Juergensmeyers selected as Osage County Farm family

BY Neal A. Johnson, UD Managing Editor
Posted 8/27/19

From the kitchen window, the view is, in a word, stunning, with rolling hills of green surrounding the home on CR 541, between Freeburg and Meta, as the beef cattle they raise meandered unhurriedly …

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Juergensmeyers selected as Osage County Farm family

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From the kitchen window, the view is, in a word, stunning, with rolling hills of green surrounding the home on CR 541, between Freeburg and Meta, as the beef cattle they raise meandered unhurriedly across the sprawling landscape.

John Juergensmeyer and his wife, Janel, and their children, Braden, 16, Greyson, 14, and Kaylee, 11, sat around the kitchen table Saturday to talk about the farm.

“This is our life,” John said, gazing through the window, and then at his children, who have grown up like he did, surrounded by hundreds of acres of pasture. “Everyone has a role, and it works for us.”

That approach was part of the reason the Juergensmeyer family was selected as the 2019 Osage County Farm Family after voting by the Osage County Extension Council and local Farm Bureau.

The annual event is a partnership of Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Department of Agriculture, the Missouri State Fair and Commissioners, the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and University of Missouri Extension and Engagement.

All 114 of Missouri’s counties nominated families, plus the City of St. Louis, with nearly 500 family members being honored from across the state.

Each year, the Missouri State Fair sets aside a day to recognize farm families from across the state who are active in their communities, involved in agriculture and/or who participate in local outreach and extension programs such as 4-H or FFA. 

The Juergensmeyer family was honored Monday, Aug. 12, at the Missouri State Fair.

“That was actually a teacher work day, but Mr. (Chuck) Woody let me have the day with my family, and I really appreciate that,” said Janel, a kindergarten teacher at Fatima R-3. “It was a nice experience at the state fair. The last time we were there, I was seven months pregnant with Braden. The kids had not been to the state fair before that day. We just never seemed to find the time.”

That’s not especially surprising, given the chores to be done on the farm, which was originally part of a homestead grant in the mid-1850s. John said the earliest documentation found by the family shows a date of 1857, which was the origination date used in securing Century Farm status 20 years ago.

“My dad used to be a dairy farmer,” said John of his father, Felix, 90, who now resides at Westphalia Hills. “He got out of the business in 1994 but still had some beef cows.”

John, who serves as chairman of the Osage County Extension Council, has worked full time at Diamond Pet Foods in Meta for 13 years while maintaining his farm, which includes 35 cow-calf pairs of his own. He also helps with his mother’s 45 cows, and his brother Scott, has another 30. All told, John and his family have about 100 head of cattle to maintain.

“My mom still lives at the home on my parent’s farm,” said John of his mother, Genevieve, 88. “She’s doing great, and is still active in quilting at St. Boniface.”

The Juergensmeyer family farm includes 550 acres of pasture, and everyone pitches in to cultivate hay each year.

John teaches adult Ag at Fatima, working mainly with people who are committed to farming but have full-time jobs as well.

“We’re focused on cattle, but I help them understand fencing systems and little things that will help them improve the efficiency of their farm,” John said. “You never know when something you run across will help someone else.”

At the same time, John takes pride in helping his children understand the business of raising cattle and farming in general.

Braden showed hogs at the Osage County Fair for three years, and the last two years, he’s shown steers. He’s a member of the Fatima FFA and Country Clovers 4-H at Koeltztown, along with his siblings.

“I really enjoy showing my animals at the fair,” said Braden. “It takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it.”

Two bottle calves were just purchased last week and he and Greyson are feeding them for now. An older Holstein was also bought last year and will take over milking calves.

Calving has just begun on the Juergensmeyer farm, and those animals will be sold next spring, to be finished by someone else, most likely a feed lot in Kansas or Oklahoma.

Greyson has been working cows with his dad, primarily just the two of them, as Braden has been doing roofing work over the summer.

The brothers have a routine, including feeding the bottle calves in the morning before school, and again when they get home - at least until the spring, when both will play baseball at Fatima.

“We always have something to do after school,” Greyson said. “It could be anything.”

During hay season, everyone gets involved, from raking to baling, including Kaylee.

When she’s not feeding the pets or helping with farm chores, Kaylee is very active in 4-H, with several projects each year, ranging from foods to arts and crafts and photography. Her “Fairy Pendants” (arts and crafts) entry in the Osage County Fair 4-H exhibit earned a blue ribbon and state selection, along with two food science entries (buck eyes and peanut butter cookies), and she entered three photos, all of which earned a blue ribbon.

“I like to take pictures of nature mostly,” she said. “But I enjoy creating things and baking too.”

Janel, meanwhile, is the “honorary gatekeeper,” explaining that she helps when she can, but her focus is on making the house a home.

“I’m a homemaker, but I have a full-time job as a teacher as well,” said Janel, who has taught kindergarten for 16 of her 26 years as an educator, all within the Fatima school district. “My first year in Osage County I taught at the Meta elementary school, which closed the next year.”

When she’s not preparing meals or looking after myriad other things around the house, Janel gets out and keeps an eye on the farm and her family.

“Usually I’m the one following behind to make sure everyone is accounted for,” Janel said. “At the state fair, though, I saw things I wanted to look at a little closer, so I seemed to lag behind.”

John is usually on a mission, Janel said fondly. “We were on vacation in Wisconsin and he wanted to see the world’s most-producing cow, which was a couple hours farther away,” Janel said. “They were closed, but we did get a tour of a dairy farm that was really interesting.”

John said he was blown away by the completely robotic dairy operation, especially since dairy farming is near and dear to his heart.

After graduation from the University of Missouri in 1988, John said his parents’ operation wasn’t big enough to hire him, so we traveled to southeast Missouri and found a job on a dairy farm at Cape Girardeau.

Janel was attending Southeast Missouri State University when they met. After getting married in 1991, the couple remained in the area until Janel graduated in 1993, and a year later, they moved back to the homestead.

“It was good to get away for a while, and see how things are done somewhere else,” said John, adding that the best part was meeting Janel.

John’s parents turned the dairy business over to him and his brother-in-law in 1994 when Felix decided to retire. The pair ran the business for three years, and then sold it to focus on beef cattle.

“My family has always been close, and always helped each other,” said John, who has eight sisters and three brothers. “The same is true of my wife and kids. We really enjoy what we do.”

Missouri Farm Family Day showcases the impact they have on the economy and heritage of our state.  “These families are involved in agriculture activities in their communities and are active participants in local outreach and extension,” said Missouri State Fair Director Mark Wolfe.  “As the showcase for Missouri agriculture, the Missouri State Fair is most certainly the appropriate place to celebrate these families.”