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OCTOGENARIAN FARMERS<br />
on his family’s farm since it<br />
was purchased in 1938. Schnoor<br />
eventually bought the farm from<br />
his grandfather in 1969, and he<br />
and his wife Janice inherited her<br />
father’s farm near Nashville.<br />
Altogether they own about 420<br />
acres, which they now rent out.<br />
“I don’t know why I still do<br />
it,” Schnoor said with a chuckle.<br />
Even at the ripe old age of 89,<br />
Schnoor has taken on the role of<br />
maintaining his massive garden,<br />
mowing, and tending the fences<br />
on the property. But Schnoor sees<br />
no end to his role in the field,<br />
either.<br />
“I gotta have something to<br />
do,” he said. “I have fences to<br />
look over.”<br />
His daughter, Susan Sheets,<br />
sees it another way.<br />
“It’s just in him,” she said. “He<br />
likes to see things grow.”<br />
By March, Schnoor has numerous<br />
seedlings growing inside,<br />
getting ready to become his<br />
summer garden.<br />
New technology<br />
There are more and more<br />
people involved in farming well<br />
into their 80s and even their 90s<br />
as mechanization makes farming<br />
less physically demanding. The<br />
idea that farmers have to be out<br />
in the elements lifting heavy<br />
objects and pulling ropes and<br />
levers has gone by the wayside,<br />
according to Kelvin Leibold,<br />
farm management field specialist<br />
at Iowa State University.<br />
“Tractors can drive themselves<br />
and operate without night<br />
vision,” Leibold said. “New<br />
technology has made it easier<br />
and safer for farmers to operate<br />
machinery, and at older and older<br />
ages. The work environment has<br />
also become friendlier to farm-<br />
14 EASTERN IOWA FARMER | SPRING 2024 eifarmer.com
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