EIF-B_Where We Come From

The Eastern Iowa Spring 2024 

Farmer 

® 

A Publication of Sycamore Media 

SCOTT | CEDAR | MUSCATINE | LOUISA | JOHNSON 

Where we 

COME 

FROM 

Eastern Iowa farmers began settling 

the land almost two centuries ago. 

Today, their descendants are world-class 

producers. This is the story of who 

came and how they got here. 

Chilly Chores: Every day 

farmers battle the elements during 

winter months to protect livestock and 

keep operations humming. 

Hands-on Learning: From 

soil health to caring for animals, 

students attending the Muscatine 

Agricultural Learning Center 

experience the real thing. 

Soup’s on: Plan your garden 

planting with all the veggies you 

need to make a hearty soup after 

harvest. 

PLUS: 

Photo pages of your 

friends and neighbors!

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The Eastern Iowa 

Farmer® 

DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS 

Addington Place of Muscatine..................................... 75 

Altorfer Ag Products..................................................... 37 

American Family Insurance - Wayne VanAuken............ 49 

Amhof Trucking, Inc..................................................... 53 

Arp Insurance, Inc........................................................ 55 

Asgrow......................................................................... 83 

Ben Schueller Auction Co............................................. 28 

Bennett Grain............................................................... 69 

Brother’s Truck & Trailer Repair, Towing & Recovery...... 68 

CBI Bank & Trust........................................................... 29 

Cedar County Coop...................................................... 30 

Channel....................................................................... 42 

Circle P Veterinary........................................................ 51 

Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine............. 74 

Community Foundation of Louisa County.................... 33 

Cornelius Seed............................................................. 41 

Cove Equipment.......................................................... 32 

Custom Builders.......................................................... 21 

D.S. Webb & Company................................................. 50 

Davisson Well & Water................................................. 40 

DeKalb......................................................................... 82 

Delaney Ag Service - Aerial........................................... 94 

Delaney Ag Service...................................................... 95 

Easern Iowa Farmer...................................................... 81 

Farm Bureau Financial Services.................................... 67 

Farm Credit Services of America................................... 88 

Farmers Creek Ag Supply............................................. 62 

First Choice Real Estate................................................ 78 

First Trust and Savings Bank......................................... 18 

First Wealth Financial Group, LLP................................. 48 

Fulwider Agency, Inc.................................................... 17 

Grell Custom Metal Works, LLC.................................... 71 

Iowa Realty.................................................................. 34 

Iowa State University Extension 

and Outreach - Muscatine County........................... 38 

Iowa State University Extension 

and Outreach - Scott County.................................... 27 

J.J. Nichting Company................................................. 11 

Kunau Implement........................................................ 72 

Latta Harris......................................................................6 

Liberty Ag & Excavating................................................ 73 

Liberty Insurance Agency Inc ....................................... 36 

Liberty Trust & Savings Bank........................................ 99 

LiquiGrow.................................................................... 70 

Maquoketa Livestock Exchange................................... 38 

Martin Agency Insurance Services, Inc......................... 87 

Matthiesen’s................................................................ 32 

Moore Family Farms and Creamery.............................. 91 

Moore Local................................................................. 91 

NewFields Ag............................................................... 79 

Nutrien Ag Solutions.................................................... 40 

Ohnward Insurance Group........................................... 86 

P&K Midwest................................................................ 39 

Padgett Business Services............................................ 52 

Peoples Company...........................................................2 

Pioneer...........................................................................4 

Prairie Hills Tipton........................................................ 64 

Pro Motorsports........................................................... 22 

Quad Cities Community Foundation............................ 26 

Reiser, Jennings & Co., P.C........................................... 27 

River Valley Cooperative.............................................. 57 

Rockdale Locker........................................................... 60 

RPJ Repair and Warehouse.......................................... 56 

RPM Revival................................................................. 16 

Ruhl & Ruhl.................................................................. 89 

Scheer Insurance Group, LLC........................................ 90 

Sinclair Tractor.............................................................. 19 

Star Moving Service..................................................... 28 

TADA Meats.................................................................. 47 

Theisen’s...................................................................... 72 

Weaver’s Pipeline Specialists....................................... 24 

White Pigeon Agency................................................... 59 

Wilton Bank............................................................... 100 

Wuestenberg Agency, Inc............................................. 17 

Wyffels Hybrids............................................................ 12 


STORY INDEX 

WHERE WE COME FROM 

The story of how we got to Eastern Iowa — Page 44 

BRRRRRRRR, 

IT’S COLD! 

14 

Chores are the same – it’s 

just colder. Winter weather, 

including snow, ice and 

sub-zero temperatures go 

with the territory for farmers 

in Eastern Iowa 

THE BASTE 

IN THE BIZ 

23 

Smoked or not - 

Chuck Brockmann has the 

turkey you crave to carve 

‘HE INSPIRED 

SO MANY’ 

98 

Irv Meier’s dedication to 

teaching, coaching and 

mentoring extended beyond 

the classroom through FFA 

and 4-H activities even after 

retirement 

31 Iowa institutes new tax 

laws for retired farmers 

35 Organization weaves tapestry 

of food, farming, community 

With deep roots in farming, 

refugees from Africa and beyond 

work the land and grow vegetables 

69 Slowing the pace 

Iowa farmland values rose higher in 

2023 but the price-per-acre surge seen 

the previous two years abated 

76 Raising a toast to the 

spirit of Iowa farmers 

Mississippi River Distilling Co. 

looks local when buying rye, barley, 

wheat and corn for its niche business 

80 Farm bill extension allows for 

authorized programs to continue 

84 A jar of healthy goodness 

On a cold winter’s night, visions 

of veggies danced in my head 

92 Nothing like the real thing 

The Muscatine Agricultural Learning 

Center gives students a chance 

to gain experiences 


Farmer 

The Eastern Iowa Spring 2024 



COME 

FROM 

Eastern Iowa farmers began settling 

the land almost two centuries ago. 

Today, their descendants are world-class 

producers. This is the story of who 

came and how they got here. 

Chilly Chores: Every day 

farmers battle the elements during 

winter months to protect livestock and 

keep operations humming. 

Hands-on Learning: From 

soil health to caring for animals, 

students attending the Muscatine 


experience the real thing. 

Soup’s on: Plan your garden 

planting with all the veggies you 

need to make a hearty soup after 

harvest. 

PLUS: 

Photo pages of your 

friends and neighbors! 


Farmer 

® 

Sycamore Media President: 

Trevis Mayfield 

Advertising: Wendy McCartt, Trevis 

Mayfield, Connie Myers, Faith Jones, 

Bobbie Husemann, Misty Robinson and 

Dean Upmann 

Creative: Brooke Till, Elizabeth 

Goodman, Brittany Nopar, Erica Mohr 

Editorial Content: Nancy Mayfield, 

Trevis Mayfield, Brittany Nopar, 

Kristine A. Tidgren, Jenna Stevens, 

Jessica Yuska 

Photography Content: Nancy 

Mayfield, Trevis Mayfield, Brittany 

Nopar, Dana Royer, Brooke Till, 

contributed 

Editors: Kelly Gerlach, Nancy 

Mayfield, Trevis Mayfield, Wendy 

McCartt 

Published by: Sycamore Media 

108 W. Quarry St., Maquoketa, IA 

563-652-2441 

Cover: Brooke Till 

SCOTT | CEDAR | MUSCATINE | LOUISA | JOHNSON 

The Eastern Iowa Farmer is a specialty publication 

of Sycamore Media Corp., 108 W. Quarry Street, 

Maquoketa, Iowa 52060, 563-652-2441. 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 

Story ideas are easy, 

mostly thanks to you! 

There’s one question we hear 

more than any other while we 

work on this magazine. 

“Aren’t you going to run 

out of things to write about 

someday?” 

Farmers ask us that while we sit at 

their kitchen table during interviews for 

stories, and advertisers ask the same 

during sales calls and photo sessions. 

Our reaction is always the same. A 

knowing smile 

and a chuckle first, 

and then the same 

old, honest answer 

we’ve given what 

seems like a hundred 

times. 

“Never. There 

are so many interesting 

people and 

Trevis Mayfield stories in agriculture 

we won’t live 

President, 

Sycamore Media Corp. long enough to 

write them all.” 

The fact is, it is the people who ask 

us that question who make us sure the 

trough will never go dry. All we need to 

do is listen. 

Some of the story ideas we have 

garnered from listening are of a technical 

nature, such as futuristic ways to 

apply cover crop seed from the sky using 

remote control drones. Others are driven 

by current events or shifts in the industry 

people are talking about, such as new 

drought-resistant hybrid seed or changes 

in input costs. 

My favorite story ideas are the ones 

that bring out family histories, capture 

personalities or connect the farming 

community through common threads, 

and we are working on one of those now 

for a future issue. And, yes, the story 

sprang to mind while I was talking (but 

mostly listening) to a farmer explaining 

the history of an ancient tractor in a 

tattered, black-and-white photograph of 

his grandfather putting up hay. 

It was an Alice Chalmers from the 

first half of the last century, and it made 

me think of the first tractor I drove, and 

that’s when I realized that for most farmers, 

there is a single tractor that stands 

out in their mind as being special for one 

reason or another. 

Mine is an Oliver 1850 that my father 

bought in 1968, the first new tractor he 

ever owned. A decade or so later, it was 

the first tractor I learned to drive. 

That’s how it works. You say something 

that makes us think, wow, I can relate 

to that, and the next thing you know, 

we are working on a story. So, stay tuned 

for our fall issue, which will include a 

story about favorite tractors. If you have 

a good tractor story to share, email me at 

tmayfield@sycamoremedia.com. 

Note to readers: 

I’d like to take a moment to say thank 

you for reading this magazine, and I 

want to give an extra especial thanks to 

our advertisers. Without their support, 

this magazine wouldn’t be possible. 

Lastly, if you did not find this magazine 

in your mailbox but would like to 

receive it at home, please email your 

address to eifarmer@sycamoremedia.net 

or call us at 563-659-3121 and we will 

add you to our mailing list. 

Cheers, and have a great spring! 

Sincerely, 

Trevis Mayfield, 

Sycamore Media president 


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Brrrrrrrrrr 

Chores are the same – it’s just colder. 

Winter weather, including snow, ice 

and sub-zero temperatures go with the 

territory for farmers in Eastern Iowa 

BY NANCY MAYFIELD 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER 

On a bitter-cold, late afternoon last 

winter, as dusk crept over rural 

Louisa County, brothers Remsen 

Lents, 8, and Boyden Lents, 7, 

bundled up and headed out to the 

barn to tend to two of the 32 lambs born on their 

farm weeks earlier. It was a routine they repeated 

daily, no matter the weather. 

“We have two bottle lambs this year,” said 

Adair Lents, their mother. That means regular 

feedings – even in a blizzard. After hearing the 

mid-January forecast for the upcoming week 

that included an expected -20 degree wind chill, 

she and her husband talked about whether they 

should have the boys continue the chores once 

the arctic blast hit. 

“We decided to have them do it. We told them, 

‘The animals have to eat. The animals rely on 

us,” she said, adding that when she was growing 

up, her dad held to the rule that “the animals eat 

before us.” 

In Eastern Iowa, biting wind chills, sub-zero 

temperatures, snowstorms and ice are faced each 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED 

Kara Paul takes a break from work to visit with a calf. She and her 

two sisters spend the winter tending to their 4-H projects, raising 

lambs and calves.

! 

Remsen Lents, 8, heads out to the family’s barn 

in rural Louisa County to bottle feed two lambs 

born last winter. He and his brother, Boyden 

Lents, 7, braved the cold for the regular feedings. 

Pictured below are the 32 lambs that the farm 

produced this year during some bitter cold days. 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / CONTRIBUTED

CHILLY CHORES 


Boyden Lents prepares food for the two bottle-baby lambs 

he and his brother fed by hand daily. 

year by farmers who know 

the ropes for dealing with the 

elements. They don layers of 

clothing and make multiple 

trips to the barn to make sure 

animals are warm, fed and 

have water. 

Some of them mount 

cameras in their barns so they 

can monitor livestock from 

inside their home and keep an 

eye on animals that are giving 

birth. Others make regular 

trips to and from the barn to 

do a visual check. 

They use electric de-icers in 

water tanks and provide extra 

bedding for warmth. Sometimes, 

they relocate animals 

for more warmth, such as the 

Lents family did in January. 

All their lambs had been 

moved earlier from the lambing 

barn to the open-front 

barn to allow the animals 

easy access outside. But when 

it turned bitter cold, they 

moved all the animals back to 

the four-sided lambing barn 

where the closer quarters and 

the animals’ body heat helped 

keep the lambs more comfortable. 

Occasionally, newborn 

animals are brought inside for 

a warm bath or extra care to 

ensure their survival. 

For Anna Geyer of rural 

Johnson County, winter work 

has been as constant as the 

sun rising and setting since 

she was a kid. Among her 

more vivid memories is the 

blizzard of 1980-81. 

“There was so much snow 

that the fences got buried, so 

the hogs could walk across 

the fences and get out. We 

had a lot of work to keep the 

fences dug out,” she recalled, 

and a lot of cold fingers and 

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CHILLY CHORES 

Anna Geyer of rural Johnson County 

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sheep and crops and run the Land 

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EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / 

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CHILLY CHORES 

numb toes. 

That same winter, she was 

out in the snow fort she built, 

and a boar escaped from the 

barn and got between Geyer 

and the house. The wind was 

blowing hard, and the doors 

to the snow fort were drifting 

shut. She waited the animal out 

and made a dash to safety when 

it retreated some. 

Now she and her husband, 

Dave, raise sheep and crops 

and run the Land Alliance Folk 

School and Retreat Center. 

There are still cold-weather 

chores to add to her winter 

memories from the past, such 

as snowshoeing to the barn 

carrying a big jug of hot water 

to help break the ice for cattle 

to drink and making sure the 

chickens, and “a pretty mean 

rooster,” have enough hay. 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / NANCY MAYFIELD 

Three generations of the Paul family take a break from winter chores at their Muscatine county farm, which 

has been in the family since 1854. Pictured in front are Kaylin, Kara and Kensley. Their grandfather, Martin, 

and father, Sam, stand behind them. 

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CHILLY CHORES 

Kara and Kaylin Paul put feed out for their cows 

and calves. The family has about 50 ewes and 

100 cows, and they feed out the lambs and calves. 


Over in Muscatine County, 

the Paul girls spend the winter 

tending to their 4-H projects, 

raising lambs and calves. 

Kensley, 16; Kaylin, 12: and 

Kara, 10, grew up helping 

their father and grandfather on 

the seventh-generation family 

farm settled in 1854. 

