Eastern Iowa Farmer Spring 2021

The Eastern Iowa Spring 2021 

Farmer 

® 

A Publication of Sycamore Media 

Mother 

Nature 

is having her say 

Eastern Iowa farmers have 

always battled the elements, but 

last summer’s derecho was 

a weather event for the books. 

Hard work, lifelong 

lessons: From feeding 

livestock to helping with harvest 

and upkeep, chores are a way of 

life for kids growing up on farms 

Operating safely: Grain 

bin accidents are a risk in agriculture, 

but training and rescue efforts can 

mitigate the impact 

Man behind the meat: Grand 

Mound resident helping feed America 

‘from gate to plate’ 

Moving the right 

direction: Local land prices increase 

in value above state average 

PLUS: 

Photo pages of 

your friends 

and neighbors!

Product placement, 

not promotion. 

Channel Seedsmen take every field acre by acre so that each product is placed to 

perform in its unique conditions. Learn more about Channel products placed to 

perform in your area at Channel.com/local. 

JEREMY MINER 

Agronomist 

319-480-1465 

GEOFF APER 

Field Sales Representative 

309-945-5222 

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.

TODD HUSMANN 

Channel Seedsman 

Center Junction, IA 

319-480-6331 

DEALER 

BOB NEYEN 


Worthington, IA 

563-543-3855 

DEALER 

MAX MCNEIL 


Preston 

563-357-2381 

DEALER 

BOB GANNON 


DeWitt 

563-357-9876 

DEALER 

SPENCER HICKS 


New Liberty 

563-513-8005 

JANELL SLATTERY 


Maquoketa 

563-357-4057 

DEALER 

DEALER 

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.

Planes...tracto 

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Whatever it is you do, Tri-State Building 

can put a roof over it with a custom-designed 

building perfectly suited to your needs 

“Working with Frank and the 

crew at Tri-State to develop and 

build our multi-purpose building 

got us exactly what we needed.” 

— Luke Niemann and Matthew Niemann 

Tri-STaTe 

Building Corp.

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Pictured, building owners 

Luke Niemann (left) and Matthew 

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Family Farms in DeWitt, IA with 

Tri-State Building Corp. owner 

Frank Reisen (center). 

1954 

Frank Reisen, owner 

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Bellevue, IA 52031 

563-542-1681 

Tri.statebldgs@gmail.com 

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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

Today, Tomorrow, 

Forever 

Joining the 

Team 

Thomas McConohy’s journey in life took him from 

his family farm near DeWitt, across Eastern 

Iowa for education and work, and now back 

to the farm where he grew up. Today, with 

support from a scholarship overseen by the 

LincolnWay Community Foundation, he’s one of many 

community members building a strong DeWitt area. 

The Community Foundation supports efforts to make 

the region a place where people want to live. These 

efforts, whether scholarships like the one Thomas 

received or grants to local nonprofits, are made 

possible by local generosity, a dedicated board with a 

committed staff member, and the Forever LincolnWay 

Endowment Fund. This fund helps ensure the Foundation 

can continue improving quality of life for DeWitt area 

residents like Thomas – today, tomorrow and forever. 

Learn more at dbqfoundation.org/lwcf. 

Lori Loch is focused on the future of our 

communities as she steps into the role of 

executive director of the Community Foundation 

of Jackson County. 

Lori lives near Bellevue and farms with her 

husband and two sons. The Loch family works together 

to cut wood, bale hay and care for their cattle, horses, 

chickens and pigs, and they enjoy gardening as a family. 

“I love the discipline, responsibility and entrepreneurship 

the farm teaches our kids,” she says. “They take pride in 

their work and know we are a team.” 

In her new role, Lori will work to fulfill the Foundation’s 

mission through endowment-building, grant-making and 

community engagement. Her background in investment 

services and retirement planning will help donors 

and nonprofit leaders accomplish their goals. Gifts 

of grain, livestock and land can support your community 

and benefit your farm. To learn more, email 

lori@dbqfoundation.org or call 563-588-2700. 

An Affiliate of the 

Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque 

Dubuque strengthens communities 

partners in surrounding counties. 

dbqfoundation.org

The Eastern Iowa 

Farmer® 

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Abstract & Title Guaranty Company....86 

AgWest Commodities..........................32 

American Family Insurance.................92 

American Mutual..................................84 

Anamosa Silo Repair, LLC..................81 

Appliance Solutions.............................40 

Arensdorf Rock Quarry & 

Ag Lime Application........................95 

Beck’s..................................................88 

Bellevue/Preston Veterinary Clinic......81 

Bellevue Sand & Gravel......................99 

Brandenburg Drainage......................107 

Breeden’s Vermeer..............................57 

Bullocks, Inc........................................54 

Burger Chiropractic..............................35 

Burger Shoe Repair.............................35 

Cascade Lumber Co............................47 

Channel.................................................2 

Citizens First Bank...............................63 

Citizens State Bank.............................34 

Clinton County Farm Bureau...............25 

Clinton National Bank........................ 111 

Clover Ridge Place..............................89 

Community Foundation 

of Greater Dubuque..........................6 

Community Foundation 

of Jackson County............................6 

Countryside Feed & Supply.................20 

Custom Dozing and 

Crane Service, Inc..........................67 

Davisson Tiling LLC.............................22 

Dave River Construction......................70 

Deep Creek Applicators.....................106 

Delaney Ag Service.............................38 

Delaney Ag Service.............................39 

Delaney Auto & Ag.............................110 

Delmar Grain Service, Inc...................14 

DeWitt Bank & Trust..........................124 

DeWitt Community 

Hospital Foundation........................18 

East Central Consulting.......................37 

East Iowa Real Estate.........................64 

Eberhart Farm Center........................108 

Farm Bureau Financial Services.........45 

Farm Credit Services...........................87 

Fidelity Bank & Trust............................24 

First Central State Bank....................103 

Franzen Family Tractors......................50 

Funk’s Frontiersman............................62 

Gateway Door Company.....................98 

GreenTech Spray Foam Insulation......16 

Heritage Mutual Insurance..................55 

Holdgrafer Grain Systems, LLC...........99 

Hostetler Precision Ag Solutions.........61 

Highway 64 Auctions...........................50 

Irv’s Repair Inc.....................................48 

Irv’s Repair Inc.....................................49 

J&S Auto Specialists............................74 

Jackson County Farm Bureau.............25 

Jackson County Regional 

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Jeremiah Wiese Farms........................17 

JJ Scheckel.........................................72 

Keeney Welding..................................20 

Ken Kruger..........................................58 

Kunau Implement................................65 

LaMotte/Andrew Telephone Co...........42 

Legacy Insurance Group.....................68 

Liberty Ag & Excavating.......................36 

LincolnWay Community Foundation......6 

Low Moor Ag Services, Inc..................37 

Maquoketa Financial Group................56 

Maquoketa State Bank........................59 

Martens Angus Farms.........................26 

Meant To Be With Flowers...................77 

Melissa Burken Mommsen..................30 

Mill Valley Care Center........................30 

Miner, Gilroy & Meade.........................44 

Moore Family Farms and Creamery....104 

New York Life - Tricia Holdgrafer.........76 

Nissen-Caven Insurance.....................78 

Ohnward Farm Mangement...............101 

Ohnward Insurance Group..................81 

Ohnward Tax, Accounting 

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Ohnward Wealth & Retirement............43 

Osterhaus Pharmacy...........................93 

Peoples Company.............................122 

Pioneer................................................11 

Regency Retirement 

Residence of Clinton.......................91 

River Valley Cooperative.....................97 

Roeder Brothers..................................21 

Rolling Hills Veterinary Service..........100 

RPJ Repair & Warehouse...................90 

Scherrman’s Implement.......................15 

Schlecht Farm & Hatchery.................109 

Schoenthaler, Bartelt, Kahler & Reicks....46 

Schueller and Sons Reconstruction....71 

Schuster & Co PC...............................27 

Sheets General Construction..............60 

Spain Ag Service.................................69 

State Farm ..........................................94 

Stickley Electric...................................66 

The Engel Agency...............................28 

The Friedman Group, Inc..................103 

Theisen’s.............................................58 

Titan Pro..............................................80 

Tri-State Building Corp..........................4 

Veach Diesel & Automotive Repair......82 

Welter Seed & Honey Co....................85 

Wheatland Manor Care Facility...........79 

Whispering Meadows Resort...............94 

White Front..........................................73 

Wyffels Hybrids....................................75 

Zirkelbach Home Appliances...............83 

view the entire magazine online 

eifarmer.com 

8 Eastern Iowa Farmer | Spring 2021 eifarmer.com

Story Index 

52 

Mother Nature is having her say 

Eastern Iowa farmers have found themselves battling the elements 

more than ever the past few years, and it is changing the way they work. 

Chores: The building 

The man behind 

12 33 41 

blocks of character 

For generations, 

children of all ages 

have been pitching 

in on the farm 

the meat 

Grand Mound 

resident helping 

feed America 


A woolly endeavor 

Bernard farmer started 

raising sheep as a high 

school student in FFA; 

20 years later he’s 

expanded the flock 

23 46 98 

29 

‘It just happened so fast’ 

Area farmer’s experience 

shows how safety precautions, 

rescue techniques are crucial 

for farmers 

The smallest action could 

make a big difference 

96 

Bulletins offered good, 

free advice from Uncle Sam’s 

Department of Ag 

Ag in the Classroom 

A farming future is worth 

the sacrifice 

102 

105 

Moving in the right direction 

Land values in Eastern Iowa 

ticked up last year 

From the FSA 

ARCPLC sign-up underway 

Ag Bytes


The Eastern Iowa Spring 2021 

A Publication of Sycamore Media 

Hard work, lifelong 

lessons: From feeding 

livestock to helping with harvest 

and upkeep, chores are a way of 

life for kids growing up on farms 

Operating safely: Grain 

bin accidents are a risk in agriculture, 

but training and rescue efforts can 

mitigate the impact 

Man behind the meat: Grand 

Mound resident helping feed America 


Moving the right 

direction: Local land prices increase 

in value above state average 

Mother 

Nature 

is haviNg her say 

Eastern Iowa farmers have found 

themselves battling the elements more 

than ever the past few years, and it 

is changing the way they work. 

PLUS: 

Photo pages of 

your friends 

and neighbors! 

The Eastern Iowa 


® 

Sycamore Media President: 

Trevis Mayfield 

Advertising: Trevis Mayfield, Brooke 

Taylor, Dean Upmann, and Bob Wendt 

Creative Director: Brooke Taylor 

Editorial Content: Lowell Carlson, 

Kelly Gerlach, Kellie Gregorich, Ashley 

Johnson, Nick Joos, Kris Koth, Beth 

Lamp, Nancy Mayfield, Trevis Mayfield, 

Sara Millhouse, Carter Mommsen, 

Jane Schmidt, Kevin E. Schmidt, Jenna 

Stevens 

Photography Content: 

Kelly Gerlach, Kellie Gregorich, Ashley 

Johnson, Nick Joos, Trevis Mayfield, 

Kevin E. Schmidt, Brooke Taylor 

Editors: Kelly Gerlach, Nancy Mayfield, 


Published by: Sycamore Media 

108 W. Quarry St., Maquoketa, IA 

563-652-2441 

Cover: Trevis Mayfield, Brooke Taylor 

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 

Losses have a way of reminding 

us of what’s important 

Our farming community 

has now lived with the 

COVID-19 pandemic for 

more than a year, and it has 

left its mark on us. 

Early last year, when it hit meat 

packing plants hard, it roiled the livestock 

industry, leaving producers stranded 

with market-ready animals and nowhere 

for them to go. It has changed the way 

many farmers socialize with their friends 

and neighbors, and, because of our effort to 

lower our risk of spreading the disease, it has 

changed the way we have gone about producing 

this magazine. 

But nothing, however, has made it feel more 

real to me and our staff than the loss of Bob 

Larkey and David “Red” Phillips, both of whom 

died from complications of the virus. Both men 

made big contributions to Eastern Iowa’s agriculture 

community, and both had been featured 

in past issues of this magazine. 

Larkey, 76, the owner of Maquoketa Livestock 

Sales, had been creating markets for locally 

grown livestock for 

more than 40 years. 

During that time, 

his contributions to 

the community were 

many, including 

strong support of 

agriculture-oriented 

youth programs like 

4-H and FFA. He 

was also a family 


President, 

Sycamore Media Corp. 

man who was loved 

by his children and 

grandchildren. 

For me, he has 

the distinction of 

being one of the very first advertising customers 

of this magazine. I remember explaining the 

concept of the magazine to him before it existed, 

and graciously, through the window of his 

SUV, he said he’d give it a try. I’m sure many 

will miss his big personality and his distinct, 

booming voice. 

Phillips, 72, also had an early connection 

to this magazine and a holds a specific distinction 

in my mind. The lifelong Zwingle farmer 

and his wife, Karen, were featured in an ad for 

the Jackson County Regional Health Center in 

2018, and despite having now taken hundreds 

of photos for this magazine, I remember that 

moment clearly, and it was Karen who made it 

memorable. 

She gave us a statement for the ad about how 

much she appreciated the hospital’s successful 

efforts years before to save her husband’s life 

after a heart attack. While she was talking with 

us, she told us how much she loved her husband, 

(Top) David “Red” Phillps 

and his wife Karen pose for a photo for the 

Jackson County Regional Health Center’s ad 

in a past issue of this magazine. 

Photo by Trevis Mayfield 

(Above) Bob Larkey, owner of Maquoketa 

Livestock Sales, was honored at the 2020 

Jackson County 4-H Recognition Banquet for 

being inducted into the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame. 

Submitted by Amber Matthiesen 

grabbed him with the enthusiasm of a teenager 

and gave him a tight hug, which was captured in 

the photograph that this magazine published. 

Both of these men will be remembered and 

missed, and thinking of them reminds us here at 

the Eastern Iowa Farmer how much we appreciate 

the relationships we have with all of you. 

In closing and as usual, I want to thank all 

of our sources, contributors, and especially our 

advertisers who make this community-oriented 

magazine possible. 

Thanks again, and we’ll see you in the fall. 

Sincerely, 

Trevis Mayfield, 

Sycamore Media president 


McCaulley Ag Service 

Tyler Shannon 

Swanton Ag Service 

Mike Delaney 

Spain Ag Service 

563-599-0901 

563-212-0683 

563-249-5645 

563-599-3170 

563-212-3345 

TM ® SM Trademarks and service marks of Dow AgroSciences, DuPont or Pioneer, and their affiliated companies or their respective owners. © 2020 Corteva. 20D-1495

(Above) Gibson Miller, 6, visits with one 

of the chickens that he takes care of daily 

as part of the chores on his family farm. 

(Right) Jackie Miller, a junior at 

Maquoketa High School, said the 

responsibilities she has on the farm 

have made a difference in school. She’s 

been doing chores since she was a small 

child and has enjoyed the connection 

working on the farm with her dad. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / 

Kevin e. schmidt 

12 Eastern Iowa Farmer

Chores: 

The building blocks 

of character 

For generations, children of all ages have 

been pitching in on the farm, helping care for 

animals, assisting with planting or harvest, 

and learning valuable lessons along the way 

BY kevin e. schmidt 

eastern iowa farmer 

On a crisp sunny October afternoon 

three children scramble 

across the yard of the family 

farm northwest of Maquoketa 

toward an outbuilding where a 

menagerie of animals wait to be fed. Chickens 

scatter as 6-year-old Gibson rushes in, 

scoops up a handful of feed and tosses it as 

he scans the room. 

“Hey there’s an egg,” he yells, pointing to 

the pen holding his 4-year-old sister Jana’s 

prized lop-eared rabbit named Steve. 

Eight-year-old Wylie gets feed and continues 

through to another section of the barn 

to tend to his two Yorkshire hogs and the 

horses. 

Jana quietly sits in the pen cuddling Steve. 

Similar scenes play out daily across 

Eastern Iowa as kids ranging from young 

children to teenagers pitch in on their family 

farms. 

The Miller kids, whose parents are Alicia 

and Kegan Miller, are among multiple 

generations of Eastern Iowa children who 

grew up doing chores. While years ago all 

able-bodied household members had to pitch 

in because of economic necessity, today 

many parents involve their kids in farming 

because they know the work instills responsibility 

and a sense of accomplishment and 

gives their children a chance to learn and be 

physically active. 

Alicia Miller, who grew up in suburban 

Chicago said, “As a kid, I wanted to be a 

veterinarian. Any animal I could get my 

hands on I wanted to take care of. But, I 

grew up where I grew up. That just wasn’t 

on my horizon. I figured I’d always live in 

the suburbs or city of Chicago, and then I 

met my husband, Kegan, an Iowa farm boy, 

and got married... I knew we weren’t moving 

back to the city.” 

She looked around at her children. 

“I didn’t realize how blessed we’d be living 

on a farm and having what we have. I go 

back to visit friends and feel sorry for them 

when they say things like, there’s nothing 

to do with my kids anymore, the parks are 

closed,” she said. 

“I think, oh-my-gosh, it never ends with 

us. There’s always something to do on the 

farm,” Miller said laughing. And she believes

Country chores 

I didn’t realize how 

blessed we’d be living on 

a farm and having what 

we have. I go back to visit 

friends and feel sorry for 

them when they say things 

like, there’s nothing to do 

with my kids anymore, the 

parks are closed.” 

— alicia miller 

the approach she and her husband take is 

instilling a true love for caring for animals 

and the farm in their children. 

“I didn’t ever want it to be like a chore. 

I mean there are days where I don’t even 

want to go out and do this stuff, but I 

wanted to make it something we could do 

together,” she said. 

Farm life has taught her children about 

how life and death works, how babies are 

made and, of course, hard work. 

“They understand that we raise things 

and that some are raised to be eaten. There 

is a reason for it,” she said. 

With chores completed Gibson appeared 

in a doorway grinning ear-to-ear holding 

one of his Ameraucana chickens as Wylie 

could be seen in the horse corral gathering 

up several buckets that had blown across 

from another part of the farm. 

Work on the farm has an effect off the 

farm Miller believes. 

“I’ve noticed things with my kids and 

their school work. We never have a hard 

time getting them to do it. They just know 

that it has to been done. We get it out and 

do it.” 

We always have 

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(Left) Among the animals Wylie Miller tends to 

are two Yorkshire hogs and horses. (Above) 

Jana Miller, 4, cares for a lop-eared rabbit 

named Steve and helps to look after other 

animals around the farm. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / 

Kevin e. schmidt 

‘Priceless’ experience 

Bruce River refuels his truck next to 

the machine shed on his property near 

Maquoketa. The soft-spoken 62-year-old 

man looks off into the distance when 

asked about doing chores growing up on 

the farm. 

