A HIGH FIVE TO YOU FOR OUR FIRST FIVE YEARS

By Bob Fitch

The past five years have flown by like a rocket racing to the moon. Time flies when you’re having fun.

This month marks five years since AGE Media & Promotion started publishing The Farming Families magazine in Iowa. Through a somewhat chance encounter, I met AGE Media co-founder Garrett Gross in the fall of 2018. At the time, Garrett and his wife, Mindy, were publishing a South Dakota version of The Farming Families magazine. I asked Garrett if he’d ever thought of publishing a similar magazine in northwestern Iowa. “Well, yes, yes, I have,” he said. “I’ve just been looking for the right guy to be my boots on the ground.” store in Rock Rapids, Rock Valley or Remsen. Remind me of your name and town and then your family’s story will pop right into my head!

Fortunately, I think I’ve proven to wear the right size boots.

Our first issue launched in May 2019 with feature stories on the Don and Claudette Winterfeld family of Sioux Center and the Dean and Linda Meyer family of Lester. Those families took a leap of faith to let their stories be told in a brand new magazine. I’ll always be grateful that we were fortunate enough to get two such sincere and honorable families to start us on the right foot. The same can be said for the Jim and Rosie Staab family of Remsen who were our first featured family when we added Plymouth County in January 2020.

I’ve interviewed stock growers and cattle feeders and pork producers and even a few goat farmers. Nearly everyone grows some corn and soybeans. Many also work a town job or have a unique side business. Over the past five years, I’ve interviewed about 150 families in northwestern Iowa, plus done stories on local history, our advertisers and other people of interest in our rural communities. That’s a lot of names to remember – I hope you’ll excuse me if I forget your name when we run into each other at the convenience store in Rock Rapids, Rock Valley or Remsen. Remind me of your name and town and then your family’s story will pop right into my head!

PEOPLE, NOT NUMBERS

Oftentimes, farming is an occupation consumed by numbers, be it bushels to the acre, rate of gain, contract futures or the amount of rainfall that’s being promised for next week. Those numbers are important as you determine how to farm. But numbers don’t really factor into the formula at The Farming Families. We’re not a magazine about how to farm. Rather, we’re a magazine about people who farm.

We’ve done stories on big farms and little farms. But our stories typically don’t tell you how many acres a family farms or how many head of cattle or pigs they’re feeding. Our starting point is: Do you make some or all of your living from agriculture? If the answer is yes, we want to tell your story. And, despite what some people say to me, everyone does have a story. Some of you might not even know what your story is, but that’s ok –I’ll find it as I listen to you and later check my interview notes. Sometimes I don’t even know your story until my fingers start typing.

I’d be completely remiss if I failed to mention our advertisers. The companies who advertise here pay for the magazine and pay my salary. I tell them thank you every month and I hope you’ll tell them thank you as well.