The Farming Families of Plymouth County (IA)— March 2021

March 2021 | www.AgeMedia.pub

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

Meet the

SEUNTJENS Family Bill, Amanda, Carson, Kaylinn and Sydney Seuntjens. Story begins on page 26.

of Plymouth County

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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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LYON COUNTY FAMILY

Adriel, Malachi, Heidi, Elias, Jeff and Naomi Groeneweg farm east of Inwood.

GROENEWEG FAMILY VALUES HARD WORK AND LIFE ON THE FARM

by Bob Fitch

Farming is the only way of life Jeff and Heidi Groeneweg have ever known.

The Groenewegs farm and feed cattle east of Inwood. Jeff and his dad, Loren, own the cattle together as JL Cattle. Loren and Jeff’s mom, Ruth, live near Hudson, S.D., and have a feedlot north of Larchwood.

Heidi said, “All our years, we’ve farmed with his dad and grandpa and shared equipment.” Jeff said, “We’ve done everything together.”

“My grandpa and dad were pretty

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

hard working. They expected us to keep up. There were not a lot of trips to Sioux Falls just for fun,” he said. Jeff and his brothers and cousins learned to get their work done first and then there was time to play. “It was easier to do the work than to get in trouble when they did catch you.”

He gained his dad’s trust and confidence early in life. “I grew up in a

tractor – the hired man was my babysitter.

I was out there at a young age,” Jeff said.

“By the time I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I was driving the tractor the 20 or so miles between our Larchwood farm and our home place (which was 4½ miles south of where they live now). I drove around home for a year or two before that, and Dad trusted me. He didn’t worry about me.”

One of those first summers, he was driving a distance to a hay field, but couldn’t quite find it. “So I stopped to ask for directions from some guys out working on a fence. And I wasn’t a very tall kid. I got out of the tractor and these guys looked at me, like ‘What in the world?’ They pointed me in the right direction a mile-and-a-half around the corner. But I was so young, they looked at me when I left like ‘What is that kid doing on his own?’”

Jeff worked most of his life with his grandfather, Simon Groeneweg. “I had helped him until I graduated high school. Two years after that, I bought my farm. Then he came here and helped me. He was born in 1923 and died two summers ago at age 96. He worked his whole life.

“My grandpa was really fussy. We would always want to just slop everything together and have it close. But Grandpa would say ‘Close ain’t close enough! Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.’ So we either did it right the first time or we had to re-do it.” Grandpa Groeneweg was not without a sense of humor though. When he and his wife, Judy, were about to move into senior living apartments, he said, “Well, I guess we move to the confinement next week.”

When he bought his first land, feeding cattle is how Jeff started. “I grew up wanting to feed cattle,” he said. “I bought the 22½ acres here with the feedlot in 1999 for 20 percent of land values today.” Around 2008, he was able to buy some of the land around him. He enjoyed the growth and expansion during those years. “But the past four years have been a choker. The packers got us. People ask how things are going in the industry – and I reply ‘Wonderful, the packers are making $300-$400 a head.’”

He’s frustrated with the rise of contracts and the decline in the number of fed cattle sold in open negotiation. “I haven’t done it yet because I’m too stubborn. If we all sign those contracts, we’ll all be working for them. We won’t be independent anymore.” There have been times where the profit packers were making on boxed beef seemed to exceed what they were even paying him for finished cattle. “It can be depressing when you’re loading cattle with this reality.”

Jeff and Heidi Groeneweg feed cattle and farm in Lyon County.

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Jeff and Heidi Groeneweg’s farm and feedlot.

Still, the expansion years got his herd large enough so he could add a hired hand and not always be tied down to doing chores. That gave him the time and freedom to start other enterprises. “Any more, with livestock, you’ve got to have a couple different sidelines going on,” he said.