Kensley was born in 

December, and by the next 

spring, she was riding along 

in the tractor during planting, 

her father, Sam, recalled. 

The other girls also began 

spending time helping Sam 

and their grandfather, Martin, 

with chores. The family has 

about 50 ewes and 100 cows, 

and they feed out the lambs 

and calves. 

The three girls are dressed 

for work a few days before 

Christmas, clad in coveralls, 

warm hats and gloves, and 

insulated muck boots. 

“It takes a lot longer to get 

ready,” Kaylin said of winter 

chore preparation. And, Kara 

noted, “sometimes walking 

around is kind of icy.” 

At least twice a day, usually 

in the dark whether it’s morning 

or evening due to the short 

winter days, they make sure 

the animals are fed and have 

water. 

“The frozen water is always 

a pain because you have to 

break it or set up a water 

heater,” Kensley explained. 

She and her sisters all had 

livestock projects for the fair 

this past winter. January and 

February is their lambing 

season. 

“That’s always a big undertaking 

because the whole barn 

is filled with mothers and their 

babies. We feed and water 

them every day,” she said. 

After the chores are done, 

the sisters like to gather near 

the wood stove in their house 

and maybe enjoy some hot 

chocolate. 

“I just like to sit in there 

and defrost my toes,” Kensley 

said. n 


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The 

BASTE 

IN THE 

BUSINESS 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / TREVIS MAYFIELD 

Chuck Brockmann takes a break from tending to the more than 300 turkeys at his Long Grove farm weeks before Thanksgiving. For 

more than 30 years ago, Brockmann Farms has been serving the community with fresh, never-frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving. 

Smoked or not, Brockmann Farms 

has the turkey you crave to carve 

BY BRITTANY NOPAR 


It’s a typical chilly day in early 

November in Long Grove at Brockmann 

Farms, the home of the fresh 

Thanksgiving turkey. The sound 

pouring out from inside the big 

wind tunnel shed on the farm is reminiscent 

of a rebellious teenager blaring rock 

’n’ roll music from his room. But instead 

of rock ’n’ roll music, it’s Christmas 

music. And instead of a rebellious teen, 

it’s 350 turkeys. 

Perhaps the turkeys enjoy the music. 

Or, perhaps they don’t. If you ask them, 

the responses would probably all be gobbledegook. 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BRITTANY NOPAR 

Brockmann’s grandson, Sam, carries two 

large turkeys to a customer’s car. 


GOBBLE GOODNESS 

“If I don’t buy them 

at the right time, they 

get too big for my 

customers. People 

want an 18-pound 

turkey and get stuck 

with a 24-pound 

turkey!” 

— CHUCK BROCKMANN 

But if you ask Chuck Brockmann, head 

honcho of Brockmann Farms, the roaring 

music serves an important purpose in his 

operation: it prevents predators. 

It turns out that a standard metal cattle 

fence with wire fencing reinforcement is 

not enough to protect the turkeys from 

predators. Last year, Brockmann lost 

about 80 turkeys when a weasel got in at 

his Scott County farm. But ever since he 

started blaring the festive music, he hasn’t 

had a problem. 

Brockmann’s purpose is to serve the 

community with fresh, never-frozen turkeys 

for Thanksgiving. 

“It all started 30 years ago,” 81-yearold 

Brockmann said, lounging back in his 

chair, his flannel shirt contrasted against 

his blue overalls, hat embroidered with 

corn patches and his brand name. “Originally, 

my sister used to clean the turkeys. 

I would feather them.” 

Those were the early days when they 

only raised half a dozen or so turkeys for 

their family – Brockmann and his wife 

Kim have seven children between the two 

of them – as a side hobby. As word got 

out, outsiders started asking if they could 

buy a turkey from the Brockmanns. 

Like Michael Rosales. He and Brockmann 

met a while back at an extravagant, 

movie-like Christmas party hosted by a 

mutual friend. There was a turkey at the 

party. Rosales had told the party host that 

the turkey was amazing, and asked him 

where he had gotten it. 

Brockmann was standing by and told 

him that he had made it. Rosales resolved 

that he needed to get a “Chuck” turkey. 

Ever since then, he was hooked. 

As more and more people found out 

about “Chuck” turkeys, Brockmann 

sought to increase his capacity. He used to 

borrow a facility to raise the turkeys, but 

he had always wanted to buy a farm. In 

1985, Brockmann purchased the farm that 

is now known as Brockmann Farms and 

has been raising turkeys there ever since. 

Two weeks after the Fourth of July, 

Brockmann begins raising little poults. 

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This typical line-up is seen inside the shop at any 

given time during “Turkey Day.” Pictured from left 

are Roy Cheshir, Deb Cheshir, Bella Rosales, 

Michael Rosales, Peggy Sleep (in back), 

Chuck Brockmann, and Kim Brockmann. 


BRITTANY NOPAR 

This seems to be an optimal time for the 

birds to reach a full-grown size of 18 to 

22 pounds. But because of normal sexing 

errors, he gets four or five Tom turkeys 

each year, which can grow to be about 28 

pounds! “Almost that many customers 

want big turkeys, so it works out well,” 

Brockmann said. 

But not everybody wants a huge 

turkey, so Brockmann has to be careful 

about when he gets his poults. “If I don’t 

buy them at the right time, they get too 

big for my customers,” he said. “People 

want an 18-pound turkey and get stuck 

with a 24-pound turkey!” 

Because of federal regulations, 

Brockmann is required to get the turkeys 

processed at an inspected facility. 

The only facility nearby that meets 

this requirement is in Greene, north of 

Waterloo – a whopping 

three-and-a-half 

hours from Brockmann 

Farms. He loads 

the turkeys up into a 

livestock trailer late in 

the afternoon and then 

heads toward Greene at 2 a.m. He 

makes the round-trip trek six times 

in total: dropping off three loads 

of live turkeys to get processed, 

and picking up three loads of 

processed turkeys to bring back 

to sell. 

Each year Brockmann brings 

some of his turkeys to be 

smoked to a custom meat-smoking 

facility in Keota. This year 

(Left) Shown is one of 

the 300 turkeys raised 

on Brockmann Farms. 

(Below) Kim Brockmann 

walks and chats with a 

long-time customer. 


KEEP 

GROWING. 

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Now, keep your legacy growing by making 

a gift of farmland, crops, livestock, and 

other property through the Quad Cities 

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Brockmann Timbers maple syrup is sold on 

“Turkey Day,” along with a specialty Boetje’s 

mustard made with Brockmann Timbers maple 

syrup. 

he had 100 turkeys smoked. His smoked 

turkeys are a huge hit and are becoming 

requested more and more, he said. 

The day before Thanksgiving is gotime: 

the day when floods of people arrive 

at Brockmann Farms to pick out their 

fresh turkeys. “I got my first call at 6:18 

a.m. this morning,” he said. “I was still in 

bed!” It’s not uncommon for Brockmann 

to have customers show up at 6 a.m. But 

the majority come around 8 a.m., and it’s 

a steady stream after that. 

He likes to offer snacks, beer, and pop 

for people to stick around and mingle. 

Some customers stay as late as 9 p.m. 

“I usually ask them to turn the lights 

out when they leave,” Brockmann said, 

laughing. “I’ve even had people stay so 

long they forgot their turkeys!” 

“Turkey Day” is a whirlwind, according 

to Brockmann, but he is glad to have 

a lot of help. While he is able to circulate 

and solve problems and converse with his 

customers, his wife Kim and grandson 

Sam help every year by finding the customers’ 

turkeys in the climate-controlled 

truck and hauling the heavy bird to their 

cars. Brockmann’s sister Peggy Sleep and 

friend Brenda Drummond help out at the 

register. 

Every year, Brockmann gets new 

customers, despite the fact that he does 

not advertise on social media. People get 

wind of the “Chuck” turkeys by word-ofmouth 

and some print advertising. 

Brockmann’s longest running customers 

have been with him for some 15 

years. Dynamic Tube from Maquoketa 

is his biggest customer, buying about 70 

turkeys per year. And his next biggest 

customer is the Welton Fire Department. 

They hold a “Feather Party” every year 

where people can win certificates for free 

turkeys. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 

Brockmann delivers 30 turkeys to the 

fire department for the event. 

Not only does Brockmann have new, 

returning, and big customers, but each 

year he also donates some of the turkeys 

he raises to a cafe in Eldridge that hosts 

a free Thanksgiving dinner. This year he 

donated six turkeys, and the cafe furnished 

everything else. The entire staff 

serves between 100 and 120 people 

with nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. 

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This number is a completely 

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Scott County | 563-359-7577 



Brockmann enjoys going to the cafe on 

Thanksgiving to socialize. 

Brockmann’s biggest joy out of raising 

turkeys is that it keeps him busy and 

interacting with a lot of different people. 

“People that age well are social,” he said. 

Nonetheless, he knows he can’t do this 

forever, for one reason or another. “I don’t 

know how much longer I’ll go,” Brockmann 

said. “I guess I’ll stop when I wear 

my friends out!” 

Brockmann has about eight friends and 

relatives that help out daily around the 

farm. Ron Oetzmann, 83, of Long Grove, 

has been helping Brockmann around 

the farm for 20 years now, ever since he 

retired from his day job. “I’d like at least 

one more year,” said Oetzmann. 

“Ron’s a fixture. He’s a good guy,” said 

Brockmann. 

Brockmann’s oldest son, Tom (no pun 

intended), rents all the farm ground, and 

farms close to 1,200 acres of corn and 

soybeans. Brockmann assists with whatever 

there is to do around the farm, while 

still taking care of his hundreds of turkeys 

and one bull and three heifers. 

Brockmann’s other son, Bill, is 

involved in making maple syrup in the 

spring. Each year he makes 100 gallons of 

maple syrup. Each gallon of syrup is made 

from 40 gallons of sap. Brockmann sells 

his son’s maple syrup on “Turkey Day,” 

along with a specialty Boetje’s mustard 

that uses the maple syrup in the recipe. 

When it comes time for the Brockmanns 

to make a turkey, “we don’t follow 

a recipe,” said Brockmann. “We prepare 

it in a cooking bag with seasonings and 

herbs.” 

Roy Cheshir, a friend of the Brockmanns, 

has his own favorite recipe. He 

requests the hearts, gizzards, and other 

turkey innards which he rolls in flour 

and meal. “I deep fry ‘em and eat ‘em,” 

Cheshir said. 

Meanwhile, every year before Turkey 

Day, the 350 turkeys at Brockmann Farms 

are rocking out to Christmas music, probably 

hoping not to break a drumstick. n 


A customer loads a bagged turkey into the 

back of his car while Brockmann’s grandson, 

Sam, stands by to help. 

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By KRISTINE A. TIDGREN 

Staff Attorney 

Center for Agricultural Law & Taxation 

Iowa State University 


In early 2022, the Iowa Legislature 

passed HF 2317, which reduced individual 

and corporate income tax rates, provided 

exemptions for most forms of retirement 

income – including retired farmer rental 

income –and scaled back the Iowa capital gain 

deduction. 

Most changes went into effect during the 2023 

tax year. Last fall, the Iowa Department of Revenue 

(IDOR) finalized deduction rules for retired 

farmer rental income and Iowa capital gain. 

Because they may need to make elections to 

take advantage of these new provisions, retired 

farmers and others must understand these rules 

when filing 2023 returns. This column gives 

an overview of some key changes. A more 

detailed document with additional information 

is at calt.iastate.edu/blogpost/understanding-iowas-new-tax-rules-retired-farmers. 

Farm tenancy income 

exclusion 

Beginning in 2023, certain “retirement 

income” for those disabled or 55 or older 

is excluded from Iowa taxable income. The 

law exempts retirement income received by 

surviving spouses. Prior law exempted retirement 

income only up to $6,000 for singles, 

and $12,000 for those who are married filing 

jointly. 

Exempted income includes income from 

qualified retirement accounts, annuities, individual 

retirement accounts, plans maintained 

or contributed to by an employer, or maintained 

or contributed to by a self-employed 

person as an employer, and deferred compensation 

plans or any earnings attributable to the 

deferred compensation plans. 

Iowa institutes 

new tax laws for 

retired farmers 

Recognizing land is a retirement fund for 

many farmers, lawmakers created a provision 

allowing an eligible retired farmer-lessor to 

elect to exclude from Iowa income taxation 

the net income received under a written farm 

lease covering real property. 

This applies only to income from farm tenancy 

agreements – cash leases and crop share, 

flex and livestock share leases. A farm tenancy 

agreement is a written agreement outlining the 

rights and obligations of an owner-lessor and a 

tenant-lessee where latter has a farm tenancy, 

which is a leasehold interest in land held by a 

person who produces crops or provides for the 

care and feeding of livestock on the land. 

The law doesn’t apply to rental income 

received as an owner of an entity taxed as a 

partnership, an S corporation, or a trust or estate, 

even if net income passes through to the 

eligible individual. 

The election to exclude income from a farm 

tenancy agreement has trade-offs. Individuals 

making this election may not apply the Iowa 

capital gain deduction in current or succeeding 

tax years. Likewise, they are not eligible for 

the beginning farmer tax credit in current or 

future years. 

IDOR created Iowa Form 125 (2023 IA 125) 

to allow retired farmers to make a lifetime 

election to exclude net income from a farm 

tenancy agreement covering real property. 

Taxpayers must detail their qualification for 

the election. The farm tenancy income exclusion 

election is irrevocable once made. 

Iowa capital gain deduction 

Before 2023, the Iowa capital gain deduction 

was available to taxpayers who sold 

farming and non-farming business assets and 

breeding or dairy livestock. The deduction 

has changed to apply only to the sale of real 

About 

CALT: 

n The Center for 

Agricultural Law and 

Taxation (CALT) 

at Iowa State 

University was 

created in 2006. 

It provides timely, 

critically objective 

information to 

producers, 

professionals and 

agribusinesses 

concerning the 

application of 

important 

developments in 

agricultural law and 

taxation (federal and 

state legal opinions 

of relevance, as well 

as critical legislative 

developments) and 

is a primary source 

of professional 

educational training 

in agricultural law 

and taxation. 

Contact CALT: 

Iowa State 

University 

2321 N. Loop, 

Suite 200 

Ames, IA 50010 

Phone: 

(515) 294-5217 

Fax: (515) 294-0700 

www.calt.iastate.edu 

eifarmer.com

TAX LAWS 

property used in a farming 

business and the sale of some 

draft, dairy, and breeding 

livestock by retired farmers 

liquidating their businesses. 

