The Farming Families of Plymouth County (IA)- February 2021

February 2021 | www.AgeMedia.pub

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

Meet the

SHEEHAN Family Front: Lori holding Quinn, Dan, Krystal holding Paisley, and Neil.

Back: Lucas, Savanah, Keaton, Trenton and Breanna. Story begins on page 6. Photo by Lori Sheehan.

of Plymouth County

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I O WA P L AS TI CS CO.

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of Sioux County PUBLISHERS Garrett and Mindy Gross, AGE Media EDITOR & IOWA MANAGER Bob Fitch, AGE Media Direct advertising inquiries, story submissions and other correspondence to: 712-551-4123 bob@agemedia.pub © The Farming Families, Age Media & Promotion The Farming Families is distributed free exclusively to the farmers, ranchers and producers in rural Sioux, Plymouth and Lyon Counties. All rights reserved. Content in this magazine should not be copied in any way without the written permission of the publisher. The Farming Families assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Content in articles, editorial and advertisements are not necessarily endorsed by The Farming Families and Age Media & Promotion.

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PLYMOUTH COUNTY FAMILY

LESSONS INGRAINED BY DAD HELP BROTHERS SUCCEED

by Bob Fitch

On an April day almost nine years ago, the world seemed to stop turning for the Sheehan family, who farm south of Remsen.

Neil and Dan Sheehan farm south of Remsen.

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“I remember it like it was yesterday. Planting had started. I came into the yard to get some diesel fuel. Dad came over and we were talking a little bit about the field we were going to next,” said Dan Sheehan. “We had to load hogs at 7:00 the next morning. I remember saying, ‘Ok, see you tomorrow.’ Those were the last words I said to him. I remember pulling into the yard at 10:30. I remember looking at the house, and, to this day, I wonder if he was standing in the window looking out.”

At 2 a.m., his mom, Renee, called to say his dad was on the floor and unresponsive. She had called 911, but Larry Sheehan passed away from a heart attack.

“It hit like a ton of bricks … there was no warning. It was just out of the blue,” Dan said.

His brother, Neil said, “The last time I saw him was late that night before. My wife and I were talking with him. We had bought some land out here and it came with an acreage and we were talking about moving to this acreage, knocking down the house that was there. He said, ‘Yep, I want you out on that acreage. Do it. I’ll help you in any way I can.’” But that move and more were put on hold while they tried to make sense of what to do next.

“The next day, we were in shock. We didn’t know what to do.

We loaded the hogs. I remember sorting and loading hogs, just crying. Everything he had done, now we were doing it. It was very tough. Even today, it’s hard to talk about,” Dan said.

Dan was 27 and Neil was 25 when their dad passed away at age 62. They had been figuring they would farm with their father for quite a while longer before he retired. Neil said, “We were still just getting our feet wet. We’d only been farming four to six years. We each had a barn and he’d let us have a little bit of ground, helping us to get going.”

The late Larry Sheehan with daughter Trish.

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Dan added, “For two or three years afterward, it was very hard to make decisions because he wasn’t there to ask. Sometimes wisdom comes with age and we’d lost that. Here we are, just a couple of kids and we were trying to piece this thing together.”

The brothers bought the machinery and the hog barns from their mom. Neil said, “One of the first moves we made was to stop owning the hogs. We were young and didn’t have any equity in it. Moving to custom-finishing just took the risk out of it.” Their dad’s operation had been wean-to-finish.

A supportive banker, a pit-pumping business the brothers had started several years earlier, a little custom farming, and growing seed beans for Pioneer all added up to keep them going. Dan said $6 corn back then helped, too.

While they missed their dad’s input in decision-making, Larry Sheehan was actually still guiding them because his lessons in farming and farm business management were ingrained in them. “He was always really good at explaining things.

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He always made a point of explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it,” Dan said.