With his brother, Brad Groeneweg, and a friend, Jason Rus, he operates a custom forage chopping business called Valley View Harvesting. Heidi said, “In 2010, Jeff and a few partners bought a cutter; and we’ve done a lot of business on the side with that. We’ve done our own acres and some of his dad’s.”

Valley View operates four large forage harvesters, chopping both silage and some ear corn. Brother Brad also hauls the majority of Jeff’s cattle through his company GE Express.

Jeff’s latest business venture has been a composting business, which he’s operated for about six years. “I’m trying to sell all my manure. At first, I thought it was going to sell easy.

You learn some lessons the hard way.” Heidi said, “I kind of questioned it for a while. He was working late every night and it was tough to get the product sold. In the fall he went from harvesting to baling and then hauling the compost. Our busiest season has gotten a bit longer with this.”

Naomi and her brothers share responsibility for a flock of chickens.

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Jeff said. “It’s kind of a learning curve to figure out the compost mix – it takes a certain recipe. Those two wet years were tough because you’ve got to get the compost hot. Then you’ve got to do a good job of spreading it.” Their employees help haul and spread, and their oldest son, Malachi, helps with the turning and mixing.

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Like Jeff and their children, Heidi’s childhood was spent on a family farm with her parents, Gerald and Judy Van Tilburg of George. “I grew up doing farm work and I still can do some of that outside if need be. But I’m pretty sure I’m at the bottom of the call list,” she said. Heidi does the office and bookkeeping work for the farm and chopping business, while mother-in-law Ruth handles the bookkeeping for the cattle and employees.

“I’m grateful to Ruth for all does,” Heidi said.

Heidi is also a stay-at-home mom for their children, Malachi, 13; Naomi, 12; Adriel, 8; and Elias, 6. She appreciated being on the farm when Covid shut down schools last spring. “When our kids were home, I was so thankful we had a farm so I could send them outside to go exploring.

The families who are doing their school online, having to stay indoors, and both mom and dad working from home – I appreciated the freedom we have here much more.”

excited at the end of sweet corn season to see how well the hard work can pay off,” she said.

The couple agrees that it takes a lot of people to keep a farm running smoothly. Jeff said, “We have great help working here. Heidi’s dad works here hauling syrup and driving truck.

It really is a lot of family working together. We appreciate our employees that care about our livestock and our farm.”

Jeff and Heidi also appreciate the Christian values and family traditions of the rural Midwest that live on in northwest Iowa – Sunday dinners after church with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Heidi said, “I do love that our kids still have four great-grandparents, and they’ve known five of them.” Jeff added, “Farming communities are one of the only communities where a lot of extended family are still around.

We’re pretty blessed really.”

The kids also have a bit of an entrepreneurial streak. They helped garden this summer and then set up a little produce stand with their cousins to sell the excess. “They were pretty

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The Groeneweg kids and their cousins operated a produce stand last summer. Pictured are Kaiven Van Middendorp, Elias, Adriel, Malachi, Naomi and Ty Kammrad.

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

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KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Alton pictured in 1911. All photos courtesy of Grinnell College Special Libraries Collection.

THE EARLY DAYS OF ALTON The first to settle in Alton (originally known as East Orange) were some 40 men, women and children who were of Luxembourg ancestry and origin. They had come in May 1870, from Jackson County, Iowa, and were the first Roman Catholics to settle in Sioux County. They had traveled to Sioux County from eastern Iowa in 18 wagons drawn by teams of oxen. The journey had required two weeks. The group had been led by Peter Gehlen, a native of Olm, Luxembourg, who the year before had come to Le Mars where he had begun building a flour mill along the Floyd River.

The Luxembourg settlers brought with them about 100 cattle which they herded behind the wagons.

The caravan had to make its way 12

over the prairie land, sometimes through long stretches of wet ground, which made it difficult for the oxen to pull the heavily laden wagons. The terrain through which these people were traveling was in sharp contrast to the hilly landscape so characteristic of the little Duchy of Luxembourg in Europe.

