After farming for more than 55 years, Duane Schultz ready to pass the torch

By PAT BECK pat.beck@apgsomn.com

ST. PETER — Four generations of Schultzes have owned the family farm in North Kasota Township, off Hwy. 99 and Le Sueur County Road 106, between St. Peter and Cleveland.

The fifth and sixth generations are waiting in the wings to continue the 150-year tradition.

Now owned by Duane Schultz, 82, the farm will likely be passed on to his sons Steve, 51, and Chuck, 46, who farms in St. Peter, and possibly then to Steve’s children, William, 10, and Isabella, 7, who work on the farm and so far want to make a career out of farming.

Steve and his wife Deb and children live next door to Duane and rent the farm from him though Steve also has 100 acres of his own. While Steve has taken over running his dad’s farm since he retired in 2012, Duane, widowed in 2019, still helps out.

“He’s my hired man now,” Steve said of his dad.

150 YEARS OF SCHULTZ FARMERS

1st owner William schultz 1870-1882

next owner meta schultz 1882-1934

next owner albert schultz 1934-1964

next owner Duane schultz 1967 to ..... Duane doesn’t have any plans to leave the farm. But he’s unsure how much longer he will live on site.

“I’ve got to have a back operation sometime, so it depends on what condition I’m in,” Duane said.

Steve says he wants to to buy the farm and keep it in the family.

“It will continue in the family one way or another,” Steve said, noting it could also be with his brother.

“Hopefully there will a sixth generation with our boy,” Deb said.

Or maybe their girl. Isabella also said she wants to be a farmer when she grows up. With the pandemic, the children have been going to school only two days a week, so they’ve been out helping their father, riding a tractor with Dad and Grandpa, and picking up rocks in the fields.

Family farm history

Duane’s great-great grandfather, William Schultz, immigrated from Germany and purchased the farm July 20, 1870 from the Pratt Land Co. The original parcel was 100 acres, costing $20 an acre.

William spent 1.5 years in New York state, then moved to Ell Creek, Illinois, for about six years, then to St. Louis before coming up the Mississippi River by steamboat with his farming equipment and four horses to St. Paul. The party included William, his wife Albertine, and their children Anna, Herman and Teresa. William’s mother died on the boat coming from Germany. William’s brother, John Schultz, was a harness maker in St. Paul.

No original buildings remain on the sesquicentennial farm. The present home was built in 1972.

While the Schultzes used to feed 270280 beef cattle, the 1998 tornado that ripped through Le Sueur County destroyed seven farm buildings, so they stopped raising animals.

“When I was a kid, we had chickens, beef cattle and once in a while, even had some pigs, and before that, they had a registered pulled Holstein dairy farm,” Steve said.

Duane said he has farmed for 55 years, “because I don’t know nothing else. It’s something different every day. Spring to fall is two different seasons. There’s rotation of everything. In the spring, you got to work the fields and get the planting done and wait for dry weather. In the fall, we’re picking corn right now [Oct. 8]. We got the beans done.” three generations gather in a corn field across the road from Duane schultz’s farm home. From left are Deb, Isabella, steve, William and Duane. (Pat Beck/southernminn.com)

Steve added: “Dad has lived his whole life on this farm. He has never changed his address.”

Steve agreed that “every year is different. Some years it’s too dry or too wet. This year is going pretty good. The corn is drying good with the weather we’ve had. The yield has been really good this year. “

Duane agreed. “We’ve had nice weather.”

Like his dad, Steve likes that farming offers something different every day.

“You do all sorts of different things from mechanics to book work to agronomist to shoving snow and corn. It’s quite the variety.” three generations of schultzes fill a planter with soybean seed in the spring. From left are Duane, steve and William. (Photo courtesy of steve schultz)