” Linda said.
While Eloise never ran for
office, her brother, Howard,
and her son, Roger, both served in the
Iowa Legislature. A lifelong Democrat,
she lobbied on behalf of Farm Bureau
Women and never missed an election.
“She took her voting rights very seriously,”
said Jennie, who is the family historian.
Even when macular degeneration
robbed her of most of her eyesight, “she
insisted on me getting her to the polls.”
And exercising that right can be partly
traced to another young girl in rural Iowa.
A leader emerges
Years before Eloise drove that car, future
suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt
had a ringside seat to spirited, dinner-table
political conversations at the family
farm outside of Charles City, Iowa.
“Her experience on the farm is where
she became a suffragist. Her family talked
politics. They were great fans of Horace
Greely,” said Karen Kedrowski, director
of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for
Women and Politics and professor of political
science at Iowa State University.
Greely, a newspaper editor and publisher
active in politics, ran for president
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 13

Valued partners
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / contributed
Carrie Chapman Catt grew up on a farm
outside of Charles City, Iowa, where the
dinnertime political discussions spurred her
into a life as an activist and proponent of
suffrage for women.
“Her experience on the farm is
where she became a suffragist.
Her family talked politics.”
— Karen Kedrowski,
Director for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center
for Women and Politics and professor of political science
at Iowa State University.
of the United States against Ulysses S.
Grant in 1872 as a member of the Liberal
Republican Party.
“Carrie watched her father and the
hired hand get ready to go into town to
vote. She asked her mother, ‘Why aren’t
you getting dressed to go to town to
vote for Horace Greely?’” Kedrowski
said, adding that everyone laughed, and
someone explained to the 13-year-old that
women did not have that right.
Chapman Catt became instrumental in
changing that. Iowa was “very much part
of the national conversation,” Kedrowski
said, attracting major names in the suffrage
movements to speak in all corners
of the state.
While women in Iowa did not get the
full right to vote until the 19th Amendment
passed, rural areas were often “the
seats of political progressiveness” here
and in other Midwest states, Kedrowski
said.
The National Grange movement –
which began in 1867 when farmers organized
to fight railroad and grain elevator
monopolies – treated women equal to
men. Iowa had several Grange chapters.
“The grangers were ardent women
suffragists,” Kedrowski said, promoting
things like women’s ownership of farms.
Among the real concerns for rural women
were the ability to own property and other
reforms that would allow them to have
control over their economic destiny.
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14 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Valued partners
Women also “were seen as having a crucial role to play in the
success of settling the west, taking part in the arduous backbreaking
work of building communities, homesteading, farming in land
not very hospitable in harsh circumstances,” Kedrowski said.
The campaign for suffrage in Iowa was a grassroots effort.
Farmers understood the important roles their wives played in
the success of the farm, and many believed that giving them the
right to vote and other rights would help protect them.
And their foresight was important to many women in future
generations, including Eloise Tabor Stewart.
Running the farm
After Eloise married Preston native Willard Stewart, they
lived in Milwaukee where he worked as a chemist. When their
son Roger was young, they came back to live and work on the
family farm about a mile off Highway 64 in Preston. They also
welcomed a daughter, Nancy (Stewart) Moore. Along with
Willard’s father, James, they grew corn, oats and hay and raised
livestock.
At 5-foot 2-inches, Eloise was a powerhouse, driving tractors
and caring for animals.
“She could do any chore that needed to be done,” Jennie said,
and she loved to be outside. “She could do anything outside on
the farm. Any task that a man could do, she could do. She really
enjoyed being out with the animals.”
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 15

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When Eloise was widowed
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“She was very much the
family matriarch,” Linda said.
“She remained very involved
with the farm through the
years.”
And she kept her eye on the
future, grooming her grandson,
Tom Stewart, to take over
the family farm. Tom and Linda’s
son, Andrew, is the sixth
generation farming the land.
“She lived through so many
things,” Linda said. The Great
Depression, the advent of
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and other luxuries,
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Crisis of the 1980s.
Resiliency, Jennie and
Eloise Tabor Stewart at 10-years-old
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16 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Valued partners
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Contributed
Roger and Jennie Stewart (front and center) surrounded by their family in 2016 as they celebrate the
homestead being named a Heritage Farm. The farm was founded in 1866 in Preston.
Linda agreed, was one of her most marked
characteristics.
“Times are hard, and they will be hard on
the farm,” they recalled she’d say.
She made popcorn balls on Halloween,
was a warm conversationalist, and cooked
mountains of silver dollar pancakes for her
grandchildren.
And she also was a strong woman who carried
on the family’s farming heritage. n
“She could do any
chore that needed
to be done. She
could do anything
outside on the farm.
Any task that a
man could do, she
could do. She really
enjoyed being out
with the animals.”
— Jennie Stewart
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 17

Valued partners
Equal suffrage protects the farm family
The Equal Suffrage League in Iowa distributed
information that closely connected the
importance of woman voting with the health
of farming communities. Here are some excerpts
from it the organization’s early 20th
Century literature from the digital archives
of the University of Iowa Library:
The farmer knows better than anyone
else how his wife helps to earn and
carry on the farm. When he dies, he
leaves it without fear in her hands. But he
leaves its taxes unprotected by a citizen’s
vote. His widow is considered a citizen
when the taxes fall due. Her taxes are more
likely to be raised than reduced. On election
day, she suffers from taxation without representation
– she has no voice in saying how
her taxes shall be spent. When Iowa women
vote, they will help to secure better roads,
better schools, better trolley service, more
libraries and meeting halls, and insist upon
wholesome amusements for boys and girls.
– Equal Suffrage League
We look for the men on the farms,
where thinking is clear and clean,
and where justice is granted in
large measure, to give women their unqualified
support at every opportunity, and that
opportunity comes in Iowa in June 1916.
– Successful Farming
Giving women a voice in government
is but the legitimate outgrowth of
the forward movement that has
been gradually unfolding through the
centuries. To share with men the responsibilities
and duties of citizenship adds to
her prestige in home life and opportunity,
in social affairs, in education achievement
and in philanthropic endeavor.
– The Iowa Farmer
I
am an advocate of woman suffrage.
I believe that most farmers are also.
There are few professions or callings
in which woman is so helpful a partner as
farming. Many a farm has been tided over
some spell of adversity by the income of
the determined, devoted farm wife with her
flock of hens and her churn. Yet you and I
have disfranchised this army of women all
these many, many years
– The Homestead
When Abraham Lincoln spoke of a
government of the people, for the
people, and by the people, he put
in the fewest possible words, all that we
can think of as desirable in government. I
do not see how we can have a government
of the people, for the people or by the people
until our women have an equal voice
with men. They share with us to the full in
everything except the ballot. They should
share with us in that, not alone because it is
just and right that they should, but because
they are fully as competent as men to use
that ballot wisely
– Henry C. Wallace, editor of
Wallaces’ Farmer
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Central DeWitt student
Ella Krukow trains her
camera on the action
as she documents the
filmmaking process for
CAC Media Group.
Lights, camera,
action!
Students gain filmmaking experience while
showcasing local livestock exhibitor
BY jenna stevens
eastern iowa farmer
Checking the screen on her iPhone,
Beth Lamp adjusts her position
in the show ring as she records
swine exhibitor Caleb Kruse
maneuvering his Duroc gilt out
of the holding pen. Lamp – along with her
Current Ag Concerns (CAC) Media Group
teammates Megan Clark, Kesley Holdgrafer,
and Brooklyn Kucera – embarked on a new
film project this summer with the goal of
showcasing a local livestock exhibitor from
Clinton County.
“This project started as a way to continue
doing agricultural promotions and media
during the Covid-19 outbreak which limited
our normally busy travel schedule,” said
Lamp, who is a student at Northeast High
School, as are CAC members Holdgrafer and
Kucera. Clark attends Central DeWitt High
School.
The organization gives students experience
in agriculture communications and gets them
more involved in the industry.
“We were originally working on a different
contract, but that fell through and we already
had the film crew hired, so we decided to try
and do a production in our own community,”
she added.
Kruse, an 8th grader at Central DeWitt, was
the first student to respond when asked about
the project, securing his place front and center
amid a crew of both professional and amateur
film makers. The film company Fresh Films
led the production and taught CAC members
about the process along the way.
“We were excited to learn how to shoot and
Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / Trevis Mayfield
Caleb Kruse walks his Duroc gilt around the show
ring at the Clinton County Fairgrounds during the
filming of a piece showcasing a local livestock
exhibitor.
edit high quality video because it is an asset
to us for future projects,” said Clark, who
served as a producer. “It will be another skill
we can offer to our clients when we travel,
and we can use it for our own promotions and
marketing.”
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 21

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lights, camera, action
Taking on a professional video shoot
is no small task, and Kruse along with
CAC members spent months working on
a script and developing a shot sheet that
rivaled a short novel.
“Preparing for the video took so much
longer than I expected,” Kruse said. “But
even though managing the hours were
difficult sometimes, I still think it is good
that we practiced as much as we did.”
Another unique challenge with this video
was its use of live animals. Working
with livestock added an additional layer
of complexity to the task, but Kruse and
other producers in the area stepped up and
provided extra pigs and supplies to make
the process run smoothly.
“Pigs are like people in a lot of ways,”
Kruse said. “They don’t like to be poked
and prodded for long periods of time,
especially in the heat of July, so it was
essential that I prepared three different
Duroc gilts to give them plenty of time to
rest.”
To minimize stress on the pigs and to
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Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / Trevis Mayfield
Northeast student Megan Clark is one of the CAC Media Group team members who made a film
last summer. DeWitt student Carson Deppe served as the judge in the show ring for the video.
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 23

lights, camera, action
“It takes a lot of time to get
things right and having to redo
scenes was trying, but I believe
that practice makes perfect
and I just kept reminding
myself that I was being asked
to redo things because they
wanted to get the best possible
shots for the final cut.”
— caleb Kruse
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limit the number of people on set at
a time, the video was shot in bits and
pieces that were later edited and rearranged
to make the final cut.
“Editing the video took days,” said
Clark. “We had almost 12 hours of
footage that we had to condense and
rearrange.”
Each scene had to be shot multiple
times and from different angles to ensure
there was enough footage to pick
from and that it matched exactly what
was being said in the voiceover.
“It takes a lot of time to get things
right and having to redo scenes was
trying, but I believe that practice makes
perfect and I just kept reminding myself
that I was being asked to redo things
because they wanted to get the best possible
shots for the final cut,” Kruse said.
The final piece was released in September
and was posted across multiple
social media platforms, on YouTube, and
through the Sunglo Feed Companies media
channels. Sunglo sponsored the video
and supplied Kruse with feed for his pigs
and apparel to wear during filming.
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“Working with both Sunglo and the
CAC Media Group was a very positive
experience,” Kruse said. “I learned so
much about speaking and working with
people in a professional environment
and I know that both of those skills will
help me in the future.”
The finished product, which is titled
“A Showman’s Story,” will be available
for viewing later. CAC will share the
details on how people can watch the
program when they become available.
For more information about the CAC
Media Group, visit CAC Media Group
on Facebook, follow them on Instagram
#currentagconcerns or visit currentagconcerns.com.
The CAC Media Group has several
more projects on the books for this fall
including additional video productions
showcasing local Eastern Iowa farmers
and conference media projects across
multiple states. Students will be gaining
valuable experience working on these
ventures. n
— Jenna Stevens is the executive
director of CAC Media Group.
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24 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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old barns
Dale Kilburg
stands in the
doorway of
the bank barn
on his family
farm south of
Maquoketa.
Such
two-story
buildings,
probably of
Pennsylvania
German
origin,
provided room
for livestock,
grain storage
and more.
Years ago,
some people
used parts
of two-story
barns for
living space.
Eastern
Iowa Farmer
photo / Trevis
Mayfield
A self-sustaining
ecosystem
Our old, abandoned barns transform over the years
as nature and weather leave their marks
BY dale kilburg
eastern iowa farmer
Many an old barn, falling
into desolate disrepair,
stands as a lonely sentinel
in our countryside,
often marking the location of an old
family homestead dating back to
pioneer days. Of these old barns, perhaps
the most unique are the massive
bank barns, with their cantilevered
overhangs often facing south and the
banked driveway onto the upper floor
on the opposite side.
These barns, probably of Pennsylvania
German origin, served as
all-around general purpose barns
providing quarters for work horses
and milk cows and storage on the
second floor for straw, hay and grain
with a center threshing floor for work
A latch hangs on a weather-beaten door
on the barn.
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 27

old barns
Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / Trevis Mayfield
One brave sheep makes its way to the barnyard while others wait in the doorway. The farm also
has some cattle. Years ago, it also had horses and chickens.
in the winter time.
As one enters one of these barns,
perhaps with a horseshoe nailed over
the door to keep off witches, it is easy
to imagine the work horses snorting and
stamping their feet on the wooden floor in
their section of the barn’s basement, often
on the east to take advantage of the early
morning light, and the milk cows entering
a small milking parlor in the center
bay, with milking stools perched on racks
within handy reach, and perhaps calves
or sheep in a pen occupying the third bay,
with grain boxes and hay mangers for
them filled from supplies stored directly
overhead on the second floor.
It is easy to imagine the hustle and
bustle of the early morning with the
milking and readying the horses for the
day’s work with all the family members
involved, working together immersed in
their tasks, but with low-voiced banter
to ease the work on. And the cats. One
mustn’t forget the cats. After all, they
worked hard to decrease the surplus population
of mice and rats that also found
these barns appealing. The cats deserved
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old barns
Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / Trevis Mayfield
(Left) The limestone foundation of Dale Kilburg’s barn shows its age. (Middle) Swallows built their home behind a horseshoe hung for luck.
(Right) Assorted lumber is strewn about in the loft of the barn.
their helping of fresh warm milk from the
cow for their indispensable service.
Overhead, barn swallows swooped,
feasting upon all the flying insects that
inevitably graced the presence of farm
animals. On the second floor above, mice
scurried back and forth from grain box
holes to their nests in hay or straw while
high above them nesting barn owls waited
for the evening hunt, or pigeons perched
on the rafters in the barn’s cozy snugness.
These barns, after all, did not provide
homes just for the farm animals but also
for all the other wild animals like mice
and birds that could find the dwellings
and work places of humans so appealing.
Even now, with the work horses and milk
cows gone, old basement barns like ours
still in service for small flocks of sheep
support a small self-sustaining ecosystem.
Barn swallows still build their nests of
mud stiffened with grass or straw, a bird
version of adobe, on the sides of overhead
rafters, and a cat or two, on sabbatical
from mouse hunting, will lie in wait on
handy perches like old rabbit hutches to
bat down the swooping swallows, a welcome
change of fare for any enterprising
cat. That is, until our cat fell victim to our
cat-hating Golden Retriever.
With the pressure upon their population
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 29

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growth released, with the role
of top predator vacated by the
loss of our cat, the swallow
population exploded to the
point of public nuisance, a
proper unvoiced but eloquent
eulogy for the unique role
played by our dear departed
cat who could both strategize
bird hunting techniques and
avoid ambuscades and frontal
assaults by another top predator,
our dog.
Now, this year the burgeoning
swallow population has
been replaced (thus far) by a
rag-tag riot of quarrelsome
English sparrows who have
spurned the artistically designed
barn swallow nests for
their own tattered and unkempt
nests drooping distastefully,
almost parasitically, from
the smooth, wooden pinned
elegant frame of timbers that
provides support not only
for the barn but also for their
thrown-together nests. One or
two swallows still sit perched,
perplexed and confused, wondering
what happened to the
old neighborhood.
The wooden framework of
timbers that the bird population
find so convenient for
their nests is truly a wonder
in itself. We marvel at the
carpentry and joinery skills
needed to hew the oak support
beams for the weight of the
overhead storage spaces and
to construct the interlocking,
braced mortise and tenon
joints secured by wooden
pins, and we suspect that those
skills must fade back into the
mists of time. And indeed they
do. Those skills can be traced
directly back to the time of
the first farmers in Europe,
between 8,000 and 7,000
years ago. The three-bayed
pole barn is a form of the long
house that those early farmers
learned to build from the vast
timber lands of central and
western Europe.
Even in our day, it gives
pause to consider that the early
settlers of Wright’s Corners,
just south of Maquoketa, in
old barns
the l840s had to tend fires at
night to fend off marauding
wolves from their flocks of
sheep valuable, in those twilight
days of homespun, more
for their wool than their meat.
The long houses of those
early European farmers, constructed
generally with three
bays with two rows of poles to
support the roof, were among
the largest wooden buildings
anywhere in the world. They
were oriented to the southeast
and periodically burned
every three generations or
so, perhaps to control vermin
or perhaps for ritual reasons
marking the passage of the
generations; no one knows
why exactly.
These early farmers also
constructed wooden wells,
which still survive, surprisingly,
in their waterlogged
condition. Parts of Europe
have available sequences of
tree rings which can be used
to date wood going back
almost to the Ice Age, and the
oak timbers of these wells can
be dated to the precise years
that they were cut, all before
5000 B.C. These well timbers
were shaped into planks
and the wells were built with
interlocking log-cabin style
joints and also with mortise
and tenon joints locked with
wooden cog pins.
Think of it: this work was
done 2000 years or so before
metal tools, using instead polished
stone axes and adzes and
bone chisels. It puts the vaunted
traditions of the stonework
of the freemasons to shame, at
least in terms of age.
And yet many of these old
barns have been abandoned.
But not entirely. Left to fall
prey to nature and the weather
means only that we humans
have left — other opportunists
have moved in.
No longer burdened with
the baleful stress of human
proximity, groundhogs, and
even the occasional badger,
move in to merrily dig and
stake claim under foundation
30 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

walls. Foxes may move into
old groundhog holes while
raccoons, of course, scale to
the heights underneath the old
barn roofs. Owls too, those
six-sensed creatures who
always startle with their presence,
continue to lend their
ghostly air to old ruins.
Once, when I was younger,
Bullock’s came out to shell
corn out of our old double
crib. One of the floors was
made up of old broken concrete
but the other crib had a
plank floor built up over the
shattered concrete. As soon as
we started to shell from that
side, a mother spotted skunk
(we called them civet cats)
suddenly appeared. Diminutive
in stature they may be,
they are well-equipped potent
animals, and all of us beat
haste for the safety of the
truck cabs. We waited on our
enforced break while the mild
little animal methodically removed
five or six babies from
their nest under the wooden
floor; she carried them as a
cat would, by the nape of the
neck, to safe haven somewhere
else.
When I was even younger,
we had a small flock of chickens
that scorned the protection
of the henhouse but chose to
roam freely on the open range
of our barnyard. I’m not sure
what breed they were but they
still retained the instincts and
sensitivities of their jungle
fowl ancestry. One old rooster
lived to be quite old. His dark
iridescent tail feathers trailed
to the ground, and he had
spurs so long he walked like
a cowboy on skies. The hens
would nest in hidden places,
might disappear from the land
of the living for some weeks
and then suddenly show up
like proud revenants with a
flock of babies in tow.
Our cattle shed sported a
box nailed high up on one wall
where hens would regularly
nest and which always headed
the list of places to look for
eggs. Charlie Miller, who had
old barns
built the buildings back around
the time of World War One,
must have had a high regard
for chickens to build a box
like that, handy for the hen
who could scratch and feed on
the easy pickings of the cattle
yard, safe from predators unwilling
to risk encounters with
cattle and hogs. Sometimes
one of those hens would be
hatchy and cover eggs in that
box until her brood was born.
I never actually saw her do it
but I can imagine her throatily
coaxing her chicks down from
that box.
Afterward we invested in
Leghorns who I don’t think
saw themselves at all related
to our older hens. But of
course they were, all of them
descended from Asian jungle
fowl, bred to lay eggs, perhaps
even descended from the
intensive breeding work of
the mediaeval monasteries of
a thousand years to increase
the supply of eggs for Lenten
fasting.
It may be we are too eager
to draw a sharp boundary
between the wild and the tame
when such a line cannot be
drawn. Perhaps our modern
chemical agriculture has
endowed us with a false
assurance we can banish that
Darwinian press of life which
seeks to fill vacant niches
in crop row and abandoned
building with plants and
animals we deem weeds and
pests, to the very periphery of
our field of vision, relegating
the wild to the hells-half-acre
corners of our domesticated
farmsteads and clean fields.
Perhaps we too much fancy
ourselves the sleek streamlined
barn swallows engineering
creative solutions to
build our homes on that solid
framework of Creation given
to us when in reality we are
more like that raucous rabble
of noisome English sparrows
befouling and defacing that
framework with our slovenly
and untidy nests. Only time
will tell. n
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 31

