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

October 2021 | www.AgeMedia.pub

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

Meet the

of Plymouth County

BOTTJEN FAMILY The Bottjen family: Garry holding Dekker; Ronda, Nathan, Parker, Sarah and Tucker; plus Parker’s bottle calf, Shirley.

Story on page 18.

WISHING YOU A SAFE AND BOUNTIFUL

harvest season!

THANK YOU, FARMERS

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Welcome

Dr. Tyler Faber

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

We welcome Tyler Faber, D.O. to our family medicine, obstetrics, and emergency medicine team. Dr. Faber is a native of rural Sioux County, and continues to work on his family’s farm while providing medical services for all generations in the region.

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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

LIFE IS GOOD HERE

By Bob Fitch

Life doesn’t get much better than living in Lyon County, according to Ryan and Melanie Jungers, pork producers whose home is about halfway between Little Rock and George.

Melanie and Ryan Jungers with their children, Lane, Blake and Riley.

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Riley, Blake and Lane with their calves. Photo by Melanie Jungers.

Both Ryan and Melanie grew up farming in northwest Iowa. “I want our kids to be raised the way we were raised,” Melanie said. “This community has pretty amazing people. Everybody is willing to help out.”

Ryan agreed and said fancy places to dine or shop are not worthy substitutes for the personal connections you make in a farming community. “You can’t trade a good restaurant for good people. That is one thing I know from other people who have moved here from big cities: Life is good here. I haven’t locked the doors in my pick-up here in northwest Iowa in a long time.”

Ryan is originally from Hospers before being transplanted to Aurelia in Cherokee County when his mother remarried. That’s where he and Melanie met. After high school, both went to Iowa Lakes Community College; Ryan for ag production and Melanie for business.

field manager with New Fashion Pork, a swine production company based in Jackson, Minn. Soon after, they were able to purchase the acreage where they live now.

After graduating from ILCC, Ryan said, “The opportunities around Aurelia were kind of a miss for me at that time. So I ended up going to a four-year school down at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. I got an animal science degree.” Meanwhile, Melanie had two different positions in human resources in Council Bluffs.

Ryan wanted to work in some phase of livestock production. “Growing up, I had experience with pigs on my grandpa’s farm (who had an ‘old school’ farrow-to-finish operation); and I had experience working with dairy cows at Walgenbach Dairy; and, when my mother remarried and we moved to Aurelia, you didn’t have to look too hard to find someone who was looking for a teenager who wanted to work with livestock.”

After graduating from Northwest Missouri State, he knew he wanted to move back to northwest Iowa. He landed a position near Hospers as a

While Ryan was working for New Fashion, Melanie had positions at a chiropractic clinic in Le Mars and then at Campbell Supply in Rock Rapids.

Nonetheless, they took on management contracts for several area swine facilities. “We did the work on those contract facilities when the sun was still down in the mornings and in the evenings,” he said.

More and more people kept coming to the Jungers asking them to manage their swine facilities. Ryan said, “First, Melanie quit her job in town in order to take care of livestock full-time. At that time, we also had a couple hundred head of cattle on feed out here.”

Melanie added: “And bottle calves – we used to have 130 bottle calves we raised in sheds in the back.”

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Melanie grew up with a background in cattle since her dad managed a large feedlot in the Cherokee area. Ryan joked, “When we got married, I’m not sure she’d seen an animal with a flat snout.” Melanie said, “When Ryan asked me if I would take care of pigs, I wasn’t sure. So he took me to a barn with little iso-wean pigs. He told me if I was going to raise pigs, I had to be able to catch one. I asked him ‘How do you that?’ He showed me and I guess that’s where I got started. I’ve worked with pigs ever since.”

In 2009, Ryan decided driving around in a pickup for New Fashion Pork and telling people what to do with their livestock wasn’t the right career slot for him. “I didn’t want to lose the swine contracts we had, so going to work for another swine company wasn’t an option. Instead, I worked for ABS Global, a company which artificially inseminates dairy cattle.”

Riley with some friendly pigs. Photos by Melanie Jungers.

But he worked for ABS for less than a year. “With our swine production contracts, people kept calling and we kept getting busier. Eventually I decided I didn’t need to breed cows.” He joined Melanie working full-time caring for pigs.

