Three generations at Boogerd Dairy. Story begins on page 6.
Replacements
Mako Total Knee can help lead to better outcomes – like less pain, less damage to soft tissue, and shorter recovery times –compared to conventional surgery.
Ask your doctor if Mako is an option for you. And get back to the things you love.
An integrated approach to PAIN MANAGEMENT
season ahead! 712-737-2000
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
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.
A BIG FAMILY WITH MANY BLESSINGS
By Bob Fitch
Raising a big family has its challenges, but it also has its rewards.
“When the cows got out, it was nice to have nine kids around,” said Grant Boogerd.
Grant and Londa Boogerd operate Boogerd Dairy, located north of Hull, just across the line into Lyon County. His parents, John and Norma, live in Hull, but John still drives out to the farm nearly every day, making himself useful, even still running the payloader at age 93. Grant jokes that his dad can be ornery, doing work he shouldn’t be at his age. John was born in 1931 in the house across the road from where Grant and Londa now live. John started out milking cows by hand, sitting on a little stool. He can remember his dad and oldest brother still using a team of four horses to do field work when he was little.
After serving in the Army from 1952-1954, he returned home to work on the family farm plus did work like tying bales for neighbors for a dollar-an-hour and trucking parttime. “I didn’t have a girlfriend, so I had to find a girlfriend. I was over at Perkins Corner, sitting on the east side of the café and there was a group of girls sitting in the northwest corner, cutting up. Norma was one of them. I met her about a week later at the roller rink in Sioux Center. That’s where it all started.”
Norma grew up on a farm near Carmel and went to Sioux Center High School. “We had cows, hogs and chickens. I always had to get the
The Boogerd family of Hull. Front row: Heidi, Londa, Grant, John and Norma. Back row: Branigan, Johnny, Jennie, Joeb, Nancy, Nora, Christina and Sarah. Not pictured: Dennie and Amber.
eggs. We got a penny for every egg we found on the yard, and we got a nickel for every mouse we caught in the house.” On her seventh birthday, a tornado took everything on their family farm. “All 13 of us were in a storm cave, and nobody got hurt. I don't remember anything before my seventh birthday, but I remember everything after the tornado.”
The first time John brought her out to meet his parents, “He took this narrow, little road; and I thought ‘Oh, he lives out in the sticks.’ But then we went and lived out there, too.” A few miles “out in the sticks” was just the beginning of many journeys together. They’ve taken motorcycle trips to 48 states, plus have traveled to Israel and Europe.
GRANT LIKES COWS AND HARD WORK
John and his brother, Jim, were partners for five years or so,
milking about 40 cows. Even after separating into two farms, “We continued to share labor, a combine and other machinery for many years. We got along really well.”
Norma was hands-on at the farm. “We always had good replacements. I know, because I raised them.”
Granddaughter Heidi added: “You
did a good job, Grandma, just like you did on raising your kids and helping to raise your grandkids.”
Of their four children, Norma said, “Grant was always the farmer. He liked to work. He still does.” Grant started as his dad’s hired man right out of high school. According to John, when they incorporated the
A recent aerial photo of Boogerd Dairy. Photo by Riley Anderson.
operation, “Grant kind of took over. He was the brains behind the growth of our dairy. I thought we were spending way too much money, but it worked out.”
Grant said, “We milked 60-80 cows when I was starting out, and then we had hogs that we farrowed.” When hog prices plummeted in the ‘80s, it was not a hard decision to quit the swine. “I didn't mind farrowing, but I liked the cows better.”
ALL MY CHILDREN
John and Norma have four children, 18 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Big families are a part of their lives. Norma was the 11th of 15 children in her family and her mom’s sister had 14 children. Londa grew up on a farm south of Hull. Her parents are Dennis and Nancy Vander Weide – who had nine children.
