The Farming Families of Sioux County (IA) — September 2021

September 2021 | www.AgeMedia.pub

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

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VON ARB Family Anne and Dennis Von Arb. Story on page 6.

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

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SIOUX COUNTY FAMILY

AN EVANGELIST FOR GOOD SOIL HEALTH

By Bob Fitch

Anne and Dennis Von Arb. 6

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

Scientist, philosopher, consultant and farmer Dennis Von Arb can quickly recall 50-year-old lessons from his agronomy and entomology professors at Iowa State or tell you what the weather and crop conditions are in Argentina today. Getting high-speed internet to the farm was like getting a two-inch rain after four months of drought: Just as the soil soaks up the downpour of moisture, Dennis’ brain soaks up crop research or conditions and weather information as fast as the high-speed internet can deliver it.

Dennis and Anne Von Arb farm south of Alton. The couple has been married for 43 years and have four daughters and six grandchildren. Anne grew up on a farm northeast of Remsen and has worked for 23 years at Diamond Vogel in Orange City, where she is in charge of payroll. Dennis grew up farming in the Alton area. On top of farming full-time, he and Verlyn Sneller own the companies Nutritional Ag and SRV. He also has an active business relationship with NuForce Water Technologies LLC. To know Dennis Von Arb is to become acquainted with an evangelist for the benefits of micronutrients as a vital factor in good soil health and the benefits it will deliver in yields and more productive and healthier livestock.

SRV sells a product called ACPucks which, in confinement manure pits or lagoons, helps capture the power of nitrogen, delivering up to 40 units of N more per acre of manure.

ACPucks also help control other gasses and crusting in pits or lagoons.

“If you can get more value out of your manure, that provides a cheaper input in crop production. It costs the same amount of money to haul a good manure sample out of there versus a manure that has ‘gassed off’ the nutrients like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Put that all back onto the field,” Dennis said.

Ammonia advances corrosion on the steel in hog buildings quickly. Hydrogen sulfide is an acid too, as well as a source of sulfur. “If you can keep that in the pit or lagoon, you’re utilizing that for crop production instead of destroying the building.”

In addition to capturing the maximum benefit from northwest Iowa’s manure resources, he’s also identified that the standard approach of applying more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is a shortcut which will be self-defeating if farmers don’t consider the bigger picture of soil health. “When I was a young farmer, the shotgun approach of ‘make sure you have enough of everything’ worked. But I can remember a lab at Iowa State where one of my agronomy professors made it quite clear that ‘We will be measuring out our nutrients in a teaspoon.’

One of the students asked ‘Why a teaspoon?’; and he replied ‘It doesn’t take that much to raise a crop if you have the right amounts and balance.’” Back in the 1970s, his professor said using excess amounts of N, P and K was not the best answer in the long-term. In the years to come, he predicted farmers would be paying a lot more attention to their micronutrient management, not the N, P and K.

Von Arb is experimenting with corn planting depth. He's demonstrating that brace roots work more efficiently in the ground. In the days of cultivating, over the brace Age Media Qtrsoil Pagewas Color pushed 1-8-20.pdf up 1 1/8/2020 11:21:34 AM roots. Today, greater planting depth is needed to get the roots underground where they'll have a better chance to put more hair roots out.

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“We’ve degraded the amount of carbon in the soil because of the overuse of nitrogen,” Dennis said. “Carbon has to be there for a plant to produce sugar. If we don’t have enough available carbon either in CO2 or actual carbon in the growing root zone, we’re not going to produce the amount of sugar we should. If we have good biological activity, there’s actually beneficial bacteria that will capture nitrogen from the air and make it available for the crop, either through the leaves of the crop or the root system. Especially corn in the fifth node area, the right beneficial bacteria will capture the excess nitrogen in the air. That’s the way nature used to do it.”

He continued the lesson: “It isn’t how much nitrogen you put on, it’s how you balance all your nutrients, including your micronutrients, that will determine your yields. The two nutrients we find in the shortest supply in northwest Iowa are sulfur and boron. Those are the ones I’ll see missing when we do a complete soil test, or tissue test, that will be the most responsible for yields falling short. Even something as simple as an ear tip filling or not is more than likely related to boron deficiency rather than overpopulating the corn.”

