From Generation to Generation

Both the Kramer family and their cattle have a rich family heritage that spans generations, earning them the 2024 IBA Farm Family of the Year award.

By Olivia Hoots

One of the best parts of the Illinois Seedstock industry is the commitment families have to carrying on the traditions of those who came before them. This dedication to one particular breed or another, based on the generation before you, is common among Illinois Angus families.

If you have been in the Illinois Angus industry for any amount of time, you have heard the last name Kramer. Maybe you have chatted with Keith, one of his brothers, or are familiar with the Angus legacy that lives within their family, which began over 60 years ago by Keith’s parents, Eugene and Marilyn. Keith and his wife, Denise, their son, Brady, and his wife of ten years, Brittney, make up Kramer Farms in Farina. Brady’s sons, Owen (6) and Hudson (3) are the seventh generation to grow up on the farmland where the Kramer family lives.

The Seventh Generation

Keith grew up as one of six children on the Kramer Farm – four of which are still involved in the cattle industry, and his three children, and five grandchildren, are all still involved in agriculture as well. “Family means more than anything in the world,” Keith says.

“That really says something about how it was instilled in my grandparents, it is really in our blood and something that we have stuck with through the years, through the decades,” Brady, says. “I am honored to have been born into this operation, just one person of what I hope is a long line that continues for years to come.”

Brittney can tell they will have no problem continuing that line. She says their son Owen is a cattleman, always setting up fences for his toy animals after an evening of feeding cattle with his dad or grandpa. Hudson, he is the “row cropper” who is always up for a spin in the tractor or combine, known for his fair share of combine naps.

“They love doing anything they can with grandpa and daddy.” The pair can even be found repeating their dad and grandpa’s conversations later in the evening after helping in the field.

Brittney always knew she wanted to marry and raise a family with someone with the values and work ethics of a farmer, and now hopes she can help steward the Kramer legacy alongside her husband.

Brady feels the same way. “When I was my boys age, I knew I was going to be a farmer just like my dad – this is the only life I could imagine living,” Brady says. “Because who would not want to grow up on the farm and get to do all the fun things like riding in the tractor, checking cows. It is in our blood.”

For him, carrying on a legacy like this one is something you just cannot put a price tag on, and he especially feels this when he looks back on his grandfather Eugene, and grandfather Harry Deters, Denise’s father. Keith also used to spend much of his time soaking up their knowledge.

Brady has grown up doing the same with his own dad. “I enjoy working with my son because we get to make decisions together,” Keith says, suspecting someday soon Brady will be making all the decisions. “We really enjoy having our family involved in the operation.”

Keith’s parents instilled in him and his siblings what he has also tried to instill in his own children – being faithful, going to church, working hard for what you have, and being honest. “Yet still doing things you enjoy,” he adds. “My dad loved to coon hunt, and I love to play golf.”

Keith also values his community, serving as a volunteer firefighter for 17 years, as secretary for the county fair for over 20 years and on the fair board for about 20 years as well. Currently he is a town trustee, and a trustee on his church board.

Long time friend and co-member of the fair board of Keith, Jackie Wright, expressed that their family has always been committed to educating the public on agriculture and serving their Angus, town and church communities. “They are just good people,” she says.

Ten Generations Later

Keith’s dad started the registered Angus herd around 1960, when “belt buckle” Angus were in style. “Dad always wanted bigger frame cattle,” he says. “He and a friend traveled to Oklahoma to bring bigger frame, higher-growth cattle.”

Some of those cattle lines are still part of their cow families. “And they are still some of our best producers,” Keith says. He is proud he gets to carry on the legacy of his father.

“Our goal since the beginning is to raise functional, problem-free cattle that will thrive in this part of the world in Southern Illinois,” Brady says. “We look to just have problem free cattle that excel in all traits.”

IBA Board Member and long time Angus friend of the Kramers through the South Central Angus Association, Bruce Betzold, says “they are progressive cattle breeders who continually balance the many sound traits of high quality cattle.”

Many of those current females are tenth generation animals from the original Angus herd. “They have stood the test of time,” Brady says. He adds that though they have brought in different cow families over the years, their original bloodlines have outlasted some of those and still stick out in the herd today. The hope is these ten generations of cattle will one day be a twentieth generation Angus herd.

He ultimately hopes his sons can take those cow families and continue to breed them on so someday they can look back and reach the hundred-year mark of registered Angus on their farm.

For now, they are steadily seeking to raise functional, problem-free, performance-oriented cattle, and primarily market bulls through the Illinois Performance Tested Bull Sale at the Illinois Beef Expo in February – Eugene even consigned to the very first sale. “I do not think we have ever not been in the IPT sale,” Keith says.

“We have remained committed to it,” Brady says. “It is an excellent market for us.”

They also are faithful to the Wabash Valley Angus Association Sale, which takes place in late March every year. “I believe it is the largest running state association sale still happening in the state; we have been involved there for decades, longer than my lifetime. I remember going there since I was born,” he says. He is also on the board, committed to keeping the sale alive and well.

In the last thirty years of sales and breeding Angus cattle, Keith has seen a lot of changes in the industry.

Today they are using many new technologies like drawing blood at weaning to send in to retrieve genetic profiles to more easily know which bulls and heifers to retain,” Keith explains. “In my dad’s day we would not have dreamed it would be like that.”

“We use DNA to help select for desired traits and pick AI sires that will further those traits, but also focus on performance-based ones to sell to the commercial cattle producers in the area,” he adds.

Weight and marbling are important to the Kramer’s for that reason too.

For the past 41 years they have worked with Dr. Charlie Durbin as their veterinarian. He says the family supplies a lot of Angus genetics all over, and are very by-the-book type people. “They are great people to work with,” he says.

Because of fluctuating conditions and transitioning technologies, among other factors, the Kramers believe in keeping their operation diversified.

“Growing up I really enjoyed production agriculture, but have realized that sometimes you are not in total control when it comes to farming. You work with the season and the weather,” Keith says. “Having beef cattle, we have more control of our genetics but the price, not necessarily.” He says it helps to bring in new bloodlines to further their existing herd, like they have been doing for so many generations.

Generations Past and Future

“Raising my boys on the farm is exactly what my wife and I always dreamed we would do,” Brady says referring to Owen and Hudson who will inevitably be the next generation to run the farm. He loves watching them grow a love for the life they built together.

Keith has spent his life doing the same with his kids. “I hope that I am leading by example, and that my boys are watching me and want to follow in my footsteps. Hopefully with them watching my dad and me setting a good example, they will want to eventually take over and continue this legacy,” Keith says.

That is what makes a homestead so important after all, right? Making the generation before you proud and hoping the one after you will want to do the same.

They all stay very involved in making sure their row crop ground and registered Angus herd continues well into the future. Brady hopes to continue to grow both sides.

Growth has happened since he married his wife, Brittney too. “We are selling more bulls, with good genetics,” Brittney says. She and Denise are active wives in the operation, whether it is doing the book work or driving the grain truck during harvest. They both love it as much as the men. “There is nothing better than seeing fresh calves running across the pasture.” She is grateful for Brady and the life they live together.

Keith wants his grandchildren and future great grandchildren to understand that the opportunity was given to him and believes they should view it as a given opportunity too, to have the family tradition of raising Angus cattle and crop production. This is the kind of attitude that prompted his peers to award their family the 2024 IBA Farm Family of the Year award.

Betzold says “Keith and Brady have made an excellent team successfully breeding superior seedstock and they are well deserving of this achievement award.”

“Getting selected for this award is quite a humbling honor to me,” Brady says. “I am so glad people take notice whenever you are trying to do things right and live a life you can be proud of.”