“He always kept us active in the farm. When we were young, we had outside pigs and then he built hog finishers. It didn’t matter if it was 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, he’d wake us up and we always had to help. Sometimes it only takes two people, but he wanted us all out there. When we were little, he always had us watch the gate while he cleaned the yards out. I remember thinking, ‘Well, this is dumb, why do we need to be out here?’ Now that I’m older, I can understand what he was doing. It wasn’t the fact that we needed to be there, it was the fact of watching and learning. Anything he did, he always made sure we were out there doing it with him.”

Lori and Dan Sheehan with their children Savanah, Quinn and Lucas.

Dan continued, “When he traded machinery, we sat right there at the table with the sales guy. When he was buying seed or buying ground, he said ‘You’re coming along.’”

Neil said it’s harder to find jobs like “watching the gate” for their children now since all the hogs are in confinement. “But that was the one good thing about Covid, when there was no school and we were loading out hogs, we had extra help” from their kids. Dan added, “It didn’t matter if it was 4:00 in the morning, we got them up.”

As a custom finishing operation, it wasn’t too difficult to weather Covid’s impact on the markets in 2020. “We sure kept our barns full,” Neil said. “It got really tight turning hogs. The packer didn’t always know when they were going to have enough workers to process the hogs. So we had to be ready to ship when they wanted them. And we wanted to get them out because they were big.”

Krystal and Neil Sheehan with their children Breanna, Trenton, Paisley and Keaton.

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On their crop ground, practicing conservation is one of their most important values.

The Sheehan farm participates in the Deep Creek-Willow Creek WQI Watershed Project of the Plymouth County Soil & Water Conservation District.

They practice no-till and low-disturbance manure injection on their crop ground.

Another important value is supporting local businesses. “We’re very local. If we can do business in Remsen, we do. There aren’t too many businesses in Remsen we don’t Renee Sheehan with her grandchildren. Front: Quinn, Trenton and Keaton. Back: Lucas, Savanah, Renee holding Paisley and do business with. We Chase, Breanna and McKenna. support Remsen as much as we can.” Their feed comes from Gengler Feed; with about half their corn going there and the other half to Remsen Farmers Coop, where Dan sits on the board of directors.

Service is Our Business

Both brothers are active on the Remsen Community Action Club (which organizes the demolition derby) and volunteer at Oktoberfest. Dan is a past president and current board member for the Plymouth County Pork Producers and also previously served on the Plymouth County Fair board. Dan coaches girls softball and boys football; and Neil coaches boys baseball, and girls and boys basketball.

Dan also plays host to area elementary students as part of the Le Mars Chamber of Commerce annual farm tours.

Both brothers’ school-age children go to Remsen St. Mary’s School. Neil and his wife, Krystal, have four children: Breeana, 10; Keaton, 8; Trenton, 5; and Paisley, 17 months. Krystal is a nurse at Floyd Valley Clinic in Le Mars. Dan and his wife, Lori, have three children: Lucas, 10; Savanah, 8; and Quinn, 4. Lori is a pharmacist for Revival Animal Health in Orange City.

Their mom moved into Remsen several years after Larry passed away and has been living there since. Dan and Neil have two siblings, Ryan and Trisha, both of whom live in Le Mars.

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Looking ahead, the brothers hope to add to their land base.

But family is the most important aspect of their lives. “As long as everyone’s healthy, that’s the main thing. You think about that these days more than you ever did,” Dan said.

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KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE

LOCUST PLAGUE OF 1870S A CURSE IN IOWA Everyone who lived in Iowa from 1873 to 1879 could tell tales of the “fearful … destroying plague of the grasshoppers, which in armies of multiplied millions devastated northwestern and central Iowa … These raids made by the grasshoppers were not unlike the scriptural locust, sent as a blighting curse upon the Egyptians, both in their form, size and destroying effects … The grasshoppers … were too great an army for man, with all of his ingenuity, strategy and strength, to even begin to cope with – they took the field, destroyed all they found and moved on to greater conquests, undismayed and seldom sacrificing any of their vast winged army. Their work brought gloom, sadness and poverty upon hundreds and thousands of Iowa farmers, who fought manfully year after year, hoping that every year would be the last. There are hundreds of young men and women … who, in those unfortunate times, went thinly clad during the long severe winters from having their entire crops swept away.”(1) “It seems incredible that in one of the richest agricultural areas in the world people should ever go hungry and suffer from the want of clothing. Yet that very thing came to pass. Year after year the farmers planted their grain with every prospect of harvesting a splendid crop, only to have their hopes blighted ...To persist in the face of such adversity required nothing short of heroism.”(3) 12

A graphic depiction of a swarm of locusts devouring a wheat field.