“We were kind of diversified, some 

pigs and cattle, but when I was young 

mostly our folks ran a hatchery,” he 

said. “The waterers were automatic, 

but, whether it was feeding or pitching 

chicken manure – a lot of high-nitrogen 

chicken manure – it was a lot of manual 

labor.” 

River had four siblings, and everybody 

did something starting when they were 3- 

or 4-years-old. That work ethic, he said, 

was one of the biggest benefits he got 

growing up on a farm. 

“I think no matter what I would have 

done in life, it instilled good values and 

a very strong work ethic in me, and, just 

as the commercial says, the experiences 

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eifarmer.com spring 2021 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 15


Bruce and Peyton River, father and son, 

believe a good work ethic is one of the 

biggest benefits of growing up on a farm. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / 

kevin e. schmidt 

That was the standard for 

his life and would become so 

for the next generation. 

“We’ve got two sons,” 

River said, “Peyton wanted 

to come back and farm after 

college, and Carter kind of 

had an itch for the big city, 

and he’s doing that, but he’s 

got the same work ethic and 

grew up with the same values. 

He was in the farrowing barn 

when he was 3 or 4 years old 

catching little baby pigs for us 

and doing a lot of those same 

things. I think he’s proud of 

what he went through and the 

hard work he did.” 

River believes that there’s 

no better place to raise a family 

than in a farm setting. 

“Kids have so many challenges 

today and to be able 

to work alongside your kids, 

not just talk at them, but show 

them, you know, those things 

are invaluable,” he said. 

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“We’ve always hoped that 

our kids would have a passion 

for something. It didn’t 

have to be farming necessarily,” 

he said, adding that 

he wanted them to take their 

good work ethic and dive into 

whatever path they chose. 

“If they come back to farm, 

great, but that’s not the sole 

concern,” he said. 

After graduating from college 

in 2016, Peyton returned 

to Maquoketa helping his 

father run the feeder to finish 

cattle operation. 

On a chilly Saturday last 

fall the 26-year-old walked 

along the pens holding Angus 

cattle ready to be trucked out 

that morning. 

“I think I was 4 or 5-years 

old,” he recalled of his start 

in the family business. “Dad 

needed the help, my interest 

level was high enough, and I 

wanted to help. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / kevin e. schmidt 

Bruce River and his four siblings started doing chores when they 

were 3- or 4-years-old. When he was a boy his parents ran a 

hatchery, and he helped with feeding and pitching manure. 

“We helped with the pigs, 

and I remember picking rocks 

out of the fields so they didn’t 

get stuck in the heads of the 

combine while harvesting 

beans, keeping the tool boxes 

clean, yeah, keeping the tool 

boxes clean,” he paused for a 

moment, “and keeping an eye 

on mama cows getting ready 

to calve.” 

Peyton learned work on the 

“It forces you to 

prioritize things and 

yeah, that was very 

crucial for me and my 

brother to learn. That 

was also a way Dad 

was telling us to stay 

out of trouble.” 

— peyton river 

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farm never waited, even for school. 

“Once a week we would take loads of 

pigs down to Elwood. That had to be done 

before school. So, at 5:30 a.m. we were 

helping Dad load pigs, then we went to 

school,” he said. 

“It forces you to prioritize things and 

yeah, that was very crucial for me and 

my brother to learn,” he said. He laughed 

and added, “That was also a way Dad was 

telling us to stay out of trouble.” 

Growing into responsibilities 

At 16, Jackie Miller talks like a seasoned 

farmer as she walks into a small, 

now quiet milking barn. 

“As kids my sister Cassie and I were 

usually the ones that helped on the dairy 

farm, milking cows, feeding calves or 

whatever was needed,” she said. 

“I was probably about 6 when I started 

helping in the dairy barn, filling corn 

buckets and other little jobs that I could 

do. As I got older I would dip the cow’s 

teats, and bottle feed calves. Then about 

three years ago, I was the one putting the 

milkers on, doing everything my dad used 

to do... and he was just there to assist me.” 

Jackie kicked dried manure from the 

cement floor and said, “I can tell as I’m 

getting older, the responsibilities I have on 

the farm have made a difference in school. 

I can see the difference between the farm 

kids and the non-farm kids. I just think 

that we’re more driven, motivated; we see 

what needs to be done, and we just do it.” 

The family’s dairy operation ended last 

January, and Jackie talks about the experience 

as she walks across her grandfather’s 

farm. 

“We still have some of the Holsteins. 

It’s not like we loaded all the cows in a 

trailer and took them away, which was 

honestly nice because I think that would 

have been so emotionally hard on everyone. 

Our family’s dairy farm has been 

operating for three or four generations. 

I’m glad that we kind of eased into it. It 

happened during the winter months, which 

is my family’s down time,” she said. 

The twice-a-day, everyday routine of the 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / kevin e. schmidt 

Peyton River harvests corn on land north 

of Maquoketa next to the Maquoketa River. 

River grew up, like many Eastern Iowa farm 

kids, doing chores. 


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dairy barn may have ended but 

Jackie’s work ethic has not. 

“I’m really just trying to 

focus on my academics and 

leading in my extracurricular 

activities,” she said. 

A junior at Maquoketa High 

School, she also is enrolled as 

a full-time college student at 

Clinton Community College. 

Top that off with playing high 

school volleyball and basketball 

and participating in FFA 

and 4-H, she’s still going day 

and night. Not surprisingly 

she will graduate in 2021 with 

a high school diploma and an 

associate degree. 

Looking back Jackie said, “I 

really do miss the dairy barn 

because that was one way that 

I felt connected to the farm. 

I got close to my dad; we always 

had good conversations 

in the barn.” 

She stopped, then continued, 

“There’s always work to 


“We always 

had good 

conversations 

in the barn.” 

— Jackie Miller 

be done on the farm, fences 

need fixed, beef cattle need 

vaccinated and castrated in the 

summer, and we are harvesting 

now. I help move things 

around in the fields and bring 

lunch to the guys, you know, 

just small things like that... 

there’s always something that 

needs to be done in the daily 

life of a farm.” n 

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with Paisley (dog) and Caylee Ploessl. 

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grain bin safety 

‘It just happened 

so fast’ 

Lost Nation 

firefighters pose 

with equipment 

and with the 

truck that they 

use for grain bin 

rescues. From 

left are Robert 

Dickman, Nick 

Dexter, Bill 

Brauer, Jeremy 

Lafrenz, Steven 

Bass, Paul 

McGonegle, Jim 

Schroeder and 

Jason Sullivan. 

Eastern Iowa 

Farmer photo / 


Bob Petersen said his experience of being trapped in a grain bin last summer shows 

how safety precautions, rescue techniques are crucial for farmers 

BY sara millhouse 


Margie Petersen looked out 

the window of her family’s 

Clinton County home and 

saw rescue equipment and 

fire trucks by the grain bin. 

“I thought, oh God, it’s either rescue or 

recovery,” she said. “That’s where my mind 

goes.” 

Thankfully for the Petersens, it was rescue. 

Margie’s husband Bob had sunk in the corn 

while trying to clear a jam, and he couldn’t 

move. 

“It just happened so fast,” Bob said of the 

late August event. “I can see how people get 

buried. 

“Mine had not that much grain,” he said of 

the bin. “It was toward the end, and it plugged 

up and I went in and poked the thing out, and 

I got swept off my feet.” 

A truck driver on scene called the Petersens’ 

son Chad. They shoveled until Bob 

didn’t have difficulty breathing, but they still 

couldn’t get him out of the corn. 

Bob was lucky: he said he was standing on 

the floor of the bin and wasn’t going to sink 

further in. 

For those who haven’t experienced it, it’s 

“I couldn’t move. The 

pressure wasn’t that 

great, but I couldn’t 

move. Even when they 

cleared past my knees, I 

couldn’t get my feet out.” 

— Bob petersen 



Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / contributed 

Bob Petersen manages a smile after spending an hour 

and a half waist deep in corn in August after trying to 

clear something that got stuck in the auger screen of a 

grain bin. He went to the hospital to be checked out but 

was “just fine,” his wife, Margie Petersen, said. 

hard to imagine the weight of the 

grain. 

“I couldn’t move,” Bob said. 

“The pressure wasn’t that great, but 

I couldn’t move. Even when they 

cleared past my knees, I couldn’t get 

my feet out.” 

As time ticked on, the dangers of 

medical complications increased, 

specifically of blood clots or compartment 

syndrome (when pressure 

builds up in muscle groups), from 

the grain packed around Bob’s legs. 

“We have to get you out of there 

in a timely manner,” Chad said. 

As a fire chief trained in grain bin 

rescues, he knew it was time to call 

for help. 

“I’ve been a volunteer since 

1990,” Chad said. “I’ve seen a lot, 

so I’m not as emotional as some.” 

Even in trouble, it can be hard to 

ask for help. 

“I don’t care what you think,” 

Chad recalled saying on the day of 

his dad’s rescue. “You’re not going 

to get out of here without proper 

equipment.” 

Once firefighters arrived, they 

clamped together and pounded down 

a barrier around Bob. With less grain 

around his body, the corn was easily 

removed, with no ill effects to Bob. 

“We’re lucky it didn’t damage his 

legs with the pressure,” Margie said. 

Rescue equipment 

Helping his dad wasn’t Chad’s 

first grain bin rescue as he is a longtime 

firefighter and chief of the New 

Liberty fire department. 

More than 15 years ago, he was 

called to a rescue near Sunbury, 

Iowa. 

“All I could see was the guy’s 

hat,” he said. 

Without the benefit of today’s 

equipment, responders had to cut a 

hole in the side of the bin to quickly 

drain the grain. 

“Yeah, the guy lived to be pissed 

at me for cutting a hole in the side 

of his grain bin,” Chad said with a 

laugh. 

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Chad saw rescue tubes, or coffer dams, 

become standard issue for rural fire departments. 

He worked as a regional manager 

for River Valley Coop when the coop 

was donating grain bin rescue equipment 

to small fire departments in the area. 

“Now, we can actually get people out, 

instead of hoping to get them out,” Chad 

said. 

Petersen’s rescue wasn’t the first grain 

bin extraction for Lost Nation firefighters, 

either. Several years ago, they cleared a 

man from an entrapment near the side of 

the bin, a challenging situation that didn’t 

go quite as easily as planned, said former 

Lost Nation fire chief Bill Brauer. 

Training in Eastern Iowa 

The National Education Center for Agricultural 

Safety at Northeast Iowa Community 

College in Peosta has held grain 

bin safety trainings in 28 states, donating 

57 grain bin rescue tubes this year alone. 

They train these departments free of cost, 

said NECAS director Dan Neenan. 

Twenty-three of the departments that 

have received NECAS tubes have gone 

on to successfully 

rescue farmers 

from grain bins, 

Neenan said. 

NECAS now 

has two training 

trailers, where 

responders can 

learn in a real-life 

scenario in which 

a volunteer is partially 

submerged in 

Dan Neenan, corn. Amazingly, 

National Education Neenan said, they 

Center for Agriculture always have volunteers 

ready to jump 

Safety Director 

in to the grain. 

Rescue procedures continue to evolve. 

For example, rescuers used to use a shopvac 

to remove grain, but that can cause 

dangerous sparks. A cordless, brushless 

drill is safer. 

Neenan also suggested that farmers 

should watch for low-oxygen conditions 

and carbon monoxide. If getting in a bin, 

wear a properly-fitting harness, such as 

those available at farm stores. 

The big picture 

Ten years ago, two teens died and 

another was injured in a grain bin accident 

in nearby Carroll County, Illinois, 

just across the Mississippi River. The 

boys’ employer, Haasbach, was found to 

have violated child labor laws and more 

than two dozen Occupational Safety and 

Health Administration (OSHA) rules in 

the lead-up to the teens’ deaths. 

According to Purdue University’s Agricultural 

Safety and Health Program, 37 

grain bin entrapments occurred nationwide 

in 2019, of which 23 were fatal. In 

2018, Purdue’s program reported 30 grain 

bin entrapments. 

Regarding his late summer accident, 

Bob said he should have known to be 

more careful. After all, he lost a relative 

in a grain bin accident about a decade 

ago. 

As the grain draws off the middle, it’s 

“like a sand hill,” Bob said. 

Margie pointed out that their neighbors 

and friends are more likely to die 

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Rescue squads from Lost Nation and Oxford Junction freed Petersen 

from the grain bin. Firefighters train for such rescues, using specialized 

equipment. Grain bins on the farm can be dangerous, with the grain 

acting like quicksand. 

from tractor and equipment 

accidents, naming three such 

fatalities in their circle. Nationwide, 

that’s true as well. 

Still, grain bins on the farm 

are a significant danger, and 

the particulars of entrapment 

in grain are exceptionally 

scary, with the grain acting 

like quicksand and swiftly 

suffocating the farmer. 

OSHA reports that agricultural 

workers can be trapped 

in four to five seconds. Within 

22 seconds, they can be completely 

engulfed in corn. 

Jamming up 

Farmers typically get in 

trouble when the grain “bridges,” 

forming a hard crust while 

emptying underneath. When 

the bridge collapses, anyone 

working in the grain can be 

buried. 

Many proud farmers are 

less likely to bring in a spotter, 

or even call for help, because 

bridging is more likely when 

grain is spoiled. 

Extraordinarily wet weather 

in the years leading up to 2020 

led to more spoiled grain and 

more jams in bins. 

“Keep your grain clean, 

that’s the solution,” Brauer 

said. “That’s not always doable. 

Last year (2019), with 

the fall we had, we had so 

much spoiled grain that was 

sticking to walls.” 

Equipment also can help 

unplug grain bin sumps so that 

farmers don’t get in the bin. 

The systems involve hydraulic 

motors and lines above the 

sump that clear blockages, 

Neenan explained. 

Be smart, not proud 

“The biggest thing is, never 

get in a bin like that, not with 

the auger running,” Chad said. 

“You just don’t know what’s 

underneath there.” 

One of the reasons Bob’s 

rescue was successful was 

because of the quick response 

of a second person. 

“Having a second person 



there is critical,” Neenan said. 

“If you go in and you get 

trapped, when are they going 

to notice that you’re gone?” 

If a farmer’s absence isn’t 

noticed until dinner time, after 

getting in a bin after breakfast, 

it could be 10 hours before 

anyone knows what’s wrong. 

Neenan suggests calling a 

spouse, a family member or 

a neighbor, and that second 

person should call 911 in case 

of emergency, not jump in to 

try to save the first person. 

“Sixty percent of people 

who died in confined spaces 

(like grain bins) were would-be 

rescuers,” he said. “They got in 

and got the original victim out 

but didn’t make it out themselves.” 

Chad said he “came from the 

coop world, where we always 

had a spotter.” OSHA requires 

a spotter, harnesses and a lockout-tagout 

system for power to 

the auger, but those rules don’t 

apply to small family farms 

with 10 or fewer employees. 

“That doesn’t mean that 

OSHA rules aren’t best practices 

to make sure that you get in 

and out safely,” Neenan said. 

“Farmers have to have the 

same mentality,” Chad agreed. 

“I farm as well, and I use the 

same practices on my farm.” 

Chad is careful on his farm 

to label all his breakers so that 

first responders can kill the 

power quickly and easily. 

“Don’t be stupid,” he said. 

“It’s common sense to me because 

I’ve been on the rescue 

side of it.” 

One of the challenges in 

promoting grain bin safety is 

that many farmers have gotten 

in bins, sometimes many times 

in their lives, without getting in 

trouble. It’s easy to assume that 

things will never go wrong, 

that you don’t need a harness 

or other safety precautions. 

“My answer to that, and it’s 

not snarky by any means, but 

it only takes once,” Neenan 

said. “If everything lines up 

once that you’re going to get 

trapped, it could be deadly.” 

When you’re busy, it’s even 

more tempting to skip precautions, 

sometimes with disastrous 

effects. 

Neenan said that investing 

in safety is about your family, 

not yourself. 

“When you start talking 

about lockout-tagout or a harness, 

that might cost a couple 

hundred dollars,” he said. “It’s 

not terrible, but there is a cost 

to it. 

“But to be safe for your 

family?” he continued. “I’m of 

an age where being there for 

my grandkids is going to make 

me invest in something that 

would keep me safe.” n 

“I’m of an age 

where being there 

for my grandkids 

is going to make 

me invest in 

something 

that would keep 

me safe.” 

— Dan Neenan 

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The smallest action 

could make 

a big difference 

By Carter mommsen 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER 

is the 

most healthful, most 

useful and most noble 

employment of man.” 

“Agriculture 

These words were first 

spoken by our founding father, George 

Washington, and they still hold true 

today. Agriculture is the very backbone 

of modern society, and yet more people 

than ever are removed from such employment. 

This has created a disconnect 

between rural and urban and allowed for 

a breakdown in communication. 

While there are many problems facing 

the agriculture industry today, in my 

mind one of the most prominent issues 

is the spread of misinformation, most 

of which takes place on various social 

media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, 

and Instagram. 

As farmers we can use these platforms 

to our advantage and help spread awareness 

about the positive things the agriculture 

industry has accomplished. We 

can also use the reach of social media 

to strengthen the producer-to-consumer 

relationship by helping consumers have 

a more in-depth understanding of how 

the food on their table is produced. 

Those of us who farm can show 

consumers how much work it takes to 

transform a seed into a corn plant, or 

a young calf into a market-ready steer. 

We also can show them how well our 

livestock is taken care of, and the strong 

bonds we share with our animals. 

We can help the entire industry thrive 

by simply sharing an everyday experience 

such as feeding our cattle. By doing 

this, we can help the consumer maybe 

feel more comfortable when picking out 

that carton of eggs at the grocery store 


Carter Mommsen catches the morning sunrise while feeding his Angus show heifer before 

school. Like most farm kids who exhibit livestock, Mommsen cares for his animals every day and 

treats them with compassion and respect. This is the side of the story that he would like to see 

more of on social media and the side that he thinks producers must continue to promote across 

their own platforms. 

or the package of bacon at the locker. 

This, in turn, can create a higher demand 

for these products, which helps farmers. 

Social media can also benefit farmers 

by allowing us to correct the inaccuracies 

that exist in our industry. A couple 

of months ago, I was scrolling through 

my social media and came across a post 

talking about how farmers are brutal and 

ruthless towards their livestock, when 

actually it was a group of kids showing 

cattle and using a show stick to calm 


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their steers. 

The content of this post 

surprised me because I show 

cattle, and I knew that the 

steers were not being harmed 

by the use of the show stick; 

but what baffled me the most 

was how many people had 

a genuine hatred towards 

livestock farmers, and really 

farmers in general. 