Installment agreements 

signed before 2023 are subject 

to the pre-2023 law. The 

QUALITY 

HAS NO 

deduction will continue to 

apply to non-farm businesses 

for payments received under 

these installment agreements 

in 2023 and beyond. 

A retired farmer may make 

a single lifetime election on 

Iowa Form 100G (2023 IA 

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100G) to exclude all qualifying 

capital gain from the 

sale of real property used in a 

farming business and the sale 

of certain livestock. 

Retired farmers who elect 

to exclude gain pursuant to 

this lifetime election may 

not claim the Iowa beginning 

farmer tax credit in the 

current or subsequent years. 

They are also ineligible to 

exclude farm rental income 

from Iowa taxation in current 

or subsequent tax years. The 

election is irrevocable once 

made. 

“Material Participation” 

in a “Farming 

Business” 

Both the farm lease income 

exclusion and the Iowa 

capital gain exclusion require 

material participation in a 

farming business (for all but 

the sale of real property used 

in a farming business to a 

relative). To take the farm 

lease income exclusion, the 

individual must have materially 

participated in a “farming 

business” for 10 years 

or more in the past, but they 

may no longer be materially 

participating in a farming 

business when the election 

is made. The same applies to 

retired farmers who make an 

election to exclude the gain 

from real property used in 

a farming business. Retired 

farmers electing to claim a 

capital gain deduction for the 

sale of livestock must have 

materially participated in the 

livestock business for five 

of the eight years preceding 

retirement or disability. 

Material participation 

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TAX LAWS 

requirements are specific to 

participation in a “farming 

business,” defined as “the 

production, care, growing, 

harvesting, preservation, 

handling, or storage of crops 

or forest or fruit trees; the 

production, care, feeding, 

management, and housing of 

livestock; or horticulture, all 

intended for profit.” 

Rules for Surviving 

Spouses 

A surviving spouse of a 

deceased retired farmer may 

make a lifetime election on 

behalf of the deceased retired 

farmer that the retired farmer 

would have been eligible to 

make prior to death. It must 

be made by the due date, 

including extensions, for the 

tax year immediately following 

the tax year of the retired 

farmer’s death. No one was 

eligible to make an election 

prior to 2023. 

If a retired farmer made an 

election prior to death, the 

surviving spouse may exclude 

the qualifying income 

pursuant to the election made 

by the farmer. 

A surviving spouse cannot 

change an election the deceased 

retired farmer made. 

Any election made by the 

retired farmer prior to death 

is binding on all real property 

used in a farming business 

owned by the retired farmer 

at the time of death, but 

only as applied to the retired 

farmer and the surviving 

spouse. 

A surviving spouse may 

disclaim an election made 

by the retired farmer. If they 

make this disclaimer, the surviving 

spouse is not eligible 

to deduct qualifying income 

pursuant to an election made 

by the retired farmer prior to 

death. 

Because no elections were 

made during the 2023 calendar 

year, there will be no 

disclaimers filed for the 2023 

calendar tax year. 

Elections on 2023 

Returns 

When filing 2023 returns, 

retired farmers who rent real 

property or sold qualifying 

livestock or real property 

used in a farming business 

have to decide whether they 

want to make a single lifetime 

election to exclude the 

rental income or the capital 

gain. They may choose to 

make no election, reserving 

the right to do so in future 

years. If a retired farmer 

doesn’t make an election, 

they must include the capital 

gain or rental income in their 

2023 Iowa taxable income. 

Once a retired farmer 

makes an election, it can’t be 

changed. A retired farmer excluding 

farm rental income 

from Iowa taxation can’t 

ever take the Iowa capital 

gain deduction. Conversely, 

a retired farmer electing to 

exclude capital gain may not 

ever exclude income from a 

farm tenancy agreement. 

If either election is made, 

the retired farmer may not 

take the beginning farmer 

tax credit in the current or 

subsequent tax years. Retired 

farmers should discuss this 

election with a trusted tax 

professional. n 


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COMMUNITY TAPESTRY 

Organization weaves tapestry of 

FOOD, FARMING 

and COMMUNITY 

With deep roots 

in farming, refugees 

from Africa and 

beyond work the land 

and grow vegetables 

to feed local people 



Ann McGlynn grew up on a 

small family farm in Eastern 

Iowa, where her parents, 

Frank and Chris, still live 

and grow corn and soybeans. 

“My mom and dad are very hard workers,” 

she said, recalling the example they 

set for her and her two siblings during 

their youth when the operation included 

cattle and pigs in addition to crops. 

“My dad still works seven days a week 

as a farmer. It’s who he is. My mom also 

has this tremendous work ethic. They are 

devoted to family,” she said. In 2022, they 

received a Century Farm award. 

The farmers McGlynn works with 

today as the executive director of Tapestry 

Farms – a Quad Cities-based nonprofit that 

grows food and hires refugees – are much 

newer to Eastern Iowa but also come from 

backgrounds deeply rooted in family and 

agriculture. 

“A lot of the people we work with are 

refugees. They have been forced to leave 

their home country because of violence or 

poverty,” McGlynn said, adding that some 

of them have lived in a refugee camp for a 

decade or more after fleeing such countries 

as Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi 

and Rwanda. 

“Many bring a farming background 

with them. They arrive here and live in 

an apartment where they don’t have land 

to tend, but they bring farming skills with 


Ann McGlynn displays some bounty from a 

garden cared for by Tapestry Farms, a Quad 

Cities-based nonprofit that grows food and 

hires refugees. 



“I learned about 

caring for others 

and how to do 

that in a way that’s 

respectful and 

compassionate at 

the same time.” 

— ANN McGLYNN 

them. That’s how they have lived their whole 

life. It’s how they’ve eaten,” she said, adding 

that they often go to work in factories or other 

non-agriculture settings. 

“Meanwhile there’s food insecurity that happens 

in our community. We pair that need with 

the skill set of growing food,” said McGlynn, 

who founded the nonprofit in 2017 after more 

than 20 years of working as a journalist and 

communications director. 

During those two decades, she wrote stories 

about people who came from different countries. 

She wrote about community systems and how 

they worked. Later, she worked for the Girl 

Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois and 

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport. Those 

experiences got her thinking more about how to 

change the world for the better and what it takes 

to do that. 

“I learned about caring for others and how to 

do that in a way that’s respectful and compassionate 

at the same time,” she said. 

Her idea to create urban farms from under-utilized 

land took shape. Today Tapestry Farms 

has about 300 volunteers and provides more 


Rows of cabbage flourish on one of the plots 

tended to by Tapestry Farms at eight locations in 

the Quad Cities. 

than 6,000 pounds of produce to food pantries 

through River Bend Food Bank. Last year, eight 

different types of vegetables were delivered 

either the day of harvest, or very shortly after, 

throughout the growing season. 

Refugees are hired seasonally to plant, tend 

and harvest the crops, and they need little training, 

McGlynn said. 

“They just know what to do. They know how 

to tend a plot of land. They bring that knowledge 

and skill,” she said. 

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FALL 2024 SALES DATES 

FOR... 

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Maquoketa Livestock Exchange 


MARCH: 

➢ Fri., March 1..................Hay Sale 

➢ Sat., March 2..................Special Bred Cow/Heifer Sale 

➢ Wed., March 6..................Cattle Sale 




➢ Sat., March 16..................Special Feeder Sale 



➢ Wed.,March 27..................Cattle Sale 


APRIL: 

➢ Wed., April 3..................Cattle Sale 

➢ Fri., April 5..................Hay Sale 





➢ Sat., April 20..................Special Feeder Sale 



MAY: 

➢ Wed., May 1..................Cattle Sale 

➢ Fri., May 3..................Hay Sale 










Seeds germinating under lights will grow into seedlings that will be 

planted outside in the spring. 

During the summer months, 

they grow peppers, potatoes, 

tomatoes, cucumbers, intoryi 

(an African eggplant), 

zucchini, and green beans at 

eight locations, including six 

in Davenport and one each in 

Rock Island and Bettendorf. 

An important aspect of site 

selection is the availability 

of water, whether it’s yard 

hydrants, large tanks perched 

on hills, or spigots on the sides 

of buildings. 

“We try to grow in neighborhoods 

that are food deserts,” 

she said, where access to fresh 

produce and healthy proteins 

are more limited. 

A new development that is a 

game changer for Tapestry is a 

hydroponics location that can 

grow up to six tons of produce 

annually and will double or 

triple the nonprofits production 

capacity each year. 

The John Deere Foundation 

provided a grant for the 

320-square-foot unit, the 

infrastructure and a year of 

operating costs for a Freight 

Farms vertical growing unit – 

essentially a shipping container 

– that is located in the parking 

lot of the Quad City Botanical 

Center. The unit will produce 

butterhead lettuce and other 

leafy greens initially and will 

allow Tapestry to be able to 

grow something year-round. 

Laura Eberlin, global corporate 

social responsibility lead 

with the Deere foundation, said 

last fall that the project is an 

innovative approach to getting 

food and an important step to 

fighting hunger. Almost 15,000 

people in Rock Island County 

struggle to put food on their 

family’s table, over 14,000 in 

Scott County. 

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Two volunteers from the Amazon facility in Davenport work on one 

of the Tapestry Farms gardens, which are tended to by seasonal 

employees and many community volunteers. 

aging the enormous talents of 

refugees and their families and 

pioneering new approaches to 

food and farming,” she added. 

“When all people who make 

up a community are honored, 

and all people feel at home, the 

community can grow and be 

stronger together.” 

An important component of 

Tapestry Farms is making sure 

people have healthy lives and 

access to education, mental 

and physical health care, 

transportation and more. As 

McGlynn said, “we’re building 

a community.” 

And there are opportunities 

for the community to get 

involved in the farming and 

other aspects. 

“We have work days, and 

we always welcome anyone to 

come to them. Vegetable farmers 

who have leftover crops 

they want to donate, we are 

happy to get those crops into 

the hands of people who could 

really use it,” she said. 

McGlynn feels that with 

Tapestry Farms, she’s come 

full-circle from growing up 

on a farm and seeing great 

examples of hard work and 

compassion. 

“I can’t imagine doing 

anything else. Everything I’ve 

experienced or done in my 

life has led to this,” McGlynn 

said. n 

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Members of the Schneckloth family pose in front of one of 

their Davenport area homesteads about 1870. Hans and 

Silka Schneckloth, left, traveled to the United States from 

Probstei, a low-lying area near the Baltic Sea. 




COME FROM 

Eastern Iowa farmers began settling the land almost two centuries ago. 

Today, their descendants are world-class producers. This is the story 

of who came and how they got here. 

Along the 

Mississippi 

Early settlers were drawn to 

Eastern Iowa by the promise of 

abundant land, proximity to the 

river and railroads, and a spirit of 

entrepreneurship. Whether arriving 

from the eastern United States 

or from Europe, they toiled 

on their farms, erected churches 

and established towns. They built 

the foundation for who we are 

today. Their stories tell the rich 

history of where we come from. 



It took 57 harrowing days for Jim Hahn’s great, 

great grandparents, Wulff and Gretje Hahn, to 

cross the ocean to a new life. 

They set out from Hamburg, Germany, with 

their 5-month-old daughter and about a dozen 

other adventurous families on a wooden sailing vessel 

named Henriette. It was April 12, 1847. 

In a family history he researched and compiled, Jim 

wrote: 

“Crying babies, crowded conditions, homesickness 

and fear of the unknown weren’t the only problems to 

plague the travels. One member had lice, and what bedding 

the Hahns brought with them had to be destroyed 

or thoroughly disinfected. Finally on their way, they 

left Hamburg sailing up the Elbe River and entered the 

North Sea. 

“For 57 long days and nights, the Henriette sailed the 

high seas, sometimes storms tossed, other times, as was 

especially true in the Gulf of Mexico, so becalmed that 

there was scarcely a ruffle in any sail. Water became 

dangerously scarce, and the hot Caribbean sun beat 

down mercilessly on the small band of ocean voyagers.” 

When they disembarked in New Orleans, the 

Mexican-American War was in full swing in Texas, 

and the newly arrived German men were approached to 

join the war effort. 

“They were escaping all that. They had no interest 

in fighting or wars,” Hahn said. What they wanted was 

a better life, the chance to own land, and the opportunity 

to farm that land and provide for their families in 

Eastern Iowa. From New Orleans, the travelers took 

a riverboat up the Mississippi, settling in Davenport, 



Jim Hahn has done extensive 

research into the German 

ancestors on both his paternal 

side, Hahn, and his maternal 

side, Schneckloth. He 

compiled the information and 

photos into two books. 


NANCY MAYFIELD 

specifically the Probstei neighborhood, 

which shared a name with their hometown 

in Germany. 

Germany accounted for the largest 

immigrant group in Iowa from the mid- 

1800s well into the 20th Century. 

Before 1830, Eastern Iowa was home 

to Native American tribes – mainly Sacs 

and Foxes. After the Blackhawk War, the 

federal government acquired the land as 

part of the Blackhawk Purchase. Settlers 

began to cross the Mississippi from the 

east, coming from Ohio, Pennsylvania, 

Maryland, Illinois and Indiana, said Frank 

Yoder, a historian who teaches at the University 

of Iowa. 

Land, about $1.25 an acre in the 1840s 

and 1850s, was a good investment. 

“Those early folks were really footloose. 

They didn’t want to stay in one 

place very long. They moved to points 

west. And when they moved, they were 

usually replaced by immigrants,” Yoder 

said. 

German immigrants were among the 

first to arrive in the area. They were 

followed by people from Wales, Bohemia, 

Norway, Ireland, Sweden and more. 

Iowa offered immigrants something not 

readily available at home – land, said Jeff 


The first annual reunion of the Wiese-Schneckloth families was June 10, 1928. It drew quite a crowd of extended family members. 


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Bremer, associate professor of history at 

Iowa State University, in his work titled 

“A New History of Iowa, 1673-2020.” 

Immigrants were among the some 1.5 

million people who settled in the state 

between 1840 and 1880. In 1860, almost 

one of every five Iowa residents was an 

immigrant, more than half of them living 

in the counties along the Mississippi River, 

according to U.S. Census reports. 

“Settlers came seeking land, which gave 

them economic independence,” Bremer 

said. They also were fleeing political and 

religious repression, drought and famine. 

“There were many challenges, including 

harsh weather, prairie fires, diseases 

and unending labor,” Bremer said. But 

they persevered. 

And as they made their homes and built 

their farms here, they sent word back to 

Europe: Opportunities await in Iowa. 

That promise is what drew Hahn’s ancestors, 

including his mother’s Schneckloth 

family, to Davenport. Some had 

farmed in Europe but had turned to trades 

such as masonry and shoemaking after not 

having access to land because of an array 

of economic and political factors. 

