A Life to Enjoy

Chad and Wynn Goslar
Ute, Iowa

Chad and Wynn Goslar live on the farm that Chad’s great-grandfather, William Goslar, purchased in the 1800s. His grandfather, Edward, later took over the farm, and when he retired in 1955, Chad’s father, Ronnie, began farming. At that time, the Goslars' farm was located in the town of Berne, Iowa, a town that has since died and is now part of Ute, “The railroad ran right along the river down there [in Berne]…Dad says as a kid, he used to throw coal off all the time. A coal train would come through and they would have to scoop the coal off for them. They also had pens for livestock, and they would bring their cattle and hogs down the road and load them on the train and send them to Chicago.” Stories like this illustrate the great changes that have taken place in rural Iowa over the past 50 years.

Family Life

After graduating from Charter Oak-Ute High School in 1986 and attending one year at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, Chad decided to come back home and farm with his dad. “College, I guess, wasn’t for me…Dad was looking for some extra help [on the farm], so…I gradually started farming.”

Chad’s two sisters decided against farming themselves, and they did not marry farmers, so Chad was the only sibling who was interested in farming. Chad knew of his wife Wynn before they started dating because she lived in Charter Oak, which is near Ute, but they met officially when he returned from Sioux City. Wynn graduated from high school in Charter Oak in 1989 and she and Chad were married in September of 1990. They now have three daughters, Whitney, 11, Ashley, 9, and Payton, 2. The girls enjoy life on the farm, and they participate in several activities, including softball, basketball, church camps, and bible school. As Chad relays, he and Wynn are “always running them somewhere!”

Wynn, in the last few years, has gone back to school and is working on gaining a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. Chad says that he and his wife are glad they are raising their children on the farm, something that Chad did not experience, “Dad’s somewhat regretted living in town, but it’s just the way it works out, I guess.” Ronnie’s brother decided to live on the farm, so Chad’s father bought a house in town and raised his family there.

When Chad’s grandfather passed away in 1989 at the age of 95, Chad decided to buy 80 acres of the family’s land. Presently, he farms with his father; they do not have a firm partnership agreement, but they “share labor, share equipment, [and] work together.”

Ronnie is “incorporated,” meaning that he farms under a corporate name, but Chad farms as an individual, and he rents land from his father. Ronnie still owns Chad’s home. Together, Chad and his father farm over 3,500 acres of land, which is partially owned and rented from several different landlords. They have expanded significantly in the last few years, and have “added additional storage capacity to last two years...This will allow for additional expansion.” The Goslars added 400 acres of land in 2004, and Chad says they “will continue to look for additional opportunities in the future.”

Running the Farm

Besides growing corn and soybeans, Chad also feeds approximately 700 head of cattle, bought mainly from South Dakota and Montana. The cattle are located in a feedlot on the farm. What corn is not fed to the cattle is sold to outlets in Denison and Council Bluffs, Iowa and Blair, Nebraska. As Chad points out, the grain does not go to the same place every year, “It just depends. Flexibility—when you’ve got grain bins, you’ve got flexibility. You can send them to wherever the best bid is.”

In the past, the Goslars also raised contracted hogs with Farmland; however, once the contract expired in 2002, Chad and his father decided to rent the hog buildings to a tenant who has the hogs and the labor necessary to raise them. They did this primarily because they did not want to have to hire more labor, which they would have to do to raise the hogs. The Goslars are still responsible for the maintenance of the buildings.

Manure that is generated from the cattle and the hogs is then spread onto the fields in the fall. In 2002 Chad was a participant in a Farmland pilot program, which required him to complete a manure management plan. This program gave the Goslars an opportunity to show the Environmental Protection Agency that they, as producers, were able to regulate the farm themselves, which Chad says, “was accomplished quite well.”

Besides using manure, Chad also uses commercial fertilizer on the fields. He has the fields grid tested, and then he uses the Global Positioning System on his combine to spread the fertilizer and lime that is needed on the fields. In order to complete all of the farm work on a daily basis, the Goslars hire seasonal labor, and this can be challenging because of the cost and liability involved, “Part-time labor can be hard to find, but we have a landlord, Tom Pithan, who has helped us the past two years and has been a major asset.” However, they have been able to find some semi-retired farmers to help out with spring and/or fall work, instead of hiring a full-time employee.

Chad uses several methods of farming: “60-70 percent no-till, 20 percent conventional till and 20 percent minimum tillage.” He bases his decision for the land on the soil, and he says that he is “getting used to” the no-till, “I’m really comfortable with no-till…I wouldn’t have said that six or seven years ago, but I actually like no till now. It’s a change in my attitude.”

Some of the benefits that Chad notes are less labor and fuel costs, as well as environmental benefits, but as he points out, no-till may not be for everyone: “It just depends on your system and soil types and what you’re comfortable with.”

Sharing ideas with family, friends, and neighbors helps the Goslars make farming decisions, and discussion about “what has and hasn’t worked” helps others make decisions as well. Some of these conversations happen over dinner at the local steakhouse or at the golf course, both located in Denison, Iowa, where the Goslars and their friends go to socialize. Chad also gains farming information from the Internet, the Data Transmitting Network, where he finds out commodity information daily through a networked machine in his home, and “stacks of farm magazines a mile deep.”

"I just enjoy watching the crops grow"

Chad, although he grew up in town, fully enjoys living and working on the farm: “I enjoy obviously that I’m my own boss, you might say. I can do things as I want to do them, when I want to do them, how I want to do them. I’ve got no one to blame but myself for the decisions that are made. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s difficult, but certainly is a reality. I enjoy being outside. I wouldn’t want to sit behind a desk all day…I just enjoy watching the crops grow—I really do. Maybe that may sound strange…but you just enjoy the little things like that. You try to take pride in it, more than anything.”

North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
107 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-8321, (515) 294-3180 fax

For questions, comments or concerns about the NCRCRD website, contact khetland@iastate.edu.

Last updated September 28, 2005