So many were cursing out 

farmers in the comments 

and truly believed that they 

were harming the animals, 

but in reality, it was the exact 

opposite. Therefore, we, as 

farmers, need to use these 

platforms to our advantage to 

help stop the spread of this 

negativity about the agricultural 

industry, to help stop the 

one-sided story, and to show 

consumers the truth. 

The simplest way we 

can impact how people see 

agriculture is by sharing our 

positive experiences with the 

public through Facebook, 

Twitter, and Instagram. More 

than half of the people around 

the world use social media in 

one way or another. 

By sharing our experiences, 

we have the potential to 

influence so many minds with 

a click of our finger. But in 

order to do this, we all need 

to work together. By sharing 

just one picture of an ordinary 

moment in your daily 

routine, you could spark an 

interest in someone who has 

never had the pleasure of 

experiencing the farm. So, 

when you head out to chores 

tonight take a moment to 

look around, snap a shot of 

something that brings you 

joy, and share it with those 

who follow you. The smallest 

action could make the biggest 

difference. n 

— Carter Mommsen, an 8th 

grader at Northeast Middle 

School, is a member of the 

CAC Media Group 

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for your family’s future. 

Melissa Burken Mommsen, attorney 

and farm owner, knows what it means 

to keep your farm in the family. 

Let her help your family prepare for the future. 

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Eastern Iowa Farmer photos / nick joos 

Darin Doerscher, of rural Grand Mound, oversees the purchasing, safety, and nutritional specifications of meat products that are distributed across 

the country to many initiatives, including schools. 

The man 

behind The meat 

Even the “COVID chicken” at Doerscher’s 

farm wears a mask. 

Grand Mound resident helping feed 

America ‘from gate to plate’ 

BY nick joos 


Darin Doerscher enjoys the 

view from his home office 

window. 

He and his wife, Skye, 

and their 8-year-old son, 

Benjamin, own a small farm in rural 

Grand Mound. 

However, it’s inside that office where 

one can see how the sausage is made. 

Literally. 

Doerscher serves as chief of the U. S. 

Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety 

and Technology branch that operates under 

the department’s Agricultural Marketing 

Service umbrella. 


gate to plate 

“We’d take bones 

and make stocks 

and make flavors. 

We’d use collagens 

and use blood 

plasmas to make 

functional proteins 

for different food 

products.” 

— Darin doerscher 

“I always like to refer to us as the technical 

folks, the geeks in the basement,” he said. 

Doerscher — and the five employees who 

work for him — oversee a bevy of food-related 

charges. They work on purchasing food products 

for different nutrition assistance programs 

and — perhaps most notably — the national 

school lunch program. 

In other words, Doerscher and his team are 

responsible for about 20% of the meat served 

in U.S. schools and ensure it meets nutritional 

guidelines while also being delicious. 

“One of our charges is to focus on the red 

meat and aquatic commodity specifications,” 

he said. “So, ground beef, hams, pork loins, 

pollock, catfish, walleye, canned chili. Stuff 

like that. 

“We cover the whole gamut, from gate to 

plate.” 

Doerscher also oversees animal welfare rules 

to make sure the livestock is handled humanely 

and follows that food through processing to 

labeling and shipping. 

“There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it,” he 

said. “We’ve done a lot of good work over 

the years, and it’s cool to be one of the branch 

leads in doing something for our society, and 

specifically the kids.” 

Learning the science of food 

Doerscher grew up on his family’s farm in 

rural Davenport and attended North Scott High 

School. 

He went off to Iowa State to study what he 

thought was agriculture engineering. However, 

on his second day of classes, a friend suggested 

he check out an ag sciences class. 

“Biological sciences always made sense to 

me,” Doerscher said. 

That whim paid off, as he turned it into a 

bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s 

degree in meat science muscle biology. 

While obtaining his degree, Doerscher 

worked for a meat producer called Proliant Biologicals 

in Ames where he developed a variety 

of foods with meat products. 

“We’d take bones and make stocks and make 

flavors,” he said. “We’d use collagens and use 

blood plasmas to make functional proteins for 

different food products.” 

He began traveling and teaching other meat 

processors how to use the products that were 

intended to be both tasty and save companies 

money. 

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gate to plate 


This photo, taken by Skye Doerscher, is one of Darin’s 

favorites. It displays one of his motivations for his job 

— teaching his son, Benjamin, where food comes from. 

“I’d go to a large food processor 

and show them how to use beef broth 

in formulas,” Doerscher said. 

His travels took him all around the 

U.S. He said he’s been in 38 different 

states, as well as many countries 

abroad, primarily in Asia. He’s also 

been to Puerto Rico, and Belgrade, 

Serbia. 

“Being in (different) countries for a 

couple weeks straight, you can learn 

the cultures. It’s fun,” he said. “It 

gives you a different perspective on 

things.” 

Chef with a lab coat 

After a while, Doerscher took a 

different position with JBS Swift in 

Greeley, Colorado, a food production 

company that makes a bevy of meat 

products. 

There, Doerscher was a food scientist. 

He worked in the research & 

development department developing 

new foods for both retail sales and 

restaurants. 

“My primary charge was developing 

new breakfast meats,” he said. 

“Sausage, pre-cooked bacon. I was a 

scientific chef. I went to work every 

day and put on a chef’s coat and 

would work in kitchens, processing 

facilities, or laboratories making meat 

items.” 

Doerscher worked in a modular 

test kitchen that could be redesigned 

to meet the specifications of any 

customer. National fast food chains 

or food service providers would come 

in, and Doerscher would try to sell 

them on a new product by mirroring 

the customer’s setup. He said that tactic 

made modeling food preparation 

more effective. 

“You could take a clam-shell oven, 

or the rotisserie, or the flat top and 

move it around and reconfigure it so 

it looked just like their kitchens,” he 

said. “It’s like (a kitchen) you’d see 

on the Food Network.” 

The work at Swift was a mixture 

of biological and physical chemistry, 

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gate to plate 

“There’s 

some political 

navigating to 

do, but you 

also need to 

be cognizant 

that the quality 

is never 

sacrificed.” 

— Darin doerscher 

Doerscher said, that applied to 

food. 

“It’s cool because when 

people think about going to 

the lab and working with basic 

scientific concepts, they think 

about beakers and acids and 

things like that. And making 

concoctions. 

“Sometimes I think people 

say ‘well, it’s just a hot dog,’” 

Doerscher continued. “But 

there’s so much more to it than 

that.” 

Time with USDA 

Doerscher landed a job at the 

USDA 14 years ago. 

His responsibilities have 

morphed over the last decade 

and a half, but Doerscher said 

it’s an employer with whom he 

can envision retiring. 

He telecommutes to the job, 

which enables him to stay home. 

“I’ve been social distancing 

for the past 14 years,” he joked. 

The USDA, which is based 

in Washington, D.C., is responsible 

for developing and 

executing federal laws related to 

farming, forestry, rural economic 

development, and food. It 

works with farmers, promotes 

trade, assures food safety, and 

features initiatives to end world 

hunger. 

And Doerscher is doing his 

part. His team deals with the 

specifications and grade standards 

for animal commodities 

including red meat, poultry, 

aquatic animals, and shell eggs. 

They are in charge of managing 

food safety issues, microbiological 

testing, and maintaining 

related data, among other things. 

More than 90% of the food 

they control is served through 

the National School Lunch Program 

and is distributed to more 

than 100,000 public and private 

schools. 

In September, Doerscher 

earned a promotion to branch 

chief, and with that came more 

responsibilities. 

“This is a significant promotion 

and a very proud moment 

of his 14-year tenure with 

USDA,” said wife Skye, a veterinarian 

based in Eldridge. 

Darin and all five of his team 

members work from home. 

Working with a view 

Working from home has its 

benefits. Doerscher hopes to 

parlay his work into developing 

a man cave or office in his 

outbuilding. 

For now, though, his office is 

Bedroom No. 5. 

“I can look out the window 

and see the property,” he said. 

Working from home, though, 

does come with its distractions. 

Doerscher keeps a rigid schedule 

of 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a 

half-hour lunch break. 

“It’s hard sometimes, there 

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can be other things you’d 

rather be doing,” he said. “You 

need to use time as a reward 

instead of a distraction.” 

The job is always different, 

a value Doerscher holds dear. 

The coronavirus pandemic 

has put a wrench in some of 

the duties he and his team 

complete, too. 

“You might be trying to 

get a specific commodity to 

a remote location, and there 

are issues with the pandemic, 

and maybe territories aren’t 

allowing commercial flights 

to deliver the food,” he said. 

“There’s some political navigating 

to do, but you also need 

to be cognizant that the quality 

is never sacrificed.” 

‘Clean, honest work’ 

The Doerscher family has 

a small farm that includes a 

handful of cows and broiler 

meat chickens. 

gate to plate 

The driving force behind 

most of it, Doerscher said, 

is son Benjamin, who helps 

around the property. 

The agricultural lifestyle 

isn’t one to take for granted, 

he says. 

He spoke at a TED talk in 

Goose Lake in 2017 called 

“Building a Better Burger” 

and shared his insights. That 

video is on YouTube. 

Doerscher promotes the 

work being done by civil service 

workers like himself. 

“It’s hard work, but it’s 

good, clean, honest work,” he 

said. “I support ag through my 

job, and my wife supports it 

through her job, and we also 

do it through the limited farming 

activities (at home). I want 

to make sure my kid knows 

food comes from somewhere 

beyond Walmart,” Doerscher 

said. n 

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6 onions, chopped 

12 pounds (about 40) fresh 

tomatoes, peeled and chopped 

4 green bell peppers, chopped 

4-6 Jalapeños chopped 

1 bag of the small sweet peppers 

from grocery store, chopped 

1 bunch of cilantro chopped 

4 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste 

1 cup white vinegar 

¼ cup garlic powder 

3 tablespoons salt 

1½ tablespoon cayenne pepper 

2 tablespoons ground cumin 

¼ cup brown sugar 

½ cup white sugar 

16 pint canning jars w/lids, rings 

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woolly endeavor 

woolly 

A 

endeavor 

Bernard farmer started raising sheep as a high school 

student in FFA; 20 years later he’s expanded the flock 

BY kellie gregorich 


Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield 

Rob Goedken raises 70 ewes at his rural Bernard farm. While his interest began when he showed 

sheep for FFA in high school some 25 years ago, he is among producers who use sheep to 

diversify their operations. 

Rob Goedken became interested 

in showing sheep 

when he joined FFA as a 

freshman at Cascade High 

School in 1996. 

His family’s Bernard-area farm had 

some extra barn space and grass, so 

he bought 12 ewes. After he was done 

showing the animals, the Goedkens 

decided to keep the sheep because they 

were so helpful in grazing around the 

white barns situated along a gravel 

road in southern Dubuque County. Two 

decades later, the flock has increased 

almost six-fold. 

“I enjoy it. It’s something I’m proud 

of,” said Goedken, 38, who now raises 

70 ewes, which is a large number for 

the state of Iowa. 

“Iowa is mostly comprised of smaller 

farm flocks, around 35 head,” said 

Ben Drescher, animal science farms 

director at Iowa State University. 

Most Iowa producers use sheep as a 

lower-investment enterprise that allows 

them to diversify their farm operations, 

Drescher said. Sheep flocks make a 

great business for young farmers with 

ample labor and limited facilities and 



“Every year I come 

across a situation 

that I’ve never 

seen or dealt with 

before.” 

— Rob Goedken 

capital. 

Goedken raises Hampshire-Suffolk cross, 

a sheep that is white with some black areas, 

mostly around their legs and face. 

“We want the structure from the Hampshire, 

which are more heavy-boned and wooly. But, 

we want more muscle and better docility, which 

is what we get from the Suffolk,” Goedken 

said. 

Goedken raises sheep for stock showing and 

not the traditional end use of meat or wool. 

He noted that wool has very little value, often 

not covering the fee for the shearer. His family 

also raises cattle, which he said are less labor 

intensive than sheep. 

As the snow and a cold snap descended upon 

Iowa in January and February, Goedken was in 

the midst of lambing. Sheep breed best August 

through September, meaning some cold winter 

delivery days after a 145-day gestation. 

Adding to the excitement is the fact that most 

ewes will have twins, and there are always a 

few that have triplets or just one baby. 

Before lambing starts, Goedken follows a 

schedule to make sure his ewes are prepared 

and that he’s ready for the upcoming births. 

One month out from the expected deliveries, 

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he starts feeding the ewes grain and 

high-quality hay, similar to what dairy 

farmers feed their cows. 

“If you don’t feed them (ewes) the 

high-quality hay, they’ll just waste it. 

They’re very finicky when it comes to 

their food,” Goedken said. 

Two weeks before, Goedken gives 

them a CD-T vaccine, which protects 

against clostridium perfringens, otherwise 

known as over-eating disease. 

Things get a little more intense a 

week before lambing begins. Since 

lambs can’t be born outside in the 

cold and farmers have to be ready for 

some lambs to arrive early, Goedken 

starts putting ewes in a heated barn 

that is bedded in wheat straw, a forage 

that sheep won’t eat. The ones that 

are closer to lambing are placed in 

individual pens, and the ones that will 

lamb later are left in a group pen. 

Goedken may have some ewes 

lamb at this time or they may wait 

until their actual due date. Either way, 

he’s prepared. There are cameras 

located in his barn so he can regularly 

check on the ewes every three to four 

hours, including overnight. 

Consistent monitoring is important 

because Goedken helps the ewe in 

50% of the deliveries. There aren’t 

special devices, like chains and pulleys 

for cattle, to deliver the lambs. 

He uses his hands and years of experience 

to bring the lambs into the world 

alive and healthy. 

Sometimes the lambs can get intertwined 

in the womb or both are trying 

to come out at once. 

“Every year I come across a situation 

that I’ve never seen or dealt with 

before,” he said. 

Once the lambs have made their 

entrance into the world he makes 

sure their mothers accept them and 

that they are able to nurse. If he has 

to help deliver the lambs he has to be 

careful to not handle them too much 

because creating too many different 

smells on a lamb will cause the ewe 

to not claim it. If the lambs haven’t 

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nursed, Goedken puts the ewe in a headgate 

and will assist the lamb in getting 

started on its mother’s udder and becoming 

more confident in how to nurse. 

When lambs are born they weigh an 

average of seven pounds, similar to the 

size of a human baby. 

As he continues to lamb, he has to 

keep track of the ones born five to seven 

days prior. When the lambs are about a 

week old, Goedken gives them a series 

of shots, including Penicillin, BO-SE and 

CD-T. They also are castrated and have 

their tails banded, the latter step being an 

important part of hygiene for lambs. If 

their tails aren’t banded it brings a large 

risk of the animals getting certain diseases 

and infections. 

After 60 days, the lambs are weaned. 

They are given another CD-T shot and 

are sheared for the first time. The lambs 

that Goedken decides not to keep for 

showing are sold as feeders. 

The next big job aside from daily care 

is in October, when all the ewes and 

bucks are sheared. 

“We shear the ewes and bucks in 


October, after it cools off, to get bugs 

and other dirty things off the animals. 

This also makes it easier, when the ewes 

are lambing in January, for the lambs 

to nurse. Plus, since they’re in a heated 

barn, they don’t need the extra cover to 

stay as warm,” Goedken said. n 

Sheep Facts 

Iowa is known for having more 

sheep producers than any other state, 

second to Texas, according to Iowa 

State University’s sheep extension. 

It also has the highest lamb-to-ewe 

ratio, 1.67 lambs per ewe compared 

to the national average of 1.11. 

The latest U.S. Department of 

Agriculture Census released last year 

lumps sheep, goats, wool, mohair and 

milk together, showing that category 

generates more than $61.7 million in 

sales in Iowa, the 4th highest in the 

country. Cedar and Dubuque counties 

rank 21 and 38 in sales among Iowa’s 

99 counties, with Clinton at 60, Jackson 

at 64 and Jones at 74. 

The top 10 counties for sheep in 

Iowa are mostly in the northwest part 

of the state, with some in the east/ 

southeast area due to the proximity of 

the regional terminal auction barn in 

Kalona. 

Iowa has around 151,000 head of 

sheep in the state and ranks 9th in 

sheep production in the United States. 

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Bulletins offered good, 

free advice from Uncle 

Sam’s Department of Ag 

By lowell carlson 


Ihave a heavy cardboard box filled 

to the top with virtually every bit 

of information needed to run a 

family farm in the last century. 

Some of these pamphlets date back 

to the post World War I era and following 

the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

They were free for the asking when 

I started sending off for them through 

the mail as a grade school student in 

the fifties. For the cost of a post card or 

first-class stamp your congressman or the 

Secretary of Agriculture was happy to 

mail up to 10 copies of titles on everything 

from raising turkeys to branding 

cattle to nut-tree propagation. 

I even scored on some perennial grass 

seed samples to try on a neighbor’s sandy 

ground that didn’t even grow decent 

weeds. It was a qualified success. 

These U.S. Department of Agriculture 

Farmers’ Bulletins distilled information 

on how best to lay out a field 

for moldboard plowing, how to repair 

horse-drawn mowers, even instructions 

on how to set the cutter and raker teeth 

on a two-man crosscut saw. There was 

practical advice on how to establish an 

apple orchard and instructions on making 

cheese at home. 

No subject was too obscure, too 

seemingly insignificant for this voluminous 

series. In all, perhaps 2,000 titles 

were published in almost a century of the 

series. 

Farmers’ Bulletins became the general 

public’s main information transmission 

resource for research coming out of the 

USDA’s experiment stations and research 

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ulletins 

facilities around the country. 

The fact that agriculture is 

at the intersection of science 

and hard work also focused 

interest on the USDA’s efforts 

to improve yields, animal 

performance and standard of 

living for rural citizens. 

I found these slim, 6x9- 

inch, rather drab publications 

to be a window that sparked 

yet more interest, kindling 

an appreciation for agriculture 

that prompted me to 

take courses at Iowa State 

University in farm operation 

and, later, six correspondence 

courses in ag subjects from 

Pennsylvania State University. 

Their format was almost set 

in stone. The cover image was 

to the point with the number 

of the bulletin a fixture on 

each new title issued. The au- 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Lowell carlson 

For a century the USDA’s Farmers’ Bulletins transferred best-practice information on agriculture and rural living 

to producers on the land, producing more than 2,000 titles on subjects large and small. They were free from 

members of Congress or the Secretary of Agriculture. A penny postcard was sufficient for handwritten requests. 

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ulletins 

thor, and his or her qualifications, along with a 

list of content topics and page numbers preceded 

the actual bulletin on page one. 

These bulletins, and a myriad of other 

specialized publications published by the U.S. 

