September 8th I lost my last sibling.  Harvey, my younger brother passed away 14 days after his 83 birthday and my older brother Fred passed away a few days ahead of his 83 birthday.  I am 3 years and 0ne week younger than Fred and 3 years and 4 months older than Harvey. ( 86 )

As I was attending Harvey’s services,  I was remembering those 83 years and thinking about how he and Brother Fred farmed together all their adult lives.  In the early years I owned some machinery with them but had my own farming business with my uncle. The big thing is in all our life’s I do remember one time we ever had a cross word. There were a view times we walked away but never did we speak ill to one another or to anyone.  They were both very active in the community and very successful farmers.

As I watched the hundreds of people go through the line to pay their respect to Harvey and his family, I could not help but look at the families who lost everything farming, yet still had a come back and were very successful.

The Dunham brothers, who lost their father when they were in the lower grades of school. They started farming in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  The 1980’s rural depression forced a lot of good young farmers off the farm.   The Dunham brothers lost their home, farm, and another farm they had purchased when interest rates were 7 or 8 %, but went up to as high as 21%.  Let me tell you the rest of story. Today the brothers and their families own and operate one of our larger trucking and concrete companies.

Logan AFGRI Services is another business that had many people go through the line. I would guess Ed Logan was there if not he was well represented. The Logan story is another example of how a family unit prospered. Ed’s mother Betty and father Jim started farming early 1950ies.  This was a very difficult time as farming was changing rapidly. Farms were expanding, profit per unit of production was going down, and capital needs were increasing even faster.  Jim and Betty had to give up the desire to farm. Jim started handyman work, Betty got her teacher certification and taught school for many years.  She was my sixth grade teacher.. Jim started delivering fuel to farmers and applying anhydrous fertilizer. Ed went off to college and came back to run the business. Today it is one of the largest private fertilizer and chemical Ag services companies in the Midwest, doing business in at least 3 or 4 states.

I could name many families that have put together very successful farms and business. I believe there is no better business model than the family.  When you look at some of our biggest national and International companies, they were found and run by families.

If you want to read more about my family which I think is very representative of the American farm families, read my book “Your Food, My Adventure.”