“They all wanted to come over and 

be farmers,” Hahn said. “A lot of them 

worked in the trade until they could get 

enough money to buy farmland. They 

wanted self-sufficiency and to not have to 

depend on anyone else to eat.” 

Wulff and Gretje bought 40 acres for 

$1.25 in a hilly and swampy area northwest 

of Davenport. They cleared land and 

trees from groves and built their own log 

cabin. 

“They made the windows small because 

there were wolves who howled outside 

their cabin,” Hahn said, noting that “Wulff 

spent the last of the money he had on the 

farmland and then some tools.” 

He would work at a plow factory during 

the day to make some money to help until 

they got the first crop in, managing to do 

farm chores in between. 

Some 10 years later, they sold that 

ground in 1856 for $50 an acre, and 

eventually bought the farm where Hahn 

grew up in 1864. The farm included cows, 

oxen, sheep and chickens, as well as grain 

and a huge garden. 

“They had everything,” Hahn said of 

the farm, which was located near where 

Interstate 80 and Interstate 280 intersect. 

The house and barns are long-gone, but 

the memories are cherished. 

Hahn and his siblings have many memories 

of the German food and traditions 

when they were growing up. 

“The Christmas traditions were a big 

deal,” he said. 

Those included exchanging gifts at 

home on Christmas Eve and visiting 

family on Christmas Day. Hahn said that 

his mother told him that many families in 

Germany put their Christmas trees up on 

Christmas Eve. 

Hahn and his siblings recall “O Tannenbaum” 

and other Lutheran hymns were 

sung in German during the festivities. 

Oyster stew was served for Christmas 

dinner. 

“It was not a universal favorite, and 

there were fights trying to get the young 

ones to try it,” he said. 

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Among the other foods they 

enjoyed were warm potato salad, 

pickled herring, Limburger cheese, 

smoked salmon, coleslaw and 

different types of pickles. 

“We had a big garden with a 

large area dedicated to cucumbers, 

with the older generation making 

their own pickles that were kept 

in the fruit cellar for the winter,” 

Hahn said. 

“There were various desserts, 

including Marzipan stollen and 

gingerbread cookies. When my 

mother made a birthday cake, 

it had fruit filling, like apricots, 

rather than frosting,” he said. 

While it has been generations 

since his Schneckloth and Hahn 

forebearers fled war and revolution 

in Germany, Hahn said the family 

values the lessons learned from 

those early U.S. settlers, not just in 

traditions but in work ethic, fearlessness 

and a pioneering spirit. n 

Paving the way for 

generations to come 

Having farmed for five generations and counting, Scott County 

family prepares the next round of stewards for the operation 

BY JENNA STEVENS 


Many of the farmers in Scott 

County have deep roots that 

stem back to their German 

ancestors who settled here 

because the fertile soil reminded 

them of home. As they nurtured the 

land more than a century ago, they hoped to 

build a future for their descendants. 

For the Krukow family, farming in Scott 

and Clinton counties has been a way of 

life for five generations, dating back to the 

1930s, with the hope that it will continue for 

another five and beyond. 

Ryan Krukow is one of two brothers 

involved in the Krukow Bros operation. 

He farms with his older brother Cory, his 

dad Mitch, and his and Cory’s sons, Lane, 

Abe, and Carver. While Ryan’s grandpa 

and grandma owned the Scott County farm 

he now lives on, his father Mitch grew up 

in town, an only child, who was sent to the 

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farm to burn off some energy. 

“Being an only child, my parents used to ship 

me off to the farm during the summer, so there 

would be something left of DeWitt,” said Mitch 

with a chuckle. “My dad helped me when I 

started farming, but he wasn’t a farmer himself. 

He was an auctioneer, and my parents were 

in the grocery store business for 25 years. My 

farming roots started with my mom’s parents 

who lived on the farm.” 

Like many farmers in Eastern Iowa who 

came from German stock, the Krukow family 

has traditions. Some things, like the rye bread 

Ella Krukow’s grandmother makes from a recipe 

passed down through the years, are tangible. 

Ella, Ryan’s daughter, said she hasn’t mastered 

it, but is confident she can keep the tradition 

going. But others, like work ethic and a love 

for the land, are values that go back centuries. 

Clare Tobin, with the German American 

Heritage Center and Museum in Davenport, 

said many German immigrants came to the 

Scott County area because the landscape was 

similar to home and they had the opportunity to 

do what they did best – farm and grow food for 

their families and community. 

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Ryan, Mitch and Abe Krukow 

are among three generations 

who farm together in Scott and 

Clinton counties. Mitch taught 

his sons, Ryan and Cory, the 

ropes. Now Abe, his brother, 

Lane, and cousin, Carver, are 

also working with their fathers 

and grandfather with hopes to 

pass the operation onto their 

future children. 


CONTRIBUTED 

“There was a similar climate and 

rich soil, and they saw opportunity,” 

she said. 

After graduating high school, 

Mitch headed to college to study 

accounting and business, coming 

home to take over his grandparents’ 

farm after his grandfather fell ill. 

“After I started farming, I 

promised my wife Julie, future 

wife at that time, that we could get 

a place in town. We wouldn’t live 

on the farm forever, just for a year. 

I didn’t think she would want to 

live on the farm since she grew up 

in town. Thank heavens a month or 

so after we got married, we were 

talking one night, and she asked if 

we had to move to town. I didn’t 

know where this conversation was 

going but she continued and said 

she loved living on the farm and 

thought it would be a wonderful 

place to raise kids. We spent the 

rest of our lives at the farm.” 

Mitch and Julie raised three kids 

“I didn’t really realize how each 

part of the process fit into the 

whole, or how little things like 

trimming fence lines impacted 

the big picture, but now I 

understand that a lot more.” 

— ABE KRUKOW 

and continued to expand, bringing 

their two boys, Cory, and Ryan, 

into the operation when they were 

in high school. 

“I started renting farm ground 

when I was a sophomore in high 

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school,” said Ryan. “At 

that point, my dad was still 

actively farming, but he had 

a massive heart attack a year 

or so later and decided it was 

time to scale back. At that 

point, Cory and I had a choice 

to make. Give it up or try and 

make it farming. We decided 

to try.” 

Both Ryan and Cory attended 

college, driving back and 

forth at night and on the weekends 

to get crops planted and 

harvested. When he graduated, 

Ryan took over full time and 

Cory worked as a teacher. 

Eventually, the Krukow 

brothers started expanding by 

picking up more rented ground 

from retiring farmers in the 

area, a point of pride for Mitch. 

“I think the proudest thing 

I can say about my family, 

my boys, and my grandsons, 


Ryan Krukow drives a tractor at the family farm. His ancestors came 

from Germany, from which many people migrated to Eastern Iowa in 

the mid-1800s. 

is that we have never had to 

solicit to rent anyone’s farm. 

Farmers come to us and ask 

if we would like to rent their 

farm when they retire,” said 

Mitch. “I take that as a wonderful 

compliment.” 

Abe Krukow, along with 

his brother Lane and cousin 

Carver, is following in his 

family’s footsteps, renting his 

own ground in high school, 

and harvesting his first crop 

this fall. 

“Now that I am making decisions 

about my own ground, 

I can see how my dad looks 

at things,” said Abe. “I didn’t 

really realize how each part of 

the process fit into the whole, 

or how little things like trimming 

fence lines impacted the 

big picture, but now I understand 

that a lot more.” 

A junior now, Abe will graduate 

high school in two years 

and plans to expand both his 

crops and cow-calf pairs, so 

he can farm full-time like his 

dad. He wants to see the tradition 

of the Krukow brothers 

continue and hopes to raise his 

own children on the farm. 

“I want to see all of us get 

married and have kids of our 

own that want to farm,” Abe 

said. “I think as my dad gets 

out of it, my brothers and I 

will take on a bigger role, and 

eventually when it is our turn 

to retire, our kids have enough 

knowledge to take it over from 

us.” n 

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GREEN TIDE 

Fleeing the potato famine, early settlers came from Ireland to Eastern Iowa, 

building churches, starting farms, and forming rural communities 

In this picture from the O’Connor family history scrapbook, 

Jack O’Connor, left, and his father, Ed, take a break from 

their chores on their rural Donahue farm. Over the decades, 

the family raised corn, soybeans and hay for their cows. 



The day Jim O’Connor was 

born, his parents made a 

slight adjustment to the 

name they had planned to 

bestow upon him. 

It was March 17, 1948. 

Instead of James Edward, they decided 

to call their new arrival James 

Patrick, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. 

O’Connor is the fifth generation to 

operate the Scott County farm started 

by his ancestors who came to Eastern 

Iowa from Ireland in the mid-1800s, 

escaping starvation and economic 

blight. They and other families 

settled in an area bordered by 120th 

Avenue on the west, Veteran’s Highway 

on the east, St. Ann’s Road on 

the south and the Wapsipinicon River 

on the north. 

“They came out here because the 

ground was easy to till. It was a sandier 

ground,” said O’Connor, who still 

lives on the farm in rural Donahue. 



Over the decades, his family raised corn, 

soybeans and hay for their cows. 

Reading from a Scott County plat 

book, he ticked off the Irish surnames 

representing many descendants of Irish 

immigrants still tied to land in the area, 

such as Moore, Quinn, Farren, Looney, 

Caine, Shannon, Costello, and Murphy, to 

name a few. 

“Our farm was started by Patrick Feeney. 

Feeney had a daughter who married 

my great-grandfather,” he said. 

“They took over the operation in 1896. 

From there on, they had numerous sons. 

My grandfather (Ed) was one of them,” 

he said. 

Family history compiled by O’Connor’s 

sister-in-law, Karen O’Connor, 

shows the Feeneys came from County 

Sligo in the northwestern part of Ireland. 

Included in the pages of records she has 

curated are wedding photos, marriage 

certificates and newspaper clippings of 

obituaries, among other things. 

One story passed down recounts how 

it is believed that on an ocean voyage to 

James Patrick 

O’Connor, who was 

born on St. Patrick’s 

Day, has been known 

to celebrate the 

holiday in creative 

ways to honor his 

Irish heritage. 

the United States, 

Patrick Feeney and 

his wife, Catherine 

Gillen Feeney, lost 

a child, and that 

Catherine had to 

throw the child 

overboard herself 

so the youngster 

could be buried at 

sea. 

Other hardships 

were endured by 

early family members 

who worked 

hard to build a new 

life as farmers in 

Scott County. A 

newspaper account 

from 1909 tells of 

the death of Alice 

B. O’Connor after 

she was burned in an explosion while 

trying to light a lantern. The light was 

customarily used each night by her husband 

while milking the cows and doing 

other work in the barn. 

O’Connor’s ancestors came to the United 

States at a time when families were 

arriving together, a trend that started in 

the 1840s, according to research compiled 

by the State Historical Society of Iowa. 

Prior to that, single men accounted for 

most of the Irish immigrants. 

That pattern shifted as people sent 

word back to relatives in their native 

country about the opportunities in the 

United States, which was known as 

“chain migration.” 

From 8.2 million in 1841, the population 

dropped to 6.6 million in only 10 

years and to 4.7 million in 1891. From 

1841 to World War II, some estimates 

conclude that 4.5 million Irish came to 

the United States,” noted the Historical 

Society in an article titled “Irish Immigration: 

Beyond the Potato Famine.” 

“So harsh were conditions in Ireland 

that the nation’s population decrease 

substantially through the 19th century,” 

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Ed and Marcella (Mertz) O’Connor, on the left, married 

in February 1925. Ed is a descendant of Patrick and 

Catherine Feeney, who were among the Irish immigrants 

to settle in rural Eastern Iowa after fleeing famine and 

seeking more opportunity in the mid-1800s. 

the article said. 

While German settlers accounted 

for the largest immigrant group 

in Eastern Iowa, the Irish were 

well-represented among other immigrants 

forming rural communities. 

Records from St. Ann’s Roman 

Catholic Church near Long Grove 

show that among its parishioners in 

the late 1800s were also people of 

Belgian descent. 

O’Connor’s mother was Belgian, 

he said. 

“There is a large Flemish concentration 

here and in the surrounding 

areas,” he said. Such surnames as 

Vandewalle, Ven Horst, and DeWulf 

are just a few examples locally. 

True to his Irish roots, O’Connor 

often celebrates St. Patrick’s Day 

by having birthday cake along with 

corned beef and cabbage, but he’s 

also done some more nontraditional 

– albeit festive – activities in years 

past. 

“I’ve been known to dye livestock 

green and go on tour,” he said, 

adding that it was done in a way 

that was safe for the animals. “It all 

started with a goat. Hogan’s goat.” 

According to Irish legend, a fellow 

named Hogan owned a goat that 

made a habit of wandering off and 

becoming lost in the woods or hills. 

In some versions of the story, the 

goat was stolen. 

“I took Hogan’s goat on tour 

to numerous establishments,” he 

recalled with a chuckle. 

“I had two kids the next year. I 

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he said. He also recalled Paddy Pig. 

“Yes, I’ve also dyed pigs green 

and gone out and about,” he said. “I 

came home and turned the pig back 

into the farrowing house. When I 

came back to check, all the little 

pigs were cuddled around the green 

pig, hearing about the wild time in 

town.” n 

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Red, green, white 

and a fierce dragon 


Revelers who are 100% Welsh gather for a picture at the 2023 St. David’s Day celebration in Columbus Junction. A parade that ends in a 

gathering at the American Legion Hall takes place on a Saturday in early March each year to celebrate Welsh Heritage Month and the life of St. 

David, the patron saint of Wales. 

Members of farming 

community celebrate 

Welsh heritage with 

St. David’s Day 

parade and party each 

year, inviting the 

public to share in the 

festivities honoring 

their ancestors 



In late winter, on a Saturday as 

close to March 1 as possible, 

preparations get under way for 

a spirited parade in Columbus 

Junction. 

“In the morning people get together 

to decorate the American Legion Hall, 

where the parade ends,” said Margaret 

Patterson, who lives on a farm near 

Louisa County in southeast Iowa. 

Those decorations include lots of red, 

green and white and a fierce dragon, 

all elements of the flag of Wales. 

In the afternoon, a few hundred 

people will gather to make the twoblock 

march to honor the feast day of 

St. David, the patron saint of Wales. 

Many will carry placards with their 

Welsh ancestor’s family names, such 

as Jones, Hughes, Thomas, Owens, 

Williams, Reese, Arthur, Peters, 

Davis, Griffith, Pugh, Morgan, Evans, 

and Edwards, to name a few. 