The grasshoppers were more properly known as the Rocky Mountain locust. They were about 1¼ inches in length, slender, and a light brownish color. Despite being small, their jaws were “constantly at work biting and testing all things in seeking what they can devour." Records indicate the Rocky Mountain locusts attacked the northern plains and prairie in 1818, 1864 and 1867. Although parts of Iowa were troubled with locusts from 1870-1872, there were no significant losses until 1873 when “the hopes and in many cases the fortunes of the settlers in northwestern Iowa were ruined, swiftly and surely by the terrible scourge. Never before had the grasshoppers come in such numbers or stayed so long.”(3) “The settlement in Lyon County was practically at a dead standstill from 1873 to 1883 during the grasshopper years. The first

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | February 2021

appearance of grasshoppers in the county was June 27, 1873.” In August 1874, pioneer and promoter D.C. Whitehead said, “We have had double the grasshoppers this year that we did last and longer with us, too … croakers will damn this country, and men that have failed for lack of pluck, will say the country is a failure, on account of these infernal pests; but I don't think so, and my faith in Lyon County is so strong … that I will cultivate 500 acres next year.”(2) Their native homelands were the dry Rocky Mountain upland region primarily in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The year 1875 was perhaps the worst when numbers were “estimated to be in the trillions, an unimaginable number that has no match in all of recorded history.” One first-hand account estimated a swarm that year to be 1,800 miles long and at least 110 miles wide.(4)

The green area represents those areas hardest hit by the locust plagues of the 1870s.

When the locusts fell upon a promising field, it took only a few hours “to reduce it to a barren area of leafless stalks ... they often completely covered the ground. The ravenous hosts were almost omnivorous. One observer testifies that they ‘will feed upon the dry bark of trees or the dry lint of seasoned fence-planks; and upon dry leaves, paper, cotton and woolen fabrics. They have been seen literally covering the backs of sheep, eating the wool...’”(3) “The appearance of the grasshoppers in the sky had the effect of darkening the very heavens at noonday, against a brightly shining sun. When flying rapidly with the wind, upon a clear day, they caused the sky to resemble a heavy snow-storm. They seemed to have their course mapped out, and were seldom known to fly in any other direction than the one planned by their instinct, always waiting until the winds were blowing in such direction.”(1) “This isn’t just any swarm, but the largest congregation of animal life that the human race has ever known.”(5) “On the horizon they often appear as a dust tornado, riding upon the wind like an ominous hailstorm eddying and whirling about like the wild, dead leaves in an autumn storm ... they circle in myriads about you, beating against everything animate or inanimate; driving into open doors and windows; heaping about your feet and around your buildings; their jaws constantly at work biting and testing all things in seeking what they can devour."(3)

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Clearing a field of locusts in 1874. Kansas Historical Society.

A photo of a swarm of locusts in Colorado Springs in 1899.

“The grasshoppers were so numerous that trains of cars on the Illinois Central railroad were stopped by them.” They accumulated on the road-bed and filled the entire space between the ties and the track. The grasshoppers were crushed to a jelly-like mass causing the drivewheels of the locomotive to slip and revolve without making any forward progress.(1)

for irrigation, allowing cattle and sheep to graze in riparian areas, and eliminating beavers and their dams. The result was “the pioneers unknowingly wiped out locust sanctuaries,” inadvertently causing the most spectacular “success” in the “history of economic entomology — the only complete elimination of an agricultural pest species.”(5)

For many years, the accepted explanation for the locust’s demise was a vague conspiracy of vast ecological changes. Entomologists said the disappearance of bison, the decline of fires set by Indians, and changes in climate had altered the locust’s prairie habitats. But research

by Jeffrey Lockwood, a professor of entomology at the University of Wyoming, points to human alterations of the environment. In the locust’s home ranges in the river valleys of Wyoming and Montana, the pioneers diverted streams

Sources (1) History of the Counties of Woodbury and Plymouth, Iowa. Published 1891.

