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