One of the early settlers from the Luxembourg group wrote: “The nearest place of Catholic worship was Le Mars, and it was edifying to see the sturdy pioneers hitch up their oxen and thus drive the long way to Le Mars. On Christmas Day, they had to start about midnight in order to reach Le Mars in time for divine service.”

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

In 1881, a Catholic prairie church was built on the southwest corner of Section 18, on eight acres donated by Matt Probst. Each family was asked to give $8 towards the building, or less if they could not raise the amount. The building, dedicated by the Rev. Herman Meis of Le Mars on Sept. 12, was given the name St. Donatus in memory of their former parish in Jackson County.

The church of the prairie was later torn down, and the congregation joined with others to form St. Mary’s congregation in Alton. In 1880, Reverend Ulrich Frey was sent to Alton to organize a Catholic congregation. In 1883, a house of worship was constructed, and two years later a parochial school was

Tenth Street looking east in downtown Alton in 1910 Fourth Avenue north of 11th St. in Alton in 1908.

begun, the first such institution in the county.

In 1886, Bishop Marty of South Dakota dedicated the newly built St. Mary's Church. The present building was constructed in 1908 and dedicated on July 14, 1909, by Bishop O'Gorman of Sioux Falls. Repairs to the exterior of the church in 1941 changed the original roofline. The roof had to be extended, thus covering the windows in the clerestory and altering the outward appearance of the structure.

The exterior of the church is reflective of Romanesque architecture with its heavy walls, jutting geometric angles and curved arches. The interior of the church, while maintaining some classic Romanesque features, also touches on some High Gothic style with its flowing nave to wall elevation. The magnificent stained glass windows were imported from Munich, Germany. Each window depicts a significant period in the life of Jesus.

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J.W. Stronk General Merchandise Store in Alton in 1910

Aside from its Luxembourg heritage and strong Catholic roots, Alton was also known for several decades as a busy railroad junction. There were times when as many as 16 passenger trains arrived and departed each day. Twice each day four passenger trains would be standing in the yards heading in the four directions of the compass. A 20-minute stop for lunch was made,

and the big lunch room west of the depot would be crowded.

During the great Dakota Boom (1878-1887), thousands of land seekers passed through Alton on their way west. One resident said: “It was a sight to behold.

About noon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the northbound Omaha passenger train dumped

an army of land seekers here for transfer to the Northwestern which ran doubleheaders with 15 coaches each to the west. Each train carried nearly 1,000 passengers.”

But being a railroad junction was not without its downfalls. In 1904, the local newspaper wrote: “Sheriff Henry recently found 29 hoboes in one boxcar there and routed out 70

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The right care.

The right place.

The right time.

The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad entering Alton. For several decades, Alton was an important railroad junction, especially during the great “Dakota Boom” of the 1870s and 1880s.

before concluding his search. Alton used to be the terror of hoboes. Today it is the paradise of bums. They stroll about town at will, steal and sell stolen goods, get drunk and fight and carouse and curse, beg from house to house and cook under the railroad bridges daily. When they get tired of the scenery they move on. Thirteen of them drank two kegs of beer under the Omaha bridge a few rods from the main part of town last Sunday.”

Paragraphs 6 and 7 are from www.pilgrimcluster.org/st-mary-alton and the rest of the material in this story is excerpted or adapted from “Siouxland: A History of Sioux County, Iowa,” by G. Nelson Nieuwenhuis. Published 1983 by The Sioux County Historical Society.

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SNOWY BARN PHOTO BY BRETT DAVELAAR, BD PHOTOGRAPHY.

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

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SIOUX COUNTY FAMILY

The Hoogland family in 2020. Front: Daya, Quin, Bryer, Case, Silas, Verla, Alvin, Caleb, Jacob and Lucas. Back: Deker, Daylen, Jamalyn, Scott, Daylea, Dan, Jina, Justin, Aaron, Andy, Amber, Jaidyn, Tom, Isaac, Connor and Jacki holding Sutter.