The event is open to everyone, and 

it is a way for members of the local 

community who are of Welsh descent 

to share some of the culture of their 

ancestors. 

The celebration includes food 

prepared by local families of Welsh 

descent and includes a stew of meat 


and vegetables called lobsgows, cookies 

and cakes. Traditional songs ring out, and 

people meet new friends or reconnect with 

old ones. 

Welsh immigrants came to the Eastern 

Iowa area in the early to mid-1800s, often 

driven by hunger, a desire for freedom of 

religion and a search for economic opportunities. 

In Louisa County, they populated 

the area north and south of Long Creek, 

between Cotter and Wyman. Many of the 

farms are still owned and operated by their 

descendants. 

Patterson’s ancestors – the Davis, Evans, 

Griffith, and Reese families – began 

immigrating to the area in 1838. While her 

family and others became farmers, some 

people took up trades or opened businesses 

eventually. 

“People came from Wales for different 

reasons. One of the big ones was similar to 

the potato famine in Ireland. It was a devastating 

time in Wales in terms of food and 

jobs. Mining was a popular occupation, and 


the mining companies were closing down,” 

she said. 

“People would have to make a decision – 

if I’m not going to be able to feed my family, 

I’m going to have to do something,” 

she said. That something was leaving their 

homeland for greener pastures. 

“In Wales they have what they call hill 

farmers. It’s a very hilly country. Some of 

them came here with farming experience, 

and some came with no experience. The 

ones with experience would teach the 

newcomers,” Patterson said. “There was no 

A Melting Pot 

In 1850, some 192,214 people 

lived in Iowa with nearly 90 percent 

of the population comprised of 

settlers from Ohio, Indiana and 

Pennsylvania. About 21,000 people 

living in Iowa were immigrants 

from another country. The number 

of immigrants peaked at 324,669 in 

1890, as settlers had families and 

their children were born in the United 

States. In 1890, the top 10 countries 

that had the most immigrants 

in Iowa were German (127,246), 

Sweden (30,276), Ireland (27,353), 

Norway (27,078), England 

(26,205), Denmark (15,519), 

Canada (17,465), Austria (13,118), 

Bohemia, which is now the Czech 

Republic and Slovakia (10,928), 

and the Netherlands (7,941). 

Source: State Historical Society of Iowa, 

U.S. census reports and “History of 

Iowa” by Dorothy Schwieder. 

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mining in Louisa County, so most people 

traded their occupation from maybe being 

a miner to being a farmer or an occupation 

that supported farming, such as blacksmithing 

or grain milling. They acquired 

land and implemented soil conservation 

methods to preserve the rich soil of Louisa 

County. Their descendants continue to incorporate 

modern conservation methods.” 

Many people from Wales arrived at 

a time when land was readily available 

as the Iowa territory had just opened 

up. Those who secured land and started 

growing and raising food for their families 

shared the news. 

“They would 

write letters back 

and say ‘You 

have to come. 

It’s the land of 

“They grew the 

grain to feed 

the animals. 

They ate the 

meat and had 

a big garden to 

feed the family.” 

— MARGARET 

PATTERSON 

golden opportunity,’” 

she said, 

adding that it 

could not have 

been easy. “It’s 

a big decision 

to leave your 

homeland and 

the rest of your 

family behind.” 

Their travels 

could be harrowing. 

Many local 

families have 

stories passed 

down through 

the generations 

about the challenges of crossing the ocean 

and then navigating U.S. waterways to 

arrive at their new homes. 

Patterson recounted the story of her 

great, great, great grandfather, Arthur 

Griffiths, who came to Eastern Iowa with 

his pregnant wife. They first made their 

way through the Cincinnati area then went 

down the Ohio River to Cape Giraudoux, 

Missouri, south of St. Louis. Then it was 

on to the Mighty Mississippi. 

“Part of the way they came up the Mississippi, 

which was fighting the current, in 

a canoe,” she said. “Arthur got in a canoe 

with a pregnant wife and made it to Burlington. 

Their child, Elizabeth, was the first 

Welsh baby born on the west side of the 

Mississippi in the Louisa County area. 

“They had to start over. They carried 


Among the many books related to Wales that 

Margaret Patterson has in her home is “First 

100 Words in Welsh,” a book with colorful 

pictures that introduces first words in Welsh 

and English to young children. 


While Patterson doesn’t speak Welsh fluently, 

she did learn to say “A red sow and six little 

red pigs” about the porcelain figures on a shelf 

in her dining room. 

what could fit in a canoe. Imagine that,” 

Patterson said. Arthur, like other Welsh 

settlers, built a self-supporting farm. They 

would expand it a few acres at a time and 

would add crop production and livestock. 

“They grew the grain to feed the 

animals. They ate the meat and had a 

big garden to feed the family. It was an 

eye-opener for some families because 

it was not necessarily what they came 

from,” she said. 

The new arrivals formed churches and 

bible study groups, initially in people’s 

homes. The Welsh settlers formed three 

different churches. Zion Congregational 

Church, which was the first, is no longer 

standing. Salem United Presbyterian 

Welsh Church, southeast of Columbus 

Junction, and Cotter United Presbyterian 

Church are both still active in the community. 

Patterson is the president of the Welsh 

Society of Iowa, which was organized in 

1985. She recalls the close-knit community 

growing up, with many relatives 

farming nearby. 

“I thought the whole world was Welsh,” 

Patterson said of her childhood years. 

“My mother did not speak English. Her 

father came from Wales in 1909 and 

married my grandmother who was already 

here and spoke Welsh.” 

When she was old enough to attend 

school, her Welsh friends who grew up in 

English-speaking homes helped her learn 

the language, but Patterson recalled her 

mother’s very distinct accent. 

“The unfortunate part is my parents did 

not teach us the language,” she said. 

But she has carefully preserved many 

aspects of the culture in her home from 

books, paintings, photographs, maps and a 

copy of the Welsh national anthem. 

She and others enjoy keeping up the St. 

David’s Day tradition, and they extend an 

open invitation to anyone who is interested 

to join in the festivities. 

Some 200 people attended the first 

celebration in 2013. 

“That was an eye-opener,” Patterson 

said, noting that some people who grew 

up in the area but had since moved to 

other parts of the country come back for 

the event. “It’s quite a gathering.” 

Saturday, March 2 marks this year’s 

parade. 

The Iowa Welsh Society also celebrates 

St. David’s Day with a banquet on or near 

March 1 each year. The St. David’s Day 

banquet this year is March 16 at the Pella 

Golf and Country Club. The event moves 

to a different location each year. 

Everyone is invited to attend both 

events. For more information, Patterson 

can be reached by email at mepattic@aol. 

com. n 


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‘Passing it on to the next generation 

is one of the greatest things’ 

When German settlers 

came to Eastern Iowa in 

the 1800s, they started 

building farms and 

establishing a legacy 

for future generations 



Jessica Stecher-Marolf was intent on 

finishing up harvest on her family’s 

Muscatine County farm four 

years ago, despite being 37 weeks 

pregnant. 

She’d dropped her daughter off at a 

birthday party and hopped into her combine 

to finish harvesting corn. She could 

tell something was off, but she kept going. 

She called her husband, Dustin Marolf, 

and told him she was pretty sure she was 

in labor. 

“He told me to get out of the combine 

and get to the hospital,” she said. She told 

him she only had a few rounds left. 

She took his advice, though, drove 

herself in her pickup to the hospital, where 

Dustin met her, and delivered a healthy 

baby boy. 

You might say farming is in the blood of 

both their children – Harper, 8, and Dylan, 

4 – who love being around the farm and 

helping their parents. 

Dustin, 42, and Jessica, 38, both come 

from a long line of farmers in Eastern 

Iowa. They each can trace their local 

roots – German on her side and German 

and Swiss on his side – back at least five 

generations. 

“My dad’s side came from Berne, 

Switzerland,” Dustin said. “My Wiese side 

came from Germany.” 

In fact, Wiese Slough in Muscatine 

County is named after the family, which 

still farms ground near there. 

From their Cedar County home that sits 


Jessica Marolf saved her daughter’s proclamations from the first day of preschool. Harper 

Marolf, now 8, knew then that she wants to be an art teacher and a farmer when she grows up. 

She and her brother Dylan, 4, love to help their parents out in the shop and ride in the tractor. 

right on the Muscatine County line, the 

couple talked about their shared love of 

farming, which they learned from their 

parents – Dean and Pam Stecher and Jerry 

and Dawn Marolf (their son Kyle Marolf 

also helps on the farm). They are both 

proud to carry on the traditions started by 

their ancestors. 

While people came to Eastern Iowa from 

many countries in the 1800s, the majority 

made their way from Germany, said Rita 

Farro, the executive director of the Buffalo 

Bill Museum in LeClaire. 

“Farming was in their roots for many of 

them,” she said. And they worked hard to 

establish farms that their descendants, such 

as the Marolfs, still work. 


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“I don’t think there’s a single farmer out 

there who doesn’t think of their legacy. 

It’s their soul. Passing it on to the next 

generation is one of the greatest things. 

But it’s also not what you leave them, but 

what you leave in them.” Dustin said. “The 

mindset and the work ethic is huge.” 

He and Jessica agree those two things 

and more are traits that came from their 

ancestors. 

They add stubbornness, persistence and 

a good grasp of farming to the list. 

Dustin, who took German in high 

school, had the chance to visit Germany, 

Switzerland and Austria during those 

years. In 2010, he traveled back to Germany 

for work and also visited Amsterdam. 

He did a deeper dive into his family 

history during the pandemic. Jessica had 

given him Ancestry.com for his birthday, 

and in his down time, he “just devoured” 

information. He also has an aunt who 

knows a lot of the family’s history. 

Both Dustin and Jessica 

grew up working on their 

farms, which at the time 

included hogs and cattle. 

Today, they both are grain 

farmers and work land in 

Cedar, Muscatine and Scott 

counties. 

They share fond memories 

of growing up doing chores. 

“I spent a lot of time with 

hogs. I remember busting ice 

and getting silage out of the 

silo,” Dustin recalled. “Grandpa 

had bunks set up so I could 

scoop it and walk down the 

bunk so a cow wouldn’t trample 

me.” 

Jess, who grew up outside of 

Stockton, recalled a Christmas 

morning when she and her sister 

awoke super early in hopes 

of opening the presents under 

the tree. 

“My dad was waiting, and he said ‘You 

can’t open any presents until you clean the 

hog pens.’ So, we had to do that first,” she 

said. She left the farm as a young adult 

working in other fields in urban areas. 

“I wanted nothing to do with farming, 

but then I grew up and I realized I missed 

the farm. I wanted to go back to farming. 

I started working again with my dad,” she 

said. 

She and Dustin, who had met briefly in 

the past, reconnected one night at a bowling 

alley where Jessica joined her dad for a 

few drinks. Dustin and his dad had just 

finished harvesting nearby and came into 

the restaurant. 

“They came. He pulled a chair up and 

sat down, and we talked every day since 

then,” she said. 

When the couple married in 2014, they 

were farming separately. A few years later, 

Mother Nature nudged them together. 

“It was a really wet year, and he was 

having trouble getting the beans out. It 

was late. I got done on my family farm, 

Jessica, Dylan, Harper and Dustin 

Marolf come from a long line of 

farmers in Eastern Iowa who 

originally came to the area from 

Germany and Switzerland. Jessica 

and Dustin represent at least the 

fifth generation. Harper Marolf 

and Dylan Marolf love to help their 

parents in the fields during planting 

and harvest. Their parents, Dustin 

and Jessica, hope to instill love of 

the land and appreciation for hard 

work into their children as their 

ancestors did for them. 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTOS / 

CONTRIBUTED 

and I brought my machine over,” Jessica 

recalled. 

“After that, every year we just started 

slowly doing things together,” she said. 

The have a babysitter for nights that 

they have to work late in the fields, but “on 

weekends they are in the combine with us 

or with one of their grandmas on the farm. 

They absolutely love it,” Jessica said. 

They are happy to work hard growing 

the dream of their ancestors and for future 

generations. 

“It’s all about keeping it going,” Dustin 

said. n 



SWEET TRADITIONS 

From baking kolaches to 

working on the farm, the 

Jansa family learned much 

from their Czech ancestors 

who were among the 

immigrants who built 

farming communities 

in Eastern Iowa 



Cherry, poppyseed, prune and 

apricot. 

Those were the flavors of 

the kolaches baked weekly by 

Antonia Jansa, affectionately 

known to her grandchildren as Babi. 

“We’d go to church and then stop at 

Babi’s. She made kolaches every Sunday 

morning. And they sure were good,” said 

Marjorie Jansa, her daughter-in-law, who 

had five children with her husband, Leonard 

Jansa. 

Darrell Jansa recalled that during those 

visits his father and grandmother would 

talk Czech sometimes, which he and his 

siblings did not speak. 

“We’d eat the kolaches and listen to 

them, but we didn’t understand,” said Darrell, 

who favors the apricot flavor. 

Babi, an immigrant from the Czech village 

of Javornice, taught Marjorie, whose 

family was German, how to make the 

pastries, which are still a staple in several 

pockets of Eastern Iowa where many 

Czech and some Slovak settlers migrated 

in the mid-1800s. 

The Czech Republic and Slovakia were 

part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 

they united as the country of Czechoslovakia 

in 1918. In 1993, Czechoslovakia 

peacefully split into the two counties they 

are today. 

David Muhlena, library director at the 

National Czech and Slovak Museum and 

Library in Cedar Rapids, said most of 

those settlers came in the 1850s, driven 


Brothers Darrell and Don Jansa look over scrapbooks containing family farm history with their 

mother, Marjorie. The men remember visiting the grandmother, Antonia, on Sundays and being 

treated to kolaches. Anotonia and her husband, Louis, both immigrated from the Czech Republic. 

out of Central Europe by the Revolutions 

of 1848. After the feudal land system dissolved, 

people were poor and landless, but 

also mobile. And, they knew how to farm. 

Cedar and Johnson counties were early 

areas of settlement, Muhlena noted. An 

area of Iowa City east of the University 

was dubbed 

Goose Town 

because the 

Bohemian immigrants 

who 

settled there 

in the 1850s 

kept geese in 

their yards. 

The Jansa 

family members 

who still 

live in the 

area attend 

St. Wenceslaus 

Catholic 

Church, the 

Cedar Rapids parish founded by Czechs 

and their descendants in 1874. 

Darrell and his brother, Don Jansa, farm 

the family’s original 122.5-acre homestead 

that their great, great grandfather, Frank, 

and his wife, Ferezie, bought in 1882 for 

$4,900, or $40 an acre. They farmed their 

entire lives beside their father, Leonard, 

with Marjorie and their three daughters 

helping with chores as well. 