Government Printing Office, one of the nation’s 

largest publishers, were a periodic target of candidates 

bemoaning the annual expenditure and 

ridiculing the obscure subjects covered. 

Farmers’ Bulletin pamphlets were a snapshot 

in time. The best recommendations based on the 

available information or latest research at experiment 

stations around the country. They were a 

product of best practices and technical research 

translated into laymen’s language. 

Some of these titles became historic milestones 

in the service of educating rural residents, 

immigrants who struggled with their new 

language, constituents who wanted to better 

their condition. 

In 1900 the USDA issued a pamphlet on the 

Farmers Reading Courses initiative. They were 

courses of study in scientific farming methods 

made accessible through textbook curriculum. 

In 1915, the federal department published a 

bulletin on how farmers could improve their 

personal credit by banding together 

in support of a cooperative 

credit association, 

By the time I discovered them in 

the 1950s Farmers’ Bulletins were 

already an institution. The USDA 

issued the first publication in June, 

1889. Farmers’ Bulletins gave your 

congressman something of value to 

hand to constituents, and the publications 

were a way to remember him 

when elections came around every 

24 months. 

The bulletins were all business, 

no-nonsense recommendations on 

agronomy, plant diseases, rural living, 

soil conservation and even sustainable 

agriculture. 

The recommendations and projects 

family farm operators were counseled 

to use reflected a distinct do-it-yourself 

approach to problem solving with 

efficiency always the ultimate goal. 

An example, one of the bulletins 

came with blueprints for building a 

homemade loose hay stacking device 

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ulletins 

The USDA issued the first 

Farmers’ Bulletin in June 1889. 

The pamphlets were the general 

public’s main information 

transmission resource for research 

coming out of the agency’s 

experiment stations and research 

facilities around the country. 

commonly called the “Mormon” stacker 

because it became so common in Utah 

and Idaho. 

In recent years I made several scale 

models of the stackers based on those 

detailed blueprints. 

These USDA publications would go on 

to become something of a bestseller series, 

and they remained free for the asking. 

Those early Farmers Bulletin numbers, 

there were ultimately more than 2,000 

titles, are considered valuable collector 

items these days. 

The more I ordered the more I ordered 

until I was receiving plump brown envelops 

from state and provincial extension service 

addresses as well in Illinois, North Dakota, 

Wyoming, Maine, North Carolina, New 

York, Wisconsin, Saskatchewan, Ontario, 

you name it. 

After chores I sat in my room and learned 

to use the Pearson Square method of livestock 

ration balancing and tried to understand 

what heat units were and why they 

were so critical to agriculture in northern 

Alberta. 

There was eye opening information about 

how efficient domestic animals were when it 

comes to feed conversion. We’d all be smart 

to raise and eat more catfish. They can gain 

a pound in weight from the least feed. Cattle 

are at the extreme opposite of fish in that 

regard. 

Today, we access information on agricultural 

research in ways unimaginable just a 

few years ago, all without holding an actual 

publication in our hands. 

The Farmers’ Bulletin library is still 

accessible to farmers and anyone else with 

a computer. You can browse the endless list 

of titles and content at a website maintained 

by the University of North Texas, Denton, at 

digital.library.unt.edu. The format is logical, 

and you’ll be rewarded with unique titles and 

bygone methods in farming. 

The world’s largest agricultural library, one 

of a number of national archives maintained 

by the federal government, the National 

Agricultural Library is yours to browse 

with your computer. Go to www.nal.usda. 

gov. You can experience the world we once 

lived in here in farm country. n 

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Clinton County farmer Chad 

Petersen was one of many in 

part of Eastern Iowa whose 

crops were damaged by the 

derecho. Petersen, who invested 

in a crop sweeper to help with 

harvest, noted that farmers west 

along U.S. Route 30 saw quite 

a bit more damage than he did. 


Trevis Mayfield

Mother 

Nature 

is having her say 

Eastern Iowa farmers have found themselves 

battling the elements more than ever the past 

few years, and it is changing the way they work. 

Prices even out 

turbulent 

growing season 

Grain export numbers helping raise 

spirits after derecho leaves its mark 

BY nick joos 


It’s as if Mother Nature took a big Sharpie and 

drew a line along the Jackson/Clinton County 

border and split the region in two. 

On the northern side of that line, Jackson 

County producers experienced, in some cases, 

corn yields well over 200 bushel per acre, said 

Joseph Bullock, who owns Bullocks, Inc. in Maquoketa 

with Linda and Joe Bullock. In Clinton County, 

though, that sentiment wasn’t quite so true. 

The Aug. 10 derecho that registered gusts more 

than 100 mph along the U.S. 30 corridor took a corn 

crop that had matured quickly and flattened it. 

David Frett, location manager of River Valley in 

DeWitt and Donahue, said the storm knocked the life 

out of corn that on Aug. 9 looked promising. 

The squall put into motion a harvest flurry as producers 

looked to remove the crop from fields as soon 

as they could to salvage it. However, there was only

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mother nature 

so much they could do. 

“There’s some fields they couldn’t get 

all the corn that was on the ground,” Frett 

said. 

Clinton County farmer Chad Petersen 

estimated that about 20% of his 400 acres 

of corn was flattened by the derecho. 

“We’re going to do as much as we can 

to get the crop in the bin,” he said during 

a break from a challenging harvesting last 

fall. He invested in a crop sweeper after 

he scouted his fields post derecho and 

saw that his corn was only flat in places, 

and the insurance adjuster told him to do 

the best he could. 

“There are times in the past I thought it 

might have been nice to have a sweeper, 

but it wasn’t necessarily an every year 

thing,” said Petersen, 46, who farms 

about 750 acres in the Goose Lake area. 

Had he not had it for last fall’s harvest, 

he would have had to pick corn going in 

just one direction because of the damage, 

wasting time and fuel not to mention 

leaving grain on the ground. 

David 

Frett 

DeWitt, Donahue 

David Frett, location manager 

of River Valley in DeWitt 

and Donahue, said the 

storm knocked the life out of 

corn that on Aug. 9 looked 

promising. While the producers 

who were heavily impacted 

tried to salvage as much as 

possible, it was a challenge 

when the plants were lying flat. 



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mother nature 

“None of this equipment 

is cheap, but what would it 

cost to leave all this corn out 

there?” he said. “I hope I can 

take it off next year, but at 

least I’ll have it on hand.” 

Ups and downs 

The 2020 growing season 

was fraught with variables. 

Farmers began the season 

with pie-in-the-sky ideas of 

record yields. Seeds were in 

the ground — in some cases, 

by the first week of May. 

Virgil Schmitt, who operates 

a farm in Muscatine 

County where he lives and 

works for the Iowa State 

Extension as an agronomist in 

Muscatine County, said 2020 

and 2019 were polar opposites, 

schedule wise. 

“Last year I had my corn 

planted June 7, and this year it 

was April 25,” he said. He said 

producers across the eastern 

side of the state were in the 

same boat. 

However, the early planting 

did not lead to the yields farmers 

were hoping for, Schmitt 

said. 

“This year should have been 

much higher than last year, 

but it didn’t come through in 

yields. That is a scenario I’ve 

heard a lot of people say. It 

was respectable, but it wasn’t 

as good as people anticipated 

given how the crop looked 

Aug. 9. 

“Corn was looking about 

as good as I’ve ever seen corn 

look,” Schmitt said. “People 

were very optimistic at that 

point.” 

Then, the derecho, a weather 

phenomenon that brings 

sustained winds of hurricane 

force to an area 400 miles or 

larger, hit. 

Petersen remembers exactly 

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mother nature 

Joseph 

Bullock 

Maquoketa 

Jackson County producers 

fared better than some of their 

counterparts elsewhere in 

Eastern Iowa after the Aug. 

10 storm swept through with 

hurricane-force winds, said 

Joseph Bullock, who is one of 

the owners Bullocks, Inc., a 

grain dealer with its own fleet 

of trucks located in Maquoketa. 



where he was. 

“I was in the shop working 

and doing repairs, and it was 

getting kinda loud,” he said. 

So, he went to look out a window, 

an experience he doesn’t 

enjoy reliving. 

“I watched the corn go 

down,” he said. 

“All I could think about is 

how much fun we were going 

to have harvesting it,” Petersen 

said. 

“We were looking at a 

record crop in my mind had 

this not happened. We will 

still have a decent crop. I have 

friends out west of here who 

had to plow their corn under. 

Thankful we didn’t have that 

here,” Petersen said. 

Considering the damage the 

storm left in its wake, Schmitt 

said grain quality could have 

been worse. 

“It was worse (the) further 

west you went,” Schmitt said. 

“In Benton County and the 

Cedar Rapids area you could 

stand out in a corn field and 

people could see your ankles. 

It was absolutely flat.” 

In Clinton and Jackson 

counties, while the corn crop 

was laid down in places, it 

didn’t cannibalize itself. That 

happens when the plant’s roots 

are not established enough to 

draw nutrients; instead, the 

plant begins stealing nutrients 

from its stalks to sustain the 

grain. 

“There were a lot of roots 

that got broken off. In the 

fields, (the corn) looked like 

an old oak tree that got leaned 

over.” 

Farmers began harvesting 

early, and finished about 

three weeks ahead of the 

average schedule, according 

to the Iowa Department of 

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That early start 

allowed for a careful, methodical 

harvest, because in some 

cases, corn crop could only be 

harvested in one direction. 

“I was pleased that people 

seemed to be patient and take 

the time and all in all be safe,” 

Schmitt said. “I had not heard 

of any deaths or injuries because 

of people trying to take 

shortcuts with harvest.” 

Mother Nature is a 

real… 

While the derecho left area 

producers wondering what the 

harvest would bring, there was 

a saving grace, Schmitt said 

Rain. 

It came when it was needed, 

and stayed away when it 

wasn’t. 

A dry growing season — 

especially after the Fourth of 

July — took a bit of luster 

mother nature 

off the favorable start. In 

August, the region entered 

into D-0 drought status. The 

U.S. Drought Monitor — run 

by the National Center for 

Environmental Information — 

rates droughts on a scale from 

0-5, with five being the worst. 

Central and western Iowa 

crept into D3 status. 

Even though eastern Iowa’s 

conditions weren’t dire, a 

drought’s a drought, Schmitt 

said. Getting laid down by the 

wind storm didn’t do corn any 

favors with nutrient gathering. 

When it came to water access, 

both beans and corn experienced 

some negative effects, 

especially along river bottoms 

where the soil is sandy. 

“There was some deterioration,” 

Schmitt said. 

That dry weather, though, 

might have been some producers’ 

saving grace — especially 

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Every farm has a story,

mother nature 


Despite having corn planted early, Virgil Schmitt 

was among farmers who did not get the yields 

hoped for before the derecho. Schmitt operates 

a farm in Muscatine County where he lives 

and works for the Iowa State Extension as an 

agronomist in Muscatine County. 

those whose crop was laid down by wind. 

“That was a real concern; when you 

have that corn leaned over and … the 

ears are close to the ground, you have a 

scenario where ear moles can become 

problematic,” Schmitt said. “That’s one of 

the advantages when it turned dry. Moles 

like wet conditions and (August’s) weather 

was not conducive to that.” 

But then, after the derecho was in the 

rear view mirror and dryness had set in, 

rain came at the perfect time, Schmitt said. 

A soaking rainfall in the middle of September 

tied a bow on the growing window. 

“And then it pretty much shut off, 

which took a lot of the pressure off the 

harvest,” Schmitt said. 

What could have been 

After producers got off Mother Nature’s 

roller coaster and pulled their crop from 

the field, they began examining grain 

quality, and a bittersweet reality set in. 

Considering the favorable start to the 

season, producers were left to wonder 

what could have been. 

In general, both beans and corn posted 

better-than-expected yields across eastern 

Iowa, Schmitt said. 

Corn yields still weren’t at the levels 

seen before 2019, Schmitt said. But considering 

the growing season’s optimal first 

handful of months, they could have been 

better — or worse, depending on perspective 

and geographical location. Schmitt 

said his fields were under 200 bushel per 

acre for the second time in a row — and 

the second time ever. 

In Clinton County, Frett estimated the 

dry weather contributed to a loss of 20-30 

bushel per acre. 

“We lost that much,” he said. “And then 

the derecho came and knocked the corn 

down.” 

Jackson County’s yield estimates were 

more favorable, Bullock said. 

“It’s all over the board, but for the most 

part (corn yields are) over 200 (bushel per 

acre),” he said. 

“I would say it’s down slightly (in 

Jackson County) from the last couple 

years, but not down significantly,” Bullock 

said of yields last fall. 

Iowa’s 2020 corn yield was estimated at 

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mother nature 

178 bushels per acre, according 

to the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture’s year-end report. 

That’s down significantly from 

the 198 bushels per acre harvested 

in 2019. Corn for grain 

production in Iowa for 2020 

was 2.30 billion bushels, down 

11% from the previous year. 

For Petersen, who’s been 

working on a farm ever since 

he was a kid, last year’s 

weather was a bit unusual, 

but part of the ups and downs 

of farming. He remembers a 

drought when he was in junior 

high, for example, and a lot of 

things in between. 

Part of the lifestyle is adapting 

to challenges, he noted. 

For him, farming is a family 

affair, with his wife, two 

sons and his dad (technically 

retired) helping out. He also 

operates Petersen’s Ag Repair. 

“I know you go through 

cycles,” he said. “You just get 

through the hard times and 

keep going.” 

Early birds didn’t 

get the worm 

Despite a minor drought, 

120 mph winds, early harvest, 

and yields, there was one more 

variable to add: Markets. 

And vary did they ever. 

Grain prices have skyrocketed 

since August. 

“No one would have 

guessed in July and August 

that markets would have gone 

up as much as they have,” said 

Ryan Drollette, farm management 

specialist with the Iowa 

State Extension Office. 

Drollette keeps a close eye 

on commodity markets, both 

domestic and global, and said 

a lot of puzzle pieces fell into 

place at the right time. 

The United States’ crop 

overproduction in previous 

years, Drollette said, cooled 

demand domestically. However, 

the derecho knocked out 

enough crop that new-crop 

supply diminished, and the 

market evened out. 

International markets, 

though, experienced an uptick 

in demand fed by, among other 

things, unfavorable growing 

weather in Brazil and a movement 

in China to significantly 

bolster its hog population. 

“China had stepped away 

for a while, but now they 

need us more than ever and 

are coming back to the table,” 

Bullock said. “It’s looking 

pretty good.” 

Drollette said this year, 

China already has 400 million 

bushel of corn slotted for export. 

Globally, Drollette said 

the USDA expects 2.5 billion 

bushel of corn to be export 

this year, which is up significantly 

from the 1.7 billion 

bushels from last year. 

The same can be said for 

soybeans. Chinese imports of 

Iowa soybeans have increased 

196% in the last several 

months, Drollette said. He also 

pointed out that the U.S. is 

sending millions of bushels of 

beans to Mexico, the European 

Union, Egypt, Taiwan and 

Indonesia, and that U.S. exports 

of soybeans are expected 

to increase from 3.9 billion 

bushels to 4.5 billion bushels 

this year. 

“For export sales, right now 

we are at 2.1 billion bushel 

of beans that are slotted to be 

exported, compared to last 

year at 1 billion. The level of 

bushels committed to going 

out of the country is tremendous.” 

The bottom line is, well, a 

positive bottom line — at least 

for some. 

Producers who waited to 

price their corn until late in 

the season are reaping the 

benefits of that late boon. 

Drollette said that dynamic is 

not normal. 

Bean futures say prices 

could eclipse $12 per bushel, 

Drollette said. Back in August 

they hovered between $8.70 

and $9. 

“That’s just outstanding,” 

he said. n 

— Nancy Mayfield contributed 

to this report. 

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mother nature 

Rebuild and Restart 

Lee 

Crock 

Mechanicsville 

Lee and Lori Crock 

take a quick break 

while filling wagons 

waiting for semis to 

arrive to take the corn. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer 

photo / Ashley 

Johnson 

After the August derecho decimated 

their Mechanicsville farming 

operation, the Crock family, along 

with some help from friends and 

relatives, hunkered down and worked 

hard to come back from great losses 

BY ashley johnson 


Monday, Aug. 10, began just like 

any other Monday – a typical 

work day for Lee Crock and 

his family as they tended to 

livestock on their nearly 2,000- 

acre diversified farm operation in Mechanicsville, 

nestled in the southwest corner of Jones 

County. 

Chores completed, they dispersed to take care 

of other business. 

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mother nature 

In that phone call 

Leah’s words 

echoed catastrophe, 

disaster, and 

heartbreak as she 

frantically told her 

dad, “You won’t 

recognize the 

place!” 

— Leah Crock 

Lee headed to town to attend 

a few meetings, including 

a stop at the local FS office 

and the bank, while his wife, 

Lori, and oldest son, Luke, 

headed to Mt. Vernon. Their 

three other children – Lindsay, 

Leah, and Logan – stayed 

home. 

Lee was excited about his 

corn crop and felt strongly 

about the potential yields he 

was going to harvest in the 

fall. But, as he sat in his truck 

waiting to go into the bank 

and tell them his good news, 

he noticed the wind picking 

up and a tree going down on a 

truck nearby. 

Within 20 minutes he 

received a phone call from his 

daughter that will be forever 

etched in his mind; one that 

will forever change his life, 

the landscape of their operation, 

and the future of Crock 

Farms. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / ashley Johnson 

Lori Crock adds lumber to the pile of junk collected as they combined 

the field last fall. 

In that phone call Leah’s 

words echoed catastrophe, 

disaster, and heartbreak as she 

frantically told her dad, “You 

won’t recognize the place!” 

After arriving home, a trek 

made challenging by downed 

trees and power lines, Lee 

recalled he immediately 

thought it looked like a “hurricane 

went through.” 

Turns out he wasn’t wrong. 

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mother nature 

In fact, it was an inland 

hurricane called a derecho, 

something nobody in Iowa or 

Jones County had heard of or 

even thought of prior to the 

storm raging through Iowa and 

leaving millions of dollars in 

damage behind. 

In the 45 minutes it took 

the storm to pass, the Crock 

family suffered well over 1 

million dollars in losses as 

the storm ravaged nine grain 

bins, their machine shed, the 

roof to their 1,800-head hog 

confinement, parts of their 

home, eight other buildings 

and one cow, as well as their 

entire corn crop that was now 

flat and littered with trees, tin, 

siding and lumber. 

By this point there was no 

electricity, and their first concern 

was the welfare of their 

pigs. Thankfully, they owned a 

generator and were able to get 

feed and water to the animals 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / ashley Johnson 

Shown is a view of the Crock’s corn as it was being combined. In 

a typical year corn stands tall in perfect rows. But last year it was a 

tangled, flat mess. 

that evening. 