NOT A GLAMOROUS LIFE, BUT AN HONEST ONE The legacy of the Hoogland family was built from humble beginnings, just like many farms in America’s heartland. In 1962, when Alvin Hoogland was just a kid, he and his family moved to a northwestern Iowa acreage, which now goes by the name of Highland Milk, Inc. Nearly 50 years later, Alvin and his wife, Verla, still operate the dairy farm east of Sioux Center, although their sons, Justin, Aaron and Andy, have taken over much of the day-today work and the diversification of their agricultural operation.

Over the years, the dairy farm has grown in many ways. In 1990, they

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rebuilt a barn that was damaged by a tornado; in 1994, they added a freestall barn; and then around 2000, they added a commodity shed and a calf shed. The biggest project occurred in 2012 when they built a new parlor.

“This expansion allowed us to increase milk capacity and improve cow comfort,” Alvin said. “It is a very high-quality facility and it’s better for the employees, too.”

Shortly after the beginning of the new millennium, the Hooglands wanted to diversify their business to financially support not only Alvin

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

and Verla, but also the kids and their families as they became adults. The result was the founding of Hoogland Custom Chopping.

Aaron said, “We all like the harvest aspect of farming, we always have.

When we were little kids, we’d come home from school and the cutter would be in the field, you’d want to go out there and ride with dad. It’s a natural fit for us to run these things.

The bigger the equipment gets, it just captures your attention more and more.

“I bought my first cutter out of high school in 2003,” Aaron said. “The

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

Alvin Hoogland and his sons, Justin, Aaron and Andy, run a dairy and a chopping business from their farm east of Sioux Center.

farm cutter was wore out and that was one thing I could do to get going and get my feet wet. It was used and only cost $30,000. But it was our first machine big enough to have a processor.

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“Then we had a friend whose cutter went down and he asked us for help and that’s how it all started. By the time we got done cutting there, our friend’s neighbor who had his corn hailed out needed help. So we moved from the first place over there and helped him out. That’s how it went,” he said.

Justin said, “It didn’t take too long, it’s amazing how fast we grew. We kind of went head-over-heels from that first machine into the business. 2007 was a big step, that was the first year we operated as a business under Hoogland Custom Chopping.”

Aaron added, “When we bought that next machine in ’07, we didn’t really have the work lined up, so it was a step of faith.

We just decided, ‘If we get it, they will come.’ And it worked just that way.” Andy said the livestock-orientation of Sioux County has drawn farmers from further away into the area and created work.

Today, they have four choppers and a harvest crew of around 30 that works to cut silage and grind corn for cattle producers.

To find their crew, the Hooglands don’t usually have to look far.

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treat us. When things turn bad, we try to work through it and be decent about it.”

Alvin helps with running equipment, keeping everything up and running with parts and fuel, and running the dairy while his sons are running the choppers. He said things have changed a lot from the days when all the neighbors got together to work together to cut silage, first with a one-row cutter and then moving up to 2, 3, and 4-row cutters. Today’s equipment is 14 rows wide. Andy said, “You’ve got a 1,200-horsepower cutter on 14 rows just being brought to its knees.

Everyone loves to see that.”

Alvin and Verla with Alvin’s first car, a 1974 Chevy Nova SS.

“It’s people who are kind of like us,” Justin said. “Some are from church; some are farmers just like us who have some free time during the harvest season; and we have some family members as well. We have two brothers-in-law that help us and a few relatives that help drive trucks and run tractors.”

Aaron said, “I think we’re a fun crew to be with. We don’t get upset at people and don’t get short or nasty with people.” Alvin said, “We’ve had no trouble getting people to drive for us. The truckers appreciate being treated with respect.”

Justin said, “The biggest thing is we treat people as we want them to

The territory for the custom chopping business stretches from Lebanon to Primghar. Justin said, “We’re fortunate we don’t have to travel too far away from home.

