Southeast Iowa farm has been in the Sander family of Lee County since 1924.

There will be a lot of excited families at the 2024 Heritage and Century Farm Award ceremony at the Iowa State Fair Aug. 15, but maybe none more excited than John Sander of Lee County.

“Dad told me even if we have to wheel him across the stage in a hospital bed, he’s going to be there to get his Century Farm plaque,” John’s daughter, Paula Ellis, said last week.

At 85, John was born a few years after his dad bought the farm in 1924. The younger of two boys born to Carl and Bertha Sander, John and his brother, Wayne, farmed together for many years after their father’s death in the 1950s.

A steadying force

John’s story, like the land he lived on most of his life, focused on being a steadying force through adaptation for his family and a provider that has sustained them in good times and in bad.

He said he started farming “as soon as I could walk. Well, not quite, but pretty close.”

In the 1940s, the Sander family raised and milked dairy cows and cropped on 160 acres, mostly for animal feed.

One of the earliest memories John shared was from 1943, when he was 4 years old. That’s when his dad brought home their first tractor, a Farmall H. “I remember just running around it. I was so excited,” he said.

In 1948, the farm got electricity, another big milestone that sticks out to John.

“We were milking cows by hand at that time. Mostly, my dad and older brother would do the milking,” John said. “(When we got electricity on the farm) I was nine, and I thought I was going to start milking cows like my dad. I kept begging and pleading with him to let me milk a cow. So he did, but you know, as a kid I didn’t have those muscles like I thought I would have. It was hard work; I think that was my first real job.”

Growing the business

He said in the late 1950s, they built a milking parlor with an eye to expanding their dairy operation. Unfortunately, the dairy didn’t cash flow like John and Wayne hoped, and by the early 1970s, they had sold off the last of their Jerseys.

In 1968, the Sander brothers bought another 200 acres to start feeding out beef cattle. From there, they moved into raising cow-calf pairs for many years.

John and Sharon Sander had two daughters, Paula and Lori. Wayne was a bachelor and had no children.

The next generation

Paula officially joined the farming operation in the late 1990s. Like her dad, she was involved from the time she could walk.  

“I remember when (she) was young, maybe 3 or 4, and the big problem at that time was cutworms in corn,” John said. “So we’d go out and look at the corn fields, and she’d be running around me yelling, ‘Cutworm alert! Cutworm alert!’ I remember that very well.”

In 1993, while in high school, Paula leased and started farming land from a neighbor through the Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) program as an FFA project.

She joined the farm full-time in 2000, a few months after she and Jeff Ellis married in 1999. Eventually, John started thinking about retirement. That gave Jeff the opportunity to work full-time on the farm alongside Paula after several years of splitting time at the farm and Pioneer Seeds.

Farm Bureau family

In addition to farming together for 20 years, John and Paula have each spent time on the Lee County Farm Bureau board. For a few years, John was president of the board while Paula served as vice president.

She said she thinks some of the other board members were concerned about the leadership being held in the same family. “But if you actually know us, you know we don’t always see eye-to-eye,” Paula said. “I think they got the best of both worlds with both of us on the board.”

And following John’s tenure as president, Paula served as president, making one more common thread through their lives.

In 2008, Paula and Jeff received the Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer Achievement Award, an honor she’s particularly proud of.

“Farm Bureau has been a great organization to be part of,” she said. “We’ve had the chance to meet a lot of people and make some great friends. Dad feels the same way, he still talks to people he met years ago as part of Farm Bureau.”

Sander farm

Paula and her family now live at the home place, including her husband of 25 years, Jeff, and their youngest son, Parker. Josh, their oldest, lives off the farm and works for Becks Hybrids, but is usually around at harvest time, driving grain trucks. Parker, who is in high school, helps out when and where he can.

They no longer keep livestock for commercial sale, but between the goats and chickens, along with a few FFA animals, there is usually something wandering around the yard at the Sander farm.

Lori Sander, Paula’s sister, and Lori’s daughter are also part of the farm partnership but aren’t involved in the day-to-day operation.  

Paula and Jeff are both focused on conservation efforts on their land. John started no-till on a portion of the farm in the 1980s. 

“There are some parts of the farm that have never been tilled,” Paula noted with pride. 

Jeff said last year, “We’ve used cover crops and no-till and used precision equipment to apply nutrients only when and where needed. We’ve also reduced tillage and take soil samples to know what our crop’s needs are to apply more precisely.

“We originally started planting cover crops to control erosion on some of our hilly ground.” 

Since then, Jeff’s noticed significant improvements in soil health, leading to better soil structure, improved water infiltration and higher yields.

Pictured above:  The Sander farm was established in 1924. The barn was original to the property and still stands today. This photo was taken in 1925 after 4 inches of snow had fallen and shows Carl Sander at left. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED


Century Farm celebration

The plan is for the whole family to be at the fair to receive the Century Farm plaque.

Sharon, Paula’s mom, passed away unexpectedly in 2020. “We know she’ll be there with us, just in spirit,” Paula said.

Paula said she has a lot of pride in what her family has accomplished in the last 100 years.

“I’m proud to say the original barn is still here from when we bought the farm,” she said.

As for John, Paula said no matter what, he will be at the fair on Aug. 15. “We’re going to get him in there and let him soak it all in.”

The Century Farm program, honoring families who have owned their farm for 100 years or more, began in 1976. The Heritage Farm program, recognizing 150 years of ownership, started in 2006. Both awards are sponsored by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Iowa Farm Bureau. 

This year, the organizations will present 277 Century and 162 Heritage Farm awards during a ceremony at the Iowa State Fair. To date, more than 21,000 Century Farms and 1,800 Heritage Farms have been recognized across Iowa.