Their second concern 

was the downed trees. They 

worked until 10:30 p.m. 

cutting, piling and burning, 

trying to make light of what 

they were really facing. Their 

home suffered minor damages, 

and they were able to get 

a second generator to run it. 

By Wednesday power was 

restored and lifted a major 

burden for Lee as gas was in 

short supply. 

He recalled federal officials 

showing up Tuesday for a 

Federal Emergency Management 

Agency assessment. 

They asked what he needed, 

and while it sounded a little 

wild at the time, he responded, 

“Power and probably a million 

dollars to fix everything.” 

As he calculated his loses 

over the days to come, he 

realized one million wasn’t far 

off. He lives on his family’s 

farm, passed down over generations, 

and recalled living 

in the home he does now as a 

child with his parents. 

Both Lee’s and Lori’s had 

parents die young, and Lee 

relied on his grandparents 

for advice and guidance as a 

young married farmer. They 

lived just down the road. Lee 

acquired his grandparents’ 

farm when his grandpa retired 

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mother nature 

and moved to town, but Lee recalled he 

was still helping farm on his 90th birthday. 

The Crock family has spent countless 

hours working to salvage and restore their 

farming operation. Covid-19 has created 

a few challenges, but it also presented 

opportunity as the boys were quarantined 

from high school for the month of 

September and helped around the farm 

tending to their 150 head Angus herd, 

hogs and the crops. The girls helped when 

they could; one is a nurse and the other a 

full-time college student. 

The challenges continued as the 

Crocks harvested their corn crop. Their 

bins hadn’t been replaced – there was a 

severe lack of labor available to install 

them – forcing them to contract corn and 

sell a majority of their crop to neighbors 

because they don’t have storage available 

like years past. 

All 1,800 acres of their corn and 

soybean crop and 700 acres of custom 

farmed corn and soybeans were affected, 

forcing them to combine with a reel to 

help salvage as much corn as possible 

from the downed plants. 

Lee also was forced to combine east to 

west, a very time-consuming job, that was 

frequently interrupted for scrap removal. 

The harvest crew this year consisted 

of Lee in the combine, Lori in the grain 

cart, their hired man, Jacob Kirkpatrick, 

and a neighbor in the skid loader pulling 

out scraps of bin, hog confinement roof 

and lumber trying to keep the combine 

moving. 

With a few days left, Lee noted it was 

an exceptionally difficult harvest on the 

combine as he replaced eight snoots, 

two roller cones, one feeder house chain, 

and 12 gathering chains and dislodged 

the cross auger, all due to unseen debris 

in the field and simply having to run the 

corn head so low trying to get as much 

of the downed corn as possible. While 

the soybeans averaged 50 bushel an acre 

yield, the corn suffered significantly. On 

average in a typical year corn will be 

around 200 bushels to the acre. This year, 

Crock averaged 93 bushels to the acre 

creating yet another financial downfall. 

Another challenge that loomed for the 

Crocks was what to do with their cows. 

In a normal year, he would combine corn, 

bales and cornstalks for bedding, and then 

turn cows out in the cornfield to forage 

what’s left behind. 

Last fall, he decided not to bale in 

fields where cows would graze as a means 

to prevent bloat, overeating, foundering 

and, most importantly, dystocia during 

calving next spring as cows will be in better 

shape putting more weight on calves 

at birth. 

After no right or wrong answer or 

solution presented itself, he decided to 

bring the cows home and feed them corn 

silage, get them good and full for a week 

or two and then turn them out in hopes of 

preventing overeating and bloat, which 

could potentially end in the loss of cows. 

“I’m concerned about it, but I’m going 

to risk it,” Lee said as dry lotting them 

simply isn’t an option. 

In the days and weeks after the storm 

Lee focused on the positive, especially 

those family members and friends who 

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mother nature 

came from near and far, including Ohio, 

Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois and 

across the state of Iowa and lent a helping 

hand. 

He had 13 of his relatives show up and 

work for three days piling and cleaning up. 

A few weeks later more family arrived and 

worked, and then 15 more showed up and 

made lists and crossed things off, and slowly 

home began to look like home again. 

“My parents and grandparents shared 

this farm with all of our family through 

family gatherings and it wasn’t just us that 

lost our farm, all our family lost something 

in this,” he said. 

While the landscape of what was will 

probably never be again, it will be home 

thanks to the help of so many. Lee somberly 

implied how overwhelming and heartbreaking 

this storm truly was. 

“I don’t really cry, but it was heartbreaking 

no doubt and many of us did shed some 

tears,” he said. “When you think of what 

your dad and grandpa did and built and 

it’s all gone in 45 minutes. And then you 

are left to think about how to rebuild and 

where to start.” n 

‘Locking in’ 

Bellevue Dam collects data for National Weather 

Service, tracking air and water temps, rainfall 



It’s 41 degrees Fahrenheit with a 

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The steely-grey water is about 41 

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headed south. 

At the lock, a National Weather 

Service unit keeps constant track of 

conditions such as air and water temperatures 

and rainfall. 

“This unit has a satellite transmitter 

and receiver, which is how they make 

observations in real time,” explained 

lockmaster John Mueller. 

On the same unit, an anemometer 

– a glorified weather vane – measures 

wind speed, direction and gusts. A 

weight-balanced float measures water 

elevation. Called the “river stage,” 

this number varies at different stations 

along the river, based on sea level. 

For Mueller and his coworkers at the 

lock, river stage is the measurement 

they watch most closely, because it has 

a direct impact on their job. If the water’s 

high enough, it has a direct impact 

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mother nature 

John 

Mueller 

John Mueller, 

lockmaster at 

Bellevue’s Lock and 

Dam No. 12, points 

to equipment he and 

other employees 

there use to keep 

track of conditions 

for the National 

Weather Service. 



Brooke Taylor 

Bellevue 

If the water’s “over the pan,” the 

lock won’t operate, effectively shutting 

down barge traffic, including shipments 

of grain. Sixty percent of U.S. soybean 

exports, and just a hair less of corn 

exports, go down the Mississippi River 

by barge. 

Equally crucial to grain growers, 

spring flooding can stall time-sensitive 

fertilizer shipments, threatening the 

year’s yields. In 2019, flooding and bad 

weather slashed profits for ag giants 

like Archer Daniels Midland Co. and 

DowDuPont, as well as smaller fertilizer 

companies and some producers. 

The lock at Bellevue was shut down 

three times in 2019, following shutdowns 

in both 2017 and 2018. Following 

the wettest 60 months on record, 

2020 looked like more of the same. 

“This spring, we had a 95 percent 

chance of a record flood,” Mueller said. 

“February came, and it was the perfect 

conditions for the snow to melt slowly, 

and we didn’t have a closure.” 

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mother nature 

Water levels at Lock and Dam No. 12 and other sites 

along the Mississippi River are important to farmers. 

If they are too high, the lock won’t operate, effectively shutting 

down barge traffic, including shipments of grain. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Brooke Taylor 

Hillary 

Burken 

Clinton 

As of late 2020, “the river 

is finally closer to historic 

normal levels,” Mueller said. 

It’s unclear if 2021 will bring 

more “historic normal” levels, 

or if flooding will continue to 

become the “new normal.” 

Lock and Dam 12 also 

maintains the official local 

rain gauge for the National 

Weather Service. If there’s 

a local record rainfall, the 

reading is made there. Just to 

be on the safe side, workers 

double-check precipitation 

measurements with a manual 

gauge. 

“We make sure they 

match,” Mueller said. 

Lock assistants take manual 

readings at 6 a.m. every morning 

for yet another database, 

using the equipment of the 

Army Corps of Engineers, 

which operates the lock and 

dam. n 

Hillary Burken and her 

family helped care for 

dairy cows from a Cedar 

Rapids farm that were 

displaced by the derecho. 

The Burken’s Blue Hyll 

Dairy just outside of 

Clinton welcomed about 

50 head just hours after 

the storm. 




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mother nature 

‘We are always 

here to help 

one another’ 

When the derecho displaced cows at 

a Cedar Rapids-area dairy, the Burken 

family welcomed 50 of them, helping 

a farmer navigate the impact of a storm 

BY jenna stevens 


On the night of 

the derecho, 

the Burken family 

received a call 

from a fellow 

dairyman in the Cedar Rapids 

area. 

Ron Franck had lost both 

his milking parlor and his 

heifer barn, and he was looking 

for somewhere to go with 

250 head of Holstein cows. 

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mother nature 

“I talked about how 

we are a family, and 

we do hold each 

other up. We are 

all together as one 

dairy farm.” 

— Hillary burken 

He knew the Burkens operated Blue Hyll 

Dairy, just outside the city limits of Clinton. 

Taking on 250 head of cows is no small 

matter. Blue Hyll owner Marty Burken told 

Franck his dairy simply did not have the space 

to house all the cows, but they could probably 

accommodate 50 head. The conversation 

wrapped up with Franck telling Burken he 

appreciated it and would see what he needed 

moving forward. 

At 2 a.m. the phone rang again. This time it 

was a pair of semi drivers wondering where 

they could drop off the cows. 

“We were confused,” said Hillary Burken, 

Marty’s daughter who is a junior at Clinton 

High School and also is the Clinton County 

Dairy Princess. “We didn’t realize they had 

planned to bring the cows to the farm that 

night.” 

Burken, who has been involved in the 

dairy’s operation her whole life, said while 

this was not the first time the farm has fostered 

cows, it is the largest number of fosters she 

remembers. 

The Burkens were among many farmers in 

Iowa who answered the call to house animals 

displaced by the Aug. 10 storm that damaged 

or destroyed more than 8,300 buildings in 

Iowa, including livestock barns, and sent calf 

huts and other structures hurling through the 

air. 

The first thing the Burkens did was get the 

newly arrived cows into the parlor to get them 

milked. After taking care of their immediate 

needs, Burken and her father worked until daylight 

moving their own cows around to create 

pens to house the new animals. 

These new cows could not be mixed in with 

Burken’s own herd at first because it posed a 

biosecurity risk, so they were separated out 

and underwent a veterinary check the very 

next day. The next morning also brought a 

call to the farm’s nutritionist at Agri-King in 

Fulton. 

“We couldn’t just start feeding the cows our 

feed ration,” Burken said. “When you switch 

feed on an animal it can cause them to get 

sick.” 

In the case of dairy cows, the added stress of 

new feed on top of a new environment could 

also cause a drop in milk production. 

“Eventually the farmer from Cedar Rapids 

We added a new member to our crew. 

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mother nature 

called and explained his ration, and we 

were able to get our nutritionist to make a 

blend that would slowly transition the cows 

over,” she said. 

Another hurdle Blue Hyll had to overcome 

was testing the lactating cows to 

make sure they did not have mastitis. 

Mastitis is an infection in the cow’s udder 

that, if left untreated, can render the milk 

undrinkable. To test for this, Burken took 

milk samples from each cow and mixed 

them with a regent, a developer that creates 

a chemical reaction. 

“A couple of the cows did have mastitis,” 

she said. “And they had to spend time in 

the hospital pen to get treated before they 

could go back into the general population.” 

After a few weeks, all the issues were 

resolved, and the cows adjusted to their 

new surroundings. 

As of the end of January, Blue Hyll was 

still fostering Franck’s cows. His other 200 

animals were spread out among different 

dairy farms in the area, Burken said. 

The plan was for all 250 of Franck’s 

cows to be moved to a newly built barn 

outside of Ames. Construction is underway, 

and Burken expects Blue Hyll will host the 

visiting cows until the spring. 

In the meantime, Franck’s cows “have 

acclimated pretty well with our herd” 

Burken said, adding that the cows are 

mixed together now. 

She said over the years she has connected 

with other people in the dairy industry 

through conferences and other events, and 

the ties run deep. She recalled attending 

a dairy conference in Colorado when she 

was a freshman in high school. One of the 

speakers noted that while dairy farmers are 

in competition with each other, they also 

are on the same team. 

That point struck her enough that she 

talked about it as a member of a later panel 

discussion. She shared those thoughts with 

the audience. 

“I talked about how we are a family, 

and we do hold each other up. We are all 

together as one dairy farm,” she said. 

That’s been proven true during the last 

six months as many farmers assisted other 

farmers post-derecho. 

“We are always here to help one another,” 

she said. “It’s amazing.” n 

Matt 

McGuire 

Amy and Matt McGuire were 

weeks away from completing 

a new machine shed on their 

farm north of DeWitt when 

the derecho destroyed it. 

The McGuires planned to 

start rebuilding this spring. 

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mother nature 

In the path of destruction 

Just weeks away from 

completion, machine shed 

leveled by derecho in mere 

minutes, wreaking havoc on 

equipment and nearby fields 

BY Beth Lamp 


Matt McGuire started 

building a machine shed 

on his farm just north of 

DeWitt last May, with 

plans for construction to 

be completed before September. 

By early August, the 70-foot by 160-foot 

building’s frame, roof and sides were finished. 

All that was missing was the door. 

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mother nature 

“It is like when a kid 

over-inflates a balloon and 

it bursts. There was a big 

open door and nowhere 

for the air to escape. 

Eventually, it lifted the roof 

off, and the winds took the 

rest of the building.” 

— Matt McGuire 

When a derecho swept through Eastern 

Iowa on Aug. 10 with hurricane-force 

winds, that missing door proved fateful. 

McGuire was at his job as a loan officer 

at First Central State Bank in DeWitt Aug. 

10 when he noticed the weather changing. 

Outside, the clouds darkened, and wind 

speeds climbed to more than 80 mph. 

At home his wife, Amy, looked out the 

window and saw the newly built shed’s 

roof had blown off and landed in their 

bean field. 

Without a door, the wind made its way 

inside the structure but had nowhere to go. 

“It is like when a kid over-inflates a 

balloon and it bursts,” McGuire said. 

“There was a big open door and nowhere 

for the air to escape. Eventually, it lifted 

the roof off, and the winds took the rest of 

the building.” 

McGuire was one of many farmers in 

Iowa who suffered losses as a result of the 

storm that ravaged grain bins, livestock 

barns and machine sheds, leaving heavy 

debris scattered in fields that had yet to be 

harvested. 

Millions of acres of crops in Iowa, mostly 

corn, were damaged by being blown flat. 

In all, the Iowa Department of Agriculture 

and Land Stewardship put damages near 

$4 billion, more than half of the dollar 

amount in damages for all the impacted 

states. 

In Eastern Iowa, Cedar, Clinton and 

Jones counties saw the heaviest damage 

and were designated primary natural 

disaster areas along with 15 other counties. 

While Dubuque and Jackson counties fared 

better, they were among the 24 contiguous 

counties also deemed eligible for disaster 

relief programs. 

Even with all of the destruction, what 

impressed McGuire, who’s been farming 

the family ground since he was a kid, was 

the community support. After the storm 

had passed, people came to lend a helping 

hand. His neighbors helped him unload 

and store beans that had gotten wet and 

were starting to swell. They also worked 

to uncover the now damaged equipment 

that had been buried with the remains of 

the building. That list included a couple of 

semis, three or four tractors, grain augers 

and more, McGuire said. 

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Even with all of the community 

support, he faced many challenges, 

starting with equipment. After the 

storm, he did not know what equipment 

worked or what needed to be 

fixed, and harvest was beginning. 

Tractors and other machinery took 

time to repair. 

“Everyone came together, and everything 

got fixed so it was operational 

for harvest. That was so helpful.” 

he said. Less urgent repairs – such as 

body work on the semis and tractors 

– were left until McGuire had more 

time over the winter. 

After years of housing equipment 

in some other family buildings, as 

well as at neighbors’ property, Mc- 

Guire had looked forward to getting 

everything under one roof for the 

winter. For now, he is making do. 

“We have a couple of pieces sitting 

out this winter. It’s not our first 

choice, but it’s what we have to do,” 

he said. 

The last challenge McGuire faced 

was the cost of the new building. 

mother nature 

After the storm, he called his builder 

and found that the price of building 

materials had increased by 40 

percent as a direct result of not only 

this storm but of the hurricanes and 

wildfires taking place in other parts of 

the country. 

“I was surprised by the huge jump 

in prices since March. In just six 

months I was going to have to pay for 

almost another half of the building 

from what I paid the first time,” he 

said. 

McGuire’s builder recommended 

he hold off a while, predicting that 

the prices would start to come down 

through the winter and into early 

2021. That’s what he decided to do. 

Plans were to begin buying building 

materials in January and February, 

with construction to begin in the 

spring. 

“We are definitely going to rebuild,” 

he said.n 

— Beth Lamp, a senior at Northeast 

High School, is a member of the 

CAC Media Group 

Derecho damage 

➤ The derecho that swept through Iowa Aug. 10 

is officially the most costly thunderstorm ever in 

recorded U.S. history, according to the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

➤ The storm is in the top five of the most 

expensive weather events in the United States 

last year, surpassing the damages caused by 

most hurricanes and tornados, according to a 

report by National Public Radio. 

➤ Only Hurricane Laura, causing $14 billion in 

damage, surpassed it. The derecho has cost 

more than $7.5 million in damages including 

flattened crops and damage or destruction 

to farm structures, homes, businesses and 

vehicles. 

➤ The line of thunderstorms traveled 770 miles 

from South Dakota through Ohio, by way of 

central Iowa, in 14 hours, bringing sustained 

and widespread winds over 100 mph and 

cutting power to half a million people, the 

NOAA said. 

➤ More than 850,000 Iowa crop acres were lost, 

according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

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mother nature 

Gerry 

Farrell 

Delmar 

Retired Delmar 

farmer Gerry Farrell 

follows the weather 

as a hobby these 

days. He says you 

can never outguess 

Mother Nature. 




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mother nature 

Weather Lore 

Listen to the crickets, watch the size of oak leaves, 

and read what the almanacs say about weather 

prediction; then, say a little prayer, settle back 

and enjoy the ride – no matter how hard we try, 

Mother Nature always has the upper hand 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo courtesy 

of Old Farmer’s Almanac / almanac.com 

“The Old Farmer’s Almanac” started 

publishing when George Washington 

was president. It uses a secret method 

for its predictions. 

BY jane schmidt 


While Gerry Farrell 

enjoys reading “The 

Farmer’s Almanac” 

for entertainment, 

the retired Delmar 

farmer said he’s always thought that a 

calendar is the best tool to determine 

when to plant and harvest. 

“This is Iowa, and it is always hot 

and dry in July. We simply farm the 

best we can with what we’ve got,” said 

Farrell, who comes from a long line of 

family members (whose roots were in 

Ireland before immigrating to Eastern 

Iowa) involved in agriculture. 

