Remsen Farmers Coop

The Schnepf farm in 2011.

also helped to care for the pigs when they were growing up on the Schnepf farm. Today, all three daughters call Remsen home. Stephanie and her husband, Jason Loutsch, farm north of Remsen. Lori and her husband, Dan Sheehan, farm south of Remsen. Cheri and her husband, Jason Daum, live in Remsen.

‘THE BEST 5 DAYS OF SUMMER!’

The Plymouth County Fair represents “the best five days of summer” for the Schnepf family. Loren is a 28-year member of the fair board and has been president for three years. Sandy was a 4-H leader for 15 years and Angie serves as a 4-H leader now.

Sandy said, “The fair is our summer life. All of our kids and grandkids love the fair and it’s important to them. They show livestock plus other exhibits. It's just part of the family.” Sandy also does 4-H judging in a few other counties and has coordinated the Plymouth County Fair Cooking School for 12 years. Mitchell, Max and Mick show both cattle and hogs. With cattle direct from their feedlot, they’ve won the average daily gain contest several times. On the hog side, they also select their pigs to show right out of the confinement building. Matt is on the board of the Plymouth County Pork Producers where he serves as membership chair. He played a role in developing the Adopt-A-Pig Program, wherein local producers play host to pigs for 4-H members who don’t have the ability or the means to otherwise show livestock. The 4-H members tag pigs at local producers, then show and care for them at the fair. “It’s helped to grow our hog show tremendously. I think we have 30-some kids doing it this year. They each bring two pigs, so that’s 60-some extra pigs that come to the fair.” After a full day of shows, activities and fun at the fair, the family tops off their memories with a sweet treat. Loren said, “I buy ice cream for the grandkids every night at 9:00. I guess the tradition started as soon as the grandkids were big enough to eat.”

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Remsen Farmers Cooperative provides solutions and dependability local growers can rely on! 712-786-1134 www.remsencoop.com

KOEDAM FAMILY FOSTERS STRONG BONDS WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS

By Bob Fitch

Howard and Wanita Koedam with their sons, Darin and Brian. The region’s livestock producers and the Howard and Wanita Koedam family of Larchwood have formed strong bonds over the last 40-plus years.

“We’ve done this a lot of years and we’ve got some of the same customers we started with. A lot of them, we dealt with their dads and now we’re dealing with their sons,” Howard said. He and Wanita purchased and began operating Midwest Livestock Service (MLS) in the fall of 1979, just a few months after the feed and veterinary supplies business opened. “You develop a relationship with the customers,” said Wanita. “Granted, it’s business, but it also gets to be personal. You're helping them build a better business on the farm and they're helping us just as much to build our business. So it's a give and take thing.” “Shoot, their concerns become our concerns,” Howard said. “There’s been times we’ve been in trouble, financially or health-wise, and they’ve shown they care about our concerns, too.” Wanita continued, “Howard’s had quite a few health issues in the last 10 years. And I can't tell you how many customers, before they talk about anything else, they ask ‘How's Howard doing?’ It gets to be a friend relationship as well as a business relationship. And we do the same with them. If we know they've got trouble, we try to be there for them to as much as we can.”

When hard times hit livestock producers, Midwest Livestock Service is in the same hot water as their customers. “When we have accounts receivable trouble, I always tell the