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

A small amount of boron goes a long way, he said. “Like other micronutrients, you don’t need much of them, but when they're really deficient, you get serious yield pullback. You lose the efficiencies of microbial life in the soil. Microbes in the soil require nutrition because they’re the ones that actually provide the nutrition to the plants. They convert the nutrition to a plant-available form of fertilizer. If you don’t have good biology in the soil, you’re missing an essential step in crop production.

Also, by foliar-feeding the crop a balanced ration of carbon and nutrients, the plant exudates (which is sap shared through the roots) greatly increase soil microbe populations.”

At his seminars, Dennis also reminds farmers that carbon is the basis for all life. “Yet we don’t manage it, we take it for granted. All the bacteria that’s in the soil gives off CO2, that’s part of their respiration. The CO2 is utilized by the plant, especially the underside of the leaves. If you do a better job of capturing the CO2, you improve the sugar content of the plant.”

There are multiple benefits of improving the sugar content.

Every plant is a “sugar factory” and it is sugar with all other nutrients which produces the final grain or fruit. In addition, a high sugar level will make the plant toxic to a lot of insect pests, which is one of nature’s ways to fight the insects. “If you can raise the sugar level to a certain point, most insects can’t digest the plant’s sap. High sugar content produces alcohol and, as my college entomology professor would say, ‘Most of your feeding larvae can’t burp or fart, so they come apart.’

That’s a saying you’d never forget.

“After World War II, we developed more synthetic insecticides to control the insect population instead of managing nutrition more. We’ve come to the realization that if we’re going to survive the extremes of weather, we need to have a healthier soil and a healthier plant to tolerate those extremes, whether it’s cold or heat.”

On top of his passion for soil health, Dennis actively explores

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Dennis and Anne apply his soil science knowledge to their large garden, seeing plant health and yields which normally surpass expectations. They also apply lessons from the garden to the corn field. More importantly, though, the couple gardens to spend time together outdoors and ensure they’re communicating with one another. And there are no phones allowed in the garden!

The grandchildren of Dennis and Anne Von Arb enjoy movie night at grandpa and grandma’s house. Pictured are Grant, Lauren, Leona, Evie, Nora and Bryson.

the potential of utilizing products that are usually headed for the landfill. For example, he’s running an experiment with a neighbor to see if hog hair can be used as a soil nutrient since the hair has both nitrogen and sulfur content. He also has a crop experiment going which uses a waste product from a meat processing plant.

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Anne said the two of them met at a wedding of a mutual friend of a friend. “Dennis was the bartender and I was the organist. My friend who sang at the wedding helped with the matchmaking.” In addition to farming, they owned the bowling alley in Alton for about 20 years, which proved to be a good supplemental career during the lean years of farming in the 1980s. “It gave us an income, but still allowed Dennis to stay involved with the farm without having to re-launch it later,” she said. In the late 1990s when his dad’s health started to fail, they sold the bowling alley and transitioned back to full-time farming. That’s also around the time Anne went to work at Diamond Vogel.

The prime bowling season in the winter balanced well with the busy times in farming. Nonetheless, he and his dad did scale back their livestock ventures when they bought the bowling alley. At one point, they had stock cows, a cattle feedlot and a farrow-to-finish hog operation. Today, Dennis no longer has livestock and has ceased renting portions of cropland which were located further away.

Their four daughters are all married and enjoying successful careers. The oldest, Michelle, lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Justin Sutherland, and their three children. Michelle is an environmental engineer. Daughter Heidi is a landscape architect and does graphic design with marketing. She’s married to Jeremy Witver and they live in Ankeny, Iowa.

Heidi’s twin sister, Heather, is a graphic designer who is now working toward a degree in speech language pathology. She and her husband, Jeff Von Brown, have two children and also live in Ankeny. Dennis and Anne’s youngest daughter, Amber, is married to Cole Toovey and they live in Iowa City with their daughter. Amber is an architect.

“We’re blessed that they all got a good education and are employed,” said Dennis. There is a little inter-family rivalry since Michelle went to the University of Iowa while the other three and Dennis went to Iowa State University. All four were active in 4-H and Anne was a 4-H leader. They didn’t show livestock, but all had at least one project which made it to the Iowa State Fair.