Majorie and Leonard met at a local 

dancehall and married in 1951. He and 

Marjorie took over the family farm in April 

1955 from his late father, Louis. Antonia 

moved to town so they could live in the 

farmhouse with their growing family, 

Marjorie said. 

They raised pigs, cattle and crops. She 

and her daughters milked their cows, and 

she sold eggs. In their huge garden, they 

“grew everything” – tomatoes, potatoes 

onions, kohlrabi, beans and more. 

They were married 71 years when Leonard 

died in 2022. 

“The boys worked with their dad from 

the time they were born until he died,” 

Marjorie said, noting that her sons represent 

the fourth generation of the Jansa 

family to farm the land. 

Darrell and Don said they learned a lot 

from their father. 

He was conservative with his approach, 

not wanting to be in debt but “able to sleep 

at night,” Darrell noted. His dad never 

complained. 

Said Don, who lives in the original 

farmhouse, “He taught me hard work and 

patience.” n 


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LAND VALUES 

SLOWING THE PACE 

Iowa farmland values rose higher in 2023 but the price-per-acre 

surge seen the previous two years abated 



When it comes to selling 

farm ground, each piece 

of dirt is different, said 

Matt Hoenig and Riley 

Sieren, both agents working in eastern 

and southeastern Iowa for Peoples, a 

national brokerage. 

Case in point, Sieren recalled an 

auction he handled last year where two 

parcels of land right across the road 

from each other were on the block. One 

sold for just over $26,000 an acre (the 

third-highest land price in Iowa last 

year), the other for $15,900. 

“There can be a lot of variation,” he 

said, noting it takes “two to tango.” 

The alignment of the right buyer with 

the right seller and the right conditions 

yields results. 

And while a statewide jump in land 

prices over the past three years slowed 

2023 HIGHEST 

LAND AUCTION 

PRICE-PER-ACRE 

• Cedar - $13,400 

• Louisa County - $16,950 

• Johnson County - $16,600 

• Muscatine - $15,425 

• Scott - $27,326 

Source: Iowa State University 

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its pace in 2023, 

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strong, particularly 

for high-quality 

ground, experts 

agreed. 

“If it’s flat and 

black, there is still 

potential to set 

those new land 

records,” Hoenig 

said. 

Many of the 

factors behind the 

large surge in Iowa land values in 2022 

supported the increase in 2023 as well, 

said Rabail Chandio, an agricultural 

economist at Iowa State University. 

“Interest rates were lower through the 

first half of the year, commodity prices 

were still elevated, crop yields were a 

positive surprise despite the weather 

challenges throughout the growing season, 

cash and credit availability remained 

Riley Sieren 

Peoples Company 

ample and allowed 

farmers to stay 

aggressive in the 

land market, and 

investor demand 

grew stronger 

nudged by inflation 

concerns and lack 

of alternative investment 

options,” 

said Chandio, who 

presented the Center 

for Agricultural 

and Rural Development 

(CARD) annual land values survey 

results at the end of last year. 

The value of farmland in Eastern Iowa, 

including Cedar, Johnson, Muscatine 

and Scott counties, increased 0.7% to an 

average price of $12,678. Louisa County, 

which is part of the south east reporting 

district, saw the biggest jump in the state, 

“If it’s flat and 

black, there is still 

potential to set 

those new land 

records.” 

— MATT HOENING 

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LAND VALUES 

“We are now at the cusp 

of another great period 

of farmland values, and 

if the economy bypasses 

a recession as planned, 

we should be able to end 

this era without a rapid 

collapse in land values.” 

— RABAIL CHANDIO 

12.8% to an average price of $10,460. 

After harvest, farmers had more money 

than they thought they would have after 

much concern about the impact the statewide 

drought might have on their crops, 

Sieren said. Decent yields can lead to 

desire to increase production. 

“There were a few key points to keep 

the market rolling,” Sieren said. 

Values in the state overall were up 3.7% 

to an average price of $11,835. 

“This modest (state) increase, following 

the dramatic 17% surge last year, 

means that Iowa farmland values, still at 

an all-time high since Iowa State started 

tracking the land value information in the 

1940s, have started to cool off,” Chandio 

said. 

Supply and demand are a crucial part of 

the equation. 

“My take is that inventory was very, 

very low. A few of the counties in the 

state only had one auction last year,” 

Sieren said. Overall, there were 150 fewer 

auctions last year in Iowa, or an average 

Rabail Chandio 

Iowa State University 

of about 2.5 fewer 

per month. 

So some potential 

buyers have 

money ready and 

are waiting for the 

right parcel, Hoenig 

said. 

“Everyone is 

holding back for 

higher quality,” he 

said. 

Realtors said that 

while prices aren’t 

climbing like they had been the past two 

years, they are on solid ground. It remains 

a good investment as an inflation hedge 

and from an appreciation standpoint. 

The farmland market has outperformed 

the S&P 500 over the last 40 years, Sieren 

noted. 

After three years of increases, Chandio 

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LAND VALUES 

LAND VALUES LOCALLY 

(average price per acre) 

CEDAR 

COUNTY 

Values fell 0.4% to 

$12,732 in 2023. 

That small dip 

followed increases 

of 14.2% in 2022 

and 28% in 2021. 

JOHNSON 

COUNTY 

Values were up 

4.8% to $13,141 in 

2023. That followed 

increases of 12.7% 

in 2022 and 25.4% 

in 2021. 

LOUISA 

COUNTY 


4.6% to $11,474 in 



in 2022 and 25.5% 

in 2021. 

MUSCATINE 

COUNTY 


0.3% to $11,734 in 


increases of 14% in 

2022 and 27.7% in 

2021. 

SCOTT 

COUNTY 

Values were down 

3.9% to $15,338 in 



in 2022 and 30% in 

2021. 

EAST CENTRAL IOWA 

DISTRICT 

(which includes 

Cedar, Johnson, 

Muscatine and Scott 

among its counties) 

– values were up 0.7% 

to $12,678 in 2023. 

That followed increases 

of 14% in 2022 and 

29.6% in 2021. 

SOUTH EAST IOWA 

DISTRICT 

(which includes Louisa 

County) – values were 

up 12.% percent, the 

highest increase in 

the state, to $10,460. 

That followed increases 

of 9.8% in 2022 and 

21.9% in 2021. 

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LAND VALUES 

said farm land values are at a plateau. 

“While positive influences were more 

prominent at the beginning of the year, negative 

pressures are building as we approach 

2024. Barring any unusual activity in the 

land markets, we may see the curve start to 

decline in the next year or so,” she said. 

And although the land market is likely 

to face declines in the short run, Chandio 

doesn’t foresee a sudden collapse of the agricultural 

land markets in the near future. 

“There have been three ‘golden’ eras for 

Iowa land values over the past 100 years,” 

Chandio said. “The first one ended in a long, 

drawn-out decline in land values from 1921 

to 1933, the second golden era ended with a 

sudden collapse from 1981 to 1986. The third 

golden era ended with an orderly adjustment 

in values from 2014 onwards as opposed to 

a sudden collapse. We are now at the cusp 

of another great period of farmland values, 

and if the economy bypasses a recession as 

planned, we should be able to end this era 

without a rapid collapse in land values.” n 

LAND VALUES SURVEY 

KEY FINDINGS 

The Ag Economy Barometer led by Purdue University, a nationwide monthly 

agricultural producer survey, showed that most surveyed farmers expect 

higher farmland prices 12 months from now, mostly due to strong investor 

demand which is expected to outweigh the rising costs, lowering prices, and 

higher interest rates. 

The 2023 survey reported that investors represented 24% of land sales, which 

is slightly lower than the 27% in 2022, coinciding with the fall in inflation. 

Consistent with previous years, the majority of farmland sales, 70%, were still 

to existing farmers, of which existing local farmers captured 69% of land sales. 

Farm income, though lower than last year, is still higher than the 

pre-pandemic levels. At least 84% of Iowa farmland is fully paid for, and 

farmland is increasingly viewed as a more stable and robust investment 

option given greater general economy and geopolitical uncertainty. 

Source: Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) annual land values survey 


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SPIRIT OF IOWA 

RAISING A 

TOAST 

TO THE 

SPIRIT 

of Iowa 

farmers 

Mississippi River 

Distilling Co. looks 

local when buying rye, 

barley, wheat and corn 

for its niche business 

BY JENNA STEVENS 


When brothers Ryan 

and Garrett Burchett 

opened the doors of 

their LeClaire distillery 

some 13 years ago, they 

didn’t go far to source an important raw 

material. 

All of the grain used in the operation 

comes from farmers within a 25-mile 

radius, Ryan Burchett said. 

“One of the farmers who we purchase 

grain from came in and tried our vodka. 

He asked us if his corn was in that bottle, 

and we told him, yes,” Ryan said. “He 

said that it might be the first time outside 

of feeding his cattle that he could say 

with certainty what his grain was being 

used for. That was a big moment for us, 

too, because we try hard to make sure we 

source as many things as we can from 

small producers and manufacturers.” 

While the brothers pride themselves 

on using local products, the company’s 

customer base reaches far beyond their 

Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois raw 

material markets. 

The distillery sells to other bars, including 

one at the very top of the map in 

Minnesota, which marks the start of the 

Mississippi River. The goal is to eventually 

get their spirits into the bar at the very 

end of the Mississippi, creating a chain 

along its mighty banks, Ryan said. Mississippi 

River Distilling Co. products can 

also be purchased in retail stores around 

the country. 

Located on the Mississippi River, the 

distillery opened its doors in 2010 when 

the Burchetts saw an opportunity in what 

was a small niche market. 

“At the time that we opened there were 

only 200 other distillers in the country,” 

Ryan said. “Regulations for distillers in 

Iowa dated back to Prohibition, and over 

the course of the last 13 years, we have 

worked with Iowa legislators to update 

these rules to make significant industry 

changes. Most people don’t know this, 

but Iowa is the number one beverage 

alcohol-producing state in the country.” 

In order to distill their spirits, the 

company uses rye, barley, wheat, and 

corn, When the brothers first started and 

wanted to purchase grain, a 50-pound bag 

of milled corn was $50. 

“I knew that a bushel of corn was selling 

for a whole lot less than that,” Ryan 

said. “So, we bought our own hammer 

mill and started milling our own corn that 

we purchase locally.” 

Getting the product from the farm to 




While Mississippi River Distilling Co.’s customer base reaches far beyond Eastern Iowa, people 

can sample the operation’s spirits locally at LeClaire and Davenport locations. The company 

uses rye, barley, wheat, and corn to make a variety of craft beverages. 

Brothers Ryan and Garrett Burchett 

opened the doors of the Mississippi River 

Distilling Co. some 13 years ago. The 

LeClaire operation uses grain from farmers 

within a 25-mile radius. 


the distillery involves taking their own 

pickup truck and seed tender and filling 

the back with the grain they need. Most of 

the time the corn comes from the farmer’s 

bins, but during harvest season they get it 

straight from the combine. 

“Harvest is our favorite time to get 

grain,” Ryan said. “It doesn’t get more 

farm fresh than that!” 

All the grain is milled on-site. Once 

it is milled, it gets cooked in a mash, 

which converts the grain into sugar. Yeast 

is added after the mash cools, and it is 

left to sit for about a week to turn it into 

alcohol. When it gets distilled, the alcohol 

is essentially cooked out and turned into 

vapor. The vapor is captured; and when it 

cools back down, it becomes liquid again. 

Eventually, the grain mash is removed, 

and what is leftover goes to a local farmer 

who mixes it into his cattle ration. This 

gives the cattle extra protein and allows 

for the distillery to get rid of their excess 

grain, completing the cycle. 

If drinking spirits is not your thing, 

you might want to try cooking with them 

using the recipes developed by their own 

Chef Stephanie Godke. 

A culinary professor and industry consultant, 

Godke started working with the 

company after making several appearances 

on the KWQC-TV show “Paula 

Sands Live.” Before becoming a distillery 

owner, Burchett worked as a meteorologist 

for KWQC, which is where he and 

Godke met. 

The two talked over coffee about the 

possibility of creating menu items, and a 

partnership was born. What started as a 

few recipes has expanded into an ever-growing 

list of appetizers, main dishes, 

desserts, and, of course, cocktails, all of 

which can be found on their website. 

If the recipes look complicated, Godke 

offers classes to show you how to make 

these delicious bites. 

“We once hosted an office Christmas 

party where I taught a cooking class in 

the barrel room,” Godke said. “There was 

a lot of laughter and even more drinks. It 

was a great time.” 

Godke also caters and most recently 

agreed to help the brothers launch the 

new Celebration Center, a wedding and 

event venue in LeClaire. 

“Having a venue in LeClaire that can 

host weddings and events is great. Couples 

like the location and with it being so 

close to the distillery, we can take care of 

guests in both places,” she said. 

With everything they are currently 

doing, Ryan said he is content for the moment 

and not looking at expanding in the 

immediate future, adding that his wife has 

been patient with all the new adventures, 

but he does not want to push his luck. 

From local grain and local ingredients 

on their menu, the Burchett brothers have 

created a business that showcases Iowa’s 

grain for customers across the country. n 

Mississippi River Distillery 

Brunch Recipes 

CODY ROAD RYE WHISKEY MUSTARD 

ROOTBEER HAM GLAZE 

1 spiral cut ham 

1 1⁄2 cups packed dark brown sugar 

3⁄4 cup Boetje’s MRDC mustard 

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spices 

1⁄4 cup Cody Road Rye 

Root beer 

Directions 

n Make a paste of the brown sugar, rye, 

spices and mustard. 



n Rub the ham with the paste. 

n Put the ham cut-face down in a roasting 

pan. 

n Add the root beer up to 2 inches on the 

ham. 

n Bake according to the ham wrapper 

instructions. 

BOURBON GLAZED CARROTS 

1/2 cup butter 

2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into equalsized 

pieces 

1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste 

1/2 cup bourbon whiskey 

1/3 cup brown sugar 

1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste 

freshly ground black pepper to taste 

2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves for garnish 

(optional) 

Directions 

n Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high 

heat. When butter foams up, add 

carrots. 

n Season with salt and cook, stirring, until 

liquid from carrots evaporates and carrots 

begin to brown around the edges, 5 or 6 

minutes. 

n Reduce heat to medium-low and carefully 

pour in bourbon. 

n Cook and stir until bourbon is almost 

evaporated, about 2 minutes. 

n Sprinkle in brown sugar. Stir until carrots 

are almost cooked through, about 5 

minutes. 

n When carrots are nearly tender, raise 

heat to medium-high to thicken the glaze, 

15 to 30 seconds. 

n Season with cayenne pepper and 

ground black pepper. 

n Transfer to serving dish and garnish with 

fresh thyme leaves, if desired. 