(2) History and Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published 1905.

(3) “The Grasshopper Plagues in Iowa,” by John E. Briggs in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. 13. Published 1915.

(4) “When The Skies Turned To Black. The Locust Plaque of 1875.” hearthstonelegacy.com/ when-the-skies-turned-to-black-the_locust plague-of-1875.htm (5) ”The Death of the Super Hopper: How early settlers unwittingly drove their nemesis extinct, and what it means for us today.”

Professor Jeffrey Lockwood, University of Wyoming. High Country News. www.hcn.org/issues/243/13695

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FROSTY FENCELINE PHOTO BY BRETT DAVELAAR, BRETT DAVELAAR PHOTOGRAPHY.

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LYON COUNTY FAMILY

TREASURING TRACTORS IN LITTLE ROCK

by Bob Fitch

In addition to his extensive tractor collection, Don Dieken is now collecting cars including this 2000 Plymouth Prowler and 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1.

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Don Dieken started his collection with John Deere tractors.

Don Dieken owns two machine sheds in Little Rock. A person might call those sheds the “Little Rock Tractor Museum” or maybe the “Lyon County Shrine to 20th Century Farm Power.”

But, really, Don Dieken’s machine sheds are just home to a collection of tractors he likes. The sheds feature several dozen tractors from different manufacturers in various shades of green, red and even some orange.

Don isn’t exactly sure when he started collecting tractors, but he remembers it was before he and his wife, Marie, were married 51 years ago. “But I didn’t really do a lot of collecting, though, until the last 20 years.” He said he’s getting to the age now where he figures he’d better start selling some of them, but he does find it hard to let go because each one has a story or is unique in some way.

His oldest tractor is a 1934 John Deere “four-bolt” B. According to The Tractor Factor: The World’s Rarest Classic Farm Tractors, the John Deere B was introduced in the depths of the Great Depression as a two-thirds scale model of the John Deere A. It had the same features and appearance as the A including fourspeed transmission, hydraulic power lift, adjustable rear wheel tread, rear PTO, and one-piece rear axle housing. The rarest of the early John Deere B’s are those like Don’s which have a fourbolt pattern to attach the front pedestal to the tractor. The four-bolt pattern was replaced by eight bolts due to stress and strength requirements.

Another rare tractor he owns is a 1958 Oliver Super 99 Lugmatic Diesel. An Oliver tractor expert from Illinois whom Don knows told him there are only three known tractors still existing of this particular model. The Oliver Super 99 is known for its power and for how loud it is. Don usually buys tractors that are still operational and then has them professionally refinished. “I always buy them in good shape, they usually just need a paint job.”

Don’s 1970 International Harvester 1456 Turbo is his favorite tractor for parades.

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Don Dieken's 1934 John Deere four-bolt B. The 1958 Oliver Super 99 Lugmatic Diesel is in the upper right of photo.

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He has many trophies from participation in tractor shows and tractor pulls in the area. He especially enjoys the Granite Threshing Bee, held west of Larchwood in July. “I go to Granite every year; I’ve been going there for a long, long time.”

Over the years, he and Marie also regularly drove two of the tractors in the Little Rock Corn Show parade, although Marie has given up the tractor driving and Don has driven a classic car in the parade the past several years.

He said he’s “not prejudiced” about tractor brands. “I like them all, all colors. I started collecting with John Deere’s and then started tractor-pulling with Olivers. So then I bought a bunch of Olivers. Meanwhile, I bought some Internationals, too.”