Dennis said, “The girls all said 4-H was very good training when they got to college and had to do public addresses.

It was a tremendous confidence builder they got from 4-H.” He’s been helped in his businesses more than once by Heather’s graphic design skills, plus Michelle’s environmental engineering knowledge helped him “pull the pieces together” in his own soil science efforts. Michelle told him, “Dad, if you don't figure out how to feed the biology, it’s just like an employee, it won’t work for you.”

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KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE

A BRITISH COLONY IN PLYMOUTH COUNTY Every American child learns the story of the 13 British colonies, the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s ride, the Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence. However, the rest of the story … is that the British invaded Plymouth County, Iowa, a century after the American Revolution.

Englishman William Close, and his brothers Frederick and James, bought land in northwest Iowa and sold it the sons of upper class English families. The experiment created a colony for people “of the better class” who were not in line to inherit land but whose fathers could set them up in farming.

Close conceived the idea after meeting a land speculator from Illinois named Daniel Paullin. In 1878, The Close Brothers Group bought 14,475 acres of land. They marketed the land to young men attending English universities, giving them the opportunity to become farmers in Iowa and even learn relevant farming methods from a college to be established in the area.

The Close Colony was founded near Le Mars and its heyday was from 1879 to 1885. In addition to Le Mars, the British “colonists” lived near the towns of Orange City, Seney, Hawarden, Ireton, Correctionville and Sioux City. The Close brothers purchased Kingsley, Iowa, then known as Quorn, in 1880, along with parts of six Iowa counties: Plymouth, Lyon, Sioux, Woodbury, Cherokee and Osceola. They also had land in Minnesota, Texas and Kansas. At one time, they owned about 40,000 acres of the best land in the U.S. Another report said they owned 300,000 acres.

The Englishmen and Scotsmen raised Shorthorn and Hereford cattle, plus hogs and many sheep.

The colony dissolved around 1890 after Frederick Close died as the result of injuries from an accident playing polo in Sioux City. However, William Close continued his speculative ways, becoming involved in a railroad venture in the Yukon.

Author Curtis Harnack was born on a farm near Remsen and graduated from Le Mars High School.

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The story of The Close Colony was researched and told in detail by the late author Curtis Harnack in the book Gentlemen of the Prairie. Harnack grew

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

The first page of a pamphlet produced by William Close promotes his “colony” in northwest Iowa.

A page from William Close’s pamphlet promoting settlement in northwest Iowa. Note there were only 39 states in the U.S. at that time.

up on a farm near Remsen and graduated from Le Mars High School. Even though he lived in New York City, he retained ownership of a portion of the original family farm until his final years. Over the course of his life, he was an English professor at Grinnell College, the University of Iowa and Sarah Lawrence College in New York. He also was executive director of the Yaddo artists’ colony in upstate New York and was president of the School of American Ballet.

Insights on the colony experiment were captured in the positive book reviews. One said “Harnack captures … compellingly a story too good to be true, except that it is – a band of 19th-century English gentlemen, led by a visionary, naïve, courageous, foolish, and all-too-human young man, who come to virgin-prairie Iowa to make their fortune and transplant their aristocracy. Soon they encounter all the inhospitable and irreconcilable elements of wildly dissimilar cultures – the impoverished immigrant striving to make a life versus those born to privilege seeking to continue one. What ensues is a deeply moving, dramatic, and highly comic narrative, a case study, finally, of immigration and assimilation …”

Another reviewer wrote: “The confluence of upper-class Victorians with northwest Iowa makes for a social comedy as well as giving us an unexpected glance into the abiding strength of the Middle West.”

The New York Times said: “Through the experience of these picturesque emigrants [Harnack] allows us to see afresh the

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William Close, founder of the 1880s British colony in northwest Iowa.

Pictured here in his later years, he would continue his speculative ways by becoming involved in railroad construction in the Yukon.

fear, danger, courage and appalling hard work that went into the settling of our Western lands.”

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The University of Iowa Press re-released Gentlemen of the Prairie and two other Harnack books about a decade ago.

The UI Press said, “In his book, Harnack describes how the English immigrants had no interest in American citizenship but enjoyed or endured the challenging adventure of remaining part of the empire while stranded on the plains. They didn’t mix socially with other Le Mars area residents but enjoyed such sports as horse racing, fox hunts, polo, and an annual derby followed by a glittering grand ball.”