TOMATO VINAIGRETTE 

3/4 cup olive oil 

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

1 shot of River Pilot Vodka 

1 clove garlic, chopped 

1 teaspoon dried oregano 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 fresh red tomato, chopped 

1/4 teaspoon pepper 

Directions 

n Add all ingredients to blender, food 

processor or use a jar and an immersion 

blender. 

n Blend until smooth and no large chunks 

of garlic or tomato remain. 

n Store in a container with a tight-fitting 

lid for up to five days in the refrigerator. (It 

may separate during this time. Just give it 

a couple shakes.) 

Contact Dan for your Agricultural Real Estate needs 

115 West 4th Street, P.O. Box 754, Wilton, IA 52778 

Office: 563-732-2600 

www.fcreiowa.com 

Dan Oien 

Broker/Owner/REALTOR® 

Multi-Million Dollar Producer 

Cell: 563-299-8953 

danoien@netwtc.net 

“Your First Choice In Real Estate” 



By JESSICA YUSKA 

Scott & Muscatine County Executive Director 

Farm Service Agency 

jessica.yuska@usda.gov 


Your local Farm Service Agency (FSA) 

county offices have multiple programs 

competing for staff time and 

attention. Last November, the 2018 

Farm Bill was extended through Sept. 

30, 2024. This extension allows authorized programs, 

including ARC and PLC, CRP and others, 

to continue operating. 

ARC-PLC 

Producers can elect coverage and enroll in 

ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which provide 

crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual 

(ARC-IC), which provides entire farm protection. 

Although election changes for 2024 are optional, 

the reference prices have increased for many crops, 

and producers should review impact on program 

selection prior to visiting FSA. 

If producers do not submit their election revision 

by the March 15 deadline, the election remains the 

same as their 2023 election for commodities on the 

farm. Producers must enroll through a signed contract 

annually with only those with a share interest 

in the cropland may enroll. Also, if a producer has 

a multi-year contract on the farm it will continue 

for 2024 unless an election change is made. 

CRP 

For those interested in enrolling eligible land 

into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), 

a new sign up began Jan. 12. FSA encourages 

agricultural producers and landowners interested 

in conservation opportunities for their land in exchange 

for annual rental payments to consider the 

enrollment options available through Continuous 

CRP. 

Additionally, producers with acres enrolled in 

Continuous CRP set to expire Sept. 30, 2024, were 

able to begin offering acres for re-enrollment in 

Farm bill 

extension allows 

for authorized 

programs to 

continue 

January. A producer can both enroll new acres into 

Continuous CRP and re-enroll any acres expiring 

Sept. 30, 2024. 

Continuous CRP is one of the best conservation 

tools we can provide producers and landowners. 

FSA water quality practices, such as riparian 

buffers, prairie strips, grassed waterways, and 

wetlands, will receive an additional 20% incentive. 

Buffer practices also have a positive impact on 

water quality. 

To submit an offer, producers must contact their 

local FSA right away and no later than by July 

31 for a CRP offer start date of Oct. 1. To ensure 

enrollment acreages do not exceed the statutory 

cap, FSA will accept offers from producers on a 

first-come, first-served basis and will return offers 

for approval in batches throughout the year. 

LDP 

Loan Deficiency Payments (LDPs) provide 

financing and marketing assistance for many crops 

including corn, soybeans, wool and honey. A producer 

who is eligible to obtain a loan, but agrees 

to forgo it, may instead obtain an LDP if such a 

payment is available. For example, current LDP 

rate on ungraded wool is $0.40. 

Please submit CCC-633ez, page 1 to FSA prior 

to losing beneficial interest for sales occurring 

during the 2024 calendar year. This will ensure eligibility 

for crop sales, including Wool shearing or 

sales of unshorn lambs. Pages 2, 3 or 4 of the form 

must be submitted when payment is requested, and 

FSA staff will assist with this paperwork at time of 

application. 

Disaster Assistance Programs 

Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) 

– provides compensation to eligible livestock 

producers who suffered grazing losses due to 

drought for covered livestock on privately owned 

or cash leased land. Eligible livestock producers 

must complete form CCC-853 and provide the 

required supporting documentation to FSA within 

30 days of the end of the calendar year following 

If you have 

any questions, 

please contact 

your local 

FSA Office. 

Cedar 

County FSA 

205 W. South St., 

Ste. 3, Tipton, IA 

52772 

(563) 886-6061 

Johnson 

County FSA 

51 Escort Ln. SW 

Iowa City, IA 

52240 

(319) 354-1074 

Louisa 

County FSA 

260 Mulberry St. 

Wapello, IA 52653 

(319) 527-8067 

Muscatine 

County FSA 

3500 Oakview 

Drive 

Muscatine, IA 

52761-5450 

(563) 263-4601 

Scott 

County FSA 

8370 Hillandale Rd 

Davenport, IA 

52806-6449 

(563) 391-3335 


FARM BILL 

the disaster event. 

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) 

offers payments to eligible producers for 

livestock death losses in excess of normal 

mortality due to adverse weather, disease 

and attacks by animals reintroduced into 

the wild by the federal government or protected 

by federal law. In addition to timely 

filing a notice of loss, you must also submit 

an application for payment for calendar 

year 2023 losses. Contact your local FSA 

office for the deadline. 

Emergency Assistance for Livestock, 

Honeybee and Farm-raised Fish Program 

(ELAP) reimburses producers for a 

portion of the value of livestock, poultry 

and other animals that died as a result of a 

qualifying natural disaster event– like these 

winter storms – or for loss of grazing acres, 

feed and forage. To participate in ELAP, 

producers are required to complete a notice 

of loss to their local FSA no later than 

within 30 days of the end of the calendar 

year following the disaster event. 

Tree Assistance Program (TAP) – provides 

assistance to eligible orchardists & 

nursery tree growers for qualifying tree, 

shrub and vine losses due to natural disasters 

including excessive wind and qualifying 

drought. For TAP, you will need to file 

a program application within 90 days of 

the eligible disaster event or the date when 

the loss of the trees, bushes, or vines is 

apparent. 

Emergency Loan Program available 

to producers with agriculture operations 

located in a county under a primary or 

contiguous Administrative, Secretarial, 

and/or Presidential Disaster designation. 

Emergency loans help you recover from 

production and physical losses due to 

drought, flooding and other natural disasters 

or quarantine. These low interest loans 

help producers recover from production 

and physical losses. Please contact your 

local FSA County Farm Loan Team for 

more information on this and other FSA 

Farm Loan programs. 

Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance 

Program (NAP) provides financial 

assistance to producers of non-insurable 

crops when low yields, loss of inventory, 

or prevented planting occur due to natural 

disasters including qualifying drought 

(includes native grass for grazing). If 

interested, eligible spring crop application 

deadline is March 15, 2024. 

In closing, winter weather has shown 

us this past month, you may be unable to 

visit the office to complete necessary FSA 

business. FSA staff may assist in obtaining 

electronic signatures on applications using 

Box/Onespan software. By visiting www. 

farmers.gov customers may establish a 

USDA customer account and a USDA 

Level 2 eAuthentication (“eAuth”) account 

or a Login.gov account to enroll in certain 

USDA programs. 

Contact your FSA County office to learn 

more about any of the programs mentioned 

in this article including: Cedar FSA 563- 

886-6061; Johnson FSA 319-354-1074; 

Louisa FSA 319-527-8067; Scott FSA 

563-391-3335; Muscatine FSA 563- 

263-4601; OR visit: www.fsa.usda.gov/ 

programs-and-services and select program 

interest. n 


Farmer 


Be a part of the Eastern Iowa Farmer experience! 

Advertise with us. Share your story ideas. Join our mailing list. 

Share your photos from around the farm! 

Contact us: 

Phone: 563-652-2441 

Email: eifarmer@sycamoremedia.net 

Web: eifarmer.com 


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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 

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for additional information. Always read and follow IRM requirements. Roundup Ready® 2 Technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate. Glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Insect control technology 

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Bayer is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship ® (ETS). Bayer products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Bayer’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 

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AND ASGROW REPRESENTATIVE 


A JAR OF 

HEALTHY 

GOODNESS 

On a cold winter’s night, visions 

of veggies danced in my head 

BY TREVIS MAYFIELD 


By the time you 

read this, hopefully, 

the snow will 

be gone. Today is 

Sunday, January 

14, and it is the third day my 

wife Nancy and I have been 

unable to leave our rural Iowa 

home, courtesy of Mother 

Nature’s winter wrath. 

But as winds outside 

continue to sculpt the 4-foot 

snow drifts that have closed 

our gravel road, we are warm 

inside and have full bellies, 

thanks largely to a larder full 

of jarred food harvested mostly 

from our 8-acre homestead 

here in eastern Iowa. 

The colorful contents of 

those jars, on this coldest of 

days, have planted in my mind 

a summertime vision of green 


Nancy and Trevis Mayfield display the tools of the trade 

for making 8-acre vegetable soup. Counter space is at a 

premium during the process, which uses tomatoes, green 

beans, frozen sweet corn, onions, seasonings and more. 

eifarmer.com SPRING EASTERN 2024 | IOWA EASTERN FARMER IOWA PHOTO FARMER / BROOKE TILL 85

FROM THE FARMSTEAD 

rows in my garden. I can see the green 

foliage of beans, carrots, sweetcorn, tomatoes, 

cabbage, hot peppers, beets, and 

onions in neat rows along with tangles of 

red raspberries, asparagus, and all kinds 

of herbs. 

Nothing on our shelves, however, 

stands out more in my mind than our 

8-Acre Vegetable Soup – a healthy mix 

of veggies and venison, all of which, 

in accordance to our family-mandated 

branding rules, must originate from our 

own property. The only ingredient not 

from our little plot is the salt. 

While my garden produces a variety 

of edible and can-able crops, the planning 

process, which begins in January 

each year, is focused on a couple specific 

goals, one of which is always the soup. 

Pickles, pickled beets, sweetcorn, and 

various kinds of herb pesto are produced 

and preserved most years. Sometimes 

we make dilly beans. Fermented hot 

sauce, because it lasts a long time, is an 

every-other-year thing. But a core focus 

is always the soup, so here I sit, penciling 

out how much seed we’ll need, taking 

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inventory of the seed stash in my freezer 

and trying to decide if I will want to start 

my own tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers, 

or buy plants. 

Some years, if I think I’ll have time to 

take care of them, I’ll grow my own starts 

in the house. Other years, I buy them 

ready to plant. 

Planting will begin in April for cabbage, 

carrots, and beets. Everything else 

will go into the ground in May, followed 

by a couple months of tilling and weeding. 

When harvest begins in late July, the 

weeds start getting a free pass, but by 

then, my plants have a good head start. 

That’s also when the real work begins. 

From then on, until archery season for 

deer begins in October, at least one day 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTOS / TREVIS MAYFIELD 

most weekends will be dedicated to one 

of the soup vegetables, canning as many 

of them as we can manage on a Saturday 

or Sunday. 

Sometimes my day will start sitting 

on a stool picking green beans until I 

have enough for about three canners, 

which is equal to 21 quarts. Before this 

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task is complete, my back 

will stiffen and I’ll begin 

to question my sanity, but 

after a few good stretches, 

I’ll finish the job and tote my 

buckets to the house. 

That’s when Nancy and 

I – and whoever else I can 

sucker into it – go to work in 

the kitchen, breaking beans, 

blanching them, jarring them, 

adding a teaspoon of salt, 

and then putting them under 

10 pounds of pressure for 25 

minutes in the canner. 

Because they are faster to 

pick and can, sometimes we’ll 

pack a canner of tomatoes on a weeknight. 

(Yes, Nancy and I live exciting 

lives!) 

The carrots, cabbage, and sweetcorn 

we freeze, and the onions we keep in a 

dry, dark place until we need them, usually 

in early October when I kill my first 

deer of the season with my bow. 

That’s when it all comes together. 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTOS / TREVIS MAYFIELD 

(Above left) Trevis Mayfield displays some carrots pulled fresh from his garden. They are just 

one of the ingredients for vegetable soup he grows each summer. (Above right) Nancy Mayfield 

keeps an eye on the temperature gauge on the pressure cooker to make sure it stays at a 

constant 10 pounds. 

Killing that first deer on a Friday 

evening is always best, leaving two days 

available for processing the meat and 

roasting about 20 pounds of it. Using our 

oven and two electric roasters late into the 

evening, the venison will be cooked and 

ready to use the next morning. 

The next step is to pull bags of 

sweetcorn, carrots, and cabbage from 

the freezer to thaw. Then we open jars of 

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tomatoes, the base of our soup, along with 

copious amounts of jarred green beans. 

This is the time when all the planning, 

planting, weeding, picking, canning, and 

hunting come together in a giant stockpot 

on our stove. Sometimes a second 

one will do its work over a butane flame 

outside. 

Once the soup is cooked to taste, the 

jars that were emptied earlier get filled 

again – after being sanitized, of course – 

with the beautiful, multi-colored vegetable 

soup that is a staple at our house 

throughout the year. 

Back into the canner the jars will begin 

to go, and over the next several hours, 

almost like magic, as many as 65 quarts 

of ready-to-eat soup will be sitting on our 

counter. 

On this wintriest of days, it’s just a 

vision, but that is how most good plans 

start. So, here’s to warmer days, green 

rows, yummy vegetables, and a bowl of 

hot soup. n 

And if vegetable soup isn’t your thing, 

here are a few other favorite garden recipes 

to consider: 

We often have salads, sandwiches or 

other crunchy snacks along with our soup. 

Here are a couple of our favorites. 

Dilly Beans 

2 pounds green beans 

1/4 cup canning salt 

2 1/2 cups vinegar 

2 1/2 cups water 

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided 

4 cloves garlic, divided 

4 heads dill, divided 

Trim ends off green beans. Combine salt, 

vinegar and water in a large saucepot. 

Bring to a boil. Pack beans lengthwise 

into hot jars, leaving1/4-inch headspace. 

Add1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 

clove garlic and 1 head dill to each pint. 

Add1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 2 

cloves garlic and 2 heads of dill to each 

quart. Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving 

¼ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. 

Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 

and quarts 10 minutes in a boiling water 

canner. Yield: about 4 pints or 2 quarts. 

