Iowa farms in transition

WASHINGTON COUNTY - After Gladys Randall died this summer at the age of 96, her children had to decide whether to keep or sell the family farm near Keota, in Washington County.

The farm, which was sold last month, had passed to Randall when she was 10 years old, after the deaths of her mother, Nora, and her maternal grandparents, John and Clara Stamp.

Nora had died during childbirth, which also claimed Randall's brother. Her parents - overcome with grief and in rapidly declining health - died three weeks after their daughter's death.

Jeannette Randall Crain said her mother had an 'intense desire to hold onto her property in order to provide an inheritance for her children, who with their children and grandchildren are mostly involved in full-time Christian work in the United States and in foreign countries.”

Deciding whether to keep or sell the family farm is often a difficult decision facing many Iowans as the baby-boom generation ages into retirement. According to the 2007 Farmland Ownership and Tenure in Iowa study by retired Iowa State University professor Mike Duffy, more than 55 percent of farmland in Iowa was owned by people over the age of 65.

The same study found that close to 60 percent of the those owning farmland plan to will it to their descendants.

Leroy Randall, 75, said the farm was operated by a succession of tenants as his parents, Max and Gladys, served as Christian missionaries in South Africa and later Zimbabwe.

'The farm has been a kind of presence in the back of my mind over the years,” said Randall, who has worked in ministry in Perth, Australia, since 1977 with his wife, Gayle. 'I grieve over the sale, but at the same time I would not have tried to keep it. In the worst way, it would not have been possible.

'My mother was essentially a functional orphan after the death of her mother and grandparents,” he said. 'Her father did not feel he could take care of her and gave her to an aunt and uncle on an adjoining farm. My mother had a really tough upbringing, but it was during time that she became a Christian.”

Leroy Randall has written a book, 'The Dawning,” that details Gladys Randall's hard life growing up with - and without the love of - her father, aunt and uncle and, later, her stepmother; her coming to faith; and her marriage to Max Randall and their life as missionaries.

'She really lived a remarkable life and had 55 great-grandchildren, with two more on the way,” he said. 'Not bad for a lady who as a girl was a functional orphan.”

Family decisions

Retired Iowa State University Professor Mike Duffy said the question of what to do with inherited farmland will become increasingly important over the next several years.

'The average age of farmland owners continues to increase,” Duffy said. 'According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, the average age of the principal farm operator was 57.1.

'The farm may be jointly inherited, and the wishes of all parties may influence the decision of what to do with the farm.”

Personal attachment by one or more family members also can influence what happens to farmland.

Vicki Schug, 58, was five years old when Frank and Wilma Schug bought a farm outside of Sac City.

'My father passed away in 1997 and my mother passed away in 2013,” she said. 'We had the 154-acre farm in a trust to support my mother after my father passed away. My sister and I were sort of co-trustees.

'My mother also owned 80 acres in her name.”

Schug, who lives in the Twin Cities, has two sisters - one in Mason City and another in Madison, Wis. Another sister is deceased.

'My closest sibling was 17 years old when I was born,” Schug said. 'I grew up on the farm, whereas my sisters were already grown and never lived on the farm.”

Under the terms of the trust, the four children of the deceased sibling inherited her share of the 154-acre farm.

'We had some complexity in terms of the trust for the 80 acres owned by my mother,” Schug said. 'We had to decide whether to try to extend the trust, which we are pursuing. That land did not attract bids when Hertz Real Estate Service held an auction in October 2013 for both parcels.

'We had sold about 10 acres where the homestead was located when my father passed away. We wanted to preserve it and make sure the buildings were not allowed to deteriorate.”

Schug said the financial stability of her older sisters also weighed on the decision to sell the farm.

'I think it was important that we all were involved in the decisions we had to make,” she said. 'We really had no interest in moving to the farm, but we all wanted it to be maintained in terms of my parents' values.

'I found that very comforting as we moved to sell the farm.”

Kyle Hansen of Hertz Real Estate Services said farmland is the largest asset of rural residents, just as houses are the largest single asset of urban residents.

'In the agricultural community, there are a lot of emotional ties to farmland,” Hansen said. 'Most of it has been handed down from generation to generation.

'You almost have to be a real estate agent and psychiatrist. It gets to be very emotional.”