RANDOLPH, Neb.—There has been a time in society’s history when a woman might have looked down upon the hard life as a farm wife. But if Angie Brodersen could choose just one word to describe her role in the family farm, it would be: blessed.
“It is a surreal feeling each morning to wake up and be living your dream: what you wanted for yourself, your spouse and your children,” the Yankton native said. “I am a blessed woman.”
Brodersen and her husband of eight years, Ryan, own and operate Brodersen Family Farms, a diversified crop and livestock farm near Randolph, where they grow 3,000 acres in a corn and soybean rotation, manage 300 head of breeding cows, feed 3,000 to 4,000 antibiotic-free hogs for Niman Ranch and oversee a small trucking fleet.
“I love being a farm wife and raising our children on the farm,” Angie said. “Ryan is an amazing husband. He treats me as a business partner. Every decision that is made on our farm is done together. He regularly asks me for my input on things regarding our operation.”
As if that’s not impressive enough, all of this was accomplished by Ryan and Angie on their own, neither inheriting the farm. Rather, they started off from scratch, with Ryan renting his first 17 acres when they were both age 19—each relying on nothing but faith in their dream and a willingness to work really hard to get there.
“Being in business with your spouse can be trying at times, but I truly believe if Ryan and I had not started with nothing but each other and a dream, the struggles on and off the farm would be much more difficult to weather through,” Angie said. “I look back at our most difficult times and when we were trying to get started farming, and those are some of my most cherished memories. I truly feel we are living our dream, and not many people can say that.”
That’s not to say neither have a little farm blood in their family tree. Ryan was raised on a farm until he was 12 or 13, and Angie was an active 4-H member through her youth showing horses and club lambs.
The high school sweethearts graduated from Yankton in 2001.
Angie later earned her Bachelor of Science from South Dakota State University in 2005, working various jobs, the last of which was as an account executive for 94 Rock Radio in Norfolk, Neb., until mid-2012 when she was able to stay at home with their two sons and help Ryan in running the daily operations of the farm.
spend hours mimicking what Dad is doing. When Ryan is spraying crops, Tate has a ‘sprayer’ attachment Dad made for him that he puts on the front of his pedal tractor and the lawn gets watered in a similar manner.”
Not Taking Anything for Granted
To the Brodersens, family farming is a privilege that they are thankful for every day.
“Our farm is not just a way we make a living. It is our life and passion,” she said. “It takes true team work between Ryan and me to keep our operation running efficiently but, more than that, a love of the land. We run our operation based on a theory: Our goal is to leave the land we farm in better condition than we received it in. It is not the quantity of acres we farm but the quality of work.”
The Brodersens’ approach to family farming is to uphold the family aspect of farming as much as the business side.
“I am blessed to have an amazing husband that cherishes time with our boys and with me. We are always a priority, even on his busiest days,” Angie said. “Our children are very involved on the farm. We just got them six chickens this spring, so they have those daily chores along with many others. We do cattle chores as a family, and load and unload shipments of hogs together as often as we can.”
Angie and Ryan also spend a lot of time with their own parents, each of whom has been encouraging of the farming venture: Denny and Jan Everson, and Sheryl and Dave Rehurek, of Yankton, and Marc and Lisa Brodersen of Crofton, Neb. Ryan’s grandmother, Pat, enjoys watching their sons when Angie and Ryan need to do something on the farm that is safer and easier to do without children in tow.
“We have an incredible support group,” Angie added.
Contributing to Community
Off the farm, Angie and Ryan strive to contribute to their local community. Besides providing a living for themselves and their six employees, they are both active in the Randolph Community Club and St. John’s Lutheran Church in Randolph, and Angie is involved in the local PEO chapter.
They also hope to benefit the local and state agricultural industry.
“Farming today is tough,” Angie said. “It takes an incredible amount of money to operate. The financial aspect is what I believe inhibits young adults from returning to the family farm, both for those who want to farm as well as their parents. It’s not that some family farms don’t want their children to come back to the farm. In the end that is the goal of a family farm, but it’s just financially difficult to do so. Expenses keep increasing at staggering rates for farming. Most people not in agriculture do not even have a comprehension of the dollars it takes to feed America.”
Angie supports Ryan in his role as president of the Pierce County Farm Bureau, as an agricultural leadership fellow in the Nebraska LEAD program and in his involvement with the American Soybean Association and the Nebraska Corn Board, including being selected to travel to Washington, D.C., this summer to participate in the Corn Congress.
Together, he and Angie hope to educate local youth about the importance of agriculture by taking part in the Star Snippets project with the fourth-grade class at Yankton’s Lincoln Elementary as well as the Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom pen pal program with an elementary school in Columbus, Neb.
“The average farmer produces enough to feed 155 people annually,” Angie said. “Remember to thank your farmers. They are working hard to feed your family.
And on behalf of America’s farmers, I would like to say: It is our pleasure, our passion and our love of the land. Thank you for supporting our efforts.”
Creating a Legacy
But Angie considers her most important work to be in raising her sons, and the values she wants to impart are part and parcel of living the farm life.
“Every single thing Ryan and I do is for our children,” Angie said. “They are our legacy.
We want to raise them to be good, hardworking and appreciative men who respect others and are thankful for everything they have. We hope the boys want to come back to the farm someday—it is in their blood—but in the end, we do not care what they do when they grow up, just so they are passionate about what they do.”
But, “at this point, I have a feeling we will probably have a couple of farmers on our hands,” she added with a smile, describing Tate and Jace “farming” the rug in their living room, pretending to plant it in the spring, spraying it in the summer and harvesting in the fall “just like Daddy.” Playing with the pedal tractor in the mud is another favorite playtime activity for the boys.
A Day in the Life
A typical day in the life of the modern farm wife isn’t all play, however. Angie wakes up early to complete book work. Once the boys are awake, her focus switches to motherhood, making breakfast and getting ready for the day. After a morning cartoon on the television, they go outside to do the chicken chores.
While the boys play nearby, Angie works in the vegetable garden and does some lawn work. Then, it’s time to go inside to make lunch. Angie takes advantage of the time during Jace’s afternoon nap to mow, spray weeds and do more book work.
After Jace wakes up, Angie makes time to do something special with the boys. It may be going to the swimming pool, park or library. But one day a week, the boys go to a childcare provider in Randolph, during which Angie spends the day in her office catching up on the paperwork end of the farming operation and trucking business, such as billing out trucking business, payroll, paying bills and dealing with insurance.
“A typical summer day for us is hard to explain,” Angie said. “Every day brings new adventures and sometimes hardships to conquer. Things that are daily in my life are our children, feeding people, lawn and garden work, book work, laundry and cleaning. You can usually throw in a random task each day, as well, like unloading a new shipment of hogs or branding cattle. There is never a moment to just sit. If I get behind on any of it, it makes for more work in the end. Some days, juggling it all is difficult, but I just could not imagine it any other way. I love my life and all its craziness.”
Angie involves Tate and Jace as much as she can with the farm. Ryan brings their sons with him when he is watering cows, checking pivots, going on runs to pick up a machinery part and any other activities that are safe.
“Ryan spends an incredible amount of time with the boys. It’s a priority,” Angie said. “My husband is incredibly busy and manages a huge load, but he still manages to always put us first. Some days, I wonder how he does it.”
Angie may make it seem easy, but she’s quick to admit that this lifestyle takes a lot of balancing of priorities and a little bit of sacrifice.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to live the farming life,” she said. “We work very hard and do not get away much, but we get to spend time together and watch our children grow. The values that farm life instill in children is remarkable. At young ages, our children are already showing life values that will stay with them through adulthood, regardless of what path they take.”