Grant and Londa’s romance started when he pulled her out of a snowdrift along their country road. Grant said Londa and their second oldest daughter, Christina, are the ones who keep everything at the dairy running smoothly,
Londa and Grant Boogerd in their new freestall barn.
especially with the breeding schedule and recordkeeping. “I just do what they tell me,” he said. In addition to working at the dairy, Christina does embryo work on show cattle for Jim Verhout. She lives in Hull. Oldest daughter, Amber, is nurse practitioner in New Ulm, Minnesota. She and her husband, Chad Bynes, have two children, Olive and Brennan.
Son Johnny and his wife, Branigan, purchased an acreage and feedlot near George last summer. They custom feed cattle for the Van Kekerix family and he helps at the Boogerd farm with spring field work and chopping silage. Branigan also works for Schwartz Family Farms as a field manager at some of their area hog barns. In addition, the couple raise sheep. Grant enjoys assisting his son and daughter-in-law at the feedlot. “When they work the cattle, I get to go over with my horse and help them. Branigan says it goes way better if she has a horse or two to run the pens up. She’s a little bit like my wife, she’s the boss lady.” Norma said, “Sometimes you guys need that.”
Grant and Londa’s son Joeb lives near Doon and is in the process of buying the Dean De Bruin farm acreage site. Joeb will raise heifers for Boogerd Dairy. He feeds cattle for the Van Kekerix family and custom raises hogs for Borderline Swine.
Daughter Sarah lives at home and works fulltime on the farm. Londa said, “Sarah does anything and everything for us: Feeding, hauling manure and calf work. She has become our go-
Norma and John Boogerd with John’s 1966 John Deere 4020 Diesel.
to when everyone else is busy with their jobs and acreages.”
Daughters Nancy and Nora are twins. Nancy attends Southeast Technical College in Sioux Falls where she is training to be a surgical technician. She also works at the nursing home in Orange City and does home health through Rock Valley’s Hegg Memorial Hospital. Nora works as a CNA at the Orange City nursing home. Both help on the farm when needed.
The youngest children are triplets. Heidi and Jennie graduated from Boyden Hull High School in December. Dennie stayed in school so she could continue to play on the BHHS basketball team. Heidi works fulltime on the farm, helping with the calves. Jennie works parttime at Crown Point Assisted Living in Sioux Center; and is the family’s “farmer girl,” helping to feed the dairy cattle, plus works with her brother, Johnny. “Whenever anyone needs help on the farm, they call Jennie,” Grant said. Jennie also raises goats.
A BLESSED FAMILY
The Boogerd kids all grew up helping with the bottle calves and sorting cows. They said their family values include honesty, working hard, doing business fairly and learning to laugh at yourself. When the work is done, they enjoy simple pleasures like big family dinners or just sitting around the kitchen counter talking or playing games. When the kids were little, there was plenty of excitement falling off horses or 4-wheelers … or even rescuing Heidi after the 4-wheeler rolled over her stomach … “We gotta get this off before Grandma sees us!”
Grant and Londa’s family are members at Carmel Reformed Church, although all their children were baptized at Hull First Reformed, where John and Norma are members. John said, “In the good times and some pretty tough times, faith in our Lord has got us through. Even with all the work we’ve had, we’ve been blessed.”
B&B Gates & Supply carries necessities to have around the farm and various items for your hog barn including heater parts, motors, fan blades, waterline fittings, and so much more. Our service department is also on-call 24-7 and can install new equipment or repair your existing equipment.
The Grant and Londa Boogerd family at Johnny and Branigan’s wedding in August 2024.
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN BEGEMAN.
‘FIND WHAT YOU ENJOY AND BECOME REALLY GOOD AT IT’
By Bob Fitch
Sioux Center agriculture education instructor Eric Koehlmoos is in his fourth year teaching at Sioux Center High School. “This year’s senior class will be the first one I’ve taken all the way from freshman to senior. It's fun watching the kids grow.” Some of the students started as goofy, unfocused freshmen, but now he can tell the seniors, “All of a sudden, you’ve actually turned into something.”