Their company, R&M Custom Livestock, has grown substantially in the last decade. Combined with their trucking company, R&M Express, they have six employees. Ryan and Melanie’s management style is very hands-on.

“When teaching somebody their job, you need to show them in a way that demonstrates you really know what you’re talking about. If you can’t show them how it needs to be done, they’re going to go away thinking ‘You’re not going to tell me how to do my job.’ Filling out forms and leaving notes isn’t going to cut it,” Ryan said.

R&M Custom Livestock now cares for 54,000 pigs on a daily basis.

Besides caring for the pigs in the contracted units, R&M annually custom power washes about 350,000 spaces and vaccinates 75,000 pigs for other producers. R&M Express hauls more than 26 million gallons of hog manure each year.

Lane with a member of the flock.

Why do people keep calling them to manage swine units? Melanie said, “I think we do a good job. We don’t cut corners or take days off. I think we treat people the way we would want to be treated. They can see that and they call us back.”

Back when he was working for New Fashion Pork, one of the “big bosses” came one day to a facility Ryan was managing. “He let me know that it’s not just about taking care of the animal inside the building. You can stand outside and look and see if the work is getting done. He said, ‘Outside appearance reflects inside performance.’ He told me never to forget that, and I won’t. If you care enough to sweep the office floor or spray the weeds, you definitely care about doing the work inside with the pigs.”

Since the Junger family doesn’t raise crops, it became an economic challenge to continue feeding cattle. They replaced their small feedlot with a swine building. “We keep about a half dozen cows around now to teach the kids what raising cattle is about,” Ryan said.

Still, a lot of hogs and a few head of cattle were not enough. “A couple of years ago, I was hauling a load of pigs and I had a flashback about when I was a kid and our family used to get together to butcher broilers. I thought, ‘Jeez, I’m not sure if I remember how to do that. My kids won’t know how to do it unless I re-train myself.’” So they added chickens to the mix in 2020.

Their children – Riley, 12; Lane, 10; and Blake, 9 – care for the chickens in addition to working with both the cattle and pigs.

Blake takes a break from pig chores.

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got around quickly that the Jungers were raising chickens.

“So pretty soon, everybody was wanting to buy them. We kept buying them and we kept butchering them. And it was fun,” he said.

Melanie said, “I grew up doing that. My parents had a chicken farm near Germantown (in O’Brien County). I remember how we did it back then way differently than how it’s done now.

But our kids like it. They think it’s fun.”

The family also added some hen layers, so now there’s eggs to harvest. “And I had to have some ducks,” Melanie said. “I think they’re funny and the kids like them.” However, Ryan made clear, “I don’t have ducks. I have yet to find a use for ducks.” The family has hens that will ride on their shoulders like a parrot and a 1,400-pound steer the kids ride like a pony.

Ryan attributes their life and business success to their faith.

“With as little as Melanie and I had when we got married and moved to Lyon County, I feel that when you put things in God’s hands, He will deliver for you if your faith is true and strong. We have found success in life’s decisions with that in mind. He’s there even when we make the smallest decision – day-by-day and minute-by-minute. Even when we don’t realize it, He’s helping us on our path to success.” The family attends First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock.

Melanie and Ryan Jungers of Little Rock.

“We’ve butchered a lot of chickens,” said Melanie.

“It was something he dreamed up and, before, you know it, we had chickens.” They butchered 50 or 60 broilers in 2020 and so far in 2021 the family has butchered about 250 broilers.

Ryan said, “Melanie loves to take pictures and social media is her second best friend,” so word

“You look back at your disappointments or the disappointments you’re experiencing right now … it all happens for a reason … we just don’t know why yet,” he said. “When I graduated from college, I had job interviews with large operations where the interview ended disappointingly. Some of those jobs I really wanted. As it turns out, I interviewed for a minimum wage job because, geographically, I thought that’s where I wanted to be. For whatever reason, that step turned into this and where we are now. I know I’ve been getting His help along the way.”

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KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN? Along with big red barns and windmills, silos are one of the iconic physical structures identified with the American farm.

Windmills were the first of these three structures to face their demise. Then big red barns began disappearing despite the strong sentiment attached to them. Fortunately, there are diehard preservationists saving a share of those barns, despite the hefty price tag.