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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 33

Comfort
With
Food
plenty of time to
bake at home during the
pandemic, yeast supplies
disappeared from shelves.
No problem for this cook,
who simply grew her own
BY kelly gerlach
eastern iowa farmer
Nancy Johnson opened her
front door and the aroma of
freshly baked bread wafted
outside. The homey scent
filled her rural Andrew
home.
On a kitchen island, a white Tupperware
container held eight homemade cinnamon
rolls next to a plate of soft pretzels and
three loaves of homemade bread — all
sourdough.
Johnson baked them during the
COVID-19 pandemic at a time when yeast
was in short supply — virtually non-existent
in stores across the country.
Maquoketa High School’s family
and consumer sciences teacher, Johnson
tapped into the baking practices of
generations of Iowa farm families. Before
commercial yeast, baking soda and baking
powder appeared on the scene in 1860,
they used their own home-created versions
of leavening agents to bake bread, using
cast iron pans on open hearths.
While Johnson has the luxury of a
modern oven, she grew the yeast in her
Nancy Johnson displays the fruits of her labor in making a variety of
baked goods from her own sourdough starter.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Kelly Gerlach
34 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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own kitchen.
“You couldn’t find yeast on the shelves,”
Johnson said of the ingredient that is normally
a staple in her pantry. “Yeast bread is a comfort
food, and the pandemic has us all looking
for foods that make us feel safe in this time of
uncertainty.”
Yeast shortage in a pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic left the general
population with a lot of home time on their
hands, and what screams “home” more than
a loaf of bread baking in the oven, the rich
aroma circulating and the bread melting in
your mouth?
But with more people at home baking, the
nation found itself in the midst of a yeast
shortage. During four weeks in March and
April, yeast sales jumped 410%, according to
market research firm Nielsen.
Yeast is a single-celled fungi that has been
used to bake bread for thousands of years.
Active dry yeast is most commonly used by
home bakers who knead dough for loaves of
bread, homemade pizza, etc.
Manufacturing plants typically feed those
yeast cells with carbohydrates and nutrients
so they actively grow
and reproduce. The yeast
is then filtered, dried,
packaged, and stocked on
store shelves.
Yeast production
generally takes about 10
days for manufacturers.
For Johnson, however,
the much-smaller-scale
sourdough yeast growth took
between five and seven days.
It’s a fairly simple process as long as you
remember to feed the yeast beast, she said
Science experiments gone right
An episode of “Good Eats: Dr. Strangeloaf”
with Alton Brown piqued Johnson’s
interest. She said it’s one of few programs
that uses correct cooking methods, explaining
the science behind the methods and offering
helpful tips.
It’s truly a science experiment, Johnson
said, balancing and adjusting acids and bases,
mixing ingredients, separating them, feeding
them, repeating and documenting results. She
prefers to cook and bake with standardized
Did you know...
Sourdough has been around
for more than 5,000 years.
Some bakeries in France claim
to have used the same starter
since the age of Napoleon.
Sourdough starter flavors
are unique to the yeast that
grows in the area. Sourdough
created in Jackson County
will not taste like the famed
sourdough of San Francisco,
or even sourdough from the
western side of Iowa.
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36 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

comfort food
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / kelly gerlach
Sourdough pretzels are a quick treat that
Johnson made with her starter.
recipes — recipes that have been written
and tested to produce consistent results.
She started with research to find the
best yeast starter recipe and discovered a
recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.
“There is yeast residing in the flour.
Whole wheat and rye flour have more
yeast in it, so the recipe begins by using
whole wheat flour and water,” Johnson
explained.
The yeast-starter recipe calls for two
simple ingredients: flour and water.
4 cups of water
4 cups of flour
Basically, be sure to use equal parts
water and flour.
Next, mix them together in a bowl,
cover lightly, and let it sit overnight.
The next morning, use 4 oz. of the
starter, 4 oz. of unbleached flour and 4 oz.
of water. Mix them together and let it sit
all day. Discard the leftover starter.
“Day one it’s going to be stretchy and
spongy,” Johnson described.
Follow this routine every morning and
night for at least five days.
“It’s like doing chores, feeding your
“Yeast bread is a comfort food, and
the pandemic has us all looking for
foods that make us feel safe in this
time of uncertainty.”
— nancy johnson
animals,” she said, laughing.
“When the dough is bubbling and
smells fruity,” it’s ready to use, Johnson
said.
You then follow the general rules for
breadmaking.
Keep the remaining yeast starter. You
can store it in the refrigerator and feed
it weekly or continue to store it at room
temperature and feed it daily.
Johnson started testing the recipe for
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Pictured left to right:
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 37

comfort food
STRONG ROOTS
for stronger communities...
GENERATION AFTER GENERATION
teaching culinary professional development
classes. She first made a pizza crust.
“My husband liked it, but it was too
sour and tangy for me,” she recalled. The
lactic acid and acetic acid produced in the
fermentation process create that strong
tangy flavor.
When yeast ferments, it consumes the
flour and produces carbon dioxide gas.
Lactobacillus joins in to keep out unwanted
bacteria that can spoil the starter, Johnson
explained. Lactobacillus produces
lactic acid, which sours milk, and acetic
acid (vinegar). It also kills undesirable
bacteria, leaving the bread-making bacteria
bakers want.
If you prefer less tang, pour off the
liquid on top of the starter and add baking
soda to neutralize the acids. (Remember
your basic science lesson — a base, baking
soda, neutralizes an acid.)
Johnson continues to experiment with
the yeast-starter recipes. She tried a new
one from allrecipes.com and added 1
teaspoon of baking soda to the batter,
with much success. The baking soda
neutralized the acid, removing some of
the unwanted tangy flavor.
Through accidental experimentation,
she created a recipe to make a soft pretzel
with the sourdough starter.
“Flexibility and imagination are an
advantage with baking,” Johnson said.
Remember the starter yeast that gets
discarded? Johnson recommended doing
some internet research because people
have developed some recipes using that
discarded starter.
Johnson’s baking experiments continue
whenever time allows.
“So far, I’ve only tried a couple of
recipes but the possibilities are endless,”
Johnson said. “Cinnamon rolls, pizza
crust, rolls, coffee cake, focaccia bread,
French bread, baguettes, and more.” n
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38 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

comfort food
When yeast was in
short supply early in
the pandemic, some
cooks made leavening
agents at home.
Eastern Iowa Farmer
photos / Kelly Gerlach
The following recipes, which Johnson
recommends, are courtesy
of King Arthur Baking Company.
Yeast starter
4 cups flour (whole wheat
is recommended but not
necessary)
4 cups water
Mix together in a bowl and
cover with a towel. Let it sit at
room temperature overnight.
The next morning, retain 4
oz. of the mixture and add 4 oz.
Unbleached flour and 4 oz. Water.
Mix and let sit all day. Discard
leftover starter.
Follow this routine every
morning and night for five days.
When the mixture starts to
bubble and smells fruity, it’s ready
to use.
Basic Sourdough
Bread
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/2 cups unbleached allpurpose
flour
2 cups ripe (fed) sourdough
starter
1/2 cup lukewarm water
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients
and mix and knead — by hand,
mixer, or bread machine — to
make a soft, smooth dough;
about 15 to 20 minutes by hand,
7 to 10 minutes in a mixer, and 20
to 30 minutes in a bread machine.
Place the dough in a lightly
greased bowl and let it rise for 45
to 60 minutes, until puffy but not
necessarily doubled in bulk.
Lightly grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan.
On a lightly greased work
surface, gently deflate the dough,
and form it into a 9-inch log.
Place the log in the prepared pan,
cover, and let it rise for 60 to 90
minutes, until it crests about 1
inch over the rim of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Bake the bread for 40 to 50
minutes, until it’s light gold and a
digital thermometer inserted into
the center reads 190°F.
Remove the bread from the
oven, and after a couple of
minutes turn it out of the pan
onto a rack to cool. Store, wellwrapped,
at room temperature
for several days; freeze for longer
storage.
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 39

comfort food
Sourdough
Cinnamon Buns
Dough
1 cup ripe (fed) sourdough starter
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
1 large egg
4 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose
flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast, optional*
Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
Icing
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
pinch (1/16 teaspoon) salt, optional
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 Tablespoons milk or cream
To make the dough: Mix together all
the dough ingredients except the salt (and
optional yeast) until the flour is evenly
moistened and the dough has formed a
cohesive, sticky mass, 2 to 3 minutes on
low speed of a stand mixer.
Add the salt (and yeast) on top of the
dough (without mixing it in), then cover and
let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This rest
is period is known as an autolyse.
After the autolyse, mix in the salt (and
yeast) until fully incorporated, about 1
minute on low speed. Turn the mixer up
one speed and knead the dough until it’s
smooth and supple though still somewhat
soft and tacky, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Cover the dough and let it rest in a
warm (75°F) place for 4 hours. To develop
strength in the dough, stretch and fold it
in the bowl three to four times during the
rest. You can be fairly flexible in your timing
of these. One stretch and fold per hour is
ideal. The goal is to end up with a strong
dough with good elasticity.
To make the filling: Meanwhile, combine
all the filling ingredients in a medium bowl.
The texture will be somewhat like wet sand.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly
greased or floured work surface and gently
deflate it, patting or rolling it into a 14” x
20” rectangle.
Spread the filling evenly over the surface
of the dough, leaving 1/2” of exposed
dough along one short edge.
Starting with the filling-coated short
edge, roll the dough into a log. As you roll,
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / contributed
A homemade cinnamon roll and cup of coffee make a
delicious treat any time of the day.
40 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

comfort food
Sourdoug Cinnamon Buns cont.
the log will lengthen to around 18”.
Cut the log into twelve 1 1/2” slices and
place them in a lightly greased 9” x 13” pan.
Cover the pan and let the buns rise until they’re
puffy, 2 to 3 hours.
At this point, you can let the buns rise for
another hour or so and then bake them; or you
can place the pan in the refrigerator overnight,
covered, and bake the buns the next day (up to
24 hours later).
To bake the same day: Bake the buns in a
preheated 400°F oven for 18 to 22 minutes,
until golden. A digital thermometer inserted
into the center of a middle bun should read
190°F.
To make the icing: While the buns are
baking, stir together all the ingredients in a
medium bowl until smooth.
Remove the buns from the oven and cool
for 5 to 10 minutes before icing. Alternatively,
allow the buns to cool to room temperature.
Cover the buns and leave them at room
temperature overnight, then reheat in a 325°F
oven for 10 to 15 minutes before icing and
serving.
To bake the buns after being refrigerated
overnight: Remove the pan from the
refrigerator and leave the buns covered at room
temperature while you preheat the oven to
400°F.
Bake the buns for 20 to 25 minutes, until
golden. A digital thermometer inserted into
the center of a middle bun should read 190°F.
Remove the buns from the oven and cool for 5
to 10 minutes before icing.
Wrap the buns in plastic and store at room
temperature for a day or so; freeze unfrosted
buns for longer storage.
Sourdough Pretzels
You can make these pretzels on a
moment’s notice. The recipe calls for
sourdough starter straight from the
refrigerator, no need to feed it first.
Pretzels
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water
1 cup sourdough starter, unfed/discard
3 cups unbleached bread flour
1/4 cup baker’s special dry milk or nonfat
dry milk
1 Tablespoon sugar or 2 Tablespoons
non-diastatic malt powder
1 Tablespoon butter or vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
Topping
1 Tablespoon sugar or non-diastatic
malt powder
2 Tablespoons water
Pretzel salt
2 Tablespoons melted butter, optional
Instructions
Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with
vegetable oil spray, or lining it with parchment
paper. Grease parchment with vegetable oil
spray to make double-sure the pretzels won’t
stick.
Mix and knead the dough ingredients – by
hand, mixer, or bread machine – to make a
cohesive, fairly smooth dough. It should be
slightly sticky; if it seems dry, knead in an
additional tablespoon or two of water.
Cover the dough and let it rest for 45
minutes. It will rise minimally. Toward the end of
the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased
work surface, fold it over a few times to gently
deflate it, then divide it into 12 pieces, each
weighting about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 ounces.
Roll each piece of dough into an 18-inch
rope. Shape each rope into a pretzel.
Dissolve the malt in the water. Brush the
pretzels with the solution, and sprinkle lightly
with coarse pretzel salt.
Bake the pretzels for 25 to 30 minutes,
until they’re a light golden brown. Note: This
is correct; there’s no need to let the shaped
pretzels rise before baking.
Remove the pretzels from the oven, and
brush with melted butter, if desired.
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 41

“So God made a farmer...”
Professional leadershiP, ComPetenCe, & integrity
Same old valueS,
modern practiceS
Kilburg Family Farm, Bellevue, Iowa
1987 - John Kilburg (Brent’s Dad) on John Deere 3020 with New Holland 488 haybine
“i grew up on a dairy farm near the cornelius Seedcorn
company between andrew, Bellevue, and Springbrook.
We put in long hours planting and harvesting our crops, growing our own food,
and raising livestock. My parents taught us many values like working hard, honesty,
integrity, responsibility, accountability, and transparency just to name a few.
These attributes have served me well in life, my law enforcement career, and
in my highly decorated and successful 32-year military career where I was direct
commissioned to an officer after being promoted up through the enlisted ranks.
After graduating Bellevue Public High School, I attended St. Ambrose University
where I was a Residential Advisor and Security Officer among other jobs. I
earned my BA in Criminal Justice, a Minor in Psychology, attained a 3.8 GPA,
was a member of several National Honor Societies, and was the President of the
Criminal Justice Association.
After college I began my career in law enforcement at the Maquoketa Police
Department. I was proud to represent my community and did my best to serve
them well. It’s been my privilege to serve in various law enforcement capacities
for the last 27 years. It would be my honor to serve you again by coming home to
be your next Jackson County Sheriff. please vote for Brent Kilburg on nov 3rd.”
— Brent Kilburg
Republican candidate foR jackson county sheRiff
Ad pAid for By KilBurg for Sheriff: Jon ThomS, TreASurer; miKe frAnzen, ChAirmAn
Send donations for “Brent Kilburg for Sheriff” to 127 riverside St., Bellevue, iA 52031
2020 - Brent Kilburg on same John Deere 3020 but with his New Idea 5209 discbine
Veteran with
32 years of
service and two
deployments.
Became a Captain
after promoting up
to a Master Sergeant
in the enlisted ranks.
Brent set the new highest overall physical fitness record
for the State of Iowa in 1993 while serving with
the Maquoketa Police Department (MPD).
I would apprecIate
your Vote on noV. 3