We’re within 45 miles of the home place in any direction.” Aaron added, “We’ve had times where we’ve gone a lot further, but our repeat customers are within the 45mile range.”

The schedule for the chopping business is very flexible – sometimes by choice, and sometimes by force. The cutters leave the field around 11 p.m. so

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most of the crew can get home.

Some crew members will blow off and grease their machines at the end of the night, putting in hours until 1 or 2 a.m. The biggest driver in their schedule, however, is the weather.

“We’re trying to get a product with a certain moisture content, so if it’s going to be hot and dry, they expect us to push hard,” Andy said. “If rain is in the forecast, we try to keep running until it rains.”

In a normal year, they start chopping in mid-to-late-August and it takes them about 25 days, extending to late September.

In 2020, they faced 90-degree temperatures and 40-mile-per-hour winds, which was causing the crop to dry out too fast, so they finished for the year in just 13 days.

Aaron, Andy and Justin fix up their choppers whenever it’s needed

throughout the year, but the biggest push is once the season is over and through the winter. “We like to do a lot of the repairs ourselves and we know the machine inside and out,” Aaron said. “I think that’s something we picked up on as young kids, just pulling things apart, learning how it worked and putting it back together to make it better.”

Andy said, “It’s not a glamorous life, but it’s an honest one.” Alvin said, “We’ve got the perks of working together with family. It’s not without its struggles, but at the end of the day, we can work it out. At the end of the day, you look at what’s going to move the business forward, and you try to make the best decision from that.”

The Hooglands credit Northwest Bank for helping them through the good times and the bad, as well as the periods of growth.

Alvin’s parents did business with Northwest, as does Alvin and his sons now. Northwest financed the new parlor in 2012; helped them during a particularly rough year in 2009; and helped the family obtain an SBA loan when they started Hoogland Custom Chopping. The biggest part of the relationship is the trust in and communication with each other, the brothers said.

Andy said, “We’re not big farmers.

Our chopping business is big, but our farm is not. We’re working on expanding the dairy, but it still won’t be huge by today’s standards.”

Hooglands are at a tipping point with their dairy. The parlor they built in 2012 is capable of milking more cows. But, Aaron said, “We’re at the point with theIfdairy it’s that partthe ofnext the farm, acreage or liv step is a big step. It will require us to financial services for your agricultu add freestalls, add manure storage bankers who know farming. and feed storage, and have more room for calves. It’s been hard for us to overcome that one for awhile.

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Avlin and Verla Hoogland, front center, with their children. Front: Jina Tinklenberg, Jamalyn Mulder; Amber DeJong, and Jacki Hoekstra.

Back: Justin, Aaron and Andy Hoogland.

LEADERS IN QUALITY ANIMAL CARE

“For the cutting business, we’re happy with where it’s at right now. We’ll keep updating some machines. We want to accomplish the most amount of work with the least amount of people and the least amount of equipment. Until something pushes us to go past four machines, we’re pretty happy with where the cutting business is at. If our current, loyal customers would decide to grow, that’s what would push us to grow,” Aaron said.

Andy continued, “Right now, the focus is having those four machines as big as they can be.” Alvin added, “If you’re happy, let it be. If you get too big, you get crabby.” Aaron said, “If you can make a living doing something you like, you should count yourself blessed.

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In addition to their three sons, Alvin and Verla also have four daughters. Jamalyn and her husband, Scott Mulder, have three children, Daylen, Deker and Daya. Amber and her husband, Tom DeJong, have five children, Jaidyn, Isaac, Caleb, Jacob and Lucas. Jina and her husband, Dan Tinklenberg, have five children, Daylea, Case, Quin, Bryer and Silas. Jacki and her husband, Connor Hoekstra, have one son, Sutter.

The family attends Bethel Christian Reformed Church in Sioux Center and their school-age grandchildren go to Sioux Center Christian School.

