9 minute read
Teveldal State Farm
The Bunde family in the fall of 2019. Standing in back: Arian holding Abbott, Kinley (standing on straw bale) Brady holding Summit, Morgan, Stacy, Tristen, Travis, Brianna, Aiden, Miranda, Owen, Justin holding Addyson. Seated in front: Jenna holding Grayson and Hadley, Brett holding Brynn, Deb, Terry, Kali, Tara holding Keegan, Chris holding Emerlee. Missing from the picture is Laikyn, Brady and Arian’s fourth child born Oct. 4, 2020.
we’d have to throw the kids out of the pen so the sows didn’t get them.” Deb added: “The kids did it all. They all worked. It didn’t hurt anybody.” In addition to Travis, who is the oldest, they have three other sons – Justin, Brett and Brady; and one daughter, Tara.
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All five of their children graduated from South Dakota State University. Terry said, “It paid off for our kids to go to SDSU. They all got good jobs. All the kids are doing well, which makes us very happy.”
Travis is an engineer who worked in the Twin Cities before he and Stacy moved back to South Dakota when their first child was a newborn about 15 years ago. In 2011, he took a position as a systems engineer at Sioux Falls-based Raven Industries, a national leader in precision agriculture technology. He continues to work there fulltime as the OEM sales manager, overseeing the company’s OEM business as well as sales of OmniDrive, one of Raven’s autonomous products. Raven was recently acquired by CNH Industrial, a London-based corporation whose brands span several major equipment industries. In agriculture, CNH brands include Case IH, New Holland Agriculture and Steyr.
“Travis luckily decided he wanted to farm and he brought us into the 21st century,” Deb said. “Terry is learning to live by text. Lots of times, Travis can’t get out of a meeting, but he can answer a question from his dad via text. His brother, Justin, also works at Raven and he’s very good at talking Terry
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Front: Morgan and Brianna. Back: Travis, Tristen and Stacy.
through the electronics when Travis isn’t available.”
Terry said, “Justin will ask me ‘Did you push the button? No? Well, push the button.’ And my response is ‘Ok, now it works.’ Sometimes I’d like them to take the electronics off and I’ll just put the marker down. But actually it’s amazing how much more you can get done with the auto-steer and all the new stuff on the planter.”
Travis said precision ag technology allows their co-op to apply the right amount of fertilizer in the right place. “We’ve got some variable ground out there. So we variablerate fertilize everything and variable-population plant. We’re planting quite a few different brands and hybrids to try to be the most productive we can. I like crunching the numbers.” Deb added: “Travis is more analytical and Terry is more put the tractor in gear and go.”
Through Raven, the farm has had access to some of the most advanced farm technology. They enjoyed being able to test multiple different brands of sprayers. “But we got used to running sprayers that cost around $500,000. When we bought our own sprayer last year, it was like, wow, this is a downgrade,” Travis said.
Over the years, his career has been intense and often involved lots of travel. “I missed a lot when my kids were younger, that’s for sure. When they were little, I didn’t ever pick them up from daycare. When I’d get home at night, often they’d already be in bed. I didn’t have a choice – the burden of the work was all-consuming. I’ve got piles of vacation time, but I’m the one who suffers if I take it. A lot of nights, I go into my home office and work for a few hours.”
But the combination of the engineering career and income from farming allowed Stacy to stay home when the kids were little. When the youngest started kindergarten, she went to work as an educational assistant at Tri-Valley Schools. Stacy grew up in Crooks. “Farming is a totally different lifestyle,” she said. “In town, we could run and play with our friends all the time. We had time to go to the lake. We went to farms, but it was riding four-wheelers and horses.”
“Farming is a relief from the stress of my other work,” Travis said. Working full-time off the farm enables him to leverage the farm income to invest back into the operation. “Hopefully when I’m 107 and want to retire, all of the work hours invested to keep the farm going will make it available for another generation.”
The next generation includes children Brianna, 15, Tristen, 14, and Morgan, 12. All three attend Tri-Valley Schools where they are involved in sports. Brianna, Tristen and Morgan appreciate being able to share many experiences with their extended family and listening to stories about ancestors and the history of the farm.
Tristen and his cousin Aiden spent a good share of the summer pulling out old fence lines. While Deb might have been reluctant to have her grandsons operating some of the equipment, Travis said, “Aw, they were fine. Since we don’t have livestock, they were ripping out fence lines and jobs like that which might otherwise get overlooked. There’s value in that work.” Terry agreed: “There’s value in any physical work.” Deb said Tristen told her that just when he and his cousin thought they were done removing fence, they kept finding more parts and pieces. His cousin Aiden said: “Just close your eyes, Tristen. Just don’t look anymore.” Then he tripped over some more of it.
Unlike most farms which struggle with a lack of available labor, the Bunde’s have competition in the ranks during harvest. Between Terry and Deb’s four sons, one
son-in-law and now grandchildren, Terry said, “Come fall, they all want to come out and help. It gets to be kind of a fight to see who runs the combine. It’s first-come, first-served if you want to work out here.” But grandson Tristen has his own humorous take on the situation. “Dad’s always hoping our whole family can move closer together, but I’m kind of hoping they move further away, so I can help more during harvest.”
Running down the rest of Terry and Deb’s family:
• Daughter Tara is a nurse at Avera
Health in Sioux Falls. Her husband, Chris Skoglund, is a
Sioux Falls fire fighter. They live on an acreage adjacent to the farm and have three children.
• Son Justin also works at Raven. His wife, Miranda, is a human resources manager at Henry Carlson Co. They have three children and live in Crooks.
• Son Brett works at EROS. His wife,
Jenna, is a transplant coordinator.
They also have three children and live in Sioux Falls.
• Son Brady works for Farmers
Business Network (FBN) and his wife, Arian, works for the SDSU
Foundation. They live in
Brookings with their four children.
Deb retired last year and said she truly enjoys helping out with the transportation of grandchildren. For the previous seven years, she worked for 12 Points Consulting, a telecommunications firm. Prior to that, she worked 13 years for The Summit Group, a hotel development firm in Sioux Falls.
She and Terry have come a long way from their beginnings. Terry said, “In 1976, we bought our first 80 acres, and we had 30-bushel corn that year. That didn’t work very well.” Deb added, “We went through the ‘80s and ‘90s; it took a while to get back up from those years. When we first started farming, Terry’s dad was going very big at the time and his banker told him ‘Don’t make the principal payments on the land, just pay the interest. You’re better off to keep going.’ Then we went through that time of 20 percent interest and it about took his dad down and it about took us down. Along with everybody else, we scrounged through it.” She continued, “But we have always loved this lifestyle and being home with the kids. We’ve been blessed to work with our parents and our kids and now our grandkids. Success is when we all gather around the table and we laugh.
“We’ve never aspired to be so big we can’t do it as a family. For us, everything has been the farm. We are the farm. The farm is us and the family,” Deb said. Terry agreed: “Yep, they’re one and the same.”