Franzen Family Tractors and Parts is
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The Franzen family is re-purposing the old Monmouth School, saving the building
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Mike Franzen stands inside
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44 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Ed Szabo measures a tree on Bill Hainstock’s property
last summer to update a 2007 forestry management
plan. Szabo’s work will show how the timber stands on
Hainstock’s property have progressed over the years and
also provide guidance for how to manage them in the future.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield
Trudging
through the Timber
Forestry management
plans help landowners
make the most of their
hills and hollers
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
Ed Szabo wades into the underbrush
surrounding a stand of
timber. He extends his right
arm – thumb up – parallel to
the ground, closes one eye and
rotates slowly in a circle, stopping each
time his thumb aligns with a tree.
“Any tree that appears bigger than
your thumb you plot,” explained the
veteran forester as he produced a wooden
ruler, measured the width of a tree that fit
the bill, and jotted down some notes.
“This is a black walnut tree,” he said.
“Eight inches in diameter.”
Szabo, who has worked for
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 45

through the timber
Timber Terms
Board Foot – a unit of measure equal to a board
that is 1-inch thick, 12-inches long and 12-inches
wide (or 144 cubic inches).
Canopy – the “roof” of the forest formed by the
crowns of the tallest trees.
Crop Tree – any desirable tree species that will
have future economic or environmental value.
Natural Regeneration – the growth of new
trees that are seeded one of the following ways
without human assistance: from seeds carried by
wind or animals, from seeds stored on the forest
floor or from stumps that sprout.
Release – to free a tree from competition with its
immediate neighbors by removing the surrounding
trees. This occurs naturally and artificially.
Sawtimber – wood large enough to be used to
produce lumber for construction and furniture or
regenerate a stand.
Site Index – a relative measure of forest site
quality based on the height (in feet) of the dominant
trees at a specific age, usually 25 to 50 years,
depending on the rotation length). Info helps
estimate future returns and land productivity for
timber and wildlife.
Stand – a group of trees that
are sufficiently the same
species composition
and arrangement of age
classes and condition
so that they can be
managed as a unit.
Thinning – tree removal
practice that reduces tree
density and competition
between trees in a stand.
Thinning concentrates
growth on fewer, highquality
trees, provides
periodic income and
generally enhances tree
vigor. Heavy thinning can
benefit wildlife through the
increased growth of ground
vegetation.
Understory – The area below the
forest canopy that comprises shrubs, snags
and small trees. Because the understory receives
little light, many of the plants at this level tolerate
shade and will remain part of the understory.
Others will grow and replace older trees.
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46 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

through the timber
“Most farmers are
fairly concerned
about conservation.
They plant trees not
for themselves, but
for their grandkids
or for wildlife.”
— Ed szabo
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield
A leaf-covered mask was an essential tool this
summer as Ed Szabo continued his forestry work
during the pandemic.
Monmouth-based Woodland Forestry LLC for
21 years, was updating a 2007 forest management
plan for Bill Hainstock, who, years
before, had decided to reforest what was a
pasture on his family’s farm during his youth.
Armed with aerial photos of Hainstock’s
property, which is just north of the Clinton/
Jackson county line, Szabo mixes old technology
with new, lining up paper maps with GPS
coordinates on his phone.
Throughout his career, Szabo has trudged
through thousands of acres of timber in
Eastern Iowa to put together management
plans for land owners. The reports include an
inventory of existing trees, their condition, and
recommendations for management, including
harvesting and replanting.
It’s recommended to update such plans
every 10 years or so, said Szabo, an Iowa State
University graduate who was drawn to forestry
because he wanted a career where he could be
outdoors.
Forest management keeps timber healthy
and is good for wildlife habitat, clean water,
biodiversity and recreation, he noted.
“Most farmers are fairly concerned about
conservation. They plant trees not for themselves,
but for their grandkids or for wildlife,”
he said, not to mention the soil erosion prevention
benefits.
Those have all been longstanding priorities
for Hainstock. With Silver Creek snaking
through his property along with several ponds
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 47

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through the timber
and patches of prairie, Hainstock enjoys
the diversity his timber provides.
“I want to be a good steward of the
land,” he said.
Trailing Szabo during his inspection
of the timber, an observer notes
that he identifies trees by their bark
and other features, but not by their
leaves.
“Leaves are kind of a last-ditch
thing,” he explained. Foresters work
year-round, and, of course, most
trees shed their leaves during fall and
winter.
He shared a few tricks, honed
throughout his years in the business.
For example, the bark of the Hackberry
tree looks like the extra-crispy
version of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
He’s almost stepped on a turkey
nest and almost been run over by a
coyote. He’s seen deer, snakes and all
kinds of wildlife. And he has a frontrow
seat to how trees change over the
course of the seasons and over many
years.
As he walks through the timber,
he explained that “20 years ago, this
looked a lot different.”
And that’s where timber management
comes in because a plan will
help desirable trees (such as black
walnut, oak, maple and black cherry)
thrive, often by thinning out less
desirable species (such as ash, birch,
hackberry and mulberry) to allow other
trees to get more sunlight but still
have wind protection, for example.
At some point land owners may
want to harvest their timber. Szabo
can determine the board footage per
acre with the help of a computer
program.
“The lumber market is just like the
stock market. It’s a roller coaster,”
he said, referring to the going price
for different varieties of wood at any
given time.
“The goal of a harvest and a timber
sale is to get back to point zero,” he
explains. “Then you can start to build
back up.” n
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield
Ed Szabo records data that he’ll use in putting together
his final plan, which will include an inventory of existing
trees, their condition and recommendations for
management, including harvesting and replanting.
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Coronavirus
shockwave
Before COVID-19 was even
talked about, Eastern Iowa’s
farmers were grappling
with low prices and trade
war uncertainties. Now, the
pandemic has delivered yet
one more layer of difficulty
as farmers learn how to
strategically operate in the
new normal
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
Brothers Ryan and Cory Krukow began
farming together in Camanche when they
were teenagers. Now in their 40s – young
as farmers go – they’ve navigated their
share of challenges over the last 25 years.
Low grain prices, high input costs, the impact of
trade wars, decisions to diversify or simplify, an uncooperative
Mother Nature.
But the Krukows, like other farmers in Eastern
Iowa, agree they’ve never come up against anything
quite like COVID-19.
“It’s affecting everyone and everything,” Ryan
Krukow said in late May, when the full force of the
first wave of the pandemic was sending shockwaves
through the nation’s agriculture industry.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” Krukow said of the hurdles
farmers continue to face.
Corn prices were already low when personal travel
52 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / trevis Mayfield
Ryan Krukow corrals cattle at Krukow Brother Farms in Camanche. He and his
brother Cory Krukow are among Eastern Iowa livestock producers who have been
impacted by the coronavirus in more ways than one.

coronavirus
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / trevis Mayfield
Donny Schroeder carefully backs up to load cattle that will be delivered to the Tyson plant in Joslin,
Illinois. Many meat packers closed or slowed down in the spring because of coronavirus outbreaks.
ground to a near halt, causing ethanol
plants to stomp on the brakes. Livestock
farmers, such as the Krukows,
used byproducts from that industry as
a feed additive for their cattle. Now
it was hard to get or prohibitively
expensive.
Meat packing plants closed or
slowed down as coronavirus spread
through their work forces, meaning
thousands of hogs, cattle, chickens
and turkeys ready for market had no
place to go as new animals put pressure
on space and feed. And while
the price tag on meat at the supermarket
was skyrocketing – the cost
of a pound of ground beef in May,
$4.46, was the highest on record –
prices for livestock were going the
opposite direction. Dairy operators
who provided milk and cheese to
schools and restaurants saw their key
markets dry up overnight.
The impact of the pandemic left no
stone unturned in the Iowa agriculture
industry, said Chad Hart, a
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54 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

coronavirus
grain marketing economist and assistant
professor of economics in Iowa State
University’s College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences.
“We have seen ag prices across the
board slide down significantly because of
the spread of the coronavirus and all the
social distancing and physical distancing
responses that we’ve had to put in place
in order to try to tamp down the virus,” he
said.
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig
said in late June that the disruption to
agriculture has been “unprecedented.” All
farmers, consumers and business have
been affected, he said, adding that the
economic damage could be more than
$6.5 billion.
Iowa State University economists
estimated in the spring that the state’s pork
industry had lost more than $2 billion; the
beef industry, $700 million; corn, nearly
$800 million; and soybeans, more than
$200 million.
By early summer, the U.S. pork industry
had lost about 25% of its processing
Chad Hart,
Iowa State University
College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences
capacity due to
COVID-19. In Iowa,
the nation’s top pork
producing state,
about 600,000 pigs
were backed up by
mid-May. President
Donald Trump ordered
meatpacking
plants open through
the Defense Production
Act to soften
disruptions in the
supply chain and
get food on grocery
store shelves.
The state’s ethanol
industry was operating at 70%.
In response to the market turbulence
created by the virus outbreak the USDA
created the $19 billion Coronavirus Food
Assistance Program (CFAP), Hart said.
“The virus hit a large swath of markets,
especially within agriculture. This package
is trying to respond to all of that,” Hart said.
“We have seen ag
prices across the board
slide down significantly
because of the spread
of the coronavirus and
all the social distancing
and physical distancing
responses that we’ve had
to put in place in order to
try to tamp down the virus.”
— Chad hart
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 55

coronavirus
(Above) A shiny rig from Dennis
Schroeder Trucking hauls
hundreds of head of cattle to
market each year. (Left) Cory
Krukow takes a break from
loading cattle at the farm he
works with his brother. They’ve
weathered a lot of ups and downs
in the agriculture business but
never a pandemic.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo /
trevis Mayfield
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56 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

coronavirus
For farmers like the Krukows, navigating
these times comes down to shifting
strategy on several fronts, including what
they feed their cattle.
For about the past 15 years, they and
other farmers included wet gluten and
other byproducts of the ethanol producing
process in feed rations, according to the
Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University.
Those additives are higher in protein
and equal to or higher in energy than corn
and have traditionally cost less.
“It replaces a percentage of the corn in
our ration and makes it much more palatable
for our cattle,” said Krukow, who
would get the additive by the truckload
directly from Archer Daniels Midland
(ADM) Co. in Clinton before the pandemic
squelched ethanol production.
In April, ADM idled ethanol production
at its corn dry mill facilities in Cedar
Rapids and Columbus, Neb., as people
sheltered at home and did little driving
because of COVID-19. As demand for
fuel fell, oil prices plummeted, with the
price of a barrel of oil dipping below zero
for the first time ever on April 20.
ADM also reduced the ethanol grind at
its corn wet mill plants, such as Clinton,
and rebalanced grind to produce more
industrial alcohol for the sanitizer market
among other things to better align production
with current demand.
The Krukows have replaced wet gluten
with pelleted gluten, which was easier to
find. They also are feeding more corn to
their cattle.
“It’s so cheap right now. It just made
sense to do it,” Krukow said of the corn,
although it’s not ideal to change the feed
ration.
“You don’t like to do that midstream
because it takes the cattle a while to
adjust. It’s hard to jump around. It smells
different, tastes different,” he said.
But they are prepared to make that
adjustment well into the future as corn
prices aren’t even at break-even levels.
“Guys aren’t moving corn,” Krukow
said. He and Cory haul theirs to ADM,
but in late spring/early summer, they were
holding on to what they hadn’t previously
contracted hoping prices would improve
above the low $3 range.
Their great-grandfather started the
farm, and they think about all the trials
and tribulations their farming ancestors
faced over the years.
“There’ve been lots of generations
before me. In my years on this earth, I’ve
tried to soak up a lot from the older generations.
They’ve been through a lot more
than I have,” he said.
Although he said the last two or three
years have been challenging.
“There’s nothing good right now, and
there hasn’t been for 18 months. I guess
we are trying to hold our head above
water and trying to get by. Anything we
can make anywhere we call it a victory,”
he said, adding that he feared some won’t
make it through this latest crisis financially.
“There aren’t that many of us (farmers)
out here. That’s hard to stomach,” he said.
Still, he holds out hope.
“We’ve always gotten by and made a
living or we wouldn’t be doing it,” he
said. “Let’s hope that continues.” n
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 57

etter
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coronavirus
‘It cratered the market’
This year corn
prices hit their
zenith in January
Delmar
Grain
– an unusual
occurence
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
Delmar
Rich Thola and
Allen Kloft, owners
of the Delmar Grain
Elevator, have had
a front-row seat on
how the pandemic
has been impacting
commodity prices and
movement of grain.
With stay-athome
orders
issued
across the
nation in
the spring, cars and trucks sat
in garages and driveways as
people worked from home and
postponed nonessential trips to
contain the coronavirus. Major
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 59

coronavirus
“Prices did
nothing but
drift lower from
the first of the
year. Price has
seasonality, yet
2020 didn’t play
by the rules.”
— Allen kloft
highways looked like vast wastelands. Business at
gasoline pumps dried up, along with the demand
for ethanol.
Already low, corn prices fell more as the impact
of COVID-19 permeated the agriculture industry.
“It cratered the market,” said Allen Kloft of the
pandemic. Kloft owns the Delmar Grain Elevator
with Rich Thola.
“We laid our driver off for a couple of weeks,
so it looked really bad. Then things kind of came
back decent for our side of the business. We kinda
bounced back quickly,” Kloft said.
“We owned a lot of our own grain, and I had
it hedged and could continue to sell. We weren’t
hauling in a lot (from farmers), so I wasn’t behind
the eight ball to get grain moved,” he said, adding
that he generally keeps his grain sold ahead of
time so he’s not forced to sell to keep his drivers
busy.
The roller coaster ride of uncertainty continued,
and in mid-July, business was booming.
“We are swamped,” Kloft said at the time.
“Maybe it’s a wave effect.”
He was referring to the impact of the USDA’s
June 30 report that U.S. farmers had shifted away
from the March estimate of planting 97 million
acres of corn and had instead planted an estimated
92 million acres, which is 3%, or 2.3 million
acres, above last year. The price for a bushel of
corn went up 19 cents in two days to $3.49.
“That report caused a bunch of farmers to sell,”
he said. “Before I didn’t know how to keep a
trucker going. Now I have plenty of work.”
Iowa farmers were getting an average price
of $3.78 a bushel in January, $3.74 in February,
$3.64 in March, $3.28 in April and $3.12 in May.
“Prices did nothing but drift lower from the
first of the year. Price has seasonality, yet 2020
didn’t play by the rules,” Kloft said, adding that
the high is not normally reached in January.
As part of his job, he talks to farmers regularly.
He recalled that when COVID-19 began infecting
people in the United States, “there was a lot of
uncertainty. They had questions. This was bad in
New York and other parts of the world, but how
bad is this here?” he said.
Now, they are all watching prices and waiting
to see what harvest will bring.
“Basically what we hear is operating at this
price level is going to be unsustainable,” Kloft
said. “The farmers just want a good price.”
He does remind them of the programs that
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coronavirus
provide protection to
farmers from substantial
drops in crop prices
and revenues, such as
the USDA’s Agriculture
Risk Coverage (ARC)
and Price Loss Coverage
(PLC).
The government also
launched some special
initiatives to combat specific
threats to the industry,
such as trade wars
and the coronavirus.
Over the past two years,
the federal government
has paid more than $28
billion in trade-related
aid as the United States
continues to negotiate
with China and other
countries.
In May, Eastern Iowa
farmers began applying
for federal COVID-19
aid through their local
Farm Service Agency
(FSA). The $19 billion
Coronavirus Food Assistance
Program (CFAP)
that U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue announced the
$19 billion Coronavirus
Food Assistance
Program (CFAP) in
late April as farmers
grappled with the impact
of the pandemic on their
operations, including
falling ethanol production,
closed meat processing
plants and low
commodity prices.The
program provides up
to $16 billion in direct
payments to farmers and
ranchers. Another $3 billion
is being used to buy
fresh produce, dairy, and
meat and deliver boxes
of food to Americans in
need. n
Managing
logistics
As meat packing plants shut down in the spring
due to coronavirus outbreaks, Eastern Iowa
hog farmers had to get creative to manage
through a disrupted supply chain
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
For Clinton County
farmer Chris McCulloh
and other hog producers,
managing logistics
is the name of the game.
“Everything is on a schedule,”
McCulloh said mid-July, speaking
from his farm about two miles
west of Welton, where he and his
wife, Lindsay, raise about 10,000
pigs a year.
“To give you an idea of how it
works, we emptied our barn out
last Thursday, power washed it
on Friday, and set things up over
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coronavirus
Chris
McCulloh
Welton
Chris and Lindsay
McCulloh, who raise
10,000 pigs a year,
tackled the same
problems other
farmers are facing
during the pandemic.
The family, including
Calvin, 6, Morgan, 4,
and Hailey, 2, lives
on a farm about two
miles west of Welton.
Eastern Iowa
Farmer photo /
Contributed
the weekend for new pigs to come in on Monday,” he
said.
There is a highly disciplined order to what Mc-
Culloh and other mechanized hog farmers do.
When coronavirus outbreaks shut down or slowed
production at meat packing plants in the spring and
farmers had no place to take their finished animals,
that order was put into a drastic state of imbalance.
There was no place to move young feeder pigs since
the space for finishing was still occupied by those
ready to go to market. And, there was no room for
baby pigs either.
In Iowa, government leaders announced aid for
farmers who might have to euthanize animals because
of the backlog, although Eastern Iowa farmers did not
have to take that step.
In April, the United States went from its typical
weekly harvest of 2.5 million pigs down to 1.5 million
pigs, said McCulloh, who also works in marketing for
Minnesota-based Pipestone, which provides multiple
services to pig farmers.
“You talk about a million pigs we don’t have room
for, it creates a huge challenge to manage,” he said.
“Everything is driven for efficiency because every
week you move hogs to market. There’s a trickle-down
effect across the board.”
McCulloh and other producers had to get creative.
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coronavirus
“We did things we never thought we’d do,”
he said. That includes sending pigs to Colorado
and Wisconsin, and turning some animals
loose outside to free up barn space. To safely
slow down the growth of the hogs almost ready
for market, he adjusted diets and bumped up
the temperature in the finishing barn from 62
degrees to 70 degrees – animals, like humans,
tend to eat less when they are warmer.
“Those are the kinds of things we didn’t
have to do before – and they worked. We were
able to hold it together and get pigs to market,”
he said, adding that one unique opportunity
that came out the pandemic was selling pigs
directly to consumers who wanted to put meat
in their freezers.
For McCulloh and other producers who raise
the hogs that secure Iowa’s spot as the nation’s
top pork producer, the pandemic has been a
white-knuckled ride maneuvering the logistical
nightmares caused by packing plant closures
and slowdowns.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” he said.
The damage to Iowa’s hog industry this year
is estimated at $2.1 billion, according to an impact
analysis by Iowa State University’s Center
for Agricultural and Rural Development. The
Iowa Pork Producers Association said farmers
were losing an average of $37 per hog. That’s
on top of the negative impacts of trade wars for
the past two years,
At the end of May, Iowa’s meatpacking
plants were operating at only 80 percent of
capacity and livestock producers were facing
the difficult prospect of euthanizing animals,
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said
on May 29 when he announced $24 million in
aid for Iowa livestock producers who had to
dispose of animals.
One sign of hope is that by early July
packing plants nationally were at about 95%
of operational capacity, said Lee Schulz, an
economist and associate professor at Iowa State
University.
“Iowa is running near that national average.
When we look at parts of April and May, we
were running below that national average,” he
said.
“A big part in getting back up to capacity
this summer has been Saturday slaughter,”
Schulz said. Pre-pandemic, the packing industry
typically registered a 5.4-day work week,
“Everything is
driven for efficiency
because every week
you move hogs to
market. There’s a
trickle-down effect
across the board.”
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coronavirus
Monday through Friday
and a few hours
on Saturday.
“That usual 0.4 on
the weekend has been
upward of 0.6 or 0.7,
and that’s really contributed
to increasing
that operational
capacity,” Schulz
said, adding it takes a
tremendous effort by
the labor force.
But getting the cycle
back on track will
take time, he noted.
“Prices are being
pushed down and
pressured by the
sheer backlog of
hogs. That’s a factor
that is going to
play out for a few
months,” Schulz said.
“The hope is that
this year stands out
as an outlier and that
we get some demand
pull and a return to
normal for production,
processing and
pricing,” Schulz said.
Coming into 2020,
pork producers were
expecting higher
prices and production
to be driven by an
increase in demand.
The bright spots
right now, Schulz
said, are the Phase I
trade agreement with
China, the United
States-Mexico-Canada
Agreement and
U.S.-Japan Trade
Agreement.
“All of those were
providing optimism
in the market. Those
aren’t going away,”
Schulz said. “But
with COVID, I’m not
sure what will happen
to the demand
situation, but the
hope is that we can
get back to that.” n
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
Before COVID-19, Donny Schroeder
would load his truck every day of the
week with cattle or hogs from local
farms destined for meat packing
plants in Iowa and Illinois.
But when the Tyson pork plant in Columbus
Junction temporarily closed in early April after
a coronavirus outbreak among its workers, it
marked the beginning of a series of closings and
slowdowns that would bring livestock hauling to
a crawl.
For most of May, Schroeder drove his truck just
two days out of seven.
“Things have just been screwed up. Things are
a little different right now,” he said referring to
the market disruptions the pandemic brought to
Dennis
Schroeder
DeWitt
Dennis Schroeder
stands by one of
the rigs operated
by the DeWittbased
trucking
company he
started in 1980.
Eastern Iowa
Farmer photo /
Trevis Mayfield
The long haul
Closed meat packing plants tighten capacity,
putting livestock haulers in park
the agriculture industry.
He spoke about it on a cloudy, gray morning
in late May as he prepared to help load 38 cows
from Krukow Brothers Farms in Camanche. He
would transport them that morning to the Tyson
plant in Joslin, Illinois.
“It will be nice to get things moving again,”
he said, just before he hopped into the cab and
backed the trailer up to a loading shoot that would
funnel the cattle into the truck.
In April alone, key Tyson plants in Columbus
Junction, Perry and Waterloo, Iowa Premium
National Beef in Tama and TPI Composites in
Newton temporarily closed amid outbreaks.
Plants in South Dakota, Minnesota, Pennsylvania,
Colorado, Illinois and elsewhere also closed
for days or weeks, while others experienced
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 67