Five or six years ago, he built a machine shed at his home just for the antique tractors. He also owns a former county shop building in downtown Little Rock where he has more tractors plus a growing car collection that includes a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1, 1978 Pontiac Trans Am and 2000 Plymouth Prowler.

Don started farming his father’s farmland in 1981 after working at the local grain elevator. He continued farming until retirement three years ago at age 79. He still owns the farmland. Marie worked for a local reflexologist for many years before retiring.

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REMSEN FARMERS COOP BLESSED BY LOYAL CUSTOMERS

by Bob Fitch

“Remsen is a very proud community. There’s a lot of successful people you work with, and that makes it pretty easy to come and do your job,” said Mike Thompson, general manager of Remsen Farmers Coop.

Thompson has been in the coop business for 28 years, the last two at Remsen Farmers Coop (RFC). “This is one of the most loyal communities I’ve ever been in. That helps us more than anything. We’re pretty blessed that we’ve got a lot of fatherson operations. Fathers brought their kids back into their operations and continue to do business with us.”

In the last several decades, coops in the country have seen a seemingly unending series of mergers. When Thompson interviewed for the manager position, that was one of the issues he raised. “Let me tell you, I got my answer back real fast. The last thing on our agenda is to merge with any other cooperative. We’re a single location and we’re content to be on our own; and we have the wherewithal to stand through it. Actually, I’d be tarred and feathered if I ever I brought it up.

We’re pretty proud to be one of the few single location coops in the state.”

Not only are farmers loyal to the coop, but RFC enjoys loyalty from its employees. “We’ve got some people who have been with us 35-40 years. They keep coming to work,” Thompson said. At the same time, he feels fortunate to be able to hire young, often locally-raised, professionals for key positions.

RFC’s grain merchandiser and feed department manager are both 24 years old. “We’ve got some good young guys, but we’re lucky to also have some older mentors.”

The coop has 25 employees. In addition to grain purchasing and merchandising, RFC has species-specific mills for hogs, cattle and sheep; and agronomy services such as seed, fertilizer, chemicals and fertilizer/chemical applications.

“Customer service is our main key. We’re not going to take the customer on unless we can service them. Some people will run around and try to give a cheap price to try to keep a farmer’s business. We’re firm believers that we take care of you all the way through. Most of my guys, their phones are on 24/7. Something goes wrong, you need something, everybody here is ready to help.”

The readiness to help out and loyalty to the Remsen community even extends to the competition. “Gengler’s is our competition down the street, yet we share stuff back and forth. There’s been times when they’ve had to borrow a truck of ours and other times we’ve had to borrow a truck of theirs. We’ve shared some soybean meal. We’ve taken care of each other. Some are going to do business with them and some are going to do business with us, and that’s ok,” Thompson said.

Remsen Farmers Coop strives to do its part for the area by actively supporting both schools and other local efforts.

“Employees are involved in different functions in the community. It’s just part of your job to be involved in the community – it’s not something to toot your horn on. You take care of the community and the community will take care of you.” He praised the two banks in town (American Bank and Iowa State Bank) for how well they work with local farmers. Plus he said the members of the Remsen Chamber of Commerce do a great job enhancing the local business climate, noting the pending success of getting a grocery store back in town.

With the trials of the past couple of years, Thompson said it was enjoyable to see such a great harvest this fall. “We built a new bin this past summer. When we started the year out, I worried that we’d never get enough business to fill it – it’s funny how your brain works pessimistic on that. But we got to harvest and we had a great harvest. I wondered how we were doing filling the new bin, so I sent someone to check it.

He came back and told me, ‘Ah, boss, we’re a foot-and-a-half from the top.’ We’re pretty blessed.”