Mom H. Bread & Butter 

Pickles 

1 gallon cucumber slices (don’t peel) 

2 small onions, sliced 

2 bell peppers – red or green, sliced 

1/2 cup salt 

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Put cucumbers, onions and 

peppers in large roaster pan 

and pour on salt. Put ice cubes 

over the top and let stand for 

three hours. 

Sterilize pint jars 

Make syrup: 

5 cups sugar 

11/2 teaspoon turmeric 

2 Tablespoons mustard seed 

1 teaspoon celery seed 

3 cups vinegar 

1 cup water 

Pickle crisp 

Drain cucumbers WELL. Mix 

the above ingredients and 

bring to a boil. Put cucumbers 

in and bring to a boil again. 

Put cucumbers and syrup in 

jars. Add 1/8 teaspoon pickle 

crisp per pint and1/4 teaspoon 

per quart. Seal and process 

10 minutes in a boiling water 

canner. Makes about 8 pints. 

Giardiniera 

Most recipes include celery, 

carrots, onion, bell pepper 

and garlic as the base. 

Cauliflower can be substituted 

with zucchini, and you can 

add banana peppers, olives, 

mushrooms or other favorites 

in whatever combination you 

prefer. Just chop into small 

pieces. I include jalapeno in 

mine because I like a lot of 

heat. 


1/2 head cauliflower, chopped 

into small florets 

10 ribs of salary, diced 

5 medium carrots, diced 

2 large red bell peppers, 

seeded and chopped 

3 medium onions sliced 

1-3 cloves garlic minced 

In EACH pint jar, put: 

1/2 teaspoon oregano 

1/2 teaspoon basil 

1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds 

1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard 

seeds 

1/4 teaspoon black 

peppercorns 

1/4 teaspoon chili flakes 

4 cups white vinegar 

4 cups water 

2 Tablespoons kosher salt 

Prepare vegetables and put 

in a non-reactive bowl. Cover 

with ¼ cup kosher salt and 

enough water to cover. Let 

them soak at least four hours 

or overnight. To prepare the 

brine, bring the water, vinegar 

and salt to boil. Put spices 

into each of the jars. Rinse 

vegetables before dividing 

them up into the jars. Pack 

tightly and pour brine over. 

Process 20 minutes in a 

boiling water canner. When 

using, add some olive oil to the 

mix before serving. Makes 5 to 

6 pints. 

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(563) 452-3905 

603 Lombard St, Clarence, IA 52216 

P.O. Box 57 

EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTO / BROOKE TILL 

Homemade giardiniera with some heat and crispy sweet pickles are 

two tasty condiments that go well with soup and sandwiches. 


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LEARNING CENTER 

Nothing like the 

The Muscatine 

Agricultural Learning 

Center gives students 

a chance to gain 

experiences rather than 

just read about them 



It started as an proposal to build a 

barn. 

And from that kernel of an idea 

more than 13 years ago, the Muscatine 


emerged as a 24,00-square-foot building 

designed to provide experience in everything 

from soil health and mixing feed 

rations to fixing equipment and caring for 

animals. 

Just before Christmas, junior Eli Trosen 

and sophomore Kensley Paul checked on 

lambs that had been born a day earlier. 

“They are lambing right now,” Trosen 

said, as he and Paul eased into a pen that 

holds several sheep and their babies. 

“One thing we do is make sure they’re 

getting milk from their moms.” 

Trosen is one of the center’s two 

student employees who does morning 

chores. That includes caring for pigs, 

horses, sheep, goats and cows that are 

part of the education process for other 

students. Kensley is studying soil health 

Kensley Paul and Eli Trosen check on newborn lambs at the Muscatine Agricultural Learning Center 

sophomore at Muscatine High School are among the area students who learn by doing at the center, 

20 horse stalls, cattle pens, and classrooms. 

and horticulture this year. 

Sam Paul, who teaches ag at the high 

school, said the center gives students a 

chance to do things rather than just read 

about them. 

“We’ve been able to transform this into 

a place where we can give our kids real, 

live, hands-on experiences,” said Paul, 

who one of five ag teachers in the Muscatine 

Community School District (MCSD). 

The center – a partnership between the 

Friends of Muscatine FFA, the MCSD, 


LEARNING CENTER 

REAL THING 


shortly before Christmas. The junior and 

which has a climate-controlled indoor arena, 

Eastern Iowa Community College and 

local farmers and businesses – has a 

climate-controlled indoor arena, 20 horse 

stalls, cattle pens, and classrooms. It’s the 

location of the college’s veterinary tech 

program and is a venue for other ag-related 

events. 

“The whole reason behind the ag center 

is to get kids some experience in those 

career areas so that they are better suited 

to go to the next level, whether that’s 

college, whether it’s to come back here 

and work for one of the ag businesses we 

have here in Eastern Iowa, or Muscatine, 

or is to go on to something else. A lot of 

the skills they learn are in an ag setting, 

but they transfer in to so many other life 

skills,” Paul said. 

That includes critical thinking and 

problem-solving, honed by opportunities 

to oversee setting up budgets, ordering 

feed, shavings and other supplies; 

developing feed rations; deciding genetics 

and helping with artificial insemination; 

taking care of equipment; growing crops 

and more. 

“Every kid can go their own direction,” 

Paul said. “We have some kids who are 

really interested in animals. We have other 

kids who have really taken an interest 

in the crops or mechanics.” 

Students run a 70-acre test plot at the 

ag center, taking part in the entire production 

process from planning to planting to 

harvesting corn, soybeans and hay. Local 

farmers, implement dealers and seed 

companies help and provide resources. 

The plot money is used for scholarships 

and special projects. 

The students not only run equipment, 

they do about 90% of the maintenance on 

the machinery as well. 

For students interested in horticulture, 

there are a lot of options, Kensley said. 

“This year, we planted poinsettias and 

took care of them. We decorated wreaths 

and made centerpieces,” she said. “Our 

class is in charge of the orders for the 

May plant sales, so we decide how much 

and what we need.” 

The greenhouse is at the high school, 

but those students also spend time at the 

ag center working on other projects, Paul 

said. 

Part of the barn is devoted to housing 

cows that also are important in students 

getting experience in everything from 

breeding to preparing the animals for the 

fair. 

“We have a number of kids who will 

show livestock who live in town but the 

livestock is kept here. We have community 

members and supporters who will lease 

calves to a kids so they can show them,” 

Paul said. “They are able to keep them 

here. We might have 40 to 50 students 

exhibiting at the county fair, and really all 

but two or three wouldn’t have the opportunity 

if they didn’t have this location.” 

Last year, just under 20 Muscatine 

graduates went into an ag-related field after 

high school, either college or a career, 

Paul noted, adding it couldn’t be done 

without a lot of support. 

“All of the ag businesses in our area 

know the importance of turning out the 

next generation of not only good employees 

but educated consumers and educated 

ag advocates,” Paul said. 

While many of the students in the 

ag program don’t live on farms, by the 

end of the program, they have gained a 

variety of skills and also knowledge and 

an appreciation for the impact agriculture 

has on their community. 

“They’re advocates for agriculture. 

They’re advocates for the businesses 

in town and how they’ve supported 

us,” Paul said. “The other thing is they 

know where their food comes from. In 

a social-media driven world, we’ve got 

some good people on the ground who 

actually know how things happen and can 

promote the safe food sources we have in 

the United States.” n 


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1. Kye Richardson of Wapello can’t 

hang on as the sheep shoots out 

of the gate in the mutton bustin’ 

competition at the Wapello FFA 

Rodeo. More than 35 kids 

trying to be the one to ride the 

sheep the longest. 

Photo by Dana Royer 

1 

2. Logan, Cole and Trevor Green 

hitching a ride to the combine in 

Scott County. 

Submitted by Chris and Kimberly 

Green 

3. Tannen and Kourtlynn making 

sure no corn is left behind. 

Submitted by Ashley Kelting 

4. Members of the Cedar County 

Fair Royalty pose with the 2023 

Cedar County Fair Queen Molly 

Chapman, center of the back row. 

Contributed photo 

4 

5. Morgan Maurer steadies the 

goodest girl, Scarlet, at Circle P 

Veterinary in Tipton. 

Photo by Trevis Mayfield 

6. Jordan Green showing 

off his ear of corn. 

Submitted by Chris and Kimberly 

Green 

7. Zoey Teed won the Hunt Seat 

Equitation Reserve Champion (Gr. 

5-6) at the Muscatine County Fair. 


8. Savannah Finley won Reserve 

Champion Intermediate Bucket Calf 

and Kaylin Paul won the Champion 

Intermediate Bucket Calf at the 

Muscatine County Fair. 


9. Wilton’s Kiley Langley was 

crowned 2023’s Muscatine County 

Fair Queen. Rebekah Imhoff, 

also from Wilton, won both Miss 

Congeniality and 1st Runner-Up. 


7 

8 

96 EASTERN IOWA FARMER

Be included in our next edition! 

2 3 

Submit your photos to 

eifarmer@sycamoremedia.net 

5 

6 

9 


‘He inspired so many students’ 

Irv Meier was a dedicated 

teacher, coach and mentor 



When Louisa County’s 4-H 

livestock judging team 

went to Denver for nationals 

in January 2023, 

they each had a small 

stone cross in their pockets in memory of a 

very special mentor. 

Irv Meier, the coach who had started 

the club, died unexpectedly at age 72 the 

previous Dec. 12 in the midst of planning 

for the high school students’ trip, leaving 

them keenly feeling his absence. 

“It really meant something to them to 

have that remembrance,” said Joyce Stover, 

an assistant coach who handles travel 

and logistics. 

While Meier had retired as an ag teacher 

and FFA leader at Wapello High School a 

few years prior, he continued helping kids 

grow through 4-H and FFA, said Steve 

Bohlen, Wapello High School principal 

and Meier’s long-time colleague. 

“He inspired so many students,” Bohlen 

said, noting that many went on to ag 

careers. 

“The program was very successful. 

I’ve never seen a guy spend so much time 

working on contests and seeing the success 

that he did. He was dedicated,” Bohlen 

said. And his students found success, earning 

many awards. 

“It was nice for the kids to win all those 

trophies, and he was happy for them, but 

he was more interested in what type of 

people they became,” he said. 

Meier was inducted into the 2022 Iowa 

4-H Hall of Fame from Louisa County. 

In her nomination, Kathy Jolly Vance 

recounted how Meier grew up in the 1950s 

and ’60s in Wright County. 

“He was living just outside of a town 

there, and he was a perfect candidate for 

a 4-H club, so his parents signed him up – 

and he loved it,” she said. 

An Iowa State University graduate, he 

taught in the Dysert School District before 

Wapello. He worked with hundreds of students 

through the FFA program, inspiring 

students to work hard and succeed. A big 

project was staging the annual Wapello 

ProRodeo, which FFA students plan and 

manage. Proceeds go toward the program 

and for scholarships. The arena at the rodeo 

grounds was named in Meier’s honor 

last year. 

Once he retired from teaching, “the 

siren call of 4-H caught up with him,” 

Vance said. 

Meier approached Vance, the sinceretired 

extension director at the time, with 

the idea of a club for meats and livestock 

judging. 

He tackled that plan with the enthusiasm 

that was the hallmark of his career, she 

said. 

What started as a small special interest 

club in 2018 morphed into a team that has 

seen national success, Vance said. 

Stover said Meier had a way of motivating 

people and supporting them. 

“He was tough, but the students also had 

great respect for him,” Stover said. Her 

oldest son, Justin, was the FFA chapter 

president while in high school. After he 

was in college, Meier approached him 

about applying for his American Degree. 

“That would have never happened without 

Mr. Meier,” Stover said. It was the first 

American Degree for Wapello FFA. “He 

had the kids’ respect.” 

Both Bohlen and Stover laughed as they 

recounted Meier’s hands-on approach, 

evident from the state of the classroom. 

“His room looked like a tornado sometimes. 

If they were doing something for 

plant identification, he had all the plants 

laid out. If they were preparing for a soil 

competition, the soil was there. If they 

were doing dairy contest, you might go 

to the refrigerator and see old cheese and 

spoiled milk,” Bohlen said. 

His passion for providing hands-on 

learning opportunities morphed into such 

projects as the school’s greenhouse built 

with help from the Grimm Brothers, students 

and other volunteers. 

People recounted all the behind-thescenes 

tasks he did that flew under the 

radar, such as creating a software program 

to tabulate scores for judging contests for 

FFA, as well as one for wrestling scoring. 

The Louisa County Livestock Judging 

Team he founded placed 4th in the nation 

in Louisville for North American International 

Livestock Expo Livestock Judging 

contest in November, under the direction 

of Wyatt Orr, who took over coaching 

duties. Team member Drew Totemeier 

placed 4th overall and earned All-American 

Status. 

“These were Irv’s boys,” Stover said. 

“Irv set the base, and Wyatt did an excellent 

job preparing them with their workouts 

locally and in Kentucky.” 

When they returned from their Louisville 

trip at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday night, 

the team’s first stop was the Louisa County 

Fairgrounds to visit the tree they had 

planted in his honor. n 


(Left top) Left to Right: Tracey 

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Liberty Trust; Justin Wulf, Neil Wulf 

and Dennis Wulf 

(Left bottom) Left to Right: Adam 

Rochau, Mike Hein – Sr. Loan Officer 

at Liberty Trust and Scott Rochau 

(Middle) Top of stairs coming down: 

Nick Ehlers, Nate Ehlers, Ron Ehlers 

and Phil Keese – President & CEO at 

Liberty Trust 

(Above) Left to right: Tim Kahl, Kevin 

Kahl and Dave Sweeney – Loan Officer 

at Liberty Trust. 

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Greg Gannon 

President 

Grant Lilienthal 

Lending 

Francesca Schwartz 

Lending 

Derek Sawvell 

Lending 

Jeff Peters 

Trust 

Kathy Rollings 

Trust 

Laura Kauffman 

Tax & Acct. 

Mike Dunn 

Tax & Acct. 

Ben Brown* 

Investment 

BANKING • LENDING • TRUST • TAX & ACCOUNTING 

Member 

FDIC 

www.wiltonbank.com | 618 W. 5th St., Wilton | 563.732.3211 

Investments 

*Ben Brown is a Financial Advisor offering Securities and Investment Advisory Services through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, a Broker/Dealer and 

Registered Investment Adviser. Member SIPC and FINRA. Located at Wilton Bank & Trust Co., 618 5th St., Wilton, IA 52778. Phone: 563-732-3211. 

Wilton Bank & Trust Co. and Cetera Advisor Networks LLC. are not affiliated companies. Investments are not FDIC Insured – May lose value – Not 

a deposit – Not financial institution guaranteed. Not insured by any federal government agency.

EIF-B_Where We Come From

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