coronavirus
slowdowns because of limited
employees available, wreaking
havoc on livestock farmers
and putting stress on the trucking
industry.
Dennis Schroeder Trucking,
the DeWitt-based firm
Donny’s father built, and other
livestock haulers across the
Midwest found that their usual
farm customers had animals
ready for market but no place
to deliver them.
In April, Farm Journal’s
AgWeb posted an interactive
map showing harvest facilities
across the United States.
Readers could click on an icon
for details about a specific
plant, its current operation
status, and other information.
On almost any given
day in April and May, that
map showed several plants
closed and others operating at
below capacity in Iowa. That
continued in June, though at a
lesser rate.
The visual image of just
how many plants are in Iowa
– at least 14, giving it the
highest concentration in the
Midwest – and the surrounding
states of Nebraska, Missouri
and Illinois illustrates the
economic impact the industry
wields. Iowa leads the nation
in hog production and is in the
top 10 for commercial beef
and turkeys.
The Schroeders also haul
grain, but no sector of agriculture-related
businesses was
untouched when the coronavirus
set the dominos falling.
Corn and soybean prices below
the break-even mark most
of the spring led many farmers
to hold on to their grain.
“With corn prices what they
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield
Donny Schroeder, left, shares a laugh with his dad, Dennis Schroeder.
When Donny and his brother, Travis, joined their dad in the business,
the firm added livestock to their grain and fertilizer hauling services.
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68 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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coronavirus
“When the bottom
dropped out, everybody
shut the pens off. It’s
not just affecting me
but the local guys
around me. We were
all in the same boat. It
definitely changed the
ball game.”
Chuck Ernst, coordinator of the
Bellevue Bread Basket, unloads
produce from the USDA’s Farmers
to Families program that will be
distributed to the community.
Ernst said the food pantry saw
a 20 percent increase when the
pandemic started.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo /
Trevis Mayfield
— Dennis Schroeder
are, nobody is selling,” Donny
said.
One positive was that the
meat packing shutdowns
happened about the time it was
fertilizer season, so that kept
them busy, Dennis said.
By early June, the firm was
hauling 22 to 25 loads of livestock
a week, its normal pace
compared with four or five loads
earlier in the spring, he said.
“When the bottom dropped
out, everybody shut the pens
off. It’s not just affecting me
but the local guys around me.
We were all in the same boat.
It definitely changed the ball
game,” said Dennis, who started
his business hauling grain and
fertilizer in 1980. When Donny
and his other son, Travis, joined
him, they began hauling livestock.
Two other owner-operators
also work for the company.
He and others in the trucking
and ag industries make their
livelihoods playing a crucial
role in the food supply chain.
The COVID-19 outbreak was
not something for which they
had planned.
“I told the boys you better
tighten your belts,” Dennis
said. n
Farmers to Families
USDA program gets ag products to the
‘people who really need it’
BY sara millhouse
eastern iowa farmer
Three billion dollars in U.S.
Department of Agriculture aid
aims to help people on both ends
of the food chain during the
COVID-19 crisis: farmers hit
hard by rock-bottom prices and volatile markets,
and the millions of Americans unsure
of where their next meal is coming from.
As Maquoketa-area farmer Joe Heinrich
puts it, “Hunger in this country shouldn’t
happen. We have an ample food supply in
this country. We just have to figure out how
to get it to people.”
The USDA’s Farmers to Families food
boxes program tries to streamline that supply
chain, paying contractors to deliver boxes of
fresh produce, dairy and meat to organizations
feeding the hungry. The program was
launched in April.
Heinrich sells milk to Prairie Farms,
which contracted with the USDA to provide
milk, cheese and other dairy products to
those battling hunger. Prairie Farms’ initial
$27-million contract was extended in the
second round of the program.
While Prairie Farms and its farmers managed
to avoid dumping milk, others in the
dairy industry were plagued by oversupply
and being unable to pivot their distribution.
Heinrich called the Farmers to Families
program an “awesome idea,” contrasting it
favorably to European Union stockpiling.
When perishable products neared the end
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coronavirus
“COVID seems to
have increased
people’s awareness
that hunger is an
issue in America.
What I’m hoping
happens is that
awareness
continues
post-pandemic.”
— Mike Miller
of their life, the EU had to release stockpiles,
driving down prices.
Farmers to Families food boxes are a “winwin,”
Heinrich said. “It gets the product to
people who really need it, and it’s taking the
product off the market for us,” Heinrich said.
“We’ve got to get our products moved through.
This is a great way to move it.”
Still, pesky distribution problems persisted
with Farmers to Families. The program was put
together very quickly, with contractors having
a week to connect with nonprofits and put
together their bids. The next week, the USDA
was rushing to examine 600-some bids.
In the “speed dating” between food banks
and contractors, language suggesting it was
a “truck-to-trunk program” led some large,
efficient contractors to bid a higher price based
on the cost of delivering the boxes directly into
the hands of families, rather than delivery to a
service organization, explained Mike Miller,
president and CEO of River Bend Food Bank,
which is based in the Quad Cities.
Some of those contractors lost out on the
bidding process. Food banks ended up with the
final transportation and distribution costs.
Contractors such as Prairie Farms have
Mike Miller,
President and CEO,
River Bend Food Bank
helped food banks manage
shortages in cold
storage by leaving a
truck parked at the food
bank.
The USDA program
isn’t the only effort to
feed hungry families.
Through the “Pass the
Pork” program, Iowa
pork producers have
been able to donate
hogs to local food banks
during this time of
rock-bottom prices.
The “Beef Up Iowa”
program used Iowa State students and staff to
process beef from 4-H and FFA families, also
for food bank delivery.
Hunger has always been a problem in America,
but with millions laid off and small businesses
struggling during the pandemic, more
people are hungry. The organization Feeding
America projects that one in seven Iowans,
including one in five Iowa children, will go
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72 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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coronavirus
hungry as the economic fallout continues.
“In part, it’s shifted from a lower-class problem to a middle-class
problem,” Miller said.
River Bend Food Bank supplies most local food pantries. It
merged last year with St. Stephen’s Food Bank in Dubuque.
It delivers 17 million meals per year, and it saw distribution
increase by a third in the beginning months of the pandemic.
Unemployment and federal stimulus programs have helped
many who lost income, but they don’t fill all the gaps. In
Dubuque, volunteers have organized food deliveries to Guatemalan
refugee families.
On a food delivery day, volunteers pack their cars to the roof
with diapers, masa flour, pasta, thermometers and other supplies,
including the colorful boxes of produce from Capital City Fruit,
a Des Moines-area business that started as a fruit stand in 1949.
One almost-20-pound box contains apples, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes,
onions and peppers, including produce grown in Iowa.
While food pantries and banks get people as much fresh produce
as possible, much of their normal fare is business cast-offs,
serviceable but requiring sorting.
“In this case, we’re getting brand new fresh fruit,” Miller said.
“It’s at the beginning of its life instead of the end of its life.”
The silver lining of pandemic hunger is people stepping up to
fill a need that sometimes appears invisible.
“COVID seems to have increased people’s awareness that
hunger is an issue in America,” Miller said. “What I’m hoping
happens is that awareness continues post-pandemic.” n
B.J.
Blanchard
B.J. Blanchard, dairy
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Eastern Iowa Farmer
photo / Trevis Mayfield
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74 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

coronavirus
Fear Factor
Dairy operators stressed
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BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 75

coronavirus
“With all of our employees,
the thought of the virus
going through the dairy
and taking out half of our
work force…we’d be in a
bad place. It was pretty
terrifying for a while. In fact,
it still is pretty terrifying.”
— B.J. Blanchard
on buying milk and cheese at the store,”
Blanchard said, adding that things changed
again, which has been the story throughout
the year.
Some stores limited how much milk
customers could buy, while national news
reports covered some producers having to
dump milk, said Larry Tranel, Iowa State
University Extension dairy specialist.
While those two things don’t seem to
make sense from a supply and demand
standpoint, the real problem was bottlenecks
in planning, sourcing, making,
delivering and returning product, Tranel
wrote in an ISU dairy industry newsletter.
When schools closed and restaurants
were shuttered, the end markets dried up
for everything from individual cartons of
milk for students to large bags of shredded
cheese used in food service.
The Blanchards have a contract with
Prairie Farms, so much of their milk goes
to grocery stores and is used in cheese
and other dairy products. But like other
operators, they have been hurt by negative
producer price differentials (PPDs).
“With all of our employees, the thought
of the virus going through the dairy and
taking out half of our work force…we’d
be in a bad place,” said B.J. Blanchard,
dairy manager.
“It was pretty terrifying for a while. In
fact, it still is pretty terrifying,” he said in
mid-summer.
The business – which is owned by B.J.,
his brothers, Ben, Brian and Brent, and
their mom, Mitzie – takes many precautions
to keep people safe.
“We disinfect all high-traffic areas,” he
said, including breakroom tables (only two
people are allowed in at a time so breaks
are staggered), door handles, the soda machine,
and other surfaces. Employees are
told to not come to work if they are sick
and to stay home until they feel better.
“Luckily, so far we haven’t had anybody
get real sick,” he said.
The dairy industry – like other sectors
Citizens
of agriculture – has been on a wild
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76 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

coronavirus
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield
Milk from cows at the Blanchard operation is sold to Prairie
Farms under contract.
Progressive Dairy provides
a simple explanation of PPDs:
Most of the nation’s dairy
farmers are paid for their milk
production based on multiple
component pricing. Those plans
pay producers based on pounds
of butterfat, protein, other solids
and a PPD per hundredweight. So
when prices for hard cheese, for
example, go higher than prices
for liquid milk, it can wreak
havoc.
“The PPD, because of the
extreme volatility of the market,
was negative $8 dollars. So instead
of $22 per hundredweight,
we got $14 dollars. What looked
like was going to be a profitable
year is kind of a disaster,”
Blanchard said.
Because dairies sell tens of
thousands of pounds of milk per
day, the impact hits hard.
The Blanchards are continuing
to run their operation the best
they know how and keeping an
eye on the markets.
“Right now everything is so
unsure because they are talking
about the second wave coming.
Until this milk market settles
down or the virus settles, it’s kinda
just wait and see,” Blanchard
said.
The family has weathered
many storms over the years.
Indeed, Mitzie Blanchard came
back to the farm where she grew
up in 1992, five years after her father
sold it during a dairy slump.
She started with 45 cows and the
labor of her four young sons.
B.J. Blanchard grew up in
the industry, and he plans to be
around a long time.
“We are definitely positive.
We’ll survive coronavirus. We’ll
find a way. It was scary at the
beginning, and it still is scary,
but we’ll make it through,” he
said. n
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 77

coronavirus
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Maquoketa
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Eastern Iowa Farmer
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78 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

coronavirus
Virtual Real Estate
Online auctions a good option in the era of social distancing;
land prices continue to hold their own in Eastern Iowa
BY nancy mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
When Chuck Schwager auctioned off
82 acres this summer, the social
distancing protocols of COVID-19
did not have much impact on the
turnout. In fact, the entire process
was virtual, with attendees logging on to the company’s
website to view and bid on the Jackson County
ground.
“The participants had to register by 3 p.m. on June
29, submitting their first bid on the registration form.
Then the high bid was posted on my website, and
bidding continued for 48 hours ending on July 1 at 3
p.m.,” explained Schwager, owner of East Iowa Real
Estate at 125 S. 2nd St. in Maquoketa.
Bids could be submitted by phone, text or online.
Many farmers conduct business online these days,
from trading and purchasing machinery to buying
livestock, feed and other commodities. Schwager,
who started offering online auctions in 2018, said the
process gives buyers convenience and privacy while
bidding on real estate.
“There are different methods to sell real estate,” he
said. “The method used depends on what works best
at the time and what is for sale.”
At a time when social distancing is being emphasized,
an online auction is a good option.
“In the midst of COVID-19 some of the live land
auctions across the Midwest were postponed. There
has been more land offered through the written bid
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 79

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or online methods the past six
months due to the spread of
the virus,” he said.
The high bid in Schwager’s
recent online auction was
$5,500 an acre.
“This sale reflects the market,
which is holding steady
with very little movement up
or down,” he said.
Despite the uncertainties
and challenges in the agriculture
industry this year, land
values have held their ground,
and sales have “reflected a
strong market in an area where
there isn’t much land available
for sale,” Schwager said.
Land values in Eastern
Iowa decreased a mere 0.2%
in March from September
2019, according to the spring
Iowa Land Trends and Values
Survey.
For the state overall, values
increased 0.1% percent in
March from the previous
September and were up 0.9%
year-over-year. Crop reporting
districts were consistent with
less than a 1% change in most
districts with the Southeast
district seeing the largest
increase at 1.8% and the South
Central District seeing the
largest decrease at 1.3%.
For the 10-county East
Central region of the state
– which includes Cedar,
Clinton, Jackson and Jones
counties – modest gains were
seen in high-quality cropland
($10,181/acre from $10,048/
acre) and in non-tillable
pasture and timber. Slight
decreases were seen in medium-quality
cropland ($7,598
from $7,659) and low-quality
cropland ($4,984 from
$5,017).
The survey is compiled and
released every six months
by the Iowa Farm & Land
Chapter #3 REALTORS Land
Institute, an arm of the National
Association of Realtors for
realtors who specialize in farm
and land sales, management
and appraisal.
Schwager, who is a member
coronavirus
“COVID-19 has certainly
affected the availability
of land on the market
across the state.
June showed a reported
16% decrease in land
auctions compared with
June 2019.”
— Chuck Schwager
of the group, noted some of
the reasons he believes land
values have held relatively
steady the past couple of
years. Market Facilitation Program
(MFP) payments, good
yields in some locations, and
favorable interest rates have
helped, he noted.
MFP payments are designed
to assist farmers affected by
tariffs and reduced exports.
Corn, soybeans, hogs and
dairy are among the commodities
eligible for the program.
Land values have been in
a decline mode following a
peak in 2013. Over the last six
years, about six declines have
occurred, all relatively modest.
However, the 2019 figures
represent the second growth
phase in the past six years.
As the agriculture industry
continues to weather the pandemic,
every sector is seeing
an impact.
“COVID-19 has certainly
affected the availability of
land on the market across
the state,” Schwager said.
“June showed a reported 16%
decrease in land auctions
compared with June 2019.”
He expects there may be
more land on the market this
fall due to some potential
sellers holding off earlier this
year due to the coronavirus. n
80 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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Sunday, March 8
The coronavirus lurked on the sidelines of
in full force in March. As meat packing plants
and restaurants closed and agriculture commodity
chores and raise their families while navigating a challenge
with her husband James, chronicled her young family’s daily
their business and found meaning in the simple pleasures of
journal updates with the Eastern Iowa Farmer. To see her
#1 Show History
The ever looming COVID-19
was becoming more of a thing,
and while it was on the back
burner boiling over, life continued
as it was. On Sunday,
March 8, I loaded up the truck with both
boys and followed our cousin, his daughter
and a trailer full of heifers. We arrived
in Tipton a little after 7 a.m. and found
business as usual on a beautiful sunny
and long-awaited sixty-degree day. We
checked in heifers, washed, dried and fed
them, fit them and prepared them to show,
showed heifers, broke down and washed
heifers and then loaded the four heifers to
make the hour trek home.
We talked to people, we got up in people’s
space, we shook hands, we smiled,
we shared food, we made new friends, and
we coughed, sneezed and acted like we
always had. Knowing what we know now,
I would have cherished that day a little
more. I would have shaken a few more
hands, given my grandparents a hug and
a kiss before they left to go home after
watching their great grandsons show by
themselves for their very first time at the
ages of five and six. And, after a long day,
time change included, we would have gone
out for supper to celebrate the day’s accomplishments.
After all, our five and sixyear-old
boys led around heifers that were
more than 20 times them in weight. They
showed
them well, the heifers never got
away, the boys didn’t get hurt,
they smiled and had fun. And
even though they didn’t win, they
were both second and reserve in
their respective breeds.
While questioning if showing
was right for them and wanting
them to enjoy it as much as
their parents, the icing on the
cake came on the trip home as
we continued the tradition my
grandma started with my brother
and me when we showed
more than 12 years ago. Every
time we showed in Tipton, at
least twice a year, it was tradition
to cap the day off with a
sweet treat from Dairy Queen.
As the boys devoured their ice
cream and fought back yawns