Farrell – who has his own hobby 

weather station at home where he 

measures rain, humidity, and wind 

velocity – is quite familiar with the 

lore surrounding predictions for everything 

from when it will rain to when a 

drought will hit, but he is sure of one 

thing – you can never outguess the 

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mother nature 

Almanacs use ‘secret formulas’ to predict 

weather for more than two centuries 

Two weather sources that have remained 

a presence in the life of farmers are “The 

Old Farmer’s Almanac” and “The Farmers’ 

Almanac,” both claiming 80% or better 

accuracy for predicting the weather. 

“The Old Farmer’s Almanac” premiered 

in 1792, during George Washington’s first 

term as president, costing 9 cents a copy. 

Robert B. Thomas was the first editor, and 

although there were other publications forecasting 

the weather, the methods used by 

“The Old Farmer’s Almanac” were shrouded 

in secrecy as Thomas gave astronomical 

and weather predictions. 

His publication when compared with 

others was considered to be a little more 

accurate, advice found in its pages was a 

little more useful, and features were a bit 

more entertaining, according to historical 

accounts. That has kept “The Old Farmer’s 

Almanac” in production to this day with its 

formula for predicting the weather locked in 

a black box at headquarters in Dublin, New 

Hampshire, and guarded as a highly secret 

method based on magnetic storms on the 

surface of the sun. 

As founder Robert B. Thomas explained, 

“Our main endeavor is to be useful, but with 

a pleasant degree of humor.” 

“The Farmers’ Almanac” appeared in 

1818, claiming to use mathematical and astronomical 

formulas that were passed down 

and kept secret as well. Its weather prognosticator 

goes by the pseudonym Caleb 

Weatherbee, and this anonymous person 

is the only one who knows the publication’s 

formula for weather prediction. 

Before “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” 

Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning 

rod, a metal rod mounted on a structure, 

intended to protect it from a lightning strike. 

Decades ago, these could be found on every 

building, Bonnie Mitchell of the Jackson 

County Historical Society. A little-known fact 

is that Preston was once the manufacturer 

of lightning rods with glass ball insulators. 

These are currently considered valuable 

collector’s items. 

– Jane Schmidt 

weather. 

Spending the daytime watching 

the weather won’t do anything, but 

“praying at night” was the best insurance 

for a good crop, said Farrell, 

whose family’s original homestead 

is being farmed by his son, Joe, the 

fourth generation. 

While such modern technology 

as radar offers much more accurate 

information to farmers than observing 

how close bees stay to their 

hives or whether the ants are closing 

up their hills (both a predictor of rain 

some say), many tidbits passed down 

through generations and shared 

in various publications are part of 

enduring weather lore. 

Matt Vickers, a DeWitt farmer 

and ag consultant, described a 

legend that one just needs to look 

at a caterpillar’s coat in the fall – if 

black and fuzzy, it warns of an early, 

bad winter. If the caterpillar’s coat 

is light-colored it predicts a mild 


75 Years 

AND STILL GOING STRONG! 

Picutred, seated: Tim Clark, Store Owner 

and Paul Hardison, Store Manager. Standing 

left to right: Dean Clementz, service 

technician; Tristian Spooner, delivery 

and installation; Lisa Omoyefa, sales; 

John Johnson, delivery and installation; 

Courtney Anderson, sales; Brandon Hicks, 

service department manager; and Jeremy 

Lutton, installation and service 

Zirkelbach Home Appliances is celebrating 75 years of supplying the 

Clinton County area with quality home appliance sales and service. 

We have been here doing this since April 1, 1946, when John and Betty 

Zirkelbach started as a small business specializing in refrigeration repair. 

Since 1946, we have expanded to both sales and service and offer 

options for the entire range of kitchen and laundry products. We even offer 

LG HDTV options with professional installation available. 

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As the years come and go, things change. We do our best to change 

along with the demands. We have adapted just like the rest of the world 

has even during this pandemic. We offer curbside pick-up and our service 

and delivery professionals have adapted to wearing masks and sanitizing 

regularly to keep everyone as safe as possible. 

This entire year we will be 

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When you need a 

familar face 

we’re here for you 

Bryan 

Herington 

We are policy-holder owned and managed by 

people who live and work in your community. 

We support your local schools, 

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and we support local charities and 

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Since 1878 we have been insuring 

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To learn more or find one of 

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angela 

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MiKe 

reddersdorF 

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carolyn 

HeatHman 

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563-847-2000

mother nature 

winter. Vickers, who works with farmers all over 

the Midwest, shared that one farmer has always 

said, “By the time the leaves on an oak tree are as 

big as a squirrel’s ear, you should have your corn 

planted.” 

Predicting the temperature is always a guess. No 

thermometer? No problem. When predicting the 

current temperature, one just needs to listen to the 

frequency of a cricket’s chirp, according to author 

Tom Moore, a retired meteorologist from The 

Weather Channel who has heard numerous tales of 

weather lore over more than three decades in the 

field. Being a cold-blooded animal, a cricket won’t 

chirp until the temperature is a least 55 degrees. A 

person can count the number of chirps in 14 seconds 

and then add 40. Do this a couple of times to 

get a good average, and, according to research, this 

calculation is good within one degree about 75% of 

the time. 

Want to know if wet or dry weather is coming? 

Moore shared that one can look for dry weather 

ahead if spiders are spinning their webs. Spiders 

are sensitive to changes in humidity and increased 

humidity causes their webs to break. They are more 

likely to spin their webs when dry conditions exist. 

Windy weather ahead? John Landers, an Illinois 

grain farmer who had local ties, gave the best 

Matt Vickers, 

DeWitt farmer 

description, “It’s windy 

enough to blow a rooster 

into a jug!” He also was one 

who always slept with one 

foot uncovered. When asked 

why he had this habit, he 

explained his big toe could 

predict the weather, and 

his foot reported to him the 

temperature. 

Looking at local history, 

Bonnie Mitchell of the 

Jackson County Historical 

Society, shared information 

on the Tornado of 1896, a 

huge storm traveling 25 miles per hour, passing 

south of Lost Nation and Elwood, grazing Delmar, 

and making its way through Miles and Teeds 

Grove. 

It ranged in width from 50 feet to 400 feet. It 

was reported by many that chickens were running 

around naked as the storm plucked off their 

feathers, and pieces of straw were driven through 

oak posts. Horses were picked up and carried miles 

before being set down in a field where they were 

found grazing. One can only guess how the Derecho 

of 2020 will be described in the future. n 

“By the time 

the leaves on 

an oak tree 

are as big as 

a squirrel’s 

ear, you 

should have 

your corn 

planted.” 

— Matt vickers 

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mother nature 

Navigating through 

catastrophe 

With the help of a generator, pencil and paper, 

Grand Mound company assisted farmers 

with filing $7 million in claims, repairing 

and rebuilding in storm’s aftermath 

BY Nancy Mayfield 


Mark Schmidt had 

taken a vacation day 

on Aug. 10 when 

a derecho swept 

across parts of the 

Midwest. A look at the radar early in 

the day made him uneasy about the 

severity of the storm that might be 

coming, but he hoped it would die 

down before it reached Eastern Iowa. 

Later that afternoon, he watched as 

a tree across the road from his house 

fell, taking out electrical lines. 

“I knew then that it was going to 

be really bad,” said Schmidt, president 

of American Mutual Insurance 

Association in Grand Mound. The 

weather system that traveled 770 

miles between South Dakota and 

Ohio over 14 hours was the costliest 

thunderstorm in U.S. history, 

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mother nature 

Mark 

Schmidt 

Grand Mound 

Mark Schmidt sits in the control room of 

American Mutual Insurance Association 

in Grand Mound where the generator that 

powered the firm’s work after the derecho 

stands at the ready. The generator powered 

the company’s server and phone system as 

it handled hundreds of claims from clients 

after the Aug. 10 storm. On the desk beside 

Schmidt is the paperwork on each claim that 

was taken by hand until employees were able 

to enter them into the computer system. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer photo / Trevis Mayfield 

according to the National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration, causing 

more than $7 billion in damage. Central 

Iowa along Highway 30 was the epicenter, 

bearing the brunt of the impact. 

When the winds subsided, Schmidt 

jumped in his truck and headed to the 

office. An employee called to tell him the 

building was without power so he had 

someone go to a local store to get one of 

the last large generators. 

“When I finally got the power running 

the next morning, it was about 7 a.m. We 

had the server up and the phone systems 

going, and then the phones started ringing. 

All four lines lit up, and it was that way 

for what seemed like days,” Schmidt said. 

The company filed 495 claims – representing 

about 27% of its policy holders 

– from that single storm and paid out 

close to $7.8 million to local farmers and 

homeowners whose grain bins, livestock 

barns, machine sheds, homes and more 

were damaged or destroyed by hurricane-force 

winds. 

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mother nature 

“We got more claims in one day than we’ve 

ever had in one day in the history of the company, 

and that’s 142 years,” Schmidt said of 

the policyholder-owned company with almost 

1,800 clients in 10 Eastern Iowa counties, 

including Cedar, Clinton, Dubuque, Jackson 

and Jones. 

To put the derecho’s impact into context, for 

the entirety of 2016 to 2019 American Mutual 

paid a total of 548 claims that totaled $3.8 

million. 

As calls poured in from frazzled customers, 

Schmidt and his eight employees jumped into 

action with their disaster plan. Everyone, no 

matter what their job, took phone calls, and 

did things the old-fashioned way – filling out a 

paper form with the caller’s name, location, and 

damage sustained and assigning a priority level 

based on that damage. 

“Luckily, we had implemented a plan earlier 

in the year for COVID for people to work 

remotely, so five of the eight employees had 

laptops,” he said. They were able to charge two 

laptops at a time because that’s all the generator 

could handle in addition to the server and the 

phones. 

Most of the firm’s outside agents were impacted 

by the storm as well and were without 

power and couldn’t be reached by clients for 

a time. Those calls came to the Grand Mound 

office too. 

Then it was a matter of entering the claims 

into the system and assigning them to adjusters. 

“We had one full-time claims adjuster in the 

office, and there was no way he could handle 

this many claims,” Schmidt said, adding that 

one adjuster might take months to handle 100 

claims. An agent in the office with 18 years 

past experience as an adjuster was reassigned 

job duties, and third-party adjusters also were 

hired. 

“You can’t staff for a once-in-a-lifetime 

event and that is exactly what we were facing,” 

he said, adding that he and his staff appreciate 

the patience of their customers. 

“There simply was not enough adjusters in 

the United States to handle all the disasters 

going on at the same time,” he said, noting that 

hurricanes in the south and wildfires in the west 

contributed to the stress on the supply-and-demand 

chain across the nation. 

Besides a shortage of adjusters, materials and 

contractors also were scarce as farmers faced 

heading into the colder months with temporary 

“We got more 

claims in one day 

than we’ve ever 

had in one day in 

the history of the 

company, and 

that’s 142 years.” 

— Mark Schmidt 

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mother nature 

repairs to get by until permanent work 

could be done. 

“It was a perfect storm in the middle of 

a pandemic that created a real shortage of 

resources,” Schmidt said, 

“I hope I never see anything like it again 

in my career, but I also know that when it 

happens again, we will be ready. Many of 

our employees were new to the industry in 

the last five years. One employee asked if it 

was always like this after a storm,” he said. 

“Thankfully it’s not, but I also know this 

experience not only shows us what we are 

capable of as a team but what we need to 

do to improve the process the next time.” 

He’s looking in to a whole-building 

generator, and the staff is discussing how 

to streamline processes and handle more 

claims if the need should ever arise. 

Meanwhile, the company continues to 

work with its clients on dealing with the 

aftermath of the derecho, Schmidt said 

“Being able to help people when there 

is loss is why we exist, and we won’t stop 

working until every claim is settled, and we 

get everyone back on their feet,” he said. n 

Marty 

Murrell 

Shown above, this 

weather station transmits 

information to a monitor in 

Marty Murrell’s home. 

Eastern Iowa Farmer 

photos / Trevis Mayfield 

Charlotte 

From his rural Charlotte home, weather observer 

Marty Murrell is one of the volunteers around the 

state who provide information used for forecasts. 

Here he poses on a 7-degree day with an instrument 

that measures precipitation. 

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mother nature 

Weather observation: 

not a spectator sport 

After he moved to a farmhouse atop 

a hill, Charlotte man began to track 

current conditions to help with forecasting 



Farmers have always kept 

one eye on the clouds, but 

nowadays, they’re checking 

the National Weather 

Service website, Weather 

Underground’s app or the radar tracker 

of a local television station, too. 

Grumbling about the meteorologists’ 

mess-up is still a favorite 

pastime. However, weather forecasts 

have gotten a lot better than they used 

to be. 

Five-day weather predictions now 

are as accurate as one-day forecasts 

were in 1980, reports the journal 

Science. Seven-day forecasts are now 

correct about 80% of the time, and 

five-day forecasts have 90% accuracy 

rates, according to the National 

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mother nature 

Keeping an eye on things 

Cooperative Observers: The backbone 

of our nation’s weather data. 

National Weather Service 

observers have stations at approximately 

25-mile increments 

throughout the United States. This 

historic volunteer program involves 

more than 12,000 people. Openings 

are available in an area when 

a participant leaves the program. 

Most observers track high and low 

temperatures and precipitation. 

Equipment is installed and maintained 

by the Weather Service. 

Storm Spotters: Eyes on the 

sky when the weather gets bad. 

The National Weather Service 

Quad Cities office is expected to 

hold Storm Spotter training online 

this spring. Watch local media and 

check with the National Weather 

Service Quad Cities office for 

details. After completing training, 

the National Weather Service may 

call for storm spotters to make 

observations in the case of floods 

or other severe weather. 

CoCoRaHS: How much wet 

stuff? Community Collaborative 

Rain, Hail & Snow Network is a 

network of volunteers around the 

country who report precipitation 

data used by the National Weather, 

meteorologists, agronomists 

and others. Observers buy a standardized 

rain gauge, go through 

a training and report precipitation 

daily, as they’re able. This program 

has the greatest need for additional 

local participants, according to 

Tim Gross of the National Weather 

Service Quad Cities office. 

– Sara Millhouse 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Weather forecasts and warnings depend on 

satellite imagery, in conjunction with real-time 

reports from observers on the ground. If you’re 

inclined to check your rain-gauge as often as you 

brush your teeth, you might want even want to 

get involved. 

Official observations are only part of the big 

weather picture, however. Shading in the details 

are local weather observers in our communities. 

Marty Murrell started reporting weather observations 

after he moved to a windblown 1920s 

farmhouse at the top of a hill by Charlotte. 

“I thought, there’s got to be a lot of pretty cool 

weather up in this place,” he said. “It’s pretty 

desolate.” 

Murrell lives in “Joe Brown’s old place,” as 

those in Charlotte know it. On Weather Underground, 

you can look up “Joe Brown’s station” 

to see current conditions at Murrell’s personal 

weather station. 

Besides Weather Underground, Murrell reports 

precipitation daily for Community Collaborative 

Rain Hail & Snow network (CoCoRaHS), 

a nonprofit that started in Colorado and now has 

thousands of volunteer precipitation observers. 

The National Weather Service and others use 

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mother nature 

“If nothing else, people 

need to be aware of 

the weather for their 

own health and safety. 

The National Weather 

Service doesn’t issue 

warnings just for fun, 

and it’s good for people 

to understand them.” 

— Marty Murrell 

Convenience 

Osterhaus 

Pharmacy 

CoCoRaHS data to forecast floods, hail, 

storms and more. 

Reporting every morning only takes a 

couple minutes, Murrell said. Furthermore, 

as a volunteer, he isn’t obligated to report 

anything. CoCoRaHS encourages reporting 

even when there’s no rainfall, but you can report 

multiday totals when you’re busy. Some 

snowbird observers skip the winter months 

entirely. 

Murrell said it’s easy to play a small part 

in weather reporting. 

“I’m not a weather geek like I read a lot of 

people are,” he said. “It’s just something to 

do and help a good cause, for both the weather 

service and CoCoRaHS.” 

Murrell is also a trained storm spotter 

with the National Weather Service. If you’re 

tempted to chase storms on your own, consider 

putting that adrenaline to good use. 

“For somebody to do that willy-nilly is 

pretty crazy really,” Murrell said. “You need 

to know where to position yourself. Directly 

in line isn’t going to give you a good view. 

On the sides or back side is a better vantage 

point.” 

As a spotter, Murrell has also been called 

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to report on local flooding. 

Though Murrell was stuck at the office 

for August’s derecho, the windstorm was 

a devastating reminder for many to heed 

quickly-changing weather warnings. 

“If nothing else, people need to be aware 

of the weather for their own health and 

safety,” Murrell said. “The National Weather 

Service doesn’t issue warnings just for fun, 

and it’s good for people to understand them.” 

The National Weather Service typically 

holds storm spotter training in the spring. 

Keep an eye on local media for announcements. 

Another way to get involved is by joining 

the Coop program, explains meteorologist 

Tim Gross of the National Weather Service. 

These volunteer “cooperative observers” 

record temperature, precipitation and other 

weather data at approximately 25-mile 

increments across the U.S., using equipment 

installed and maintained by the National 

Weather Service. 

The program dates to 1890 and includes 

families that have been participants since it 

Pictured: Gary Drew using the 

drive through at Osterhaus Pharmacy. 

Meeting him outside is Matt Osterhaus. 

Jessie Johnson, Matt Osterhaus, Connie Connolly, Marilyn Osterhaus, 

Tammy Bullock, Angie Spannagel, and Amy Dunleavy 


mother nature 

way of life. 

Kara Howe, Agent 

Jeff Reed, Agent 

1801 Lincoln Way 

826 S. 4th Street 

Clinton, IA 52732 


Bus: 563-242-3400 

Bus: 563-243-1060 

kara@myclintonagent.com 

jeff@jeffreedinsurance.com 

ard to help you protect your farm, with coverage from State Farm ® 

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Relax, Refresh 

and Recharge 

began. 

“The Cooperative Program 

Here for your 

is one of the most extraordinary 

services ever developed, 

netting the public more per 

way Here of life. for your 

dollar expended than any other 

government service in the 

world,” then-Secretary of Agriculture 

Henry Wallace told 

way of life. 

President Franklin Roosevelt 

in 1933. 

If you’re considering joining 

up as a weather observer, 

the greatest need locally is for 

We’ll work hard to help you protect your farm, with coverage from State Farm ® 

more CoCoRaHS volunteers, 

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We’ll 

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to help you protect your Gross said. There’s a gap in 

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in Jackson County, for 

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re 

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gauges, but their small observations 

can have a big effect. 

y of Here life. for your 

“Your reports of hail or 

heavy rain may trigger the 

NWS to issue severe thunderstorm 

or flash flood warnings,” 

CoCoRaHS explains 

on their website. “In cases of 

extreme localized storms, your 

local report could help save 

lives.” 