Under the heading of agriculture, Eric teaches everything from agronomy and animal science to forestry and floriculture to welding and a whole lot more. “We get to
Agricultural Education instructor and FFA adviser Eric Koehlmoos.
dabble in a lot of different things. In a way, I’ve got 27 different sports I get to coach. When a kid comes into freshman agriculture, we can ask ‘What are you interested in?’ Then we find opportunities for them to be successful. A little bit of interest can lead to discovery of a potential career.”
Interest in the ag education classes at Sioux Center High School has escalated significantly. Normally, instructors teach seven periods in a day and have one period for planning and preparation. But the numbers won’t allow that – he’s teaching eight straight classes every day. Not only are the numbers growing, but so is the diversity. “In some ag programs, it's the same group of your kids who do everything. What I love here is we have a such a wide range of students involved. For example, a good chunk of both our show choir and our basketball team are in FFA.” In four years, the number of members in the FFA chapter has gone from about 50 to 110. “It makes it a little chaotic at times, but it’s a good problem that we’ve got to figure out how to blend them all together to get along.”
BREAD AND BUTTER
In ag education, some things are tried and true, but Eric is always open to growth and change. “Our bread and butter will always be ag mechanics, crop production and animal science. We’ve added more plant science and horticulture plus food science, food product development and meat science. We have town kids who don’t necessarily feel a connection to the farm, but they like math and they like creating food. Maybe a career in food sciences is up their alley. We try to tell them, ‘We don't need you to be a 10-trick pony; find what you really enjoy and go be really good at it.’” The local manufacturing business base is strong. “I tell my welders if you just pay attention and do what you're supposed to in this class, you're going to get a career that makes far more money than I ever will.”
He's hoping a greenhouse will be added in the not-toodistant future. The district is working on what classes can make use of a greenhouse, what size it should be and where to put it. “I help teach a research class; currently we have an oat research study going out in the shop that’s a little ‘rednecked,’ but I'm pretty good at redneck’n it. But when we have a greenhouse we can do things like that a lot better.”
Eric said his favorite class to teach is ag business because it ties together animal science and agronomy. “No successful operation does one without the other two. You need to know all three facets pretty well.”
He said the ag program, industrial technology, family and consumer sciences, and the business classes all benefit from the strong support of local businesses through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Booster Program.
“Ultimately, we’d like graduates to want to stay in Sioux County. Consequently, it's in our best interest to get the kids the materials, resources and equipment they need so they’re prepared to meet employers’ needs.”
Students take the lead in the FFA program’s biggest fundraiser of the year – Haunted Hollow held at Sandy Hollow Recreation Area. More than 900 people attended the haunted trail fun event last fall. Annually, it raises as much as $8,000
for the FFA chapter. “Does scaring people have anything to do with agriculture? No, but learning how to communicate, allocate and leading others does. Each class is in charge of a scare station. Our sophomore boys developed and devised a plan for their entire scare station – ‘We’re going to put a chainsaw here and chainsaw there.’ It was fun to watch them grow and develop their skills. Give them the reins and watch them run. It’s cool to see what they come up with.”
ROOTS IN GERMANTOWN
Eric grew up on his family’s farm near Germantown, an unincorporated community just south of Highway 10 between Granville and Paullina. He graduated from South O’Brien High School and then went to Kansas State University, where he majored in ag education and had a minor in animal science. He was an All American on
The Sioux Center FFA soils judging team at the National Land & Range Judging in Oklahoma.
the KSU Meats Judging Team. After graduation, he taught ag education for two years at Sioux Central High School near Sioux Rapids. Besides corn and soybeans, the Koehlmoos family has a farrow-tofinish hog operation plus raise sheep.
Eric lives in Orange City. “It’s close enough to home I can be there to help most any time, but the luxury is I’m not the first call Dad makes if the sheep get out. Thankfully, my brother lives just a mile west of my parents.”