Eastern Iowa in late winter before storming
slowed or temporarily shut their doors, schools
prices took a hit, local farmers continued to do
never before seen. Ashley Johnson, who farms
joys and struggles as they faced major impacts to
farm life. Beginning in March, she shared periodic
entire journal, go to EIFarmer.com.
and heavy eyelids, they asked the most
anticipated question of the day, “When do
we get to go show again and how far is the
next show?”
Obviously, I didn’t have the answer.
As the pot of COVID-19 boils over, it
was beginning to swallow the rest of
the stove top and leave behind a stinky,
greasy mess that is almost impossible
to clean up. While I was wishing I
could say tomorrow, I honestly didn’t
know, nor did I know if it would
happen again this year.
As each day passes, the reality of
COVID-19 becomes more apparent and its
trail more destructive. I’m not sure who I’m
more devastated for: my kids or myself and
my husband. While it is our money we are
spending on feed and expenses, it’s our kids’
time they will never get back spent on heifers
that soon, if no show opportunities present
themselves, will become just heifers. Heifers
turned out to pasture to eat grass and weather
the storms. Heifers who carry a calf and aim
for their February due date and heifers who
turn into cows who will never forget the rattle
of feed in a bucket and the itch a scotch comb
could scratch.
But, on the other hand, there are lessons –
such as trust, respect, leadership and responsibility
– learned by all of us as we allow our kids the
experience to show cattle. While this first year of
showing hasn’t turned out like we had hoped, I
know they have fond memories of the two shows
they were able to show at and the smiles on their
faces in the pictures say more than any words or
ribbons can.
While COVID-19 wreaks havoc on just about
everything we once knew, I can’t help but feel for
those individuals who are only afforded so many
years of youth. And while they are only gifted so
many years of eligibility, I’m thankful we are just
beginning ours with our three young children. To be
honest, I would be devastated for my senior in high
school who was looking to cap off their career of
dedication and hard work only to be short changed
on every account. While some may say this is
life – deal with it, I say where’s your compassion
and empathy? You too were a youth with expired
eligibility who had hopes, dreams and aspirations in
a world that accepted you with open arms. Remember
who you were before you were soured and your
skin thickened by the unfortunate events as life has
unfolded and dealt you some difficult hands.
Saturday, March 20
#4 Do what you have to!
Last night, James and I had to pull
a calf out of a first-calf heifer. For
whatever reason she didn’t dilate,
and the bull calf was pretty big for
an ideal first-calf heifer situation.
As James was jacking him out, I was trying
to get the calf to breathe to ensure life. I
wasn’t successful at getting him to take
a breath, although when I tapped around
his eyes, he blinked and had reflexes so I
knew he was alive. As soon as James got
him completely out, he started trying to
get him to breathe tickling his nose with

straw while I started CPR on his chest.
That’s when “do what you have to”
came into play.
James said, “Push it back in!”
I looked at him and questioned his
request.
He said, “Do it!”
So, I did! I shoved my hand up inside
of her girl parts in hopes of stopping any
catastrophe should it arise. When a heifer/
cow gives birth sometimes they don’t quit
pushing, and, as a result, they expel their
“calf bed” aka a uterine prolapse. It’s a
bad deal, usually resulting in the cow
dying from internal bleeding or infection
as a result of pushing everything back in
that touched unsanitary surfaces. So, I did
what I had to and thankfully the worst did
not occur! I’m happy to report both mom
and baby are doing well this morning.
While I know this pertains to our current
farm life, it also pertains to all of us as we
adjust to the new norm. Please, keep your
chins up and keep doing what you have to
stay healthy, quarantined and remembering
what’s truly important, life! Hugs, friends
and family, this too shall pass.
Wednesday, April 1
#6 You Fool!
I’m sure I can’t be the only one who
had these thoughts, but one can
only hope! I woke up today with
excitement. It’s a fun day to pull
a few pranks on anyone possible.
Well, my list was extremely short this
year given our current situation. So, I
began early, 6:30 a.m. early, when James
awoke for the day.
I came up with my idea the evening before
as I laid in bed thinking and rethinking
the day’s events and preparing for the
days to come. We had moved a group of
cows and calves out to cornstalks, and
they have a huge water tank that needs to
be filled every couple of days. James ran
the hose out to the tank last night, and he
instructed me to shut it off in an hour.
As I lay in bed, I giggled to myself at
how perfect his set-up would be to pull
the perfect April Fool’s prank! I even sent
out a Snapchat to my closest friends and
family to let them in on what I thought
was the most epic prank ever!
At 6:30 I said good morning,
I love you and good bye. And
then, I remembered what I was
supposed to do. So, it began.
“James, did you by chance
shut the water off last night?”
James, “No, I didn’t. Didn’t
you shut it off? I told you to go
out in an hour and shut it off.”
I responded, “No, oh my
gosh, I completely forgot to
shut it off. It ran all night!
We are going to have water
everywhere and we are
going to have to move the
cows and calves back into
the barn. I can’t imagine
how muddy it is around the
water tank. Oh my God,
really, you didn’t shut it off
last night?”
James, “No! No I didn’t
shut it off. I swung by the
hydrant when I got home
last night, it was off. I
know it was off.”
86 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

“Happy April Fool’s
day, and you ruined
my prank! I thought
it was going to be the
best prank ever, and you
completely ruined it!”
He kind of chuckled
and went about his business
and left for the day.
This should have been a
red flag as to how I had
hoped the day would go. I
was hoping to see headlines
in my Facebook news
feed that said COVID-19
a joke, please go back to
work and resume life as it
had been. Unfortunately,
there was no such thing,
and I was the fool for even
thinking such a thing could
happen. As much as I hoped
it would, I was hanging on
to hope and faith that the life
we once knew three weeks
ago would come back and we
could have normalcy.
dear diary
Tuesday, April 7
#7 Pumpkin Pie
Addie is so excited!
After some deliberation
on the health of
twin calves and the
cow’s ability to raise
them, her daddy brought her home
her own calf! She has watched
her brothers bottle their calves
for months now, and she has been
slowly beating Ty to bottle chores
the last week or so. No more beating
him now, she can feed her own.
While it is unfortunate the situation
arose, it is in the best interest
of the little heifer calf. Her mother,
an older cow in the herd, is blind
in one eye and beginning to go
downhill, especially since giving
birth to twins.
Unfortunately for Pumpkin, she
is a twin to a bull calf we called
Squash, so she most likely won’t be
able to stay in the herd and become
a cow. When a cow gives birth to
a bull and heifer, the heifer doesn’t
usually get all her female organs,
making it impossible for her to
reproduce.
There I go thinking again of
the long-term and how devastated
Addie will be for her Pumpkin to be
in the fat yard to become meat and
feed the world. However, we are in
the industry for that specific reason,
to feed the world, and because of
the lifestyle we live, she at the age
of two will learn, see and know
more about life than most of her
contemporaries for years to come.
I’ll be honest, it absolutely melts
my heart to see the relationship begin
between Addie and her new best
friend, Pumpkin. If you are wondering
where the name Pumpkin came
from, she is kind of orange colored,
similar to the fall favorite produce.
And while I enjoy her new love
affair, I find it comforting to put my
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 87

dear diary
mind at ease and change my focus from
all the bad in the world, which there is
entirely too much of these days. It brings
me back to what makes life truly important:
being kind, genuine, responsible and
patient, while maintaining integrity, hope,
faith and love.
April 8-11, 2020
#8 No Bull
James serves on the Jackson County
Cattlemen’s board, and each
spring they offer semen testing for
bulls.
The board members split up
days and parts of the county and travel
from farm to farm to semen test bulls,
checking for quality of semen before
turning the bulls out to pasture with cows
to create the next generation. They also
check one day at Maquoketa Livestock
Sales for those producers who have 10
or less bulls as a helpful service to local
cattlemen.
This service is done as an insurance
measure to prevent a lot of disappointment
and loss of revenue for
the next year if cows don’t get bred.
During the winter months, if it gets
extremely cold, the cold can cause
a lot of damage to a bull’s testicles,
resulting in less productivity of
fertile sperm, issues with the
sperm or simply no sperm at all
in the bull’s semen.
Just like in big corporations, everything
comes down to money, and if you have
open cows in the fall who aren’t bred, there
is a lot of money lost as the farmer has fed
the cows all summer. If a pregnancy detection
program isn’t put in place in the fall,
there will be a lot more money lost as the
farmer feeds the cows all fall and winter
expecting a calf to offset those costs.
Our stop was on the first evening of the
event, and four cattlemen showed up at
the farm to test our thirty-some bulls. This
was the first time we really saw people
from the outside world. It was a breath
of fresh air to carry on conversation with
other adults and talk about something
other than the COVID-19.
While
our routine really
hasn’t been too up-ended
for us because of our line of work,
COVID-19 has still impacted our lives.
We usually enjoy a weekend evening out
somewhere in the county, enjoying food
prepared for us, and with the circumstances
that really isn’t an option. I know we
could do carry out, but it simply isn’t the
same! If we do have a craving, we rely on
pizza, and that has only been twice at this
point.
I’m a huge fan of taking our three kids
in public. While it isn’t always easy, especially
with our third who has proved daily
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88 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

dear diary
to be a handful, I feel if they aren’t
taken out in public, they won’t know
how to act or know what is expected
of them. While James and I do enjoy
date night occasionally, most of our
trips out and about include our children.
I’m beginning to get concerned
about the effects all this quarantine and
lockdown business will have on not only
our three kids, but children in general.
They are at an age where experiences
shape their future, and let’s face it, the
long-term consequences are pretty scary.
Wednesday, April 15
#10 “Sales Men, Life
Goes On!”
As long as I can remember, I
have always had a love for
show cattle. Although my
childhood was spent living
in town, I spent more time
in the country on my grandparent’s farm
helping with the cows and our many show
calf projects.
Fast forward to 2009, James and I
had dated for a year, and we decided to
go to a bred heifer sale. We made two
purchases that evening, and I guess that
sealed the deal – we were stuck with each
other. Most people start their relationships
purchasing a puppy or a kitten. Not us; we
bought cows. That must have been the telltale
sign it was a match made in heaven.
Since that sale in the fall of 2009, we
have continued to grow our herd to just
shy of 50 cows and multiple bulls. We enjoy
the show cattle world and have come
a long way with our program in 10 years
creating sound, functional and practical
cattle that can have success in the showring,
pasture and feedlot. In order for our
success to continue, we rely on multiple
breeders and semen distributors to stop
by our farm, look at our offspring, offer
breeding decisions and sell us semen.
Today was the first opportunity we had
to purchase semen for the year as the first
semen sales representative stopped by. He
stayed for nearly two hours, and we had
adult conversation while talking cattle
and reminiscing about a few friends we
had lost in the past year.
And what a breath of fresh air! It was
so incredibly wonderful to have had these
conversations and know a normal life is
there, it is only a matter of time until we
get to go back to some sort of normal
we once knew. Man, I long for that day!
While I don’t miss the hustle and bustle
and extra that isn’t necessary, I want to
be able to go out and eat in a restaurant,
I want to go to a cattle show, I want to be
able to shop in stores and take my kids to
school. I want our life back!
Friday, April 17
#11 “Snow Daze”
In typical 2020 fashion, which has
proved to have absolutely no normalcy,
why wouldn’t it snow?
Two days after crop insurance
kicks in, and they say it’s safe to
plant corn, we were unable to plant due to
a wet and heavy snow.
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 89

dear diary
However, I suppose I shouldn’t complain.
It is moisture, and who knows what
the rest of spring holds? It may be the
last measurable precipitation we get for a
while.
The kids absolutely loved getting to
wear their snow pants one more time
and making snowballs and a snowman. I
loved the backdrop it provided to snap a
few pictures of our many cows and calves
in the pastures. Just another opportunity
God took to prove just how beautiful he
makes things if we simply stop and take
the time to enjoy the views.
Thursday, April 29
#14 “The Packer”
James, along with his brother
and family farm operation, feed
cattle for a living, as well as
operate a cow-calf herd, and farm
a few thousand acres of row crops
and hay.
Since the beginning of the end of
what we once knew as normal, we have
unfortunately not seen a cattle buyer.
On a normal given week, there will be
two or three cattle buyers stop and drive
through and look at pens of cattle. They
usually offer a bid toward the end of the
week on pens of cattle they are interested
in, and we either accept or decline the
bid.
Our acceptance or pass of the bid
depends on the weight of the cattle, our
knowledge of a break-even point to either
make or lose money, and knowledge
of predictions of the market. However
you look at it, it is a gamble, and while
we may cut the fat hog on one set of cattle,
we will certainly lose our behind on
the next yard of cattle – but such is the
game of life, and you can’t win them all.
By this point at the end of April, there
has not been one cattle buyer on our
property in more than five weeks. We
still fed cattle like we did with the average
steer gaining somewhere between 3
to 4 pounds a day. My short math tells
me five weeks at seven days a week is
thirty-five days. Thirty-five days at 3
pounds a day equals 105 pounds these
steers have gained in just over a month
on the low end of the spectrum.
Those cattle that were 1,400-ish
pounds at the beginning of the shutdown
are now pushing too big at this point for
the packing plants to take. Their rail system
is set up for a specific-sized carcass,
and in the circumstances we face currently,
we are producing a steer that has a
much larger carcass than deemed ideal.
So, there we sit, watching and waiting,
our livelihood all in the hands of the
cattle buyer. And, on this particular day,
we were forced to make a decision. With
thousands of cattle on feed, and with the
help of technology and having a general
idea of just what the steers were weighing,
we knew time was against us and we
had to make the decision to sell.
Sell them, no big deal! But wait. The
last time we sold, a few weeks prior to
the shutdown we were getting $1.16 a
pound live weight. But today, not even a
dollar. To be honest, we were offered 20
cents less than what we had been getting.
And when adding up what we had been
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eceiving to what we were offered, there
was a huge short fall. And, when the
math was done and the bottom line was
figured, I had a lump in my throat and a
rock in my stomach. I cried, a lot!
Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned
I thought we were headed into a
Great Depression? Well, if this didn’t just
reinforce my thoughts, I don’t know what
would. Our kids attend a private catholic
school. We had hoped to put an addition
on our house. We even wanted to get a
pool for our kids to play in during the
summer since outdoor public pools are
few and far between in our area.
But reality set it, and none of this is
reality at this point. We had a heart to
heart and realized a private catholic
school isn’t really realistic at this point,
as we simply don’t know when the end
will be in sight, or if in fact, we will
recover from this short fall. I made a few
phone calls, and got the ball rolling to
change schools for our kids, and I started
praying for the best possible outcome for
this scenario.
dear diary
Friday, April 30
#15 Flush Day
Flush day had been planned for
over a month now, and after the
news and devastation yesterday
brought, I was pretty leery
about today and the outcomes
it would hold – maybe I would want to
flush the whole day down the drain.
James and I have implemented modern
technology into our cow herd operation
by using artificial insemination, embryo
transfer and embryo implantation by a
licensed veterinarian who specializes in
beef cattle reproduction.
We have consistently used Dr. Vince
Collison from Rockwell City and have
had tremendous luck over the years.
However, there can be a lot of disappointment
with these processes too. A cow you
flush may not produce any eggs, leaving
you with a pretty expensive bill between
the drugs used to implement the process
as well as the three straws of semen used
through artificial insemination to fertilize
eggs
in the cow.
Or, even worse, the cows we
call “recips” that are implanted with
seven-day old embryos from the “donor”
cow, don’t take, and the whole works is a
loss. But it’s a risk we are willing to take
as it is a quick way to improve genetics.
Apparently, God knew I needed some
good news and some return on our investments
after yesterday’s disaster. All six
cows we flushed produced eggs, ranging
from two to 18 number one eggs (quality,
and number one means they are freezable,
in order to save and put in at a later date).
We also had set-up 10 recip cows.
Usually one or two cows don’t work out
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29159 10th Ave, New Liberty, Iowa 52765
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 91