Silos were the last of the three to rise on the farm skyline.

Will they be the next iconic structure to come down?

Silo pits for grain storage date to the 8th century BC in Greece and to 5000 BC in the Middle East. In Turkey and Persia, insurance agents bought wheat and barley when it was inexpensive and stored it in hidden pits for times of scarcity.

The first modern upright silo was invented and built in 1873 by Fred Hatch of McHenry County, Illinois.

The United States Department of Agriculture says there were only 91 silos in the United States in 1882. By 1895, there were more than 50,000 silos across the country, and by 1903, there were an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 silos dotting the landscape. Silos were especially important in the development of the dairy industry because of the ability to store highquality green feeds.

A Rock Valley farm was home to the fourth ”Iowa Silo” monitored by Iowa State College. Note the chart documenting the costs of the structure. All photos and graphics are from Iowa State University except when noted.

“For the dairy herd it is difficult to find its equal,” one Iowa farmer in the early 1900s said about silage. When he was having work done on his farm and the cows had to make do without silage, the farmer said the cows’ milk production dropped by a third.

Also in the early 1900s, Iowa State College was experimenting with what they called the “Iowa Silo.”

The average cost of a 16x35-foot silo with a concrete roof was between $300 and $350.

The walls of the Iowa Silo were specially designed “hollow, hard-burned” tiles, furnished by several Iowa manufacturers.

The blocks were laid horizontally around the silo, and the joints were laid in cement mortar. Steel wire was laid between the courses of tiles for reinforcement.

Developers of the Iowa Silo claimed it would last for generations with few repairs. They said it was “indestructible.”

Prior to this time, silos were made of wood. Because the wood deteriorated, curved concrete blocks were introduced in 1900.

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Construction and completion of the “Iowa Silo” developed by the team at Iowa State College.

Silos at a Rock Valley area farm today. Photo by Brett Davelaar, BD Photography.

Concrete or cement staves for use in silo construction were invented in 1905. Clay tile was introduced in 1908 and metal silos were being advertised by 1910.

In 1911, in Turner County, South Dakota, the local newspaper reported on the area’s first silo saying: ““Silos are a new thing here and they are all being closely watched by farmers who will build next year if they seem successful.”

The Turner County Herald said 20 men were engaged in filling the silo near Hurley. “The corn is cut with corn binders and hauled to the silo where it is fed into a cutter run by a traction engine. After being cut, it is elevated straight up through sheet iron pipe to the top of the silo. Inside three men are kept busy packing the fine corn. It is tramped and every corner is packed. The stalks, leaves, ears and all are cut into fine pieces not over an inch long. It makes a soft pile, damp but not wet and will keep as long as it is not exposed to the air.” The Herald reported an acre of corn could make five to 10 tons of ensilage.

The highly-recognizable blue Harvestore glass-fused-to-steel, low-oxygen silo was introduced in 1949. Harvestore silos increased in popularity through the 1960s into the 1970s.

Whether it’s true or not, the expense of Harvestore silos is frequently blamed for bankrupting many farmers during the 1980’s farm crisis. While there are staunch defenders of the brand, a brief online search quickly finds long threads of discussion about what some called “blue tombstones” or “monuments to a broke farmer.”

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Two green mountain staves at the dairy farm at Iowa State College.

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Filling the silo at the J.S. Pingrey farm near Hurley, S.D., in 1911. Filling the first generation of upright silos was a very labor intensive process.

Photo from Hurley Centennial book.

For several decades, as cattle feedlots and dairies have gotten significantly larger, there has been a move away from silo towers and towards silage being stored in plastic-wrapped bunkers, plastic-covered piles or plastic bags. These methods are typically easier to work with and the feed is faster to access than feed in upright silos.

As fewer upright silos are built and old ones are torn down or fall down, it appears to only be a matter of time until silos follow windmills and barns as a disappearing site in the Midwestern farm landscape.