Farmers who are already 

keeping a close eye on precipitation 

can use data on their 

farm to help other producers 

around the country effectively 

plan field days, planting, 

harvesting and more. 

“Farmers are very astute 

weather-wise because their 

livelihood depends upon it,” 

said National Weather Service 

meteorologist Brian Pierce. 

“It’s… legalized gambling.” 

Weather observations on 

the ground can improve the 

odds of that gamble for fellow 

farmers. To get involved, go to 

www.cocorahs.org or contact 

Gross at the National Weather 

Service, Quad Cities, office. n 




Bus: 563-242-3400 





1708172.1 Kara Howe, Agent State Farm County Mutual Insurance Jeff Company Reed, Agent of Texas, State Farm Lloyds, Richardson, TX 





Bus: 563-242-3400 

Bus: 563-243-1060 






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A farming future 

is worth the sacrifice 

By JENNA STEVENS 


Coordinator 

Clinton County Farm Bureau 


Future is 

Still on the Farm.” 

If you have a 

DeWitt Central FFA 

“America’s 

member living in 

your house or you have seen them 

around town, this phrase might look 

familiar to you. That is because it is 

the slogan selected to represent the 

FFA chapter on the back of this year’s 

t-shirts. Why? Because of a conversation 

that was had by the officer team at 

their summer retreat. That conversation 

brought up the importance of production 

agriculture and how traditional 

practices will continue to serve us in 

the future. 

Agriculture is many things: it is innovation, 

it is progress, it is technology, 

but most importantly it is farming. 

You see, agriculture no longer must 

mean green tractors or faded blue overalls. 

The term can be used to describe a 

roof-top garden in New York City or an 

urban chicken coop in California. And 

yes, it is all these things; but, the bulk 

of production agriculture still happens 

here in the finishing barn down the road 

or in the combine that I am watching 

cross our field as I type this sitting on 

my porch. 

More than that though, America’s 

future is still on the farm because the 

farm is what makes up the core of agriculture, 

and the people who embrace 

this lifestyle are people whose values 

need to be included in the future. The 

values we find in the farming community 

are values like determination, 

sacrifice, and faith, things that put into 

perspective what is really important. 

If you have ever lived with a farmer 

during January, you know the face of 

determination. It is the soaked coveralls 

and frozen hands as he works to unthaw 

a cattle waterer after an ice storm 

or the sleep that gets sacrificed during 

harvest season because the daylight 

hours were spent changing out broken 

belts. 

These are not the fun parts of farming. 

I do not know of a single farmer 

who considers cleaning up after an ice 

storm a good time, but these are the 

things that make us resilient, and that is 

something our future desperately needs. 

Society makes it easy to quit. Quit 

the team if you don’t like the coach, 

quit your job if you don’t like your 

boss, and yet our farmers who fight 

against weather and markets and breakdowns, 

who have every reason to quit, 

don’t. 

This is why America’s future continues 

to be on the farm. Because farmers 

are people who continue to show up 

and work an honest day. They are also 

the ones teaching the next generation 

how to care for their land and livestock 

and how to take responsibility for 

things beyond themselves. 

Farm kids are a dwindling population, 

and yet the ones still around 

defend this lifestyle fiercely because 

somewhere between morning chores 

and weekends in the tractor seat, they 

see their own futures start to take 

shape. 

While none of us truly know what 

lies ahead, one thing is for certain, 

America still needs producers to grow 

our food and give direction to the next 

generation. The value set of farmers 

will continue to be important for years 

to come and reminds us that tradition is 

its own way forward. 

America’s future IS still on the farm, 

and a farming future is one worth sacrificing 

for. n 


Jake VanderHeiden, a DeWitt Central FFA member, 

climbs a grain bin during harvest at his family’s farm 

outside of Wheatland. The slogan on the back of 

VanderHeiden’s shirt represents the FFA chapter’s 

commitment to spreading a positive message about 

Iowa agriculture and celebrating the farmers in our 

community who work hard to produce our food. 


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Land prices 

Prices moving to the north 

Land values in Eastern Iowa ticked up last year 

BY Nancy Mayfield 


Land prices in Clinton and 

Jackson counties went up 

more than twice as much as 

the state average last year, 

fueled by rising commodity 

prices, low interest rates and a tight 

supply. 

Respondents to Iowa State University’s 

annual survey also identified government 

payments, including COVID-19 assistance, 

as another driver behind the overall 

1.7% increase in values statewide. 

Clinton County’s average farmland 

value rose 3.9% to $7,758 from November 

2019 to November 2020 and 

in Jackson County it increased 4.9% to 

$7,056 during the same period, according 

to the 2020 Iowa 

State University 

Land Value Survey. 

An average acre 

of farmland in the 

state was valued at 

$7,559. 

From their 

vantage point at the 

DeWitt office of 

Peoples Company, a 

national brokerage, 

Doug Yegge and 

Alan McNeil saw a 

marked difference 

in the last quarter of the year. 

Doug Yegge, 

Peoples Company 

“Moving into that fall season and people 

getting a crop out, it seemed like there 

was some optimism and traction in the 

market,” said McNeil, a sales representative 

with the company. “It turned into a 

very aggressive market. A lot of that is the 

fall selling season. Guys get the crop out 

and have a little money in their pockets. 

The commodity prices did tick up, which 

definitely helped. With low interest rates, 

people were willing to take a stab at 

farms. Even moving into the start of the 

year, things have been crazy.” 

Higher quality land especially has been 

affected, said Yegge, who is a broker with 

the company. 

“There’ve just been a number of farms 

that sold in the last few months that had 

been sitting on the market for quite a 

while. It was somewhat of a stagnant 

market for the first part of 2020. It wasn’t 

real slow, but it wasn’t anything like it is 

now,” he said. 


Land prices 

Much of the movement 

has been from people doing 

land transactions to consolidate 

their ground into one 

area if they’ve got it scattered 

around, Yegge said. 

“There’s also people trying 

to improve their ground by 

upgrading. I think there’s a lot 

of that,” he said. 

Lower-quality land tended 

to sit on the market last 

summer. 

“It got some looks, but 

nobody stepped up to the 

plate,” Yegge said. Farms with 

high-quality land, on the other 

hand, sell right away. That 

started changing toward the end 

of the year as lower-quality 

farms started selling too. 

As a result, inventory is way 

down. 

“If you have a farm, now is 

the time to sell,” McNeil said. 

“If you have to buy again, it’s 

usually a tight market but even 

tighter today.” 

Added Yegge, “We have a 

lot of farms we could sell right 

now, but we can’t find replacement 

property for the people. 

It’s not just one or two. It’s a 

bunch of people.” 

The survey showed that the 

majority of farmland sales 

(72%) were to existing farmers, 

of which existing local 

farmers captured 69% of land 

sales. Only 3% of sales were 

to existing relocating farmers, 

while investors represented 

22% of land sales. New farmers 

represented 4% of sales, 

and other purchasers were 2% 

of sales. 

Wendong Zhang, an assistant 

professor in economics 

and extension economist 

at Iowa State, conducts the 

annual land value survey each 

year, based on reports by agri- 

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Land prices 

cultural professionals knowledgeable 

of land market conditions, such as 

appraisers, farm managers, agricultural 

lenders, and actual land sales. 

“The rebound in recent months is 

due to strong government payments, 

interest rate cuts, limited land supply 

and recent commodity price rallies,” 

Zhang said. 

“The land market faced downward 

pressure initially with the onset of the 

COVID-19 pandemic, which lowered 

food demand and resulted in declines 

in livestock and ethanol prices,” 

Zhang said. 

But the negative impact cited by 

respondents – COVID-19, weather 

uncertainty, political unrest and other 

factors – initially had on land value 

has been mitigated by other market 

forces, experts said. 

Prices for corn and soybeans began 

increasing in September and continued 

to rise. 

Respondents expect a slow-butsteady 

improvement in corn and 

soybean cash crop markets, the report 

Alan McNeil, 

Peoples Company 

said. Respondent 

predictions 

for the 

state average 

cash corn prices 

in November 

2021 and November 

2025 

were $3.92 

per bushel 

and $4.24 per 

bushel, respectively. 

For 

soybeans, they 

were $9.97 per 

bushel in November 2021 and $10.59 

per bushel in November 2025. 

“If commodity prices go up, land 

is going to go up,” McNeil said, adding 

it’s a good place to put money. 

“It just feels like land is such a 

safe long-term investment,” McNeil 

said. “You’re never going to see these 

huge valleys and peaks in the market. 

That’s the good thing about land. It 

doesn’t die hard as an asset class.” n 

Iowa 2020 

Land Values 

The Iowa State University Land Value Survey is conducted 

in November by the ISU Center for Agricultural and Rural 

Development (CARD) and the ISU Extension and Outreach. 

Results from the statewide survey are consistent with results 

by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Realtors 

Land Institute, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

The 2020 results, released in December, reflect the change 

in the value of an acre of farmland since 2019. 

The figures represent an average of 

low-, medium-, and high-quality farmland. 

Below are the results from Eastern Iowa counties: 

0.7% Cedar 

County: 

$8,737/acre 

0.9% dubuque 

County: 

$7,678/acre 

3.8% Jones 

County: 

$7,802/acre 

3.9% Clinton 

County: 

$7,758/acre 

4.9% Jackson 

County: 

$7,056/acre 

1.7% state 

average: 

$7,559/acre 

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Ohnward Farm Management: 

Supporting family farms from generation to generation. 

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Executed with detailed reports, personal 

phone calls, and regular visits with clients 

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Including monthly and annual financial 

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By KRIS KOTH 

Clinton County Executive Director 

Cedar County Acting Executive Director 

Farm Service Agency 

kris.koth@usda.gov 


The 2021 ARCPLC sign-up has begun, 

and producers have until March 15 to 

enroll in the 2021 program. Because 

the doors to the FSA office remain 

locked to producers, we encourage 

them to contact their local FSA office to see how 

ARCPLC signup is being handled in their county. 

One thing that is the same in every county is 

that if there have been any changes to your farming 

operation (change in shares, no longer farming 

a farm, or you picked up a new farm) since 

the 2020 crop year, please contact your office. 

Producers are reminded that the 2021 Marketing 

Year runs from Sept. 1, 2021 through Aug. 31, 

2022. The 2021 Program will be paid in October 

of 2022. 

Producers can also use the following web tools: 

n Gardner-farmdoc Payment Calculator, the 

University of Illinois tool that offers farmers 

the ability to run payment estimate modeling 

for their farms and counties for ARC-County 

and PLC. 

n ARC and PLC Decision Tool, the Texas 

A&M tool allows producers to analyze payment 

yield updates and expected payments for 

2021. Producers who have used the tool in the 

past should see their username and much of 

their farm data already available in the system. 

Following is a quick overview of the three 

program options: 

Price Loss Coverage (PLC) PLC program payments 

are issued when the effective price of a covered 

commodity is less than the respective effective 

reference price for that commodity. The effective 

price equals the higher of the national market 

year average price (MYA) or the national average 

loan rate for the covered commodity. The effective 

reference price is the lesser of 115% of the 

reference price or an amount equal to the greater of 

2021 ARCPLC 

sign-up underway 

at local Farm 

Service Agency 

the reference price or 85% of the average of MYA 

prices from the five preceding years, excluding the 

highest and lowest price. The reference Price in 

Corn is $3.70 and $8.40 on Soybeans. Payments 

are triggered when the marketing year price for 

those commodities falls below the reference price. 

County Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC- 

CO) ARC-CO program payments are triggered 

when the actual county crop revenue of a covered 

commodity is less than the ARC-CO guarantee 

for the crop. The actual county revenue and the 

revenue guarantee are based on county level yield 

data for the physical location of the base acres on 

the farm and tract. 

ARC-CO payments are not dependent upon the 

planting of a covered commodity or planting of 

the applicable base crop on the farm. 

The ARC-CO benchmark revenue is the fiveyear 

Olympic average MYA price multiplied 

by the five-year Olympic average county yield. 

Benchmark yields and MYA’s will be calculated 

using the five years preceding the year prior to the 

program year. 

The ARC-CO guarantee is determined by 

multiplying the ARC-CO benchmark revenue by 

86%. The ARC-CO actual crop revenue is determined 

by multiplying the applicable actual county 

yield by the MYA price for the program year. 

County yields for the benchmark and actual 

revenues will be based on the physical location 

and historical irrigated percentage of base acres 

on the farm and tract. If a farm has base acres 

physically located in more than one county or has 

a historical irrigated percentage for the covered 

commodity, the benchmark and actual crop revenues 

will be weighted and summarized based on 

those aspects to the farm level. 

The ARC-CO payment is equal to 85% of the 

base acres of the covered commodity multiplied 

by the difference between the county guarantee 

and the actual county crop revenue for the covered 

commodity. Payment rates may not exceed 

10% of the ARC-CO benchmark revenue. 

Individual Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC- 

IC) ARC-IC program payments are issued when 

the actual individual crop revenue for all covered 

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 


FSA News 

commodities planted on the 

ARC-IC farm is less than the 

ARC-IC guarantee for those 

covered commodities. ARC-IC 

uses producer’s certified yields, 

rather than county level yields. 

ARC-IC payments are dependent 

upon the planting of covered 

commodities on the farm. 

A producer’s ARC-IC farm is 

defined as the sum of the producer’s 

interest in all ARC-IC 

enrolled farms in the state. 

The farm’s ARC-IC guarantee 

equals 86% of the ARC-IC 

farm’s weighted benchmark 

revenue. The ARC-IC benchmark 

revenue is the five-year 

Olympic average revenue, 

which is the MYA price multiplied 

by the individual’s certified 

yield for each year in the 

benchmark period. A benchmark 

revenue is calculated for 

each planted covered commodity 

on the ARC-IC farm in 

the current year, weighed and 

summed across all covered 

commodities on the farm. The 

yields and MYA prices used in 

the benchmark calculation will 

be the five years preceding the 

year prior to the program year. 

The ARC-IC actual crop 

revenue is determined by 

multiplying the MYA price 

by the individual’s certified 

yield, weighted and summed 

across all covered commodities 

planted on the farm in the 

current year. 

The ARC-IC payment is 

equal to 65% of the total base 

acres on the farm, multiplied 

by the difference between 

the calculated individual 

guarantee revenue and the 

actual individual crop revenue 

summed across all covered 

commodities planted on the 

farm. ARC-IC payment rates 

may not exceed 10% of the individual 

weighted benchmark 

revenue. n 

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Deep 

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grow 

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We want to thank you for helping turn our small-town 

idea into a big-time success. We couldn’t do this without 

the consumers and producers who have joined us on 

our journey. We’re excited to share what’s coming next. 

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heatherannmoore@gmail.com

Ag Bytes 

Purina, Truterra partner with 

local IAS office to support 

farmer-led sustainability 

A project to improve farm ground quality in 

the Maquoketa Watershed by working with local 

producers is the aim of a partnership between 

Purina, Truterra and the Andrew office 

of Innovative Ag Services. 

“Purina has always been committed to 

sustainability and how we procure a lot of our 

dog and cat food. 

You have to work 

with the ones who 

make the changes 

you wish to see. 

That’s the farming 

and ranching community,” 

said Jack 

Scott, vice president 

of sustainability and 

responsible sourcing 

for Nestlé Purina 

Under the program, 

which 

launched in the fall 

of 2019, Nestlé Purina 

is supporting 

conservation practices 

on farms near 

the company’s Clinton 

and Davenport 

production facilities. 

Working with Skott 

Gent, an agronomy 

advisor with IAS, 

farmers can use 

the Truterra Insights 

Engine, a computer 

program that 

benchmarks current 

practices and environmental 

impact on 

a field-by-field and 

acre-by-acre basis. 

Jack Scott, 

Vice President of 

Sustainability and 

Responsible Sourcing, 

Nestlé Purina 

Skott Gent, 

Agronomy Advisor, 

Innovative Ag Service 

This information 

helps farmers better 

model both the potential 

environmental 

and economic 

impacts of conservation 

practices, said Matt Kruger, a precision 

conservation specialist with Truterra, which is 

operated by Land O’Lakes, Inc. 

The three entities are identifying farmers to 

enroll into the free program, with more than 

100 already participating. The way it works is 

a crop advisor visits the farm and develops 

a baseline of information, Kruger said. They 

work with farmers to get a handle on their soil 

health, topography, etc. Then they work with 

farmers to find ways to improve the land. 

The move to engage at the local level, with 

the people who are growing the raw materials, 

was motivated by Purina deciding to start 

at the beginning of the supply chain when 

looking at how to meet consumer demand for 

sustainably produced products. It didn’t like 

the idea of pushing edicts onto their suppliers. 

“What we did was flip it. We said let’s not 

try to push things down to our supply chain, 

but let’s begin with the ones who make the 

changes we wish to see. That’s where it begins,” 

Scott said. 

Scott and Kruger both noted that the use of 

technology is continuing to grow. Technology, 

sustainability and community are connected. 

“We’re trying to find ways to help support 

farmers with technology. Of all the tools I’ve 

seen, Truterra’s is one of the best. It’s great 

for farmers and ranchers. It gives them additional 

insights,” Scott said, adding that those 

insights can help farmers make decisions 

about how to improve their soil. 

Kruger said right now they are targeting 

50,000 acres in a 100-mile radius of Davenport 

and Clinton to use the program. 

“We will be backing up how growers are 

operating with data to tell their story, make 

them more profitable and track those changes 

over time,” he said. 

Gent is the local “boots-on-the-ground” 

person for the program, which is open to all 

farmers. They do not have to be a customer 

of IAS. For more information, contact Gent 

at the office at (800) 397-3228 or on his cell 

phone at (563) 590-9232. 

Mark Schroeder retires from 

Clinton County Extension after 

10 years wearing many hats 

After10 years with the Iowa State Extension 

and Outreach in Clinton County, Mark 

Schroeder retired 

in January. During 

his time with the 

Clinton County Extension 

Office, he 

wore many different 

hats, though mainly 

served in a role 

related to community 

and economic 

development outreach. 

“Mark was an 

extremely valuable 

asset to me when I 

started in my position 

back in 2019,” 

said Sam Genson, 

director of Clinton 

Mark Schroeder, 

Clinton County 

Extension Office 

County’s ISU Extension. “He did a lot for the 

office in times of transition, including serving 

as interim county director in the spring 

of 2019. Mark has years of connections that 

greatly benefited the mission of our office and 

has certainly left some big shoes to fill.” 