Martens Angus Farms
In November we will be
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dear diary
due to some unforeseen circumstance from the outside, but with
the use of ultrasound and palpation the vet tells if the cow is
reproductively sound enough to take an egg to give it the best
chance of survival. And, for whatever reason, all 10 cows were
sound enough to take an egg. These seven-day-old embryos will
all hopefully take and next February we will get to see the fruits
of our labor.
I certainly enjoyed conversing with Dr. Collison and his veterinarian
technician, Janell, and conducting business as normal
once again. It was certainly a breath of fresh air and much needed
evidence that life does go on, no matter what you are dealt. And
in fact, as much as we live for today, in the cattle business we live
for tomorrow and nine months from now too. And, the highlight
of the day was being able to see a seven-day-old embryo under a
microscope. Science truly is amazing!
Tuesday, May 26
#18 Eggs
For the past two summers the kids and I have enjoyed
walking our ditches, searching milkweed for Monarch
butterfly eggs and caterpillars.
I’m sure people think I’m weird mowing around the
milkweed in our ditches, letting it grow as tall as the
fences, but it is a cheap and easy summer project that allows the
Steve
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Martens Angus Farms
37939 346 Avenue • Bellevue Iowa 52031
(563) 552-8890
martensangus@gmail.com
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92 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

dear diary
kids exercise and watch the life cycle of
a butterfly, as well as help out an endangered
species.
A few years ago, a milkweed plant
miraculously sprouted in one of my raised
garden beds. Last year 10 plants grew,
and this year, well over 50 have grown!
Thankfully they have taken over one bed,
so I have two others to use and plant my
vegetables in. Each day we search for
eggs and caterpillars, but to no avail.
Finally, today, we checked the milkweed
in the raised bed, and we found two
eggs on one leaf. We haven’t seen any
Monarch butterflies, but obviously there
has been one who successfully made the
trek from Mexico to Maquoketa, Iowa,
and laid the next generation.
We pulled the leaf off the plant, brought
it inside and waited for the eggs to hatch
– rather wait for the caterpillars to chew
their way out of the egg shell and start
the next process of becoming a big, fat
caterpillar that makes a chrysalis.
The boys absolutely love hunting for
eggs and caterpillars, while Addie is still
a little young yet. They have asked for
weeks now when the butterflies would
be back, and now, they can’t wait to find
more caterpillars. In our short mile of
road ditch we own we found over 150
caterpillars and eggs in a week. How
exciting!
Monday, June 8
#20 – Creek Stompin’
Today was hot, and while the
kids have a pool, it presents
limitations as it is simply a
round, metal cattle water tank
located in the shade our machine
shed presents every afternoon.
In one of our particular pastures there
is a neat little creek that runs north/south
as a tributary to the Maquoketa River.
Perhaps the most inviting aspect of this
particular creek is its beautiful sandy bottoms
that allow a lot more fun than those
with gooey, sticky, dirty, muddy bottoms.
The kids had a blast running and
jumping through the creek. We were even
joined by a few cows and calves as we
had fun making memories.
It was a beautiful day; however, the
bugs were trying to carry me away. Conveniently,
I forgot bug spray, so our fun
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dear diary
was cut short. But it was certainly a nice
change of pace and a means of enjoying
all God has given us.
Thursday, July 2
#22 Life and Death
It happened. Our family became one
less and during such unprecedented
times. Planning a funeral created
numerous challenges, but far fewer
than weeks and months prior.
James’ grandpa, Raymond Trenkamp,
passed away Saturday, June 27, at the ripe
age of 96 years young. He had spent the
past year or so in the care of Mauqoketa
Care Center and prior to that enjoyed life
at Clover Ridge. He was a sibling to 18, a
husband, a father to six, a grandfather to
20 and a great-grandfather to 30. He was
loved by many and had quite the creative
side as he was always the jokester waiting
to get ahead and stop you in your tracks.
He loved to joke and make people
laugh and even at his
funeral, as they told
guests they could travel
to the cemetery for
burial or stay and eat at
the luncheon, a few of
us got the last laugh as
we joked we should
stay and eat, because
that’s what Grandpa
would do! I suppose
if you were one of 19
children, you would
eat every opportunity
you had to ensure you got
something to eat.
Since having children this is only our
third immediate family death, both of
James’ grandpas and his grandma. I’m
a big believer a funeral is no place for
children. I just don’t think they need the
burden of knowing life’s full circle and
all the questions to come. Sure, we live
on a farm, and we see more life and death
situations in a year than most city kids see
in their life time, but it is just something
I’m
not ready to
deal with as a parent. Sometimes,
I myself question my own faith
and have my own doubts and questions
and how and why would I want to endure
such questions with my kids? I’m simply
not there yet.
However, this funeral was different
than the rest as Grandpa was a WWII
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dear diary
veteran with special military services.
Our boys had asked if they could go
and my initial response was no. But
giving the idea further thought, and
having few other immediate family
serve, I knew this was probably something
they should be a part of.
James was a pallbearer, and I had to
sit with the boys myself. I was nervous
as to what was going to play out; the
night before at the visitation Ty cried
uncontrollably, and as much as I thought
I was prepared for all of it, I wasn’t. The
only thing to lighten the mood was when
our 2-year-old asked “Who is in the
sink?” referring to her great-grandpa laying
in the casket. We certainly got a good
laugh and then had to explain, although
I’m pretty sure it all went over her head.
Thankfully, we made it through the funeral
service at the church without a hitch
and then made our way to the cemetery.
Earlier in the week the boys came up
with the idea to let a Monarch butterfly
go at the funeral and asked their grandma
if that would be OK. She OK’d the idea,
and luckily enough we had two butterflies
hatch, one a boy and one a girl.
We named them Raymond and Velma,
and now Great-Grandma Velma and
Great-Grandpa Raymond would be back
together at last.
Prior to releasing the butterflies, the
boys got to witness the military aspect
of the service, and most memorably,
the three rifle volleys. They jumped
each time a shot fired, but I can
honestly attest I have never taken
part in something so solidifying and
finalizing as I did that day as we laid
Grandpa Ray to rest. And, as a means
of remembrance both boys got an
empty shell casing from such a
memorable day.
While there is never a timely time
for a death, we were fortunate he
hung on so long, and we were able
to gather as a family and celebrate
a life well lived. Unfortunately for
his 99-year-old brother who passed
a few months prior, his family
couldn’t have a visitation and a
funeral like we did.
I can’t imagine having a loved
one pass and not being able to give
them the honor, dignity and service they
deserved. It was bad enough none of the
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96 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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“It’s time for a change at the Jackson County
Sheriff’s Office. We need someone with
honesty and integrity. Brent’s background and
expereince proves he’s the right guy for the job.
That’s why he’s got my vote in November.”
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dear diary
family had been able to see Grandpa
since the middle of March, and
yes, he died alone, as COVID-19
restrictions prevented visitors. I just
pray he knew how loved he was
and how missed he will be.
Friday, July 17
#24, The
Rollercoaster
As I reflect over the
events that have
occurred in the
past four months, I
can’t help but feel lost and
confused!
I am scared for this fall and having
two young boys who are supposed to be
attending first grade and kindergarten in
a new school. We haven’t made up our
minds as to if they will attend school or
if we will try and learn from home, but
the decision won’t be made lightly. For
us, we put a lot of emphasis on staying
healthy
since our income and business
directly relates to working with family in
our close-knit family farm operation that
incorporates four families.
We do know our children have suffered
in ways we have yet to realize, and in
ways we have. They haven’t been able to
play with friends and kids their age, they
haven’t been able to shop and eat in public
establishments,
they haven’t been afforded a family
vacation, nor able to show cattle at the
local, state and national levels.
This virus has taken a lot from us
physically, emotionally and socially. Will
we recover? Probably not completely. I
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 99

dear diary
just truly feel life will never be the
same nor will we soon forget all the
devastation a little virus brought into
this country.
In terms of agriculture, I have a lot
of reservations! I do hope our government
officials continue to press
forward in their investigations into
packer power and how big processors
were able to pay prices below the cost
of production. The packer’s margins
were incredibly high while farmers
were losing money on every animal
they fed and consumers were paying
higher prices. While both were on different
spectrums, the fact of the matter
is, they put themselves and their bottom
line before anyone else during unprecedented
times and that is so incredibly
wrong!
We are thankful so many locals saw
through this madness and went straight to
the farmer and local locker and purchased
meat at reasonable costs and got a great
source of protein while doing so. There is
still plenty of frustrations in the cattle
business currently as we
are seeing much lower prices for market
ready cattle while feeder cattle are seeing
some pretty high prices.
Market ready cattle prices haven’t
changed in weeks, fluctuating a dollar
or two one way or the other, while cull
cows and bulls trend higher. We have sold
multiple bulls in the past few weeks who
have brought more than market ready
steers. Odd! We have questioned whether
we will be able to buy cattle
back when our yards are empty
simply because the margins are
in the red, and we haven’t made
money on cattle sold in months.
From the market cattle aspect,
agriculture has painted a pretty
dismal picture!
None the less, I am so
incredibly grateful to live on
a farm in rural America that
has allowed our children to
grow up mostly untouched by
this unprecedented time. We
have been pretty fortunate to lead a fairly
normal lifestyle that requires dedication
and consistency everyday no matter what
is going on in the world.
While it’s the future for a reason, I have
no idea what it has in store, I just know
I have many reservations about pressing
forward after such a devastating time we
won’t soon forget. n
— To read more entries from Ashley
Johnson’s journal, go to EIFarmer.com.
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100 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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By Kristine A. Tidgren
Staff Attorney
Center for Agricultural Law & Taxation
Iowa State University
eastern Iowa farmer
The Iowa Legislature was hard at work
this busy spring, passing bills that
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law.
Below is a summary of new laws
impacting the state’s agricultural producers
and rural landowners. Most of these laws
were effective July 1.
Prohibiting permit requirements for agricultural
experiences
This law prohibits counties from requiring a
permit for agricultural producers offering “agricultural
experiences.” An agricultural experience
is defined as “any agriculture-related activity, as
a secondary use in conjunction with agricultural
production, on a farm which activity is open to
the public with the intended purpose of promoting
or educating the public about agriculture,
agricultural practices, agricultural activities, or
agricultural products.”
This law would prevent a county from requiring
a farmer to obtain a permit to host a harvest
dinner or groups of students on his or her farm.
The scope of agricultural experiences covered
by the law, however, is unclear. During debate,
legislators stated that weddings or rock concerts
would not be covered. The law specifically
prevents the imposition of special exceptions,
variances, conditional use permits, or special use
permits, but it is unclear whether a county could
impose other requirements upon these producers.
Preventing county zoning regulation
of agricultural-exempt property
Counties generally have the authority to
develop zoning regulations for their rural areas,
but farms have been exempt from this reach.
This means that an exempt farmer can build an
ag building or a grain bin on his or her property
without getting a permit from the county.
Iowa law has long exempted from county zoning
regulations all land, farm houses, farm barns,
New Iowa
laws impact
agricultural
producers
farm outbuildings or other buildings or structures
that are primarily adapted, by reason of nature
and area, for use for agricultural purposes. The
new law adds that a county shall not require an
application, an approval, or the payment of a fee
in order for an ordinance to be deemed inapplicable
to land, farm barns, farm outbuildings, or
other buildings or structures that are primarily
adapted for use for agricultural purposes. Land
enrolled in a soil or water conservation program
qualifies for the agricultural exemption.
The intent of this provision is to prevent counties
from imposing additional zoning burdens on
otherwise-exempt agricultural activities. It was
written specifically in response to a county’s unified
development ordinance, which would have
required an application and a hearing for any
farm of less than 40 acres to build a new building,
such as a confined animal feeding operation.
Critics of the law point out that the definition
of whether property is adapted for agricultural
purposes is sometimes unclear and that a hearing
might be helpful to a property owner seeking
confirmation that the property is exempt. It is
not clear under the new law whether voluntary
hearings or applications for determining exempt
status would be allowed or whether all enforcement
would occur after the building is built.
Updated Hemp Law
This new law amends the Iowa Hemp Act,
which was passed last year to facilitate the legal
production of hemp in Iowa. The plan was approved
by the USDA on March 20. The new law
allows the manufacture, sale, and consumption
of “consumable hemp products” by humans if all
the following conditions apply:
n The consumable hemp product was manufactured
in Iowa in compliance with Iowa Code
chapter 204.
n The hemp contained in the consumable
hemp product was produced exclusively in Iowa
in compliance with Iowa Code chapter 204.
n The consumable hemp product complies with
certain packaging and labeling requirements.
About
CALT:
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
102 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

The law specifically prohibits the
possession, use, manufacture, marketing,
transport, delivery, or distribution of
hemp if the intended use of the hemp is
inhalation. Iowa agencies are currently
working on drafting rules to implement
the new law. Questions remain regarding
the interaction between federal regulations
(which in many cases still ban the
consumption of hemp products) and the
new Iowa law.
Animal Mistreatment Laws
The Legislature expanded the definition
of crimes involving the mistreatment of
animals, excluding livestock and certain
wild animals. It states that animal abuse
occurs when a person intentionally,
knowingly, or recklessly acts to inflict
injury, serious injury, or death on an animal
by force, violence, or poisoning. The
crimes range from a serious misdemeanor
for injuries that are not serious and do
not result in death to a Class D felony for
repeat offenses.
Transportation
One new transportation law eliminates
the yearly wide-load permit requirement
for vehicles transporting hay, straw,
stover, or bagged livestock bedding, as
long as the width does not exceed 12 feet,
5 inches. The prior limit was 8 feet, 6
inches.
Another new law provides that a farmer
or the farmer’s hired help (18 years of age
or older) is not a chauffeur when operating
a special truck owned by the farmer
and used exclusively to transport the
farmer’s own products or property to a
destination no more than 100 miles from
farmland owned or rented by the farmer.
Food Operation Trespass
A new law prohibits “food operation
trespass” in Iowa: A person commits food
operation trespass by entering or remaining
on the property of a food operation
without the consent of a person who has
real or apparent authority to allow the
person to enter or remain on the property.
A person who commits a first offense
of food operation trespass is guilty of an
aggravated misdemeanor. A second and
subsequent offense is a Class D felony.
The purpose of this new law is to protect
biosecurity and the safety of the food
supply chain. This is the Iowa Legislature’s
third attempt in a decade to enact
legislation to impose penalties on people
trespassing on agricultural production facilities.
The two prior laws are embroiled
in First Amendment litigation.
Hunting
New legislation lowers the age of eligibility
for a special senior statewide antlerless
deer only crossbow deer hunting
license from 70 years of age to 65 years
of age. Another new law allows a hunter
to use a trained, leashed dog to retrieve a
wounded deer. The leash must be no more
than 50 feet in length. Non-resident children
under the age of 16 may now hunt
game (other than deer and wild turkey)
without a license if they are accompanied
by an adult who has a hunting license.
Another new law allows a person 20 or
younger to use a pistol or revolver to hunt
if they are accompanied by a person 21 or
over who has a hunting license. Finally, it
is now legal to hunt coyotes in Iowa using
an infrared light source, except during
muzzleloader, bow, or shotgun deer hunting
season.
More information about these and other
laws can be found on our website: calt.
iastate.edu. n
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 103

Rural
The
From weeds
to axes to
chickens,
these books
tell a story
The rural landscape we call
home here in Eastern Iowa
is pretty much in the heart
of the Midwest. Hot, humid
summers and cold winters.
Country where the sky forms most of
the landscape at times.
When someone in Europe or China,
for example, thinks of this section of
the United States they imagine miles
and miles of corn and soybeans, a
virtual sea of endless fields, Grant
Wood’s American Gothic and agriculture’s
impact.
Incredibly, just about one percent of
us now are actually production farmers
here in the United States. Industrial
style farming, GMO crop hybrids,
massive tractors and equipment
BY Lowell Carslon
eastern iowa farmer columnist
have come to dominate our region’s
farming system.
And yet, interest in agriculture has
never been greater. People want
to know about the food
they eat, the
farmers

Reader
and ranchers who produce it. That’s what is
behind the popularity of The Eastern Iowa
Farmer. Even in Iowa where agriculture
is a very big deal, the majority of readers
don’t climb into a tractor cab to start
their day. Nevertheless, agriculture makes
for important and entertaining consumer
information.
Readers may punch a time clock or
pound a computer but there is something
compelling about the land no matter how
distant the connection. The Rural Reader
column should help satisfy that curiosity
with news of titles and writers that focus
on farming and everything associated
with it.
The literature of agriculture, both technical
and entertaining, continues to crowd
a sagging shelf devoted to farming, rural
living and the Midwest.
The Rural Reader will highlight some
of that literature, old and new, to help you
learn more about the importance of farming
and the food you eat.
Good weeds?
You may snort in disgust at what comes
next but I’m going to say a few good
things about weeds. At our farm
west of Andrew, life in
the summer is all
about at least
controlling if
not eradicating
weeds. In the renter’s corn and soybean
fields big self-propelled outfits from the
local farm cooperative make short work of
crop weeds with 120-foot spray booms. I
mow, trim and chop around the farmstead,
and Brenda hoes with precision around
delicate plants in her gardens. And still
weeds persist. Is there a higher power at
work here?
Richard Mabey is perhaps England’s
foremost nature writer. Mabey’s definition
of a weed in his 2010 book Weeds: In
Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants
(Harper Collins, 324 pages, $26) is subtly
admonishing in a sly way. Mabey says
plants become weeds when they obstruct
our plans, our tidy maps of the world. He’s
right. In fact, the naturalist believes weeds
are sometimes exactly the right plant in
the right spot at the right time. They cover
exposed raw soil, they indicate soil fertility
or sterility, even the soil type and moisture
holding capacity.
The impression that weeds are more
successful than farm crops or garden plants
is correct. Survivors, hardy and adaptable,
weeds are the first to the scene of soil
disturbances of any kind. Annuals, then
biennials and finally the perennials, they all
rush to fill the void. Thus, the fireweed that
invades burned out forest land or Canada
thistle on drought stricken dryland fields. It

