Mark Kasten State Farm

Rich and Paula farm with their son, Jeff, and his wife, Sydney, southwest of Hurley. In addition to growing corn and soybeans, they have a cowcalf herd and a custom chopping business. Rich grew up on a farm southeast of Hawarden, Iowa. “I was about five years old when I started driving tractor through the gates. I had one hand on the wheel and one on the hand-clutch. I’d drive through, then Dad would close the gate and get back on.” After graduating from Iowa State University, Rich worked for about eight years as a farm manager and in real estate for Farmers National out of Omaha. He liked Omaha, but agreed with Paula who said the country was a better place to raise kids. She grew up between Hurley and Parker on the farm of her parents, Pete and JoAnne Andersen. “Back when I started, you could go on a wing and prayer, but now you can’t do that,” Rich said. “When I moved up here to start farming and I walked into the bank, the banker was like ‘Oh yeah, we’ll set you up with a line of credit.’ Three or four years later, you’re telling him ‘I wish you hadn’t borrowed me that money. I can’t make the interest payments.’” Jeff has wondered aloud why his dad didn’t buy more land in the 1980s when it was cheap. Rich’s answer: “I was lucky to make the payments I had. The ‘80s were by far the worst time. The crop prices were so low, 1980 was a drought, and 1984 was so wet we drowned out. My wife was a school teacher so at least we had food to put on the table and clothes and insurance.” Paula taught second grade in Chancellor and then at Lennox for a total of 39 years. A farrow-to-finish hog operation helped pay the bills in the early years. But hogs were not life’s calling for Rich. “I remember in July and we’re loading those hogs when the humidity was so high, by the time we got done, I thought, ‘This isn’t the way I want to die.’” In 1997 when hog prices dropped to nine cents, they sold their sows. “We fed feeder pigs for a few years after that. But that was basically the end of the hogs. Nobody really missed them.”

Paula and Rich Horton.

When he was in fifth grade, Jeff remembers the morning when the last load of pigs left the farm. “I like to eat pork, but that’s where my relationship with them ends,” he said. The cab of the tractor and combine made a good daycare spot for Jeff. “When he was young, he rode many hours in the cab with me,” Rich said. “That was back before they had buddy seats. He started driving pickup when he was about eight. His mother wasn’t too happy about that. But she got over it. He spent a lot of time on my lap learning how to steer.”

Mark Kasten, Agent 180 N Main Ave Parker, SD 57053 Bus: 605-297-4747 mark@markkasten.com 180 N Main Ave. Parker, SD 57053 Bus: 605-297-4747

368 N Main St. Freeman, SD 57029 Bus: 605-925-7353

mark@markkasten.com

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