Gengler Feed

John and Debra’s newest grandchildren: Kiaan Permeswaran and Madison Vittetoe.

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the end of the day and let her know how the day has gone. John’s brothers also like to stay informed. He’s got cousins where we farm their ground. And I’ll send texts with pictures telling them we were harvesting their fields today. They really appreciate that. Cell phones are awesome. I can communicate with 10 people in short order.”

Daniel said the family has a long-term plan for the future of the farm south of Le Mars, although they’re always in the midst of discussing it and modifying it as circumstances change. John said, “We don’t have too many regrets on decisions we’ve made. At a given time, you wonder why you didn’t get a piece of ground. But, in the long term, it almost always ended up turning out all right.”

Lots of communication amongst family members was something Debra brought to the farm when she and John were married 31 years ago. John said, “My dad wasn’t much of a talker – you said what you had to say and you were done. When we were first married, Debra didn’t go to bed until her sister called, her dad called, and her grandma called. Sometimes it was 10:30 at night and I’d say ‘Will you call your grandma so we can go to bed?’ Cause you knew that call was coming.”

Debra said, “That was just the way it was in my dad’s family and even in my mom’s. When our twins were born, my dad would call in the morning and ask ‘How was the night? How’d

the babies do?’” Her dad still checks in with her every night.

“Communication is key to making things work. To find the good things … to find that sense of love and family connection. We are blessed our kids visit and talk to find out what is going on in each other’s lives. The times when they are all home sitting around the same table again, I relish those moments,” she said.

To have a life you consider successful, Debra said, “You’ve got to find the blessings – healthy children, healthy grandchildren, the good life we have out here. You need to appreciate all the good times we have. We enjoy a lot of good sunrises and we appreciate a lot of good sunsets.”

John’s great-grandparents bought the farm in 1908 and his grandparents starting farming it in 1916. Daniel is the fourth generation to farm the ground.

Ahlers used to raise both cattle and hogs. “We went through the ‘90s with hogs and that got ugly,” John said. “I didn’t want to spend the money to put up a barn, so we bought land instead. We weren’t that big into cattle, so it was hard getting packers to look at us. My dad was getting up in age and couldn’t help anymore and Daniel was too young to help much. We got out on a high and quit while we were ahead. We made way more money on the hay inventory rather than going one more year on the cattle.”

Debra said, “For years, everybody heckled John for not putting up a hog building. But, for us, it ended up being the best decision we didn’t make. It was not for us.” Getting out of livestock enabled them to more often see their daughters who were all in college at the time and then got married and now have children. Fewer chores made them more mobile.

“When we were first married, I’m the one who often did the hogs with John’s dad,” she said. “If it was spring or fall, Grandma would come watch the kids, John was in the field, and Grandpa and I sorted the hogs. He wouldn’t holler at me like he might do with others,” she joked. “John’s dad always treated me with great respect out there.” John’s father, Robert, passed away in 2016. His mother, Cy, lives in Le Mars, but still owns some of the farmland.

Debra grew up on a farm near Brunsville and didn’t have any brothers, so she was her dad’s right-hand person. “So I knew how to work the hogs. Herding hogs is hard. You just have to be patient and don’t make a lot of noise.”

While John and Debra exited the livestock arena, Daniel started a sheep operation during his sophomore year of high school. He’s grown that since he graduated 2½ years ago from South Dakota State University where he studied animal science and ag business. Why sheep? “You can afford to start it as an owneroperator,” Daniel said. “There’s a lot less labor involved … you can do it yourself without a whole lot of help. I’m way too darn independent. I do all the decision-making – good, bad or otherwise.” He said the sheep market is “not real phenomenal. You’re not going to get rich. But you’re faring better than the cattle and hog guys are this year. There’s actually money to be made instead of losing money.”

In addition to farming the Ahlers’ acres with his parents and raising his sheep, Daniel has some hay and pasture ground plus works the farm ground of his maternal grandparents, Bill and Janice Renken. Debra said, “2017 was a hard harvest for my dad. There were some long hours and he was just totally exhausted. He couldn’t wait for Daniel to graduate. He graduated in 3½ years and came home to farm.”

They feel fortunate that John and Debra’s son-inlaw, Luke Fober, has a good ag background and is able to help farm on nights and weekends when the need arises. Luke is married to their daughter, Kristen, who is an English language learning teacher at Le Mars Community Schools. They have a daughter, Hallie.

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