Sources: • •

• • • • • • •

Cheryl Mullenbach, iowawatch.org, 2017 J.B. Davidson and M.L. King, Iowa State College Ag Experiment Station Bulletin #117, 1910. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/bulletin/vol10/iss117/1 Iowa State College Ag Experiment Station, 1919 South Dakota State Historical Society / SWCA Environmental Consultants, 2013 Hurley Centennial book / Turner County Herald, 1911 Wisconsin State Farmer, 2020 MorningAgClips.com, 2020 Delano Herald-Journal, 2007 Hutchinson Leader, 2019

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PLYMOUTH COUNTY FAMILY

THERE’S NO MANUAL FOR FARMING

by Bob Fitch

The Bottjen family: Garry holding Dekker; Ronda, Nathan, Parker, Sarah and Tucker; plus Parker’s bottle calf, Shirley.

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Garry and Ronda Bottjen of Kingsley.

Garry and Ronda Bottjen know there are careers in the world where they could make more money than farming. “But I think wealth comes more from family than it does from money,” Garry said.

Garry and Ronda farm north of Kingsley with their son, Nathan and his wife Sarah. Nathan and Sarah have three children, Parker, 8, Tucker, 5, and Dekker, 2. The family grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa, plus run cow-calf pairs.

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“Farming is a life that few people get to experience. You’ve got to know a little bit about everything. You’ve got to have some scars. That’s the only way to explain it. You do things that there’s no manual for. It’s a different way of life, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Garry said.

“Farming in the ‘80s was an interesting time. Everybody was trying to figure out a way to make money, to make it through.”

He and his brother bought a round baler together and did custom work. “A lot of guys who had corn and beans had their set-aside in oats and they had no use for the oats. They’d tell us ‘If you want it, you can have it.’” They ended up with a lot of oat bales. “I didn’t find this out until years later, but Dad told me those oat bales are what saved him. He could feed it to the cows and he didn’t have to buy feed. I think every farmer around here who’s my age will vouch that the ‘80s were ugly.

You had to pay 15 or 18 percent interest on your money and the bankers weren’t easy to deal with,” Garry said.

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trailer house after they were married and before his dad moved to town in 1990. The farm was originally purchased by his Great Grandfather LeMoine in the early 1930s.

When Garry was growing up, the farm had farrow-to-finish hogs and feeder cattle. His dad eventually got out of hogs, but later Garry and Ronda started farrowing to feeder pigs. There are two pig nurseries on their farm now, but the Bottjen’s just maintain the buildings while someone else cares for the pigs.

Nathan and Sarah Bottjen, with their sons Dekker, Parker and Tucker; and Parker’s bottle calf, Shirley.

However, sometimes good luck falls from where you least expect it.

Ronda was particularly adept at caring for bucket calves and they usually had 60 bull calves at a time, but “didn’t mess with the heifers, the springer calves.” However, early one morning the phone rang with a call from a broker they knew well – he had a load of Holstein heifer calves unexpectedly stuck in Minnesota. “He asked if we had our buildings ready and I said ‘Yes, but I had to talk to my banker about buying another group of calves.’”

The seller said he’d make Garry a heck of a deal on the group of “beautiful heifers.”

When the heifer calves arrived, they were better than advertised. “They were beautiful! I didn’t know what the banker was going to say when I told him I had the calves already.

But Dad said, ‘Take ’em.’”

Garry said the conservative banker was skeptical, but eventually relented and loaned him the money for the calves. But Garry also needed to borrow money for feed and milk. The banker said “Well, I don’t know how we’re going to work this out,” and started raking Garry over the coals and wasn’t going to 20

budge on the money for feed.

“I was a 22-year-old smart aleck.

I stood up, said some choice words, and walked out. That was the only time I disrespected an elder, let alone a banker.” The banker called out and told him to return to his office. Garry apologized for losing his cool. His Dad had said he’d back him if the banker wouldn’t, but Garry had not wanted to play that card. The banker said, “Oh, well, I’ll back you if your dad will.” Garry said he never disrespected an elder again and learned to keep his mouth shut.

The episode ended well. Receipts from their bull calves covered the cost of the heifer calves and all of the feed. “Then I had 60 head of peach Holstein heifers staring at me that I did not owe anything on.

I ended up taking them up to 800900 pounds; they were ready to be bred. We got a thousand bucks a piece for them,” he said. Not only was he able clear all their debts, but he had enough money left to buy a field cultivator. “It was one of the biggest breaks we had to cover a lot of the losses in those years.”

