When Louise asked for readers to send in their farm stories, I thought, I can do that. Easier said than done! When one reaches the old age of 92 as I have, the memory doesn’t get better, seems to get worst the older I get. One thing I know for sure, I can hardly believe all the changes that have come during my lifetime.
I was born in 1930, a child in a family of five boys, and four girls. I was number seven and to this day I wonder how my parents made it through the 1930’s and what they were able to accomplish. My dad and his parents came from Pennsylvania in the 1890’s, and my mother and her parents came from Indiana about seven years later with several other families. Most of the settlers established themselves on farms in the Brinsmade area.
My dad’s family and my mother’s family were of German heritage, all having imigrated to the United States many years earlier. The two families became very close and were involved in starting the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Brinsmade.
My dad, George Herman, Sr. began farming and named the farm, Hermandale Farm, which has not changed over the years.
Farming was so different in the 30’s, as they are known. Everything was done with horses. One of the first building projects on the farm in the early years was building the huge barn needed for all the horses used for farm work. In about 1940, I stayed home from school to drive horses pulling a drag to work the fields.
I will never forget the dirty 30’s, as they were known. Dust drifted like snow and fence lines were big dust drifts. Grasshopper’s were terrible and they ate much of the crops that had managed to survive the dust and drought. As a result, harvest was not bountiful during those years.
I learned to drive a tractor with iron wheels pulling a grain binder. It was followed by men who put the bundles into grain shocks. After all the grain was cut and shocked, threshing began. Six bundle wagons and teams of horses delivered the bundles to the threshing machine. It was very hot and dusty work. I started hauling grain to the granaries on the farm when very young. We had no grain augers during those years, so the grain was shoveled by hand into the granaries. I was not very old, but helped dad shovel the grain. We didn’t have aluminum shovels, only heavy steel shovels, so I would get so tired shoveling the grain. I wondered if something was wrong with me because I was so tired. Thinking back, I realize that this was very hard work for a young boy! Unfortunately, when it was time to sell the grain, we had to shovel it all out of the grainary by hand again! It was a happy day when my dad got his first grain auger.
These were hard times, but fun times. My dad never worked on Sunday’s, so our crew and family would often get together with another family for softball, horseshoes and other games and activities. I marvel at my mother who made three meals each day for her large family and all the harvest helpers.
When threshing started, my dad made a cook car and hired a cook so mom’s workload was more manageable. Mom said she enjoyed Sunday because after church she could come home to a big dinner and she didn’t have to do all the preparation.
In the 1940’s the drought ended, and the farm started to get good crops. Dad didn’t use fertilizer or chemicals so if the yield was 25 to 30 bushels per acre they were happy. Quite a comparison to the yields that we are capable of producing today.
I will never forget my younger years. We all went to a one room country school that was located a mile and a quarter north of the farm. We had one teacher for all eight grades, and we walked to school everyday except the worst parts of winter. The school closed in 1944, and I then went to high school in Minnewaukan for the next three years. In 1948 the school district was reorganized and our school was Leeds, where I spent the last year before graduating.
One special memory was walking home from school and coming over the hill next to the farm, if dad was butchering, we could smell the smoke from the butcher house stove while rendering lard. We would run down to eat the cracklings after the lard was removed. We would turn the meat grinder for making country sausage which dad sold in the area
There was always work for us after school. Dad had very large gardens with weeds to hoe. Dad had a route of regular customers that he sold potatoes, watermelon, and other garden produce as well as various meat products, We helped him deliver these around the area. Dad was a “jack of all trades,” and a master of most of them. We would spend hours in the blacksmith shop turning the forge as he worked with metal. Dad got his first combine in 1947, none of the first tractors or combines had cabs.
I worked with my dad on the farm until 1955 at which time he retired and I took over Hermansdale Farm. He and my mother built a new home just a mile south, and he helped me on the farm for the next several years. A few years later, my younger brother, Ardon and older brother George joined me in a farm partnership which we operated for the next 21 years. In 1983, my son Reginal chose to join me in the farm partnership. When I retired in 1996, Reg took over the farm, but I continued helping during busy seasons until I was in my mid eighties. In 2012 his sons, Justin and George joined him on the farm. Hermansdale Farm has the fifth generation there today and I am happy that there is planning for the sixth. My dad, George Sr’s understanding of diversification and entrepreneuial way of thinking continues today. Hermansdale Farm has grown where it is today from a beginning of 1620 acres. No horses anymore! The farm equipment today makes what I started with look like toys. Wheel and track tractors with as much as 640 horsepower. Sprayers that are 130 feet wide and can spray a quarter in an hour and huge combines with 50 foot headers and all the equipment with air conditioned quiet cabs.
The farm specializes in seed production which means continually trying new varieties of many different crops. It’s been over a hundred years that the farm has processed and sold seed, continuing the business that dad began in 1917 when he built a then, far advanced crib style elevator and integrated seed plant on the farm. The original plant was removed and replaced with a new seed plant in 2013. Grain cleaning produces screenings which are put out for the deer and other wildlife to enjoy.
When I began farming we only raised wheat, durum, barley and oats. Now we have added corn, canola, soybeans and edible beans.
In addition to crop production, in the early years we had a large herd of registered polled Hereford cattle, as well as registered Chester White hogs. The livestock operations were discontinued in the 1960’s due to low prices and the growing crop production acreage.
Only the Lord knows what the future holds for Hermansdale Farm, but I am not concerned. My wife and I have 19 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren. There will be those who want to farm when the time comes!
Besides farming, I operated Herman Photo for 42 years. With my wifw Bonnie we photographed over 1,200 weddings as well as golden wedding anniversaries, family reunions, confirmation classes and other events.
What an adventure life has been!
– Memories by Dwayne Herman
