The farming evolution with a family foundation

Driving through the countryside of Mineral Point, Wisconsin, you’ll see sprawling land full of crops like corn and alfalfa, old barns, new barns, cows, tractors and more. One of those farms belongs to the Finkelmeyer family, situated right on the outskirts of Mineral Point. 

“We’ve been on this farm since 1892,” said Randy Finkelmeyer. “And most of us are still involved with the farm today.” 

“We had a lot of animals here growing up – pigs, chickens and beef and dairy cows,” said Mike Finkelmeyer. “Everything we harvested in the summer was feed that we stored in the winter. All the animals would feed off the land in the summer, but they had to be fed in the winter.”  

Randy and Mike are two of Paul and Gola Finkelmeyer’s seven children. It was Paul’s grandfather who started The Finkelmeyer Farm that has since been passed down from generation to generation, evolving as the industry changed. The family barn was built by hand before WWII and still stands and holds hay on the property today. Other buildings have been added to the property, including a storage building and machine shed that allow the family to work inside during the cold Wisconsin winters. 

“It started out as a dairy, beef and hog farm,” recalled Randy. “Later on, it became just a beef farm and now, it’s a crop farm. There’s been lots of changes over the years with farming. Farming has become bigger, safer and more efficient. It’s become quicker and faster at harvesting.” 

No one knows this better than Eric Argall, a Finkelmeyer grandson who got involved with the family farm work at a young age. Today, he lives on the property while working in sales at Ritchie’s Implement, a farm equipment dealership in Cobb, Wis. that services much of the Wisconsin area. 

“When I was younger, our family farm was a lot more scaled back,” said Eric. “We were small enough to justify bailing our own hay. I wasn’t around this big equipment like we have at Ritchie’s Implement until my college years. I was blown away.”

Eric specializes in selling the Claas-Chopper, a piece of equipment that allows farmers to go out, cut their crop and then the next day, merge it all together. The cheapest Claas-Chopper runs $450,000. The most expensive? Up to $825,000. 

“Farmers know they can have help around for a day, but not a week like they used to,” said Eric. “Back in the day, it took about week a to just chop a crop of hay. With this [Claas-Chopper] everything gets done at most in three days. These farmers are trying to get more done in a quicker time. It shows how much more efficient we’re getting at getting the crop done.”  

Efficiency not only plays out on the equipment-side of farming nowadays, but the size of the farm too. 

“What we’re finding is that there are still plenty of family farms, but we’re seeing that smaller family farms are getting to the point of being non-existent,” said Eric. “Instead, if you have a neighborhood of three or four small family farms they will merge together to become one big farm, so you have four families helping and working in one.” 

Eric notes that for dairy farms specifically over the last seven years, dropping milk prices have contributed to small dairy farms selling their cows and converting to cash cropping or renting out their land to bigger farms. In another 10 years, he sees the same pattern continuing. 

“There’s going to be the same amount of cows and acres out there, but there’s going to be fewer and fewer farms,” said Eric. “I foresee more bushels being produced on the same amount of acres. It’s amazing how efficient crop has become. My first year working out in Darlington was in 2012, the year of the drought. Everything was shriveled up. This year, it was drier than ever, and surprisingly, the crops looked great. The technology is going to keep getting better and better. We have to keep up with it.” 

While Mike and Randy agree on how farming technology and equipment advances have contributed to more sustainable and efficient crop, they believe at some point, it could max out. 

“Equipment is already pushing maximum width to get to our area,” said Mike. “And, the older people don’t want to spend the money to upgrade to new tech. People our age, we’re looking to see that if what we have makes it another 10 years, we’ll be good.” 

“The older farmers are looking toward the end,” added Randy. “Their equipment is working fine, they don’t have motivation to go through a technology change unless they have the younger generation willing to go through the change. There’s no motivation to do it because there’s no reason to do it. 

But perhaps, that’s the beauty of a family farm being passed down from generation to generation - having the farmers wanting to maintain its history, but by trying new technologies and adapting to new farming trends in order to do so. 

“About 20 years ago, I was worried if we would have a next generation to hand the farm down to,” said Mike. “But then we have family members like Eric who likes to be involved and come up with new ideas. I take pride in knowing that if our great-grandfather, grandfather and uncle came back today, they would be proud of how we’ve been able to continue what they started.” 

“When you’re around here farming, you feel your ancestors,” said Randy. “You have that connection, and it’s hard to explain unless you’ve lived it. You’re around your family all the time doing something. There are so many times I look around and just think, ‘Wow, I’m so glad [great]-grandpa picked this place.’”