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February 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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SIOUX COUNTY FAMILY

The Rus family in 2017. Family groups from left to right: (1) Joel and Jodi Bonestroo with sons Greyson and Maverick (baby photo below); (2) Lance and Joni Rus with children Micah, Jessi, Max, Kenzi, Miley and Lanie; (3) Jason and Shana Bakker with children Raelee, Kalli, Beckette, Chaney, Ember, and Vivian (baby photo below); (4) Darwin and Helen Rus; (5) Jessica and Kyle Rus; (6) Rick and Kari Koedam with children Trevor, Keisha, Keeven, Nikia, Ryder and Reece; (7) Eric and Betsy Rus with children Levi, Olivia, Logan, Lijah, Asia, London, Abby and Anna; (8) Damon and Jackie Rus with children Owen, Parker, Peyton and Oakley (baby photo below); (9) Marcus and Heidi Fluit with children Mason, McKenna, Emery and Jayna (baby photo below). Family photo by LaRissa Beth Photography of Rock Valley.

RUS FAMILY HEARTS ARE IN FARMING AND TRUCKING

by Bob Fitch

“You’ve got to have your heart in farming or you won’t last very long,” according to Kyle Rus. His brother Lance agreed. “A farmer can’t think his time is very valuable. You work a lot of hours fairly cheap. But if it’s something you like to do, you keep doing it.”

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | February 2021

Lance and Kyle farm with their parents, Darwin and Helen Rus of Rock Valley. All eight of the Rus siblings were thrown into farm work early because their dad was on the road as a trucker. “We had to learn pretty fast because Dad was never home,” said Lance. “So Mom was the teacher. That’s the way we farmed: The kids did the work and Dad kept trucking. We got it done.” Darwin added, “Being a family farm made it work.”

The method didn’t always prove to be perfect. Helen said, “Darwin had a little stress when he got home.”

Lance said, “I remember one day when I was disking.

Dad got home, came out and said ‘Where’s the wheel on

Age Media Qtr Page Color 1-8-20.pdf 1 1/8/2020 11:21:34 AM

Chad Van Voorst, Lance Rus, Darwin Rus and Kyle Rus.

your disk?’ My only reply was ‘I don’t know. It was on when I started.’ He wasn’t very happy with me that day.”

Their Van Voorst cousins lived just a mile away, and Lance said they had fun when the cousins would come over to help with the work or just to have fun. However, Darwin said, “You don’t want to ask me about my repair bills back then.”

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Cousin Chad Van Voorst has been an important employee of one part of the operation or another for 12 years. And there are a lot of parts and businesses in the Rus world. Darwin and Helen own D&J Trucking which hauls livestock. Lance and his wife, Joni, operate E&L Trucking along with his brothers, Eric and Damon. Damon manages E&L and buys and sells the feed and feed ingredients which they truck. Lance and Joni also run Rus Grinding Service. All four brothers are partners in 4R Feedlot in Scottsbluff, Neb. Eric moved to Scottsbluff a little over a year ago to run that operation. Eric also does cattle order buying.

Helen praised the efforts of the employees of all the various Rus enterprises. “We have to rely on a lot of good people to get a lot of this stuff done. Some come after school or after work, or late at night during harvest.” Lance especially noted Jesse Maassen who has been with Rus Grinding since the business launched.

“If you don’t have a sideline in farming today, it would be pretty tough,” said Darwin, citing the importance of the trucking

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February 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

25

businesses to their cash flow. He first started trucking in the 1970s.

“I bought my first truck when I was 18 years old. I kind of bummed around ‘til I was 20 when me and my brother bought a trucking business in 1974. We trucked for five years and then started farming with my brother Marion for a few years.”

Max, Miley, Lanie, Lance, Kenzi, Joni, Jessi and Micah Rus.

They got out of trucking in 1979 and bought a farm in South Dakota. But the high-priced interest on farm operations brought him back into trucking in 1985 when D&J Trucking was started with his brother-in-law, Jim Van Beek. Darwin said, “I always enjoyed trucking. When I was a kid, living south of Rock Valley, I could hear them 250 Cummins trucks driving down the highway. I always thought to myself ‘I’ve got to drive one of them.’ And I did. In the ‘70s, we used to haul cattle to the Sioux City Stockyards, three trips a night.

Back then, every quarter in this area had cattle on them.”

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | February 2021

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Darwin Rus with his truck in about 1980.