Garry has lived on their farm his entire life. He and Ronda lived in a

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

Garry and Nathan are 50/50 partners in Bottjen Trucking.

Garry hauls liquid supplement for beef and dairy cattle. Nathan primarily hauls rock and sand to concrete plants.

“Trucking supports my farming habit. I don’t know how else to say it,” Garry said. Involved in trucking since 2001, today he delivers liquid feed supplement for Midwest PMS of Merrill. He delivers directly to cattle feeders in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Garry takes time off from the road in the spring to get the crops in the ground. His neighbor does the “dirt work” and, when Garry is home in the evenings, he heads out to the field to plant his neighbor’s crops along with his own. That works really well in a dry year like 2021, but is more of a scheduling challenge in the wet years.

On Nathan’s side of their trucking business, he hauls product from sand pits to GCC concrete plants. He also hauls lime and will occasionally unload rock along interstate highway projects where “he’s had his education with traffic.” Garry said the timing on Nathan’s job is going to work out well since that industry’s slow time is when Nathan will be busy overseeing calving at their farm in January. “He’s the young muscle here. Nathan’s a really good mechanic, too, so he’ll have time in the winter to get our stuff fixed up.”

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Nathan graduated from the diesel mechanics program at Iowa Lakes Community College. He worked for John Deere and Titan for about 14 years, hauling equipment for John Deere and working as a mechanic for Titan. “As he progressed with Titan, they focused him on a lot of the electronics, which is nice because now he’s got a general background in everything.

There’s not too many things he can’t do.”

Nathan’s wife, Sarah, is a high school English teacher at MMRCU in Marcus, but also takes overnight shifts keeping an eye on the cows during calving season.

Ronda said their daughter, Nicole and her husband Christian Christianson, live in Madison, S.D. She’s a middle school and high school English teacher in a nearby district. Christian is going back to college to become an elementary school teacher.

Garry and Ronda’s other son, Ryan, works in law enforcement in South Dakota.

Ronda is in her fourth year of working at the MMRCU Little Royals Pre-School in Remsen. “I like the little kids, they’re not sassy yet,” she said. Ronda also volunteers at the Plymouth County Fair by maintaining a large flowerbed and helps at the fair gate. On the farm, she said she’s “usually the 2 a.m. shift during calving. But I’m trying to get away from that. I got that shift years ago because my mother-in-law said I was going to be up with kids in the night anyway.”

Parker, Dekker and Tucker Bottjen taking charge of the 1466 International the family uses in tractor pulls.

Their grandson, Parker, showed his first bottle calf at the fair this year. Nathan, Ryan and Nicole were all involved in 4-H growing up.

Garry has a lot of plans involving a wrench when retirement eventually comes around. “I’ve got a tractor sitting down in the machine shed which I’ve bought a lot of parts for. That’s going to take me some time. Someday I want to go and ride in tractor rides.”

Service is Our Business

He learned his way around a wrench from his brother and put those skills to work on farm equipment, trucks and in the world of tractor pulling. Their pulling tractor was one his dad purchased in the 1980s which Garry put his “heart and soul into fixing.” The tractor was originally an International 1466, but the rear end is from an old 706 they used to pull the feed wagon.

“That tractor has a history on this place. We’d never sell it.

Farmers are kind of stupid about their iron. They almost have a love affair with it. This tractor is one of them. It took a few years for us to get it built – it was a little crude when we got started.” Going to the tractor pulls was an activity which involved the whole family.

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Looking forward, change is a constant in farming, but Garry and Ronda are hopeful Nathan and Sarah will be able to succeed. Garry said, “That’s what I want and that’s what he wants.

He loves the cow-calf side. And he’s got at least one son for sure who will want to farm. If Sarah keeps teaching and he keeps trucking, it will all work out. A second income is an absolute must on the farm.”

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23

SIOUX COUNTY FAMILY

WORK ETHIC AND LONG DAYS ON THE FARM PREPARED FABER FOR A CAREER IN MEDICINE

by Bob Fitch

Who would guess that competitively showing cattle is good preparation for a career in family medicine?

Dr. Tyler Faber and his fiancé, Autumn Gross, in front of Orange City Area Health Systems, where Tyler works in the family medicine clinic and the emergency room.