The Sioux City Journal’s Nick Hytrek interviewed Harnack in 2011. He quoted Harnack as saying: “"I love being on the farm.

I usually get out at least once a year to see how the farm is going, so I never lose track with my people back there.” Two of his books - We Have All Gone Away and The Attic: A Memoir – include Harnack's memories of growing up on the family farm two miles south of Remsen.

New and used copies of Gentlemen of the Prairie can be found at amazon.com and bn.com. A digital copy is available for purchase at Google books.

Sources: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brooks_Close www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/9781587299674/gentlemen-on-the-prairie www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Harnack www.iagenweb.org/sioux/books/british/british_2_12.htm Sioux City Journal, June 19, 2011 Le Mars Sentinel, July 10, 2013

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

SILAGE HARVEST AT THE LANCE AND JONI RUS FARM. PHOTO BY DEAR JANE PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO OF ORANGE CITY.

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

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LYON COUNTY FAMILY

‘WE DO OUR BEST AND LET GOD DO THE REST’

by Bob Fitch

A portion of the Roger and Janet Knoblock family. Front: Chad, Thadd, Travis, Janet, Roger, Troy, Heather, and Trent. Seated in the second row: Lynelle, Wendy, Kathy, Donna holding Vaila, Tricia and Jon. Standing in the third row: Kayla, Micah, Adrienne, Rayna, Kiann, Luca, Alexa and Mitchell.

Top row: Mathias, Kerrick, Adam, and Korey.

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

Janet and Roger Knoblock have eight children and 36 grandchildren.

Roger Knoblock said his family’s farm runs all for one and one for all. “All for one” means if someone in the operation has trouble, everyone in the family will rally to their side.

“One for all” outlines that the family and employees of the Knoblock farm are working for the good of all.

The Knoblock family has a diversified cattle, hog, corn and soybean operation located between Lester and Alvord. Over the decades Roger and Janet Knoblock’s family has grown to include eight children and their spouses, 32 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. The couple farms in partnership with their sons and their wives Trent and Heather, Thadd and Wendy, Travis and Kathy; and Troy and Donna; and sonin-law and daughter, Jon and Tricia Blomgren.

When they got married in 1965, Roger and Janet farmed 60 acres and did a little sharecropping and hauling grain and livestock for a local trucker. “I like pigs, so I bought seven crates on a farm sale. I went in with Dad on a partnership on the pigs which we farrowed in Dad’s hog house because we were living on a acreage doing chores for house rent for a neighbor.”

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Roger and Janet rented their uncle’s farm in 1967 and then bought it on contract in 1970. “And that really made the difference. We kept expanding on pigs. Dad liked to drive September 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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truck and I liked to do chores and we farmed together.” In 1971, Roger started farrowing in the old barn and in the chicken house.

Luca, Vaila, Kathy, Rayna, Travis and Alexa Knoblock. Not pictured are: Tyra and Brady Metzger; Kiana and Brooks Metzger; and Dayra and Thad Indermuhle.

Both the farrow-to-finish hog operation and the cattle feedlot continued a slow and steady growth pattern during the 1970s and into the ’80s. According to Thadd, “Dad always said hogs pay the bills and the cattle either hit a home run or strike out.” Roger added, “The diversification of cattle, hogs and grain has worked out. We’re still in business.” Jon said, “It’s nice you can get the harvest started early with cattle feed, otherwise you have to wait for the corn to dry down. We get a lot of bushels out before some even get started.” They harvest earlage and wet corn for cattle.

Knoblocks are one of the few who have retained a true farrow-to-finish hog operation.

They are also investing in an off-site sow unit as a disease management strategy. All of the grandkids have worked in the sow unit processing pigs and are a big help on the farm.

Roger said, “Pig production was always something I could start the boys out at a young age.

I was out in the field and they turned sows in and out of the crates. One would stand on the crate and open the gate; and they’d mark the sows. Then I wouldn’t have to do it at night.”

Chad, Lynelle, Donna and Troy Knoblock. Not pictured are Taryn and Caleb Indermuhle.

Trent said the long-term training of the next generation continues in much the same fashion. “With our kids, they just keeping doing more and more things as they get older.

