Gengler Feed

Kelly and Travis Tentinger.

Service is Our Business

2 South Marion St, Remsen, IA 51050 | 712-786-2234

ing over the facilities from dairy to cattle included a lot of big changes,” he said. Kelly added: “And we didn’t know how it was going to turn out. It was really stressful. We knew it would be scary for the first five years. We just reached that five-year mark and we made it. So we’re kind of relieved.”

Travis said, “Dad was pretty aggressive, and he did a good job of it. My grandpa was a little more conservative. Maybe that’s why my dad and my uncle were more aggressive when they took over. Maybe it’s my turn to be a little bit more conservative.

“We’ve just been trying to maintain and survive. We got some of the initial stuff paid off in five years, but we’ve still got a ways to go. Before we look at more growth, we’re trying to build up our working capital. We’re moving forward cautiously.” Kelly and Travis have four children: Samantha, Hunter, Torey and Tia. Samantha is a nursing student at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. She married Travis Huizenga, a native of Orange City, last summer in a wedding outdoors on the farm. Huizenga works in solar panel sales in Oklahoma. Torey is an 11th grader at MMCRU. She’s active in volleyball, softball, track, and is the basketball manager. She serves as an officer for both Skills USA and FFA. Tia is in 7th grade in the MMCRU district. She’s on the traveling volleyball and basketball teams as well as middle school volleyball, basketball, track and softball. Both girls are involved in 4-H. “They keep us very busy. We do a lot of running,” Kelly said. Hunter is a 2018 graduate of MMCRU. He works on the farm, has some cattle of his own, and does some trucking on the side, mostly side dump work, but he also hauls livestock occasionally. “I worked a few odd jobs before I started trucking. I worked some hog barns for a while, was a part-time mechanic and did some welding for people while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Farming is what I want to do, but trucking’s my way into it.” Hunter continued, “I like feeding cattle, but I probably like farming ground more. I’d like to see the cattle side grow – and the land side grow even more.” Kelly’s family moved around when she was growing up, but they spent most of their time in Remsen. Travis and Kelly lived in Remsen until the spring of 2017 when they moved to the farm (and they built a new house in 2018). Moving to the farm was a real change for Kelly, but she’s adapted. “You learn to love it and take ownership of it. It’s a lot more work, that’s for sure.”

She stays busy on the farm doing the paperwork, plus helps when needed to sort cattle, work calves, load and sort pigs, and chop stalks in the fall. But she leaves the daily livestock chores to her husband and son.