ural reader
is easy to get into the weeds learning the
secrets of these hardy extroverts.
Interestingly, weeds, browse (foliage
that is food for cattle, deer etc.) and goats
evolved together in western Asia and
the Middle East. Browse is tougher than
weeds, but weeds are smarter. The only
thing smarter than a weed? A goat. When
herbicides won’t keep leafy spurge at bay
goats will. Mabey’s gentle book on weeds
is sobering and reassuring at the same
time.
Handy pocket weed field guide
Iowa State University publishes a
handy pocket-size, spiral bound guide to
field weeds I turn to often. Farmers and
agronomists will find 35 illustrations to
acquaint users with aides to identification.
The 108-page second edition of this field
guide includes 250 high-quality photographs,
including new weeds. The pocket
guide costs $10 and is available through
local county ISU Extension offices. There
is a PDF version available for $5.
My copy of this pocket-size guide
gets used more than you might think
as I try to identify weeds I find along
fence lines and in fields on our farm. The
water-resistant pages are a very good idea
considering it is a book you carry to the
field. I highly recommend this handy ISU
publication.
Free for the asking
I ended up with my father’s crosscut
saw as well as a smaller one once used
by Brenda’s grandparents to make firewood
on their home farm north of Iron
Hill. These relics date back to the Great
Depression era and were as common as
horse collars once. Along with my small
collection of axes and hatchets I needed
expert information on how to bring back
these timber tools to usable condition.
Pictured: Owner Ted Witt
with grandson, Cole.
We know these last
couple years have
been tough for the ag
community...but we
also know farmers have
tenacity and strength
to keep fighting.
Low Moor
Keep working hard
and we’ll be right
there by your side
waving you on.
Owners Ted and Sharon Witt
wish you a successful harvest season
AG SERVICE, INC. 563-522-2063
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106 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

ural reader
Turns out the Crosscut Saw Manual is
free for asking from the USDA’s Forest
Service, 5785 Hwy 10 West, Missoula,
Montana 59808-9361. You can email
them at wo_mtdc_pubs@fs.fed.us
There’s more. The Montana facility has
produced an equally informative publication,
An Axe to Grind: A Practical Ax
Manual, available from the same address.
Single copies only is the rule here. Dad
and Grandpa Sagers both referred to
crosscuts as “misery whips” and had vivid
memories of cutting firewood during
the Great Depression era. Both ended
their crosscut stories with the observation
a person got warmed by firewood twice,
once when it was cut and again when it
went into the stove.
The chicken or the egg?
Our Mennonite neighbors on either
side of our farm operate state of the art
automated egg barns with thousands and
thousands of hens. And I thought my
mother’s 300-hen operation was enough
work. Their operations are just two of a
number just like them their community
has put into operation in Jackson County
in recent years making us an important
area for egg production.
Bob Sheasley’s Home to Roost: Chasing
Chickens Through the Ages (Thomas
Dunne Books, 290 pages, paperback) is
a happy, even whimsical, history of our
complicated, and tasty, relationship with
chickens.
Fried chicken on Sunday was a fixture
in homes where families kept a few
chickens in the back lot, along with a milk
cow. But chicken was not universal on
the menu of America’s cafes and restaurants
until men like Tyson and Perdue
industrialized this bird. Cheap food, mass
production and low wages for processing
plant workers, it has fueled massive
expansion of poultry production and consumption.
Sheasley has managed to pack
a lot of chicken history, lore, economics,
and above all affection for this remarkable
bird that is so important today.
Suggestions?
There are so many important tracts,
books, articles, images that tell the story
of agriculture. Suggestions? You bet.
Contact me at 44lhcarlson@gmail.com if
you have an idea for a review. Good
reading and good farming. n
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Pitching In
When school activities were canceled in the spring,
students like John McConohy found themselves
with more time to do chores on their family farms
BY megan clark
eastern iowa farmer
Back in March when Central
DeWitt High School announced
they would not be
opening until further notice
because of COVID-19, many
students were thrilled for the extended
spring break because it meant more time
for them to watch Netflix and play video
games. But for senior John McConohy,
things looked a bit different.
McConohy lives and works on his
family’s beef cattle and row crop farm in
DeWitt. He also plays a role in their seed
company, McConohy Seed. Typically,
spring is a busy time with planting and
selling seed, but as a full-time student
who is active in sports, his involvement is
often limited.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, many
of McConohy’s activities were canceled,
leaving him with more time to spend with
his family’s operation. He’s among the
many school-aged kids and young adults
who have been able to spend more time
working along with parents or other family
members on farms the past months due
to the pandemic.
“It’s been eye-opening” he said. “And,
also a little more difficult because I’m not
used to everyday you’re waking up super
early and going to the farm to feed cattle
and doing other jobs like working on
machinery or just being on the farm. It’s a
John McConohy backs up a
John Deere 4020 to load feed.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo /
Trevis Mayfield

pitching in
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield
John McConohy makes an adjustment to the feed cart as he loads it with feed for his family’s beef cattle.
lot of work.”
While some would argue
that being home around the
busy season and having to
pick up the slack rather than
spending time in school with
friends would be aggravating,
for McConohy it is just the
opposite.
“It’s been a very rewarding
experience because it has
allowed me to help with my
family farm a lot more in comparison
to when I am in school
and playing sports” he said. “I
wouldn’t be able to participate
as much as I am now because
of school. It’s been really great
because I get to see what my
parents do everyday, which is
really cool.”
McCononhy isn’t just sitting
on the sidelines watching his
parents. He has stepped up to
shoulder his own set of
The family farm is
more than a business.
It’s a lifestyle worth preserving.
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pitching in
responsibilities, including
feeding cattle, performing
maintenance on equipment,
and breaking his 4-H calves
for the fair in July.
Like sports, working on the
farm comes with its own set
of time management challenges.
Many schools, including
Like many other farm
kids, John McConohy
spent more time on
the family farm while
students were out
of class.
DeWitt, began online learning
programs that students were
encouraged to do. For students
without jobs, animals, or many
other responsibilities, this
wasn’t as difficult of a switch.
For kids like McConohy who
live on farms, however, finding
a balance without being in
school was a bit harder.
“I will say I missed school
and unfortunately will be
behind in the future because
of the two months that were
lost, but I know that they were
doing everything they could
to get back on track, and still
being able to have some online
learning was a plus. When I
finished my duties on the farm,
I could go back to online learning,
and I was able to get both
of them done.”
McConohy was pleased to
return to the classroom for the
fall – albeit in a hybrid scenario
where he’s at school two
days and working online other
days – but says he enjoyed the
chance to make agriculture
a bigger part of his everyday
routine. n
— Megan Clark is a junior
at Central DeWitt Community
High School
“When I finished
my duties on the
farm, I could go
back to online
learning, and I
was able to get
both of them
done.”
— John McConohy
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110 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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Ag education helps shape
college, career choices
By JENNA STEVENS
Ag in the Classroom
Coordinator
Clinton County Farm Bureau
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
Growing up on a farm my
experiences were typical of
most area farm kids. I showed
livestock at the fair, took ag
classes, and served as an FFA officer in
my chapter.
What made me less typical was the
fact that I did not want to be involved in
agriculture when I graduated high school.
Years of showing cattle competitively left
my relationship with my parents strained,
and I could not wait to get away from the
farm and out on my own.
Fast forward 17 years, and I now
spend my time working with those same
students I used to be…and I love every
minute of it. Time away from the industry
gave me the chance to reflect on what
is important, and now, instead of trying
to run away, I push my students toward
careers in agriculture every chance I get.
My favorite group of kids to work with
are my FFA members because I see the
impact agriculture has on their decisions
of where to go to college and what they
want their careers to look like. It is fun
to watch them try out different identities
when they are freshman and sophomores
and eventually get serious about their
futures their senior year.
Like me, some of them decide on a
different path, but most of them stick with
what they know, making plans for careers
in ag business, sales, or communications.
The best compliment I ever received was
from one of my students who originally
planned to go into medicine but changed
her mind in favor of agricultural communications
as a direct result of the work she
did for our Current Ag Concerns Media
Group. This shift represents her coming
into her own within the industry and
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Jenna Stevens
Central DeWitt Community High School students work in the greenhouse to learn more about
plant science. Here students Jordan Auliff, Levi Riedesel, and Jenevieve Schmidt propagate
succulents for horticulture class.
finding her voice through radio and print
media.
At the heart of a student’s decision
to go into a specific agricultural-related
career is often their high school agricultural
education courses. These courses
allow students to engage in hands-on
learning about plants, animals, business,
and more and give them the chance to
sample subjects, in some cases earning
free college credit. Throw FFA into the
mix with the endless career development
events (CDEs) and kids have a head start
down the path toward success.
In addition to the college credits offered,
the ag education programs at local
high schools connect students to business
professionals within the community. Students
have the chance to take field trips to
places like John Deere or listen to guest
speakers talk about their roles within area
companies. These opportunities allow for
question and answer sessions and often
come with action-based experiences such
as trying out a welding simulator or separating
out worm castings.
Sometimes these guest speakers or field
trip experiences turn into summer jobs or
internships within area businesses. Local
companies often contact ag education instructors
for recommendations of students
who might be interested in learning more
about a specific career and earning a little
extra cash.
No matter what path they eventually
choose, students who take agricultural education
courses in high school have a leg
up on others because ag ed is one of the
few programs that builds career exploration
directly into the curriculum.
In the world of rising college costs
and ever-changing job markets, gaining
skills in high school sets your child up for
future success and that success starts with
agricultural education. n
112 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Sycamore Media
Mail: 108 W. Quarry St., Maquoketa, Iowa, 52060-2244 Phone: (563)652-2441
You, too, can be part of the
Eastern Iowa Farmer!
Call 563-652-2441 today to reserve
your space in our fall issue.
Eastern Iowa Farmer staffers: Lowell Carlson, Trevis Mayfield, Brooke Taylor and Nancy Mayfield.
VIEW THE ENTIRE MAGAZINE ONLINE
eifarmer.com

By KRIS KOTH
Clinton County Executive Director
Cedar County Acting Executive Director
Farm Service Agency
kris.koth@usda.gov
EASTERN IOWA FARMER
The past four months have changed
the way most business is conducted;
the Farm Service Agency is
adapting and changing as well. Did
you know with an email along with
a text message most FSA forms can be signed
electronically then sent back to FSA instantly?
This is one of the changes that has come about
during the past four months. Now, we all know
change and technology can be difficult, but
what if change and technology can save you
time or avoid a trip to town?
FSA has expanded our digital customer
service by acquiring licenses to Box.com and
OneSpan to assist county offices with ways to
communicate documents containing personally
identifiable information (PII) with producers.
This software allows an employee to upload,
edit, share, or download documents. Sharing
a document sends a link via email (i.e. to a
producer). If the producer or other person
receiving the sharing link does not have a
Box account, they can sign up for a personal
Box account at Box.com/pricing/individual to
access the shared link.
With the personal account, a producer may
upload or download a document. This includes
the ability to print a document, sign it, then
scan and upload the signed document. The
addition of OneSpan allows an employee to
add a required producer signature field on a
document, send it to the producer for signature
using their smart phone or computer, then you
return the document for download and filing
FSA technology
saves time,
helps people
avoid trip to town
using Box + OneSpan secure file sharing. This
will make getting signed documents extremely
simple for both the office staff and the customer
while reducing the need to follow up on
required documentation.
We know that this technology isn’t going to
be for everyone, but we want you to know you
can utilize it if you are interested. An important
step for this process to work is to make sure
your local FSA office has your current email
address along with mobile phone number.
These two forms of contact information are
needed when sending files using the Box and
OneSpan software for you to digitally sign.
How does the process work? Your local
FSA office will create a folder inside the Box
software where they will upload a document
for you to sign and generate an email from
OneSpan to you. The email contains a link you
will click to open the document to review and
sign. A passcode is sent by text message to
your mobile phone number for a second level
authentication.
After you have reviewed the document you
can click the “Tap to Sign” signature Box. At
this point your digital signature is added, then
you are finished. You will get another email
confirming that you signed the document along
with the option to download it for your records.
FSA is automatically notified the document
is signed. Within minutes you can have your
document signed and returned to FSA.
We would encourage everyone to at least
make sure their email address as well as cell
phone number is updated with the FSA office.
As we said before, this technology might not be
for everyone, but maybe it’s for you. Next time
you are doing business with FSA, ask about
Box and OneSpan to sign your paperwork
digitally. n
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
114 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

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County
cookbooks
shape local kitchens
Sandy Sander poses with a local
cookbook that was produced
by the North Bend Community
Center.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photos /
Trevis Mayfield
The season
of quarantine has
had only a few
bright spots, but
more kitchen time
is one of them
BY jenna stevens
eastern iowa farmer
If there is one good thing that has come
out of quarantine it is the chance to get
reacquainted with our kitchens. This past
season has seen an upswing in the number
of people cooking at home, evident
by the dwindling supplies on grocery store
shelves.
Time in the kitchen also means time to
browse through the stacks of cookbooks many
people acquire but tend to discard in favor of
quick cook meals.
It is no secret that Iowa folks are great cooks.
In fact, Iowa State University boasts a cookbook
collection of over 3,000 volumes from
across the state. This project originated in the
1990s when a substantial donation was made to
the University and has continued to grow with
the help of online cataloguing. The collection
116 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

country cookbooks
contains cookbooks dating back to the early
1800s and includes favorites from Iowa businesses
such as the Machine Shed and Quaker
Oats.
Here in Eastern Iowa, people’s culinary libraries
include cookbooks from local churches
or community organizations that sell cookbooks
as fundraisers. These texts often incorporate
a mixture of history, household tidbits,
along with grandma’s chocolate cake recipe,
and are a great way to increase revenue for
non-profits.
In the case of the North Bend Community
Center in Spragueville, producing a cookbook
not only provided a much-needed financial
boost, it also was a way to bring the members
of the group together.
“The cookbook was easy for all of the
members of North Bend to get involved in,”
said Sandy Sander, secretary for the community
center. “It is something anyone can do. Everyone
can share a recipe; it doesn’t matter your
age or ability.”
Groups throughout Clinton and Jackson counties,
including some ambitious families, have
published cookbooks full of recipes submitted
by their members, and these recipes help tell the
stories of rural communities. Many cookbooks
have a preface that details the organization
itself and the members who helped establish it.
In some cases, the recipes’ originators provide
commentary about their dish, offer parings, or
just tell the tale of where it has been served.
“Recipes represent sharing something with
one another,” Sander said. “It helps you to get
to know your neighbors and community members
better because food is a great way to bring
people together.”
One of the most common places to gather
around food and swap recipes tends to be the
famous Midwestern potluck. These gatherings
represent the best of everyone’s kitchens and
folks attending look forward to their favorite
neighborhood dishes. Count on gallons of potato
salad and pies with flakey hand rolled crusts
along with regional favorites like turkey and
dressing sandwiches.
The menus at these gatherings are steeped
in tradition and contain foods with simple ingredients
found in most people’s pantries. That
is because they have their roots in Iowa farm
Sandy Sander’s bookshelf
in her apartment houses a
variety of her favorite cookbooks.
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 117

country cookbooks
country where women
cooked with what they
had on hand and families
raised much of their own
dairy, meat, and produce.
“There are a lot of
modern recipes that don’t
cook this way anymore,”
Sander said. “Recipes
today contain ingredients
that can be hard to find in
the grocery store, whereas
these old-time cookbooks
rely on basic supplies.”
Whether you are
looking to recreate a
favorite flavor from your
childhood or simply try
out a new dish, these
country cookbooks are
hard to beat. Their rich
histories tell the stories of
our community and with
easily found ingredients,
they just might help your
family create new traditions
around the table. n
Mashed Potato
Biscuits
Dorothy Zeimet
“American Legion Auxiliary
and Friends Good Cook-N
Spragueville, IA 1982”
1 cup mashed potatoes
1package yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup of lard or oleo
1 cup scalded milk
3 beaten eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
5 to 7 cups of flour (enough
to stiffen)
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm
water. In a separate bowl, place the
lard and pour the hot milk over it.
Stir until lard is melted. Then add
yeast mixture and potatoes, eggs,
sugar, and salt. Beat well. Add four
cups of flour, beat the batter well.
Stir in the rest of flour and knead.
Place dough in greased bowl,
spread with shortening, cover bowl
and chill 24 hours. (It will keep in
refrigerator a week or two). Take
out of refrigerator two hours before
baking. Shape rolls and let rise two
hours. Bake at 400 degrees for 12
minutes. Makes about 40 (2-inch)
rolls. I always make a double batch.
*Note-These are a favorite of
Fred Beck. He would stop over at
the Thillmony house when Wilma
was making these and take a batch
home with him. He used to hide
them in his truck, so no one else
would eat them!
Refrigerator Pickles
Sandy Sander
“American Legion Auxiliary
and Friends Good Cook-N
Spragueville, IA 1982”
Fill a gallon jar with sliced,
unpeeled cucumbers and two
large onions.
Mix:
5 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
1/2 cup salt (not iodized)
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Stir until sugar is dissolved and
pour over cucumbers. Keep in
refrigerator. They are ready to use in
a week and will keep up to a year.
*Note: This is one of the recipes
I always carry with me because
whenever I bring these pickles, I
get asked about them. They make
great gifts and can always be
found on our table at every holiday.
Strawberry Pie
Irene St. John
“Calamus-Centennial
1876-1976”
1 quart fresh strawberries
Cook until clear and thick:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon red food coloring
Remove from heat. Stir in 1
package of strawberry Jell-O. Cool.
Place berries in a 9-inch pie crust.
Pour the cooled mixture into a
crust. Refrigerate.
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11811165_EF_Hard Eastern Work_Osvald.indd Iowa Farmer 1 | fall 2020 6/26/19 eifarmer.com 1:01 PM

country cookbooks
Meatloaf
Maribeth Penningroth
“Grace Lutheran Church”
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 Tablespoons salt
1/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 Tablespoon pepper
1 egg, beaten
Topping:
1/3 cup catsup
1 Tablespoon firmly packed
brown sugar
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
Combine and shape into loaf
and place in shallow baking pan.
Topping: Combine ingredients and
spread on top of meat loaf. Bake in
350-degree oven about 45 minutes.
Cocoa Chiffon Cake
Gwendolyn Thiede
“St. John’s Lutheran Church
1890-1990 Centennial
Cookbook, Preston, Iowa”
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 teaspoon red food
coloring
1/2 cup cocoa
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
7-8 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
Boil water; add cocoa and
coloring. Stir until smooth then
cool. Sift together flour, sugar, salt,
and baking powder. Put sifted dry
ingredients in a bowl. Make a well
in center of dry ingredients. Add
in order 1/2 cup cooking oil, 7-8
unbeaten egg yolks, 2 teaspoons
vanilla, then cooled cocoa mixture.
Beat with a spoon until smooth. In
another bowl, put 7-8 egg whites
and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.
Beat until very stiff. Pour chocolate
mixture gradually over beaten egg
whites; fold in gently. Do not stir.
Pour into 10-inch ungreased angel
food or fluted tube pan. Bake
at 325 degrees for 55 minutes,
then at 350 degrees for 10 to 15
minutes. If using a 9-inch tube
pan, bake at 325 degrees for 50 to
55 minutes.
Alvelda’s
Potato Salad
(Serves 50-great for potlucks)
Sandy Thillmony Sander
“North Bend Writer’s Group and
North Bend Community Center
and Association 2007”
10 pounds of potatoes
2 dozen eggs - boiled
1/4 cup onion
3 Tablespoons pickle relish
3 Tablespoons sugar
Salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon celery seed
1 cup chopped celery
1 quart salad dressing (Miracle
Whip)
3 Tablespoons prepared
mustard
Cook potatoes with skins on
until done. Cool. Peel and dice.
Add rest of ingredients and mix
well. Refrigerate. Will serve about
50 people.
*Note: This is the best potato
salad! I loved this as a kid, when it
was brought to family gatherings.
As an adult, I tried to find a similar
recipe, but always fell short. After
I moved back from Texas, at the
first family reunion I had attended
in years, there it was! I will never
lose this recipe again! You can
make this in smaller batches, and
it is just as good.
Turkey Dressing
Sandwiches
Mike Herrig
“Bellevue Fire and Rescue
Established 1871”
8 cups turkey or chicken
2 packages Stove Top
dressing (make as directed)
1 can chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken or
mushroom soup
1 package of hamburger buns
Mix ingredients together and
heat in a crock pot. Serve on buns.
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 119

