Iowa State Bank

EVERYTHING’S NEW THE PAST FOUR YEARS

By Bob Fitch

After Mark and Heidi Kock married, they purchased an acreage and fed livestock in Lyon County near Inwood. Four years ago, life took them on a short detour to South Dakota and then Mark took a long detour to the Middle East. After these diversions, the road led them right back to feeding livestock in Lyon County.

“When people ask me ‘What’s new?’, I tell them everything’s new. Everything has been new for us for the past four years,” Mark said. Four years ago, Heidi came home from bringing the kids to a church camp and found Mark sitting at the kitchen table with a military recruiter. “I thought ‘What in the world?,’” she said. “Mark’s grandpa is a World War II veteran, so he’s always had a place in his heart for the military. I knew he wanted to do this, but I always said the kids were too little.”

For the previous 10 years, the couple had been custom feeding both cattle and hogs on an acreage west of Inwood – located just a half-mile from the dairy farm where the pair met and worked during high school. Mark is a native of Inwood and Heidi is from Rock Valley. In addition to their own livestock, Mark worked 10 years for farmers John Fluit Jr. and Vern Van Beek of Inwood.