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Janet and Roger Knoblock have eight children and 36 grandchildren.

Roger Knoblock said his family’s farm runs all for one and one for all. “All for one” means if someone in the operation has trouble, everyone in the family will rally to their side. “One for all” outlines that the family and employees of the Knoblock farm are working for the good of all.

The Knoblock family has a diversified cattle, hog, corn and soybean operation located between Lester and Alvord. Over the decades Roger and Janet Knoblock’s family has grown to include eight children and their spouses, 32 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. The couple farms in partnership with their sons and their wives Trent and Heather, Thadd and Wendy, Travis and Kathy; and Troy and Donna; and sonin-law and daughter, Jon and Tricia Blomgren. When they got married in 1965, Roger and Janet farmed 60 acres and did a little sharecropping and hauling grain and livestock for a local trucker. “I like pigs, so I bought seven crates on a farm sale. I went in with Dad on a partnership on the pigs which we farrowed in Dad’s hog house because we were living on a acreage doing chores for house rent for a neighbor.” Roger and Janet rented their uncle’s farm in 1967 and then bought it on contract in 1970. “And that really made the difference. We kept expanding on pigs. Dad liked to drive

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Luca, Vaila, Kathy, Rayna, Travis and Alexa Knoblock. Not pictured are: Tyra and Brady Metzger; Kiana and Brooks Metzger; and Dayra and Thad Indermuhle.

Chad, Lynelle, Donna and Troy Knoblock. Not pictured are Taryn and Caleb Indermuhle. truck and I liked to do chores and we farmed together.” In 1971, Roger started farrowing in the old barn and in the chicken house.

Both the farrow-to-finish hog operation and the cattle feedlot continued a slow and steady growth pattern during the 1970s and into the ’80s. According to Thadd, “Dad always said hogs pay the bills and the cattle either hit a home run or strike out.” Roger added, “The diversification of cattle, hogs and grain has worked out. We’re still in business.” Jon said, “It’s nice you can get the harvest started early with cattle feed, otherwise you have to wait for the corn to dry down. We get a lot of bushels out before some even get started.” They harvest earlage and wet corn for cattle. Knoblocks are one of the few who have retained a true farrow-to-finish hog operation. They are also investing in an off-site sow unit as a disease management strategy. All of the grandkids have worked in the sow unit processing pigs and are a big help on the farm. Roger said, “Pig production was always something I could start the boys out at a young age. I was out in the field and they turned sows in and out of the crates. One would stand on the crate and open the gate; and they’d mark the sows. Then I wouldn’t have to do it at night.” Trent said the long-term training of the next generation continues in much the same fashion. “With our kids, they just keeping doing more and more things as they get older. By the time they graduate, we’d like to keep them around because they become pretty good help. But so far everyone out of high school has gone off to college, at least for a couple of years.” Like many, they began moving hogs indoors in the 1980s. Trent said, “In 1986, after I graduated from high school, Dad walked out of the farrowing unit and he barely looked back. He had too much to do.” Roger credited the lessons his sons learned in the West Lyon FFA program for improving their hog records. He said, “When the oldest boys started having 4-H pigs and then FFA, Dad and I took each boy in on a percentage of the pigs. That’s how they kind of got started. But they had to have good records.” As the number of sons in the operation grew, they decided to form a family farm corporation in 1990. The farm was incorporated as JRT Focus Farms: The “J” stands for Janet, the “R” stands for Roger, and the “T” stands for “The