From the Field: Andy Demuth

Keeping the Family farm: One Iowa story

If a family farm could have a face, it would have the easy smile and dark but optimistic eyes of Andy Demuth. But behind that facade would be determination-the against-all-odds kind of toughness-needed to make difficult decisions to stay with the land because life there is good.

Demuth's family has been making plenty of difficult decisions since October 28, 1986. A harvest-related collision killed his father that day. The farm operation has never been the same.

Andy Demuth was only eight years old, but his brother, Dan, decided to quit a construction job and take over the family grain and livestock operation near Waverly.

"I'm glad he had the courage to do it," says Andy of his big brother. "My dad was farming 1,000 acres [including a 320-acre home place] and that's a lot to just step in and do when you're only 24 years old."

But the decision came at a high cost. They now own only 40 acres of the original 320 acres, the rest reclaimed during the 1980s farm crisis to meet payments for livestock facilities expanded before Don Demuth's death. The family still has the hog operation, and Dan has recently been able to purchase 230 acres within three miles of the home place. Andy, 21, is in the middle of his junior year at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural studies.

"I hope to get into farming with my brother," he says. "It's what I enjoy and all I've ever wanted to do. But chances are it isn't going to happen right out of college."

Demuth envisions a job in agricultural sales and management, possibly in the Bremer County area so he'll be able to farm when he can. He knows that land rents are high, and that difficult decisions lie ahead. In May, low hog prices forced his brother to sell his livestock (he has facilities for more than 2,000 head) and now do only custom feeding. "My brother didn't think he'd ever do that, but he had to," he adds. "Even so, a farm is a great place to grow up and that's where I want to raise kids."

Demuth has one of 100 Christina Hixson scholarships at ISU-one from each Iowa county-awarded each year to incoming freshmen students who might not otherwise have an opportunity to attend college.

"I knew if I didn't go to college right out of high school, I probably wouldn't go," Demuth explains. "I also knew that if I wanted to farm I really needed a four-year degree as something to fall back on."

He is active in the ISU Farm Operations Club, Collegiate Farm Bureau and the Ag in the Classroom program. He was preparing to visit a fifth-grade class in Ames and suspected that they would be a largely urban group. What kind of picture would he paint of agriculture?

"I'll tell them agriculture is important to them every day, when they drink their milk, or eat in the cafeteria," Andy said. "It's the foundation of America and I would like them to appreciate it."

No more than Andy already does.