Derecho!
what in the
On top of everything else that has happened in 2020,
in August hurricane-force winds struck yet one more blow
BY Nancy Mayfield
eastern iowa farmer
When a derecho swept
through the Midwest
Aug. 10, Eastern Iowa
was in the path of the
storm.
Hurricane-force winds left downed
corn, damaged grain bins and headaches
about insurance, plant disease and harvest.
“A swath of damage from Benton
County through portions of Linn, Jones,
Cedar and Clinton counties is consistent
with intermittent straight line winds in the
100-130 mph range,” the National Weather
Service reported just days after what
it called the “roughly once-in-a-decade
occurrence in this region.”
The last derecho was in 2011 and,
before that, 1998.
“What is unique about this event,
making it even more extreme, is the long
duration of high winds. Many locations
experienced sustained high winds and
damaging gusts for 30 to 45 minutes,” the
weather service said.
Concerns about the condition of crops
and how it will impact harvest equipment,
yields and profitability are at the top of
the minds of farmers in Eastern Iowa
counties whose fields were among the
3.57 million acres of corn and 2.5 million
acres of soybeans in Iowa that took the
worst of the summer squall.
Local farmer Bob Bowman said the
damage varies in fields, and it’s not
always visible to someone passing by the
crops on a highway or gravel road.
“When you drive by, it doesn’t look
bad. But if you try to walk through
Photo from Iowa Corn livestream courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, at a tour in Radcliffe Iowa, signs a USDA disaster
declaration for 18 Iowa counties on Sept. 3.
those fields, they are impossible to walk
through,” said Bowman, who is a past
director and is still active in the National
Corn Growers Association.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike
Naig noted the triple whammy of the
derecho and drought that the state has
weathered along with markets upset by a
pandemic.
“This is an unprecedented situation
on top of another unprecedented situation,”
he said in an online presentation
organized by the Iowa State University
Extension and Outreach office in late August.
COVID-19 supply-chain disruptions
on top of weather events are starting to
compound stress on farmers.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue toured Iowa just before Labor
Day and designated 18 Iowa counties
as primary natural disaster areas. Cedar,
Clinton and Jones counties were among
those that became eligible to apply
for emergency USDA loans after the
120 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

derecho
derecho. Gov. Kim Reynolds had applied
for the aid.
Farmers operating in contiguous
counties to those declared primary natural
disaster areas, including Dubuque and
Jackson, may also apply for emergency
loans.
Iowa farmers will be available for various
USDA disaster assistance programs,
including “program flexibilities” and a
special signup for the Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
The program changes mean streamlined
requirements for the Emergency Conservation
Program, Emergency Forest
Restoration Program, Emergency Loan
Program, Farm Storage Facility Program,
and Tree Assistance Program.
The program will be available through
nearly half of next year. The deadline to
apply is May 3, 2021. More information
on the various programs is available
at farmers.gov/recover.
ISU’s extension office and the Iowa
Department of Agriculture and Land
Stewardship have consolidated information
on their respective websites for
photo courtesy of ISU Extension
The derecho cut a devastating path through
millions of acres of Iowa corn, flattening stalks
and doing damage to the ears.
producers who have been impacted by the
derecho and drought.
The IDALS website, iowaagriculture.
gov/derecho, includes resources and updates
regarding the derecho’s impact and
services for farmers.
ISU’s website, crops.extension.iastate.
edu/storm-damage-resources, provides
detailed information and access to experts
on such topics as assessing grain bin
damage, disease and insect management,
grain storage, evaluating crops, nutrients
and fertility, silage options, harvest
considerations, cover crop options, crop
insurance considerations and more.
A key concern farmers are dealing
with this fall is insurance coverage. Iowa
farmers planted 23.4 million acres of corn
and soybeans in 2020, according to Ann
Johanns, extension program specialist, in
her piece on Frequently Asked Questions
regarding crop insurance coverage on the
website. Approximately 90% of those
acres have been insured, she noted.
Alejandro Plastina, extension economist,
offers some practical guidelines for
filing crop insurance losses. Charles Hurburgh,
ISU professor of agriculture and
biosystems engineering, advises farmers
to work closely with their elevator to find
out if different qualities of grain will be
accepted. Ask them what factors they will
look at and if there will be acceptance
limits, he said on the website.
Another resource for derecho-related
questions is rma.usda.gov/en/News-
Room/Frequently-Asked-Questions/August-10-2020-Derecho.
n
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 121

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
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For an enhanced reading experience, visit:
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122 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Ag Bytes
Iowa Concern available
for multiple services
Iowa Concern, offered by ISU Extension
and Outreach, provides confidential access
to stress counselors and an attorney
for legal education, as well as information
and referral services for a wide variety of
topics. With a
toll-free phone
number, live chat
capabilities and
a website, Iowa
Concern services
are available 24
hours a day, seven
days per week at no charge. To reach
Iowa Concern, call 800-447-1985; language
interpretation services are available.
Or, visit the website, https://www.
extension.iastate.edu/iowaconcern/, to live
chat with a stress counselor one-on-one in
a secure environment. Or, email an expert
regarding legal, finance, stress, or crisis
and disaster issues.
Program provides support
for dealing with pandemic
COVID Recovery Iowa offers a variety
of services to anyone affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual counselors
and consultants provide counseling, family
finance consultation, farm financial consultation,
referral information and help finding
resources for
any Iowan
seeking personal
support.
Iowans
of all ages
may join
groups online for activities and learn creative
strategies for coping with the effects
of the pandemic. COVID Recovery Iowa
will announce upcoming programs on the
website and via all social media to help
Iowans build coping skills, resilience and
emotional support. To request support, go
to https://www.COVIDrecoveryiowa.org or
call 1-844-775-WARM.
State awards recognition
for Century, Heritage Farms
Some 238 Iowa families received the
Century Farm award and 103 families received
the Heritage Farm award in 2020.
To achieve Century or Heritage farm status,
generations of a family must maintain
ownership of the land for 100 years or 150
years, respectively.
Families who received the award in
2020 could choose to participate in a small
regional event or the 2021 Iowa State
Fair. The Century Farm program began in
1976. A total of 20,304 Iowa farms earned
that designation. The Heritage Farm program
began in 2006. So far, 1,464 Iowa
farms earned that designation.
Following are the recipients from Eastern
Iowa, the year of origin and location of
the farm.
Cedar County Century: Stan and Connie
Finck, 1920, Durant; Dallas and JoAnn
Rekemeyer, 1899, Bennett; Terry and
Gene Warren, 1920, Bennett; and Don and
Julie Wilson, 1919, West Liberty.
Cedar County Heritage: Dalhbert Family
Partnership, 1853, West Branch; and
Richard Fawcett, 1869, West Branch.
Clinton County Century Farms: Bright
Spot Farm, 1911, Clinton; Gerald J. Farrell,
1920, Delmar; Denny Allyn Lawrence,
1920, Clinton; and Denise and William
Ryan, 1920, Clinton.
Clinton County Heritage Farms: John
and Sally Clapp, 1870, Lost Nation; and
Joe and Beverly (Rogers) Mente, 1853,
Wheatland.
Dubuque County Century Farms:
Brune Family Farm, 1920, Peosta; Allen
and Mary Colleen Griffin, 1920, Farley;
Roger and Patricia Quade, 1908,
Dubuque; and Patrick J. Walsh and Carol
A. Walsh, 1920, Bernard.
Dubuque County Heritage Farms: David
M. Puls, 1869, Sherrill; Schieltz Farms,
1870, Guttenberg; and Schrobilgen Revocable
Trust (Irma A.), 1866, Durango.
Jackson County Century Farm: Tabor
Family Farm (Clifford), 1920, Baldwin.
Jackson County Heritage Farms: Fred
and Mary Jo Bruns, Bruns Family Trust,
1870, Zwingle; John and Mary Kay Egan of
Niemann Egan Heritage, LLC, 1853, Bellevue;
and Ernst Land Co. Inc. LLC, 1865,
Bellevue.
Jones Century Farms: Trudy Fisher
Erickson, 1920, Olin; and Michael and Tamara
Hansen, 1920, Olin.
Jones Heritage Farms: None
The full list of Century and Heritage Farm
awardees is available at iowaagriculture.
gov/century-and-heritage-farm-program.
Poultry program saw
different format at ISU
2020 was a year of firsts for the Midwest
Poultry Consortium’s Center of Excellence
Scholarship and Internship Program –
the first year it was hosted by Iowa State
University, and the first year the program
was held in an online format, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences virtually hosted 29 students
from 14 Midwest universities for the virtual
summer educational program. The
25-year-old program was formerly hosted
by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Iowa State was selected to host the program
because of its college and industry
programmatic support, facilities for teaching,
and existing poultry faculty support,
said Elizabeth Bobeck, assistant professor
of animal science at Iowa State and on-site
coordinator of the summer program.
Before the pandemic hit, the plan was
to host classes at the new Robert T. and
Arlene Hamilton Poultry and Research
Teaching Farm at Iowa State, as well as
in Kildee Hall and the Meats Laboratory.
Bobeck said they still were able to make
use of the new poultry facility for the
program by filming laboratory videos for
nutrition and physiology courses.
Iowa State will again host the scholarship
and internship program next summer.
Websites have online
courses, helpful hints
A variety of online course are available
from ag organizations during the pandemic.
Practical Farmers of Iowa is hosting online
programs on everything from restoring
habitat to harvesting chestnuts and other
nuts. For more information visit practicalfarmers.org/
and click on “Events.”
AgArts, which promotes healthy food
systems through the arts, also offers online
classes, as well as podcasts and other
resources. Visit agarts.org to see the full
menu.
The ISU Extension website includes a
variety of information on canning and preserving,
gardening tips and more.
Visit extension.iastate.edu/ and search
for a topic that interests you to see what is
available from the state’s experts.
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 123

Ag Bytes
Iowa CRP programs
accept 1.2 million acres
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) accepted
more than 1.2 million acres in the
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
Grasslands during the spring signup period.
The number of acres offered during
this period was 1.9
million acres, more
than three times
the number offered
during the last signup
period in 2016.
Through CRP,
farmers and ranchers can protect grasslands,
rangelands and pastures while retaining
the right to conduct common grazing
practices, such as haying, mowing or
harvesting seed from the enrolled land.
Participants will receive an annual rental
payment and may receive up to 50 percent
cost-share for establishing approved
conservation practices. The duration of
the CRP contract is 10 or 15 years. FSA
ranked offers using a number of factors,
including existence of expiring CRP land,
threat of conversion or development, existing
grassland and predominance of native
species cover and cost.
The 2018 Farm Bill set aside not fewer
than 2 million acres for CRP Grassland enrollment.
On Oct. 1, grassland enrollment
was expected to be 2.1 million acres. CRP,
one of the largest conservation programs
at USDA, marks its 35-year anniversary in
2020 with 21.9 million acres currently enrolled.
For more information on CRP Grasslands,
contact your local FSA county office
or visit fsa.usda.gov/crp. To locate your local
FSA office, visit farmers.gov/service-locator.
USDA Service Centers are open for business
by phone appointment only, and field
work will continue with appropriate social
distancing. While program delivery staff
will continue to come into the office, they
will be working with producers by phone
and using online tools whenever possible.
All Service Center visitors wishing to
conduct business with the FSA, Natural
Resources Conservation Service or any
other Service Center agency are required
to call their Service Center to schedule a
phone appointment. More information can
be found at farmers.gov/coronavirus.
Naig encourages people
to evaluate propane supply
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig
urged farmers and agribusinesses to evaluate
how much propane they’ll need to
meet grain drying and home and livestock
heating demands this fall and winter. The
derecho created many unknowns for this
year’s harvest. Propane users should anticipate,
and suppliers should plan for increased
propane demands this fall.
The derecho’s sustained, high winds
damaged an estimated 3.57 million acres
of corn in 36 counties, just a few weeks
before the harvest. Millions of acres of
corn stalks were snapped, flattened or
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124 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Ag Bytes
tangled. This will reduce the amount of airflow
around the crop, and farmers should
anticipate harvested corn will have higher-than-normal
moisture levels. Farmers
should talk with their local propane suppliers,
take advantage of early buying and
booking programs, and top off their tanks
now before harvest begins.
Planning Resources for Farmers
High-moisture corn must be dried before
the grain is stored in the bin to prevent
grain quality issues. The Iowa State University
Extension and Outreach Grain Drying
Economics Module (store.extension.
iastate.edu/product/Grain-Drying-Economics-Module)
helps farmers work
through corn drying/marketing decisions.
The Propane Education and Research
Council (PERC) has created a grain dryer
propane use calculator to help crop farmers
determine how much propane they may
need this fall. Farmers can access the calculator
at propane.com/propane-products/
grain-dryers/. Enter the number of crop acres,
the average anticipated yield per acre,
and how much moisture may need to be
removed from the crop to estimate how
many gallons of propane may be needed.
ISU’s Grain Quality Initiative also has resources
to help agricultural decision-makers
work through grain drying, storage and
quality considerations.
Planning Resources for Suppliers
The National Propane Gas Association
has developed an “ABCs of Supply
Preparation” checklist (npga.org/membership/my-npga/abcs-of-supply-preparation-051820/).
This tool guides suppliers
through demand, supply, logistics, storage,
and customer considerations to help decision-makers
plan their fall inventories.
Suppliers can track Iowa propane demands,
inventory levels and prices on
the Iowa Propane Trends and Statistics
website at https://quetica.com/propane-iowa/.
This public resource was launched
in January 2020 by the Iowa Department
of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and
Iowa Department of Transportation to increase
the visibility of key metrics that impact
the propane supply chain in Iowa.
Iowa Propane Stakeholders Group
In the fall of 2019, Iowa experienced
some propane supply challenges because
grain drying demands caused by the late
planting season coincided with an early
cold snap that increased livestock and
home heating needs.
Naig and the Iowa Department of Agriculture
and Land Stewardship convened a
group of propane stakeholders, including
the Iowa Governor’s office, members of
the Iowa Legislature, Iowa Propane Gas
Association, propane suppliers, and several
agricultural groups, to anticipate and
act to prevent future propane supply chain
issues.
If farmers or agribusinesses experience
propane shortages, they should notify
Paul Ovrom at the Iowa Department
of Agriculture and Land Stewardship at
515-242-6239 or paul.ovrom@iowaagriculture.gov,
or Deb Grooms at the Iowa
Propane Gas Association at 515-564-1260
or dgrooms@iapropane.org.
Your
CORN
Guy
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Funk’s Frontiersmen
Sales Representative
(563) 593-1904
1-800-267-6489
jrmhwiesefarms@gmail.com
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eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 125

(Above) Cousins Henry Goodall
and Liam Govier, both
one-and-a-half-years-old, pick
corn at Goodall Farms — a
family farm in DeWitt.
Submitted by Megan Govier
(Right) Picture taken in
August, looking northeast
from a driveway of
Maquoketa resident, Katy
Hayward. “For as bad as the
sky looked, the storm didn’t
amount to much,” she said.
Submitted by katy hayward
126 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com

Thea, age 7, learning about cameras!
Submitted by Lindsey Schmidt
(Above) Matt and Tannen Kelting, 4, check the
cows in the pasture at their farm.
Submitted by ashley kelting
(Left) Gary Drew takes a quick trip on his
tractor through the drive-through at Osterhaus
Pharmacy in Maquoketa. Meeting him outside
for the handoff is pharmacist Matt Osterhaus.
Submitted by Jessie Johnson
fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 127

1
3
2
128 Eastern Iowa Farmer | fall 2020 eifarmer.com
4

5
1. Brody Green, 5, got
to do some extra farming
with his dad (Chris Green)
this spring thanks to the
schools closing.
Submitted by
kimberly green
2. Jordan Green (3)
checking out Grandpa’s
(Albert Green) cows in
Grand Mound.
Submitted by
kimberly green
3. Tractors are not a
common sight in downtown
Maquoketa, but this duo
drove there to watch an
uncommon sight — Glen
“Red” Henton’s 100th
birthday parade Sept. 3.
Photo by kelly gerlach
4. Matt and Tannen
Kelting, 4, clean up after
the derecho.
Submitted by
Ashley Kelting
5. Emmett Nowachek
playing with his dog, Bella.
Submitted by
Joyce Ostert
6. Aly B. doing the
finishing touches before
showing her prize sheep at
the fair. Very proud girl!
Submitted by
Joyce Ostert
6
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 129

Peoples company
FarMer
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