By the time they graduate, we’d like to keep them around because they become pretty good help. But so far everyone out of high school has gone off to college, at least for a couple of years.”

Like many, they began moving hogs indoors in the 1980s. Trent said, “In 1986, after I graduated from high school, Dad walked out of the farrowing unit and he barely looked back. He had too much to do.” Roger credited the lessons his sons learned in the West Lyon FFA program for improving their hog records. He said, “When the oldest boys started having 4-H pigs and then FFA, Dad and I took each boy in on a percentage of the pigs. That’s how they kind of got started. But they had to have good records.”

Jon, Kiann and Tricia Blomgren. Not pictured are Kara; Kinze and Garth Knobloch and Kaysha and Anthony Eason.

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

As the number of sons in the operation grew, they decided to form a family farm corporation in 1990. The farm was incorporated as JRT Focus Farms: The “J” stands for Janet, the “R” stands for Roger, and the “T” stands for “The

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Front: Micah, Mitchell and Adrienne Knoblock. Back: Adam, Thadd, Wendy, and Mathias Knoblock.

T’s” – as in Trent, Thadd, Travis, and Troy. “Focus” stands for For Our Children & Us. Around the same time, more specific responsibilities began to emerge. Trent oversees finishing the hogs and marketing. Thadd manages the office and operates the feed mill. Travis manages the sow farm and does the hog building maintenance work. Troy runs the pig nurseries, does cattle records and scheduling. Jon maintains and repairs equipment; oversees equipment purchases and sales, and shares crop planning with Thadd and Troy. Nearly everyone plays a role in the field work at one time or another. The wives play a critical role in helping out and are often found running the grain cart and hauling manure, running for parts, keeping everyone fed and moral support. “We appreciate our wives flexibility and willingness to pull together a meal for a work crew on short notice,” said Travis. Trent said, “We can all go on vacation and not worry too much. Everyone’s going to do the best they can do to cover for the others.”

Roger said, “Cattle is just about the

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Trent, Heather, Kayla, Kerrick and Korey Knoblock.

only thing I’m still active in. I do chores with my grandson, Chad.

He’s really active in it. It’s kind of like when my dad faded out. At first, I didn’t really know he was fading out. It’s really heartwarming to see our grandsons’ enthusiasm for the farm.” Another grandson, Kerrick came back to the farm in August 2020 and is helping in all areas of the farm.

There’s always plenty of work.

Future son-in-law Jon started coming to the farm around 1991. Roger said, “(Our daughter) Tricia wanted Jon’s attention and we got it too.

Anybody who showed up on the farm, we put them to work.” As Jon attended college and the John Deere training program, he kept working part-time for Knoblocks before later becoming a partner in the corporation.

In the mid-‘90s, they significantly expanded their cattle feedlot operation. Old dirt lots were paved with concrete and a modern manure collection system was constructed.

“No water runs off our cattle yards.

It’s all caught and pumped up to a lagoon. Then we pump apply it to the land,” Roger said.

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

Knoblocks were early adopters of strip-tilling, knifing in hog manure between the corn rows in the fall after harvest. Cattle manure is then broadcast on the fields to help deteriorate the stalks and provide additional fertilizer benefits.

Troy said, “We started strip tilling in 2003. We started early doing some of the things guys are doing now.” Trent added, “We live here so we like to do a good job with what we have – keep the water clean and keep the soil on the land.”

There are many terraces on their crop ground.

Roger said, “If we’d have kept farming like my grandpa did, our farm would be no more. Jon said, “It’s a paradigm shift. You just have to forget what you knew or thought you knew.” Troy said there was a learning curve to strip-tilling and they’re always eager to share information, helping others to avoid the early mistakes they made.

Jon said the construction of a large machine shop in 2008 greatly improved their efficiency in equipment maintenance and repair. In addition, repair, remodeling and building of facilities is mostly done

by the family, too. Trucking the livestock is one of the few things they outsource.

There’s a lot of hard work and the pace is intense. Jon said, “Harvest is long, drawn-out deal. When the crop is out of the field, you kind of give a big sigh – because that means you’re about half done.