24

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

Dr. Tyler Faber recently joined Orange City Area Health System in their family medicine clinic and emergency room. He grew up on a farm near Sioux Center.

Between his sophomore and junior year of high school, his sports and livestock schedule was intense. He was working a steer and a heifer for competitions that summer, plus taking care of other calves. He was also in three sports at Sioux Center High School. “So my Monday-WednesdayFriday routine was waking up at 5 a.m. to feed the calves, then lifting for football, doing a basketball workout, doing an athletic speed camp, and going to the farm to wash and feed the calves, and then going to bed about midnight.”

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

Who has a more intense schedIn 2008, Tyler showed both the champion steer and champion heifer at the Iowa State Fair. Pictured is the ule than that? Well, doctors, for Faber family: David, Daniel, Tyler, Sara and Kay. one. “I think working with livestock got me used to long hours.

It’s not uncommon right now to work 24 hours in the E.R. and get no sleep. Yet, for the most part, I’m 100 percent awake. I don’t feel the fatigue that gets other people sometimes. I kind of attribute that to long days at the farm and the work ethic there.”

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Competitively showing livestock, especially at the state and national level, is well-known as an avenue for meeting people and building relationships. Those skills also proved to be a great precursor for a career in family medicine.

“I debated multiple times during med school about what part of medicine to pursue. The decision came down to what sort of client base do I want to serve and where did I want to live.

Family medicine allows me a wide range of things. I have clinic work; I do O.B. and delivery babies, and work in the E.R. for the fast-paced environment,” he said.

“With many specialty areas of medicine, you see a patient maybe once a year. In those situations, you don’t get to know your patients or really build relationships. In family medicine, you get a chance to know the kid’s story, the parent’s story and the grandparent’s story. I like getting to know people and building relationships.” The show cattle world was a good training ground for these skills. He equated the relationship aspect of family medicine to the Iowa State Fair which “feels like a high school reunion. You get to see all your friends again.”

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25

Tyler said, “My goal was always to come back to a rural community because I just like rural people – down-to-earth, salt-of-the-earth people. That’s why I chose family medicine and came back to Sioux County.” While an undergraduate at Iowa State University, he debated about being a veterinarian, “but I decided my greater passion was caring for the rural population.”

He signed a contract with Orange City Area Health Systems about 1½ years ago. He covered a few E.R. shifts in Orange City while still doing his residency in Sioux Falls and became full-time at the clinic in late August. He inherited many regular patients from a doctor who recently departed.

“So, from the beginning, I’ve had a full schedule. They’re scheduling longer initial appointments so I can get to know my patients a little better.” He’s also relished the opportunity to meet an outstanding group of physicians in a busy and well-run health system.

Judge Jerry Douglas congratulates Tyler on showing the champion steer at the 2008 Iowa State Fair. “That was right before he slapped that steer so hard and it just took off,” Tyler said.

Tyler is the son of Dr. David and Kay Faber of Sioux Center.

David is the founder of Trans Ova Genetics, a livestock reproduction biotechnology firm, and owner of Faber Cattle, a producer of show calves.

Tyler said, “I grew up at the main farm for my first 15-16 years and was around all the recip calves on a daily basis at Trans Ova Genetics. On top of that, we also have cow-calf operation which is between Rock Valley and Hawarden.

We primarily raise show cattle there. I’m still pretty heavily involved with that business today.”

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His dad started showing cattle as a youth which later carried over to Tyler and his siblings. “Our entire family grew together and bonded through showing cattle. Each of us kids won the heifer show at the Iowa State Fair. Both my brother and I won the steer show. I won it twice. I think I’m still the only person who has won both the steer and the heifer show – and I won both in the same year,” he said. “We were quite successful. As a family, I think there was only one year in 15 that we didn’t finish in the top five, or bring home a champion or reserve banner.”

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Tyler earned his degree as a doctor of osteopathic medicine from the medical school at Des Moines University. His threeyear residency was spent in Sioux Falls, where he worked both at clinics and the two major hospitals. Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine, or DOs, are fully licensed physicians who practice in all areas of medicine. Emphasizing a whole-person approach to treatment and care, DOs are trained to listen and partner with their patients to help them get healthy and stay well.

