When the story of Bob Pflughaupt hit my inbox, it said that once you’re a farmer, you are always a farmer. There’s a lot of truth to that. But it goes beyond that. You may decrease your direct involvement in the operations as you get older, but it’s always in your blood. That’s what I learned more clearly when talking to Mr. Pflughaupt.
Bob is originally from Marion, Iowa. He later moved to Walker and started a farm there with his wife and kids. While the farm is now custom-operated by friends of his family, he is still very much involved with the operation and makes the trip there from his home at the assisted living facility every week to make decisions.
Bob says that farming has to be something that you love to do, or you will never succeed at it. No matter how much technology advances the basic goals of agriculture never have, and the way you go about doing the job hasn’t changed all that much. That is one thing that remains constant from when he farmed with his father, all the way to the young farmers of today.
If you were to go visit Bob, you would notice a small test plot outside his window at his home. No matter where he is, this can give him a gauge of how the year is going, with his own farm not far away. With the help of his family and his Dekalb sales representative, Bob grew some corn outside the window and is letting his friends and neighbors take a guess on how it will do this year. While the yields at home are down from last year, courtesy of the drought, Bob says you learn to take what you can get because there’s always a challenge from one year to the next.
Bob encourages young farmers to be courageous, be resourceful, and do not get discouraged if things don’t go perfect from one year to the next. There’s always another growing season on the horizon. God willing, you will have many growing seasons just as Bob has had. We also hope that Bob has many more to go in which he can impart his wisdom on the next generations of Iowa farmers.