The extension office will forward cards 

from people who would like to extend their 

best wishes to Schroeder. They can be 

mailed to Iowa State University Extension 

and Outreach/Clinton County, 400 E. 11 th St., 

DeWitt, IA 52742. 

AgArts offering classes, 

podcasts to foster connections 

with creativity and rural areas 

AgArts, a nonprofit that fosters connections 

between art and agriculture, is now offering 

online classes. Topics include such things as 

botanical drawing, designing a food forest, 

writing poetry, making natural dyes, and producing 

a short video. For more information, 

visit agarts.org/events/ 

The group is also doing podcasts – “AgArts 

from Horse and Buggy Land” – hosted by 

Mary Swander, a 

former Iowa poet 

laureate who lives 

in Kalona. In the 

program, Swander, 

a founder of AgArts, 

explores life among 

the Amish and the 

arts and agriculture 

in the wider rural 

community. People 

can listen in at 

agarts.org/podcast/ 

The organization 

continues to do 

Farm-to-Artist residencies, 

Swander AgArts Founder 

Mary Swander, 

said. AgArts is looking for farmers who would 

be willing to open their homes to an artist for 

a week or two during the year. It’s an immersion 

experience that allows writers, painters, 

sculptors, musicians etc. the chance to dig 

deep into agriculture and learn about a rural 

way of life. 

“The artist gets to know the farmer and the 

issues, and then creates art based on their 

experience,” Swander said. Often performances 

and workshops at other Iowa locations 

are part of the program. 

Any local farmers who would be interested 

in hosting an artist can contact Swander. For 

more information visit her website at maryswander.com 

and click on “Contact Mary.” 

For more information on AgArts visit agarts. 

org. 


Ag Bytes 

Meteorologist documents 

derecho’s impact, science 

behind the storm in new book 

Former Quad Cities 

meteorologist 

Terry Swails and 

journalist Carolyn 

Wettstone wrote a 

book about the Aug. 

10 storm that devastated 

parts of Iowa. 

The book, “Derecho 

911: Iowa’s Inland 

Hurricane,” can be 

ordered at derechobook.com. 

On his website, 

Swails gives a preview 

of the book’s 

Terry Swails, 

Meteorologist 

scope: According 

to National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration, the Aug. 10, 

2020 derecho is the costliest severe thunderstorm 

in U.S. history. A derecho is a large, 

fast-moving complex of thunderstorms with 

powerful straight-line winds that cause widespread 

destruction. This book chronicles the 

historic derecho which utterly devastated a 

large portion of Iowa. The book investigates 

in-depth the meteorological conditions that 

caused the storm. It looks at other derechos 

in Iowa’s past and shows how they compare 

to the 2020 disaster. The book also describes 

what victims lived through, exploring the human 

side of how the storm impacted the people 

of Iowa – the agriculture, the power grid, 

the tree canopy, and many other compelling 

issues related to the disaster. Readers will 

come away understanding the meteorology, 

the impact, and the importance of the event. 

Rueter awarded American 

FFA degree, recognizing 

her work, achievements 

Allison Rueter, a member of the DeWitt 

Central FFA, was awarded the American 

FFA Degree at the 93rd National FFA Convention 

& Expo last fall. Sponsored by Case 

IH, Elanco Animal Health and Syngenta, the 

award recognizes demonstrated ability and 

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We do everything from pattern tiling to tile repair and so much more! 

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Brandenburg 

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Brandenburg. 

Agriculture DrAin 

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Ag Bytes 

outstanding 

achievements in agricultural 

business, 

production, processing 

or service 

programs. To be eligible, 

FFA members 

must have earned 

and productively 

invested $10,000 

through a supervised 

agricultural 

experience in which 

they own their own 

business or hold a 

professional position 

as an employee, 

in addition to 

other requirements. 

Allison Rueter, 

Central DeWitt graduate 

will earn ag studies 

degree from ISU this 

spring. 

Rueter worked at Rueters Rabbits, taking 

care of rabbits, feeding and training them to 

show. She had an agronomy sales internship 

with River Valley Cooperative, worked at Susie’s 

Studio, painting, assembling and selling 

tin can garden flowers, and worked at Smicker 

Hamps and Downs, feeding, watering, 

washing and training sheep to exhibit. 

Heinrich elected to another 

term as VP of Iowa Farm 

Bureau Federation 

Joe Heinrich of 


was re-elected in 

December for a twoyear 

term as Iowa 

Farm Bureau Federation 

(IFBF) vice 

president during the 

organization’s annual 

meeting. Heinrich 

has served as IFBF 

vice president since 

2011. Heinrich, a 


farmer, farms with 

his family, including 

his wife Shelley 

and other family 

Joe Heinrich, 

Iowa Farm Bureau 

Federation VP 

members. They have a 

diversified farming operation including corn, 

soybeans, oats and hay. They also have a 

beef cow-calf herd and a dairy operation. 

Heinrich was first elected to the IFBF board 

in 2004, representing District 6, prior to his 

service as vice president. Before his election 

to the state board, Heinrich served as Jackson 

County president, vice president, voting 

delegate, young farmer chair, and served on 

the state internal study committee. 

Unwind and enjoy 

an off-farm experience 

with other farm couples 

In response to high levels of both personal 

and financial farm stress, Iowa State University 

Extension and Outreach is offering three 

“Farm Couple Getaways” aimed at farmers 

wanting to take advantage of activities to improve 

farm family communication, work on 

farm or family goal setting or farm transitioning, 

or who would just like a weekend away to 

discuss farm and family issues. 

The first getaway will be held Friday and 

Saturday, March 26 and 27, at Best Western 

Plus in Dubuque. The dates and locations for 

It starts here! 

When it 

comes to 

your fields, 

our Custom 

Applicator 

team has you 

covered. 

Preston 

563-689-3622 

Maquoketa 

563-652-5332 

Meet the team! Top Row: Austin McLaughlin, Tanner Eberhart 

(Public Relations), Brady Eberhart and Jared Hoffman. 

Bottom Row: Devan Stoll, Joe Sparks, Kyle Hoffman and Jake Gerlach. 


Ag Bytes 

the other getaways are: 

Friday and Saturday, April 9-10, at Lake 

Shore Center at Okoboji in Milford. 

Friday and Saturday, April 16-17, at Hotel 

Winneshiek in Decorah. 

The getaways run from 12:30 p.m. on the 

first day to 3:15 p.m. on the second day. 

There is no cost to attend, as food, lodging 

and other expenses are being paid for by 

sponsorships. However, there is a $50 per 

couple deposit to hold each reservation, refundable 

on the second day of the event. 

“Past Farm Couple Getaways have proven 

to be beneficial to farm couples. They are 

a productive and delightful time to discuss 

items of importance to help farms and families 

be successful,” said Larry Tranel, dairy 

specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. 

Each getaway will consist of 10 farm couples 

and the extension facilitators. Registration 

will be on a first-come, first-served basis, 

due two weeks prior to each session. Registration 

brochures for the various sites can 

be obtained from select ISU Extension and 

Outreach county offices, or from dairy specialists. 

Jenn Bentley can be reached at jbentley@ 

iastate.edu or at the Winneshiek County office 

at 563-382-2949; Fred Hall, at fredhall@ 

iastate.edu or the Sioux County office at 

712-737-4230; and Larry Tranel, at tranel@ 

iastate.edu or the Dubuque County office at 

563-583-6496. 

The Farm Couple Getaways statewide gold 

sponsor is the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, 

with other local sponsors recognized at each 

local event. More information is available in 

the event brochure for Eastern or Western 

Iowa at extension.iastate.edu/dairyteam/ 

farm-couple-getaways. 

USDA extends general 

signup for Conservation 

Reserve Program 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is extending 

the Conservation Reserve Program 

(CRP) General Signup period, which had previously 

been announced as ending on Feb. 12. 

USDA will continue to accept offers as it takes 

this opportunity for the incoming Administration 

to evaluate ways to increase enrollment. 

Under the previous 

Administration, incentives 

and rental payment 

rates were reduced resulting 

in an enrollment 

shortfall of over four million 

acres. The program, administered by US- 

DA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provides 

annual rental payments for 10 to 15 years for 

land devoted to conservation purposes, as 

well as other types of payments. 

Before the General CRP signup period 

ends, producers will have the opportunity to 

adjust or resubmit their offers to take advantage 

of planned improvements to the program. 

As one of the largest private-lands conservation 

programs in the United States, CRP provides 

both economic and conservation benefits 

by taking land out of agricultural production. 

This signup for CRP gives producers an 

opportunity to enroll land for the first time or 

re-enroll land under existing contracts that 

will be expiring Sept. 30. All interested producers, 

including those on Indian reservations 

and with trust lands, are encouraged to 

contact their local USDA Service Center for 

more information. 

STRUTTING OUR STUFF FOR 54 YEARS 

WE RAISE OUR OWN FLOCKS OF BIRDS TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET THE BEST OF ALL BIRDS 

Pictured: Owner Etta 

Culver and Marie Forret 

in the Schlecht Hatchery’s 

incubating and hatching 

room. 

Chickens 

Ducks 

Eggs 

Turkeys 

Geese 

Schlecht Farm & Hatchery 

PH. 563-682-7865 

9749 500TH AVENUE 

MILES, IOWA 52064 

Hatchery Hours : 

Monday - Friday 7:30-4:30 

Saturday - By appointment only 

Closed Sundays 

schlechthatchery.com 

2017 

Award Recipient 

Farmer of 

the Year 

IN 

JACKSON COUNTY 


Delaneys Auto & Ag Center & Repair is specialized 

to help all farmers with their mechanical needs. 

Our inventory is stocked with all your spring planting parts! 

Jason, Ralph, Matt 

and the rest of the 

Delaney’s team 

guarantee the 

job will get 

done right. 

delaneysautoandag@gmail.com 

ENDLESS INVENTORY OF: 

• Hydraulic Hose up to 6,000 PSI & Fittings 

• Nuts, Bolts, Belts & Filters • Roller Chains & Bearings 

• Batteries • Snow Plows • All Types of Tires Available 

WE’LL KEEP YOU MOVING NO MATTER WHAT SEASON IT IS!

Your Partners in 

Financial Success! 

MARK 

MILDER 

JOEL 

KACZINSKI 

JOHN 

MIELK 

563-243-1243 

www.clintonnational.com 

Member 

FDIC 

ANDOVER CAMANCHE CLINTON DELMAR MILES PRESTON SABULA

1. All in the family — Marty Kramer with Cody, Sage, 

Cory and Lane Medinger gather around the tractor. 

Submitted by Stephanie Medinger 

2. Kyler Strait and Michael Thoma go for a ride. 

Submitted by Becca Sack 

3. Things don’t always go as planned around the 

farm. Dr. Tom Lapke and Brandon Moore work 

together to help deliver a calf and split its broken leg. 

Submitted by Heather Moore 

4. Ryker Henderson and Jorja Kilburg watch 

their dad Brian Kilburg during harvest 2020. 

Submitted by Bree Kilburg 


5. The Johnson kids (Ty-7, 

Lane-5 & Addie-3) play on one 

of the thousands of bales their 

dad makes in the fall to be 

used for cattle bedding during 

the winter to keep cattle warm 

and dry. 

Submitted by Ashley 

Johnson 

6. Steve Miner (Monticello) 

stopped for a picture with 

his family while on the 2020 

WMT Tractorcade that made 

a stop in Baldwin. Pictured 

with Steve are his daughter, 

Jaymee (Miner) Johnson, 

son-in-law Joe Johnson and 

grandchildren , Carter and 

Caden Johnson. 

Submitted by Jaymee 

Johnson 

7. Sutton Moore tackles her 

daily chores at Moore Family 

Farms. 

Submitted by Heather Moore 

8. Detroit and Daisy 

Holdgrafer get ready for 

their big ad photo shoot 

by practicing their smiles 

for the camera. 

Photo by Trevis Mayfield 

9. Brody Green checks 

out his Grandpa Albert’s cows 

in rural Grand Mound. 

Submitted by Chris and 

Kimberly Green 

10. Chris Johnson makes 

hay while the sun shines 

in a summer day in 2020. 

He makes about 400 large 

round bales each year to keep 

cattle fed year-round. 

Submitted by Ali Johnson 


1. Sage Medinger takes 

a quick snooze between 

jobs on farm. 

Submitted by 

Stephanie Medinger 

2. Jana Rae, Gibson, 

and Wylie Miller pose with 

Jack the horse. 

Submitted by Alicia Miller 

3. Jake Schmidt with a 

very large boo boo mistake 

— make sure the door is 

closed!!!! 

Submitted by Joey Veach 

4. Measure twice, cut once 

is the old construction adage, 

and Jeff Swanson, left, and 

Jason Hamilton of Sheets 

Design Build employ the 

advice as they measure a 

beam atop the ag learning 

center under construction at 

Maquoketa High School in 

January. Sheets Design Build 

was awarded the $1.24 million 

contract for the project, which 

includes a food science lab, 

classroom space, shop area 

and greenhouse located on 

the southeast side of the high 

school, near the band room 

and welding shop. 

Photo by Kelly Gerlach 

5. Ben and Anna Selman 

go about business as usual 

around the farm. 

Submitted by Amber 

Heinrich Selman 

6. Kendall Strait and Ditto 

share a moment. 


7. Luke Marcus trains 

calf Cy with Jake Marcus 

and Snowflake. 

Submitted by Kelly 

McMahon 

8. Kade and Jackson Foust 

learn about farming from their 

grandpa Steve Foust on the 

family farm! 

Submitted by Erin Foust 



1. Cole and Logan Green 

help their Dad (Chris) and 

Uncle Jason plant waterways. 

Submitted by Chris and 

Kimberly Green 

2. Maverick Scott takes 

a tractor ride with grandpa 

Kenny Bowman. This Oliver 

used to be Maverick’s great 

grandpas. 

Submitted by Jessica Scott 

3. Ellie Selman is ready to 

get to work in the barn. 


Heinrich Selman 

4. Charlene Johnson, 4, 

holds her bottle baby. 

Submitted by Brittany 

Johnson 

5. Hailey Veach helps dad 

(Joey) fill the semi 


6. Larry Johnson, Johnson 

Family Farms, finishes up a 

row of corn during harvest 

2020. 


Johnson 

7. Gibson Miller enjoys a dip 

with his Muscovy ducklings. 

Submitted by Alicia Miller 

8. Brextin, Brinley, and 

Braydenn Werden line up 

for a photo this past harvest 

season. 

Submitted by 

Ashley Werden 

Eastern Iowa Farmer 117


1. “Spiderman,” Dylan 

Matthiesen, shows up to 

help with harvest. 

Submitted by 

Amber Matthiesen 

2. Cousins enjoy fun on the 

farm while on the cornstalk 

bales. Pictured are Carter and 

Caden Johnson (sons of 

Joe and Jaymee Johnson) 

and Ty and Lane Johnson 

(sons of James and Ashley 

Johnson). 


Johnson 

3. Kelting family farm dog, 

Boomer, enjoys a farm-style 

spa day! 

Submitted by Ashley Kelting 

4. Coralee Duhme and 

JeAnn Duhme, daughters 

of Bryan and Steffany 

Duhme of Maquoketa, hang 

out at the farm. 

Submitted by Bryan Duhme 

5. Tannen Kelting, 5, helps 

check cows in the pasture. 

Submitted by Ashley Kelting 

6. Bradley Bousselot, 

son of Whitney Bousselot, 

gets attention from his Uncle 

Aaron Trenkamp. 

Submitted by Sara Beuthien 

7. Lincoln Veach, 3, is super 

excited to ride in combine. 


8. John Wayne Marcus 

walks with Cy, his bottle calf 

and quarantine project. 

Submitted by 

Kelly McMahon 

9. Danny Kilburg (grandpa) 

Jorja Kilburg and Brian 

Kilburg (dad) know how to 

work as a team. 

Submitted by Bree Kilburg 

Eastern Iowa Farmer 119


1. Molly Matthiesen and 

Meghan Klemme, members 

of the Jackson County 4-H 

County Council, deliver 

Farmer Appreciation buckets 

to father and son,Kevin 

and Darin Banowetz, of 

Spragueville. 


Matthiesen 

2. Addison Ambrosy and 

Connor Ambrosy help out by 

feeding calves around the 

farm 

Submitted by Aaron 

Ambrosy 

3. Best auger cart driver 

in Jackson County, Woody 

McKenna, fills up Ricky (SLIM) 

Egan of Maquoketa. 


4. The wedding of Katherine 

Fischer and Clint Fortier in 

the hay loft of her parent’s old 

dairy barn in Colesburg. They 

spent all summer clearing out 

hay and cobwebs to host the 

wedding October 17, 2020. 

Submitted by Kristy Howell 

5. Kyler Strait does the heavy 

lifting around the farm. 


6. The sun goes down on 

a beautiful fall evening in 

Eastern Iowa. 


Johnson 

7. Carter Johnson, 9, lends a 

hand with cement work on the 

farm. He is the son of Joe & 

Jaymee Johnson, Maquoketa. 


Johnson 

8. Ethan Howell checks out 

grandma and grandpa’s cows, 

at Mary and Charlie Fischer’s 

farm in Colesburg, Iowa. 

Submitted by Kristy Howell 


Peoples company 

FarMer 

Paul Tonderum 

2011-2020 

YeggeMcNeilLand.com | 563.659.8185 

formerly Total Realty Co.

One of the nation’s fastest growing land services 

organizations offering land brokerage, land management, 

land investing, and appraisal services. 

“Peoples Company has been a great 

partner for me. They have a great 

team, and anytime you have a 

question, they will get you the right 

answer. You can count on them to 

always tell you the truth. Whether you 

are selling land, buying land or looking 

for a tenant to farm your land, Peoples 

has the connections and expertise to 

help you get the job done right.” 

When you’re 

ready... 

You’ve spent your life tending the 

soil, producing the yields, and raising 

livestock. When you’re ready to pass 

your legacy to the next generation, 

let us help. Our DeWitt, Iowa based 

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Doug Yegge 

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Doug@peoplescompany.com 

563.659.8185 

700 6th Avenue | DeWitt, Iowa 52742

We are here 

to pick 

you up 

when you are down 

Mike Dunn 

Roger Hill 

Tina Lively 

Greg Gannon 

Kathy Rollings 

Bridget Maher Marty Murrell 

Bill Vetter 

Grant Lilienthal Sarah Jurgens 

Francesca Schwartz 

Unlike the weather, it’s certain that you can rely on DeWitt Bank & Trust Co. 

for quality banking and business services. 

dewittbank.com • 563.659.3211 • 815 6th Ave, DeWitt

Eastern Iowa Farmer Spring 2021

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