Steubers recognized as century farm
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FAIRMONT - On farmland Louis Steuber first purchased in 1900 for $7.19 an acre, the Steubers continue to farm 320 acres and have been officially recognized as a Century Farm in Martin County.
The original family lived on a large farm home and farmed and raised whatever they could, including cattle, chickens and horses. Unfortunately, this home caught fire and burned down only a decade after the farm was first founded.
"What happened was they were all sitting around, and they heard some noise," Pat Steuber said. "Somebody opened the door to the stairs, and it was a chimney fire. The upstairs was all on fire, so they got out."
The family then built a smaller home in 1918. It has undergone some changes, including a new basement and enclosing what was originally an open front porch, but it is the same home the family currently lives in today.
Currently, the farm is co-owned by Kurt Steuber and his son Brandon Steuber. Kurt lives with his wife Pat, and Brandon with his wife Amber and three of their kids, with one already grown up and out of the house. While the style back when the farm was founded was to have a little bit of everything, today they farm corn and soybeans, and have 6,000 pigs.
"We get them in this barn here when they're 15 pounds off the mama sow," Brandon Steuber said. "They’re raised in this building till they’re 40, 50 pounds, and then they go into a finishing barn across the road, where we raise them to about 300, and then sell out and start over again."
While they own land elsewhere, the original farmstead has stayed at 320 acres. They rotate their crops and go through around two to three pig cycles a year.
As for why they chose pigs, Kurt Steuber said they got more enjoyment out of pigs than the cows they had been raising.
"My dad had dairy cattle in this barn across the road," he said. "Had like 25 to 26 cows in each barn. It was a lot of work. I did not enjoy the cattle end of it. The hog end of it was more, I don’t know if you’d say easier, but I enjoyed it more, and it was profitable. You could make some money on it, so the decision was made."
When Kurt Steuber first started farming in the 80s with his brother Todd Steuber, he said everything was done with a cultivator, which took out the weeds.
"Now we’ve got chemicals that take care of the weeds," he said. "It was a lot more labor-intensive back then, so you wouldn’t be able to have as much land because there just wasn’t enough time to get it all done. The chemicals now have really helped as far as the weed control."
On top of this, Pat Steuber said you had smaller equipment, so everything took more time. Kurt Steuber said, like everything else, everything has gotten larger and more technological.
From then to now, the Steubers agreed there is a lot more in the realm of regulations and requirements, both for pollution and livestock as a whole, than there were when Kurt started in the 80s and Brandon when he entered ownership in 2003.
"Back then, the average person trusted the farmer," Brandon Steuber said. "They could do what they wanted to do, and as long as they were making money, it didn’t matter. They trusted that you put food on their table for them. All of a sudden, when I’m 35 years old, somebody’s going to tell me how to do it, like I don’t know how to do it anymore. That’s what the regulations have come down to."
Whether it’s farming back then or farming now, the Steubers agreed that a lot of the challenges, like contending with prices and making ends meet while paying back what you owe, haven't changed from then to now.
"Market price and interest rates," Brandon Steuber said. "You hope to out-yield last year so that you can pay your bills."
In addition, Pat Steuber said fuel costs are a major factor right now as diesel prices continue to rise.
"You don’t just have fuel in your combine," she said. "You have it in the tractor pulling the grain cart. You have it in your semis. An acre you’re burning up to do all that, you’re probably burning $100 an acre at least in fuel, just to get your crop out."
So far this year, Brandon Steuber said their crop and livestock have been panning out well. He said they're just looking to get the crops out now, as they have had to contend with all this rain. In the pursuit of farming over decades, Kurt Steuber said it is a life that has given them freedom.
"The freedom to do whatever you want to do in your life or make the most out of it," he said. "You still have the responsibility to take care of the land, get the crop taken care of, because that’s what your livelihood is. I don’t think anybody else has that option where if you want to go someplace, you just go someplace. On that particular day, you have that freedom."
Amanda Steuber took care of getting the farm submitted as a Century Farm. She said it took a lot of research, and she and Pat Steuber did a lot of the work together. For Pat Steuber, it gave her a moment to reflect and take everything in about how special having a farm in the family for over 100 years is.
Moving forward, the Steubers plan to keep the farm going and in the family as long as they can. Brandon and Amanda Steuber's kids have shown interest and helped out around the farm, including their 17-year-old James, who has been excited about farming since he was two years old.