You’ve got to then start doing honey and strip-tilling.” Thadd added, ” “We’re always thankful for the day of rest. You go like nuts for six days. You’re happy to hang your hat up and go to worship at church.”

In addition to the five families pictured here, Roger and Janet also have three daughters whose families are not connected to the farm. Daughter Tina and her husband, Josh Walder, have five children and live in Illinois. Daughter Traci and her husband, Jeff Nord, have two children and live in Sioux

Falls. Daughter Trela and her husband, Lt. Col. Jason Knueven, live in Inwood. Jason just returned from an Army National Guard deployment in Kosovo.

The Knoblock family is dedicated to their church, their community and agriculture. Over the years, family members have been active with many organizations including the Apostolic Christian Church of Lester, Northwest Iowa Feeders, Lester Feed & Grain, Iowa Corn Growers Associations, Rural Electric Cooperative, Lyon County Pork Producers, Frontier Bank board, Alvord Fire Dept, Lyon County Cattlemen, 4-H leader, FSA committee, FFA and West Lyon Schools activities.

Thadd noted that his dad has also helped a lot of young farmers get into or stay in farming; plus was one of a group of farmers who helped the elevator in Lester keep going back in the 1970s in order

to preserve local jobs. “Janet has been a very supportive wife the last 56 years and she’s had a lot of patience with me. She also helped raise eight wonderful children.” said Roger.

“We love our community. I really appreciate the people here,” Roger said. He values the strong faith demonstrated by the Christian denominations in the area and said it gives him confidence in the future. “Our faith is real strong. We know we’re dependent on what comes from above. Our life is built on our faith in God. A lot of it is putting others before yourself.

That’s the big thing my wife and I would like to continue, that’s the faith and family.”

Troy said, “We each try to do our best and let God do the rest.”

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23

PLYMOUTH COUNTY FAMILY

‘A GOOD, WHOLESOME FAMILY TIME’ AT THE PLYMOUTH COUNTY FAIR

by Bob Fitch

Perhaps the biggest highlight for many local families is the friendly competition and life lessons learned in livestock shows at the fair.

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

What did you do this summer? One tight-knit family had a reunion in Le Mars.

Whose family you ask? The family of Plymouth County residents, that’s who – especially those in the farm and agribusiness community. After 2020, when fair events were dramatically scaled back because of the pandemic, everyone was glad to get “the family” back together this year during the five best days of summer.

This year marked the 80th anniversary of the fair calling Le Mars home. Prior to 1941, it was in Merrill. The fair grew rapidly after World War II, with construction of livestock barns and new exhibit space. More land was added to the grounds in 1956. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, bigger and better livestock facilities, food stands and The new and the old. Vendors showed off new machinery and other equipment plus visitors were able to rest areas were added. Live broadsee antique tractors and the famous 100-year-old Tonsfeldt round barn. casts from the fair by KLEM radio became a tradition. The development of Pioneer Village began in the mid-1970s and continued for 20 years. Other buildings have been refurbished or replaced and more commercial exhibit space was added.

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The iconic 100-year-old Tonsfeldt round barn was moved to the fairgrounds in the 1980s and provides a great symbol of the fair’s roots in agriculture.

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More important than ribbons and shows, structures or sno-cones are the strong ties built at the fair among families from all over Plymouth County. Since The Farming Families of Plymouth County launched, an extraordinary number of the families featured in the magazine have mentioned the importance of the fair and/or their 4-H or FFA experience.

Let’s look back at the stories these families shared …

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BRAD AND CHRIS HARVEY FAMILY Akron. February 2020.

All four daughters followed in their dad’s footsteps by actively showing hogs and dairy in 4-H and FFA; plus learning leadership and speaking skills. In addition to showing livestock, Brad also was a state FFA officer when he was in high school.

Brad is in charge of the entertainment at Pioneer Village.

“We get 100,000 people over five days. The spouses are just as involved as the one who’s on the board. When one gets elected, the other one does just as much work.” Brad said, “We don’t have any outside food vendors – it’s all the nonprofit organizations who make their money from the fair. We have no

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beer garden and so the kids can just run. People wonder how we make money at the fair with no beer, but there’s so many more problems when you have it.”

WAYNE AND JULIE BEITELSPACHER FAMILY Strubel / Craig. March 2020.