Eric’s girlfriend is Emma Zwart of Hull.
She has about 2.5 years left at Iowa State University where she’s studying to be a veterinarian. When the day comes that they get married, he said planning the wedding will be easy.
“It’ll be just like a big FFA banquet.”
The Sioux Center FFA meats judging team at the National Western Stock Show in Denver.
Sioux Center FFA.
A series of blizzards in February 1936 left most of Iowa overwhelmed as roads, highways and rail lines were all shut down. Headlines and stories repeatedly said it was the worst weather since 1888. The first blizzard raged on Feb. 7-8, followed by another on Feb. 13-14. The temperature at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15 was at 9 below zero. It dropped about 4 degrees per hour until 3 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, Feb. 16 when it bottomed out at 30 below.
On Sunday, Feb. 9, the Des Moines Register reported winds of 40 miles per hour were making all transportation routes impassable and that snow plows on both roads and rails were ineffectual at clearing the drifts. Governor Herring ordered public buildings be kept open over the weekend to provide shelter to families in danger of suffering. “Winter’s worst blizzard struck Iowa Saturday and headed rapidly eastward, leaving in its frigid wake a state demoralized by snow-blocked railroads and highways, sub-zero temperatures and a desperate coal shortage.”
Before the back-to-back February storms, more than two feet of snow had already fallen in the previous month. So when a half-foot of new fluffy snow fell and winds raged at 40 mph, it was inevitable that major drifting would occur.
The Hawarden Independent, on Feb. 20, 1936, reported: “When the youngsters of today become graybeards they may still be able to look back upon the winter
of 1936 as the most severe in their lifetime. Statistical sharps in the United States Weather Bureau have announced that the temperatures in Iowa since Jan. 1st have averaged the lowest in 117 years … Weather conditions and their interference with transportation, business and the general comforts of life have been little better during the past week than during the preceding week or weeks. This section has appeared to be in the grip of a vicious cycle. Every time it snowed it grew colder and every time it started to warm up it snowed again.”
The Sioux County Capital reported on Feb. 20, 1936, that a special meeting of the Orange City Chamber of Commerce and area ministers was held to discuss the coal shortage. Business owners agreed to limit hours and ministers agreed to a “union service” at the Town Hall if supplies dropped to a critical level. The business and religious leaders expressed their trust in Mayor Vande Steeg’s decision making.
A shoveling crew in Le Mars after one of the winter 1936 blizzards. Le Mars photos from Flickr photostream.
“On Feb. 25-26, another severe blizzard struck northern and northwestern Iowa with heavy snow and high winds that made travel nearly impossible. Snowfall totals measured between seven and 10 inches in towns like LeMars, New Hampton, Storm Lake and Algona. Snowfall was so frequent that winter that on Feb. 20-22, Sioux Center reported a state record snow depth of 42 inches on the ground,” said the Iowa History Journal. Snow drifts were 10 to 15 feet high.
The publication continued: “Few Iowans, perhaps, weathered more extreme climate conditions in one year than did those who were here in 1936. As if life during the Great Depression wasn’t daunting enough, Iowans also endured a blizzard, drought, grasshoppers and the Dust Bowl during what many experts believe to be the worst year of Iowa weather on record ...”
A path through the drifts on a country road near Le Mars in 1936.
Drifts in winter 1936. From The History Center, Cedar Rapids.
In its 1936 year in review edition, the Carroll Daily Herald ran this photo along with this text: Snow Provided Jobs for All Unemployed Men Here. There was no unemployment in Carroll during the blizzard. Every able-bodied man and youth were put to work clearing snow from railroad tracks and highways.
A famous photo showing the depth of the drifts after the blizzards of 1936.
Clearing the sidewalks in Le Mars was a Herculean task.
HOT BEEF SUNDAE
INGREDIENTS:
1 package (17 oz) fully-cooked Beef Tips and Gravy
