Living on a working Rock County farm often means long hours, dirty fingernails and a budget that never seems to stretch far enough.
But the Sterling and Denise Severtson family of rural Kenneth wouldn’t live or work anywhere else.
The Rock County Extension Committee recently selected the Severtsons and their children, Andrea and Kristoffer, as the 2016 Rock County Farm Family of the Year.
They will be honored Thursday night along with the Schilling-Wessels-Bergman Century Farm of Ellsworth at 6:30 p.m. in the fairground grandstand in Luverne.
Each year the University of Minnesota honors farm families who have demonstrated a commitment to enhancing and supporting agriculture and agriculture production.
For the Severtsons, promotion of their chosen career comes naturally.
“We promote agriculture by showing how much we love it,” said 19-year-old Andrea, a junior at South Dakota State University in Brookings.
While peers think today’s farms are owned by businessmen not directly involved with the raising of crops and livestock, the younger Severtsons want others to know that is not the case for their family.
It was their great-great-grandfather, John Severtson, a boat captain from Norway, who began the agricultural career path in 1913 by purchasing the half-section of land in Section 11 of Vienna Township, where the Severtsons live today.
Great-grandfather Bernard Severtson continued the family’s stock cow, corn and wheat operation by passing the land to grandfather Aryln Severtson and ultimately to Sterling and Denise in 1991.
“I really wanted to go to school for banking, but I changed my mind halfway through,” Sterling said.
Instead, he earned an agronomy degree from SDSU with a minor in economics.
Solid finance management helped the Severtson family through the 1980s Farm Crisis and through today’s fluctuating commodities prices.
“Have a budget; know where the money goes, because you never know what the next year will be with prices,” he said.
Farming with his brother David, Sterling said he isn’t ready to turn the 1,100-acre farming operation of corn/soybeans/alfalfa over to his son just yet.
Kristoffer, however, is planning to bring a different expertise to the family’s operation. He will pursue technical degrees in welding and diesel mechanics after next year’s graduation.
He said he has loved the farm life since learning to walk.
“I like doing things on my own and having a job not like any others,” Kristoffer said. “
His own farm duties involve the family’s 85-head cow/calf and feeder cattle operation.
Denise handles the spring calving duties, often waking in the early morning hours to check on the expectant beef cows.
“There is a right way to take care of things — both the environment and the livestock,” she added.
Her aptitude for cattle comes naturally, having grown up on a dairy farm near Little Rock, Iowa. She and her six siblings learned to operate farm equipment, milk cows and care for animals.
She said the animals taught her patience and strengthened her love for agriculture. She couldn’t picture a non-farm life after earning a degree in accounting from Northwestern Community College in Sheldon.
“I always wanted to be a farm wife,” Denise said.
Minimal tillage in the fields and daily care of the livestock have become normal practices for the couple who married in 1991.
Daughter Andrea will make one of those practices a career as she works toward becoming a large-animal veterinarian, a job she’s dreamed about since she was a preschooler.
“I like taking care of baby animals, especially the reproduction part,” she said. “Calving is my favorite.”
Learning about agriculture was enhanced by the family’s involvement in FFA and 4-H, including showing at this year’s Rock County Fair, which runs now through Saturday.
The Severtsons will also be recognized with other Minnesota farm families Aug. 4 at the annual Farmfest near Redwood Falls.