Editor’s Note: This article was adapted with permission from a blog post by Northwest Bank with additional interview material by Bob Fitch.

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GROENEWEG Family Heidi and Jeff Groeneweg with their children, Naomi, Adriel, Elias and Malachi.

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23

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

The “guys in the shop” at Community Oil Co.: Norm (Beav) Kempema, Andrew Den Boer, Mike Maassen, Levi Rus, General Manager Jerry Kelderman and Jon Brink.

SERVICE IS STILL IN STYLE AT COMMUNITY OIL IN ROCK VALLEY

by Bob Fitch

Founded in 1924 by a group of Rock Valley area farmers, many of the last names of the original shareholders at Community Oil are still the same today.

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

“The more things change, the more things stay the same,” said Jerry Kelderman, general manager of Community Oil. “The people who are active in Rock Valley today are a reflection of the same type of people who cared enough about the community to start the co-op in the 1920s.

“Your care for the community and your willingness to serve in the community – and your dedication to the citizens of the community – gets passed on. If you do things for the money, you’re going to move onto something else. If you do things because you care about people, you’ll stay and help those people. I think that’s

true in a lot of areas of life,” Kelderman said. Community Oil is governed by a nine-member board of local farmers.

Community Oil provides propane and fuel delivery service to farms; propane tank and heater installation and service; truck, tractor and auto tires; and general auto maintenance and repair service including oil changes, mufflers, air conditioning, batteries, shocks, struts, and brakes.

“We sell a full line of ag tires, plus we’ve got a tire service truck that goes out to farms to repair and replace tractor and combine tires,” said Kelderman. “Tire replacement used to be all done by hand. You’d take a tire off with tire irons and sledge hammers. Now, a lot of times, it’s done with air-powered equipment because the tires have gotten so big. Out in the field, though, you still have to do a lot of that manually.”

He said “service is still in style” at Community Oil. “Our fuel and LP guys still provide great service to their customers and our guys still know everybody by name. Some of them have been delivering to the same places for 40 years. That service goes a long way. The customer knows they’re getting a high quality Cenex Ruby product on the diesel or the propane.

“People know that if they live or work here in Rock Valley, we’ll go pick up their car whether it’s a dead battery or flat tire in the driveway or whether you need an oil change,” Kelderman said. “I may be old-fashioned, but no matter how advanced you get, I think the old-school, face-to-face is important.

Whether it’s deciding where to buy your tires or where to get your oil changed or where you’re going to get a breakfast sandwich and a coffee, face-to-face is still a big seller.

Everybody sells product – you have to sell yourself.”

One of the biggest changes for the 97-year-old co-op was the addition of the convenience store in 2013. “That was a big deal at the time. They went from having a few gas pumps out front to a full convenience store, almost a separate business.

It’s a nice spot because the parking lot is big, making it easy to get trucks in and out. Kids after school will stop for snacks.

On your way out of town on a Saturday morning, going to a ballgame or something, it’s a great spot for the family to stop.”

Because of the high volume of traffic at the C-store, he said a significant update of the store is in the works.

Looking forward on the farm side of business, Kelderman doesn’t expect many changes in the foreseeable future.

“Even with new fuel and electric and renewable energy they’re talking about, I don’t see much change coming in fuel and propane services in the next 5-10 years. You can’t produce and haul crops with solar power and wind – it just can’t be done yet.

He said Community Oil has a combined 14 or 15 employees in the shop and office, with another 20 or so working full-time and part-time in the convenience store. “Like anything else, you can’t run a business without employees. Whether it’s the guys in the back dealing with your car, or the gals up front helping customers over the phone, or the employees in the C-store who see our customers face-to-face every day, everybody has to play a role. People have many options to choose from, whether they’re buying tires or choosing toppings for pizza, and a lot of times, it’s not based upon price. It’s based upon the quality of the product and the people behind it.”

