East Valley Farms

chain from the floor of the shop, Rich said that was a good job for his grandson because he’s closer to the ground. “At my age, you wouldn’t think I’d be getting taller, but I’ve got to be because the ground’s further away,” he said. In his custom cutting business, Jeff harvests haylage, oat silage, rye and corn silage. He started off doing an occasional cutting job for neighbors about nine years ago after they replaced their pulltype cutter with an older fourrow, self-propelled John Deere. According to Rich, “Then Jeff had the opportunity to a buy an eightrow silage cutter – and I said this could just as well be his thing. It’s a way to generate income to keep the banker happy and put some money in the checking account.” The new large dairies in the area have also provided opportunities to chop more hay. Jeff said, “We’ve got three or four trucks. I chop and Dad packs. When everything’s clicking and you’re productive, it’s a lot of fun joking around on the radios. But when it’s 100 degrees and you’re sitting underneath of it wrenchin’ and you’re paying three people to watch and the customer is breathing down your neck wondering what’s going on, then you say ‘There’s better ways to make money.’ In most custom work, the only guy who is profitable is the one at the parts counter.” While he used to get more work done when he was single, Jeff is glad to find time for his wife and boys. “When the day’s over, I just want to go inside and spend some time with my family. I want the kids to know who their dad is and not just be a picture hanging at the end of the crib.” Rich said, “If you’re going to farm, you’ve got to be a caretaker of crops; a caretaker of the machinery that you use to put the crops in; and a good caretaker of livestock. You can’t do stuff halfway. But however hard or bad your day may be, when you walk into the house and your little kid comes running at you with ‘Daddy, this or Daddy, that …,’ you just forget all the bad. “Life is a lot more rewarding if you learn to forget the bad and remember the good,” Rich said. “As a farmer, there’s days when you come out and the cow’s got a dead calf, your crops have withered away in the drought, or something breaks down. You don’t want to dwell on the bad too long because it’ll drive you nuts on the farm. You’ve got to remember the good and be an eternal optimist.”

We are aggressively looking for new wean to fi nish barns to fi t into our operation. Give us a call about your new construction plans for 2022.

We o er very competitive yardage rates and long-term contracts, as well as one of the best barn prices in the area. East Valley Farms is a family farm that has been raising swine in northwest Iowa for over 50 years.