Frontier Bank

paid 19 percent interest on some of it. A lot of guys weren’t able to hang on to their land back then because of the high interest rates and bad crop prices. But I was fortunate I’d bought it early enough and at a low enough price, I was able to keep going for a while,” Jim said. To put groceries on the table, he took off-farm jobs a couple of winters, working at Supreme in Sioux Center and overnights at Alkota in Alcester, while Judy was home with three little kids.

Jim started his cow-calf herd about the time his dad retired in the 1980s. But Rolfe continued to help Jim and worked just as hard after retirement as he did before. “Later on, I was able to rent some more ground and expand the operation. It was a struggle until about five years after I started renting that ground. Then it started to come together.” After graduating from AlcesterHudson High School in 1995, Jeff studied general agriculture at South Dakota State University before moving back to Hudson and buying some cows of his own. “Jeff’s got the majority of the cows now,” Jim said. “I’m trying to get out of it, but he won’t let me out all the way. I think he’s afraid I won’t go out and check cows and calves at night anymore.” “We’ve got fewer cows right now,” Jeff said. “The flooding was pretty hard on our pastures down by the river. We’ve got a lot of fence to fix and a lot of weeds to control. It’s amazing how many weed seeds the river drags in.” They have

J.A. and Anna Pierce moved from Wisconsin to Dakota Territory in 1878 and established River View Stock Farms which was east of the former town of Eden. Eden later moved a mile north and became Hudson. Pierce’s daughter, Julia, later married the herdsman, Robert Cole. about a mile-and-a-half of ground bordering the river plus additional land along Pattee Creek. “When it’s flooding, it’s plenty,” he said. In addition to farming and caring for the cows, Jeff stays active serving on the Hudson Fire Department and as an EMT on the ambulance crew. Otherwise, he spends a lot of time chasing Aidan,

Gary Popkes, CFP® Senior Vice President

101 S Phillips Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57104 605.332.3832 trust@frontierbk.com

Your relationship is at the heart of everything we do.

Private trust services | Asset management Financial planning | Estate planning | Risk management Corporate and self-employed retirement plan

Farmland | Commercial property | Interest in an LLC

Management of less common investments

Visit us at www.frontierbk.com/financial-planning