Kelderman started at Community Oil a little over two years ago. He previously managed the Pizza Ranch in Rock Valley for 16 years, then worked in insurance for a year, before he got a call to apply for the Community Oil position. He grew up on the Iowa side of the river near Fairview, S.D.; and attended Netherlands School in Rock Valley before graduating from South Dakota State University. He currently serves on the Rock Valley School Board.

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“There will be a push for less emissions. You see that with the DEF – diesel exhaust fluid additive. It started with the trucks going down the road, but now it’s going to the machinery. It helps keep carbon emissions lower. That’s not going away.”

Rock Valley, IA 712-476-2172 Call us for all of your Propane, Cenex Fuel, and Cenex Oil Delivery Needs March 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

25

PLYMOUTH COUNTY FAMILY

Bill, Amanda, Carson, Kaylinn and Sydney Seuntjens of Kingsley.

WHAT YOU PUT INTO LIFE, YOU GET BACK OUT OF IT

by Bob Fitch

Sydney Seuntjens, oldest daughter of Plymouth County pork producers Bill and Amanda Seuntjens, defines a successful life as “being happy where you are.” And the Seuntjens family is happy in northwest Iowa.

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

Sydney is in her last semester at the University of Northern Iowa and is currently student teaching first grade at MMRCU schools.

“I could have student taught anywhere, but I chose to come back to northwest Iowa. I like it here and you know at least a couple people in each of the small towns. No matter where I went in this area, I knew I’d have someone to lean on. It’s nice to see life somewhere else, but it’s always nice to come home,” she said.

Her path of going to college and then returning to northwest Iowa parallels the journey of her father. Bill said, “When you go to college, you meet people from different cities and states, and you figure out you grew up in a pretty darn good place after all.” Bill and Amanda, along with their two high school children, Carson

and Kaylinn, raise crops and custom-feed hogs near Kingsley. Bill farms in partnership with his brother, Bobby.

Bill said his late father (also named Bob) made both him and his brother go to college for four years and work for someone else for at least one year before they could consider coming back to the farm. “I got my quota in, four years of college and one year somewhere else. I think he hoped we’d find a job we’d like more than farming. But Kingsley is a good place to grow up and raise a family.”

After graduating from Mount Marty University in Yankton with a degree in education, Bill took a position at West Sioux Schools in Hawarden as a wrestling coach and substitute teacher.

After a year, “then I received a call from the superintendent at Kingsley-Pierson to see if I was interested in coming back to coach wrestling at KP. I felt the need to bring the lessons that I had learned wrestling at KP back to the community so I accepted the position. I also began to farm with my brother and Dad, who was getting close to retiring, but still helped us on the farm until he passed away in 2018.” When he started coaching, he also began substitute teaching at Kingsley-Pierson, which he continues to do frequently.

Bill is now in his seventeenth year of coaching junior high wrestling and his third year as co-head coach of the varsity wrestling team at Kingsley-Pierson High School. His co-coach is Brandon Borkowski. “Coaching has always been a passion of mine. I want to instill the love and discipline of the sport of wrestling, and also to show our wrestlers how to contribute to their school, neighborhood, and community.” He hopes to pass onto his wrestling team today the same lessons instilled in him by his coaches – Tom Stauch and Stan and Rich Krosch.

Kevin, Bobby, Bill and Carson Seuntjens during harvest in fall 2020.

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Amanda teaches preschool and special education pre-school in Marcus. She’s in her nineteenth year as a teacher. She also coaches the cheerleaders for the Kingsley-Pierson High School wrestling team. “I’m originally from Correctionville and I grew up on a farm, so living on a farm is no different for me than the way I grew up.” She’s a graduate of Iowa State University.

Bill said Amanda helps on the farm, too. “She drives grain cart once in a while when my ‘B’ team can’t.” Amanda laughed, “Yeah, I’m the ‘C’ team for driving the grain cart or sorting pigs when no one is available. It’s not always pretty, but we get it done. I’d rather cook the food and bring it to the field than drive the grain cart.”