The Plymouth County Fair and 4-H are near and dear to the hearts of the Beitelspacher family. Wayne said, “When I was growing up, that was our vacation – three days at the Plymouth County Fair. We’re all pretty much a big 4-H family. Julie and I were leaders for seven years and I was on the fair board for 12 years. We all showed livestock at the Plymouth County Fair.”

Their son Luke said, “There was one year where Uncle Ed’s two boys were both in 4-H, and my sister and I were in 4-H, and between us we had eight 4-H calves and then we had at least four hogs each at the fair.”

Julie said, “When you marry into the Beitelspachers, you become involved in 4-H. We started by taking our kids in the stroller to watch their older cousins show livestock at the fair.”

Julie has interviewed 4-H winners at the Plymouth County Fair on KLEM radio for many years.

Art and craft exhibits show off the many talents of Plymouth County residents.

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RICHARD AND PATRICIA BEELNER FAMILY Remsen. July 2020.

Daughter Rachael served two years as president of the MMRCU FFA. She was active in agronomy-related projects, plus has taken part in contests such as agriscience fair, Envirothon; nursery/landscape and others. Rachael was only the second person ever in her chapter to earn the Iowa FFA Degree. “FFA has helped me gain experience in various ag careers and has helped me choose what I want to do as a career path,” Rachael said.

JOHN AND DEBRA AHLERS FAMILY Le Mars. September 2020.

John said the lack of a full-fledged Plymouth County Fair in 2020 was “not a lot of fun. It was hard.” Debra said, “It kind of leaves a void in your heart.” The Plymouth County Fair has always been very close to the top of their priority list, with their involvement stretching back decades. John is the vice chairperson of the fair board.

DEAN AND LINDA SCHROEDER FAMILY Remsen. May 2021.

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Linda said most of the younger pork producers in the county are involved with the county association or with 4-H and FFA. Dean said, “If we didn’t have that level of involvement, we wouldn’t have the kind of fair we have in Plymouth County.”

Camden, Bryan and Dean help grill for the county pork producers and Linda is on the county 4-H Youth Committee.

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MARK AND LORI LOUTSCH FAMILY Oyens. August 2021.

Lori said their girls learned a lot life skills in 4-H. When they were showing lambs at the fair, “It was always a very hard lesson to accept and understand when they knew a dad was actually taking care of the sheep, yet the girl would walk into the ring with the sheep. Our girls really took care of their own lambs. They raised them from babies.” Years later, their daughters came home from college and said “I get it now. Those dads weren’t doing their kids any favors. We learned more.”

Pioneer Village is home to great food, cool shade and lots of camaraderie.

Mark believes another valuable lesson from 4-H competition is to learn from losing. “It makes a better person out of you; it makes you try harder. There’s always room for improvement no matter where you’re at or what you’re doing,” he said.

In other stories in The Farming Families, the Plymouth County Fair and/or related 4-H and FFA activities were mentioned by: •

Ben Johnson has served pork at the fair grandstand as a member of the Plymouth County Pork Producers and Janelle has been involved through her job at the ISU Extension Service. The rural Le Mars family was featured in September 2020.

• Kaylinn Seuntjens shows rabbits as a 4-H project. She’s the daughter of Bill and Amanda Seuntjens of Kingsley who were featured in March 2021.

Kids and families enjoy the carnival at the fair.

• Tyler and Sterling Meyer of Ireton were featured in the April 2021 edition.

They’ve been involved at the fair through the sheep committee, judging 4-H projects and Grandstand Pork.

Taking comments from several of the families together sums up why the fair is like the reunion of a tight-knit family. Brad Harvey said, “It takes the whole county to set up and take down.” Chris Harvey said, “The Plymouth County Fair is so family-oriented. Everybody is so dedicated.”

Julie Beitelspacher said, “4-H just teaches you so many life skills. It teaches you about setting goals and the processes you have to go through to do that.”

Antique tractors at the Plymouth County Fair.

The biggest loss from the lack of complete fair in 2020 was the loss of the camaraderie, said Debra Ahlers. “The fair is what so many people build their family reunions around. For us, the kids always try to make it home for the fair.

It’s just a good, wholesome family time. For some families and friends, you might not see them for a whole year, but you can reconnect that one week and recharge your batteries.”

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