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Helen said, “When you first started farming, you could go how many ways to sell your cattle. You’d go 10 different places with the cattle in a week.” Darwin agreed. “We’re down 15 plants since I started trucking in the 1970s. We’re now down to four big packers and a few little ones.”

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Lance said, “The packers have made more money in the past two years than they made in the previous 25. They’ve really got us over a barrel. They’re suppressing the price to farmers and raising the price on consumers. They got the consumer buffaloed thinking there isn’t enough beef out there and they got us told there are too many. We know the real story, but don’t know how to fight it.” Kyle said, “The packers don’t want us to live very well these days.” Darwin said, “It’s getting about high time we do make some good money again.”

Darwin and Helen bought their current farm west of Rock Valley in 1986. “We fed cattle from day one,” he said. “We bought light calves and background some in the early days.

So we were farming, feeding cattle and we used to raise a lot of feeder pigs. I drove truck – lots. So the boys and their mom did all the work.” They got out of the hog business around 2000.

Today, Lance’s cattle feeding operation is separate from the one operated by Darwin and Kyle, but they work in tandem in most of what they do, sharing machinery, equipment and labor. Lance said, “We’re bringing in 450-500 pound light calves and finishing them out. We get most of them from western South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Idaho.”

In 2008, a tornado partially wiped out their primary feedlot.

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February 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

27

Silage harvest with the Darwin and Helen Rus farmstead in the background. Photo by Dear Jane Photo & Video of Orange City.

grew the size of their feeding operation. If the tornado and the DNR weren’t bad enough, “The day we started pouring cement for the new addition, Kyle was severely injured,” Lance said. “He couldn’t get a pickup started. The truck was up on the ramps and he was underneath trying to figure out what was wrong. We were jumpstarting it and it just took off.

Kyle was laying underneath there, the pickup took off and it started dragging him with it. It broke his neck. Come to find out, it was stuck in reverse – that’s why it wouldn’t start.”

Darwin said, “Kyle has got nine lives.” Helen said, “We’re kind of glad he’s still here. You’ve got to give God a lot of credit on all that. For eight kids, we were pretty fortunate nothing worse happened.”

Joni said the humbleness of farm life helps keep their family close to God. “Our existence on earth is to glorify the Almighty Creator. Being able to work with the land and 28

God's creatures day to day, we are constantly reminded of that fact.” She had a similar upbringing, growing up on a dairy farm where everyone was involved in the day-to-day work. “I cannot imagine raising children anywhere else than on a farm. Farm life has taught me about perseverance, a hard work ethic, patience, respect, appreciation, dedication and dependence on others,” said Joni, who does the bookkeeping for several of the businesses and occasionally helps work the cattle.

Lance and Joni’s children attend Netherlands Christian School in Rock Valley. All eight of Darwin and Helen’s children went to the school, and most of their 36 grandchildren attended or still attend the school.

Helen said, “Most of them have a companion at their grade level.”

Joni added, “Their cousins are their classmates and their friends.” One year, Darwin and Helen had six grandchildren born in a 12-month span from September to September.

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | February 2021

Until Eric’s family moved to Scottsbluff two years ago, all of them lived within 20 miles of the homeplace. Helen said they try to have everyone to their house at Christmas. It does get crowded with their eight children and spouses, 36 grandchildren, and some of their grandchildrens’ boyfriends, girlfriends or fiancés. Kyle said, “It’s a full house, plug your ears.” Kyle has been married for about three years to his wife, Jessica, who is a nurse in Sioux Falls.

Darwin said the older grandchildren wash trucks on Saturday and help in the field and with other farm work when they’re not in school.

Finally, while farming and trucking can be challenging occupations with tough years and setbacks, Darwin is an optimist. “Take it day by day. It will all fall into place. It will come out all right.”

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February 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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OUR PHILOSOPHY There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year, he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So is with our lives... Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

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Call it a principle of success.

Call it a law of life.

The fact is, none of us truly wins, until we all win!

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

Proverbs 11:24-25

February 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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