Their son Carson is 16 and a sophomore at Kingsley-Pierson High School. “I’m in wrestling, cross country and track. Usually, when I’m not doing that, I’m either working out or helping dad

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27

on the farm.” Amanda said, “Carson would definitely be the farm hand.” Sydney added, “I don’t think he sits down much except if it’s in a tractor cab or at school.”

Carson said, “I’m sure Dad has the same sort of mindset that my grandpa did – how you should go to college first. I’m kind of leaning towards going somewhere like SDSU for an agricultural business degree, then getting into a career related to farming and maybe come back to the farm, too.”

Carson worked full-time last summer for Michael Pratt Construction. “After I got done with work, then I’d work out, then call Dad to see if he needed help with something on the farm.”

Kaylinn is a freshman at KP, where she is involved in volleyball, dance, band and cheering for basketball. In the summer, she does some babysitting before volleyball practice starts in August. She takes a rabbit to the fair as a 4-H project. Amanda said Kaylinn is going to learn to mow this summer in order to help her take care of a cemetery she maintains near her hometown of Correctionville.

Kaylinn, Carson and Sydney Seuntjens.

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Last spring, Kaylinn was recruited into helping with the new garden the family decided to plant since Covid was keeping everyone out of the classroom. Amanda said, “We had a very large garden in a strip along the corn field because I was home from March until August. That was a whole different experience, trying to figure out why some things wouldn’t grow or why we had 5 million cucumbers.”

Bill said, “I think that strip had been in farm ground for so long and there were so many nutrients from the manure or whatever. The pumpkins were gi-normous; we had so many cucumbers. It kind of overwhelmed us.” Amanda said they gave away almost 500 cucumbers. “I was in 4-H growing up and so I knew basically how to make pickles. Even though I hadn’t done it for probably 25 years, it worked. We made 16 batches of pickles. By the end, I could do it without looking at the recipe.”

In addition, Bill said, “Everybody in our area got watermelons.

We loaded a pickup load full and just drove around delivering watermelons.” Amanda said, “If you didn’t get cucumbers, then you got watermelons.”

Whether it’s gardening, teaching, coaching, feeding pigs or growing crops, hard work is a fundamental value for the Seuntjens. “My dad was a huge influence in my life,” Bill said. “His philosophy was to work hard if you wanted to get anywhere in life. ‘Play’ always came second. He was very

For Memorial Day 2020, the Kingsley-Pierson High School wrestling team, cheerleaders and managers helped set up and take down flags at two Kingsley cemeteries.

The top photo shows part of Bill’s collection of John Deere pedal tractors.

The bottom photo is his John Deere pedal fire trucks.

adamant that if we were going to be successful in farming, the work always came first. I feel that I have taken that advice to heart and have instilled it in my own children.”

But, by working hand in hand with his brother, the family has found time for fun over the years. “When Bobby is busy, I am here at the farm, and when I want to have some free time, he is here.” Custom-feeding hogs often doesn’t allow them to plan very far ahead, but they’ve been known to be adventurous on the spur of the moment. “One time, on a Friday, we said ‘Let’s go to Alaska’ – and we left on Monday,” Bill said. They’ve also made family trips to Yellowstone and Niagara Falls.

The Seuntjens also make time to give back to the community.

As a community service project, the wrestlers, managers and cheerleaders put up and took down flags in the cemetery on Memorial Day. Sydney said, “Giving back to your community is really important. If you’re ever stuck between a rock and hard place, you know a small community will turn around and help you out. You’re not going to get that in a city.” Bill added, “That’s the beauty of a small town.”

Bill and Amanda said they’re proud of the values their children display. “Our children are always respectful of others, they have that willingness to be their best, and they want to be successful in school and life. They realize that what they put into life, they get back out of it,” Bill said. Amanda added, “When you look at anything, it’s not necessarily what you have, but what you do with it.”

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