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

In their show cattle business today, which is known as Faber Kober Cattle, Tyler works with his dad and his sister and brother-in-law, Sara and Pat Kober. The Kobers live in Indiana, but make several trips each year to the Sioux Center side of the company, especially in September to help prepare for the company’s sale. Tyler said, “Even today, the show world drives our family together.”

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Sara also does the public relations, marketing and advertising for Trans Ova Genetics. Their older brother, Daniel, works full-time at TransOva as a cloning technician and helps out occasionally at the farm. He and his wife, Brooke, have three children and live in Sioux Center.

Tyler was not heavily involved with the business while in medical school. “But when I got closer to home during my residency, I was able to begin helping out again. On my days off, I try to get out there to help as much as I can. I like to be out there – it gives me a breath of fresh air.”

He makes time to be on-farm for the “big things” such as breeding season, vaccinations, tattoos and sorting cattle.

“My dad, brother-in-law, sister and I always talk about breeding decisions and management decisions. So I stay involved in the larger-scope management decisions.”

Tyler is marrying Autumn Gross on Oct. 1st. In August and September, they moved into a new house, he started a new job, had the show cattle sale at the farm, and got a new puppy. All of that excitement will culminate with their wedding on Oct. 1st. “We packed it all into just a couple months’ time here,” she said.

Dr. Tyler Faber in the emergency room at Orange City Area Health Systems.

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Autumn is a graduate of South Dakota State University and works for Sanford Health. She’s in the human resources department and is able to work remotely from home since much of her job is done on the computer, on the phone or via video calls. She and Tyler met when he was doing his residency in Sioux Falls.

Autumn is from Tulare, S.D. She lived on a farm when she was very young, but moved into Tulare during her early elementary years. Her dad has always been involved in agriculture, including his current job with Steinheuser’s Feedlot. Her brother is the agricultural education teacher and FFA adviser at Hitchcock-Tulare High School.

“We did not show cattle, so that world is new to me in the past year-and-a-half. I’ve definitely learned a lot,” she said.

At a Faber family gathering, it doesn’t take long for the conversation to come around to in-depth cattle talk. “About 20 minutes in, his mom and I are looking at each other, waiting for the moment when the cattle discussion will start.”

Tyler’s nephews – 8-year-old Cohen and 7-year-old Creed Faber – are now in the show ring. “It was my nephews’ first year showing, so that was pretty cool to see. Both of them showed a heifer out of my last show heifer.”

Even the holidays have a cattle-centric focus in the Faber family. Tyler said, “On Christmas Eve, one of our family traditions is to run all the cows through and pour them and vaccinate them, preg check or whatever we need to do.

While we’ve got the whole family here, let’s get it done!

More people makes it easier work.”

Farewell To A Smiling Farm Boy April 2021 | www.AgeMedia.pub

of Lyon County

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

The Farming Families team extends sincere condolences to the Mark and Carrie Dieters family of Inwood, whose 7-year-old son, Jake, passed away on Sept. 12. His loss is shared by his sisters, Carlee and Brooke, the Inwood community, and all who knew him. In our April 2021 edition, Farming Families magazine told the story of the Dieters family and Jake’s brave battle with a rare form of cancer called Wilms’ tumors.

You can read the original story by texting JAKE2021 to 72727.

Just like any other seven-year-old Iowa farm boy, Jake enjoyed driving a four-wheeler, helping with the calves and tending his basement “carpet farm.” He liked to clean out his dad’s cattle trailer and eagerly showed a video of himself driving an 1816 skid loader.

But cancer was a reality for him since 2018. He faced cycles of chemotherapy and remission. He lost both kidneys and endured regular dialysis. His mom, Carrie, said, “Jake had to understand and cope with more emotions at his age than most adults do in our whole lifetime. And somehow, through it all, he still smiled.”

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Prayer and support from the community helped the Dieters with the struggles and sadness. Jake’s parents have prayed to accept God’s will.

Mark said, “His plan is different than ours and we’ll never understand it until we’re on the side of the Lord and he can explain it to us.”

The Dieters family: Carrie holding Brooke; Mark, Carlee and Jake.

In front is their beloved dog Jade who recently passed away.

Story on page 6. Photo by Ashley DeJager, DJ Designs of Rock Valley.

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FROM THE KITCHEN

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

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