Farming family familiar with fresh starts

By Emily Hamlin

Winnebago-Boone Farm Bureau Ag Communications Intern

CALEDONIA – Curt Greenlee of Caledonia knows the term “fresh start” all too well. The Greenlee family farm has been in the family for seven generations. The original property, located on highway 173 across from Rock Cut State Park, was purchased in 1853.

However, that property has been displaced by development. The land that the Greenlee family had established on was bought from them and they were forced to find land in other areas.

“For the last 20 years that we lived there we knew we were close to town and the writing was on the wall. We always knew it would happen” Greenlee said.

They knew they couldn’t make any moves towards expanding because of the situation they were put in.

“We continued to feed cattle,” Greenlee said, “but didn’t put a lot of money into the infrastructure because we knew our time was limited in those places. We just kept on plugging along. It was small and outdated but we couldn’t justify putting a lot of money into it if we weren’t going to be around much longer.”

The state widened Highway 173 and used eminent domain on the Greenlee property. “I remember my wife and daughter were at the house and they came in one day to seal our well. We knew our time was getting close but we didn’t know it was going to happen that day,” Greenlee said.

“My wife hurried up and ran water. She filled up what she could inside the house but they didn’t give us any warning.”

Greenlee’s family stayed there as long as they could but was eventually forced out and had to rent an apartment in Rockford. He ended up buying land from his father to try and start the farmstead over.

Within the last eight years of living on their new property, five miles away from their original property, the Greenlees have built a new house and two machine sheds to store their equipment.

“We came from a typical farmstead, whether or not we will ever put a grain set up or start feeding cattle again, I don’t know,” Greenlee said. “As of now, I don’t have any intention of that.”

Despite the move, the Greenlees have not down sized their amount of farmland at all. They actually farm a little more than what they did in the past. Curt and his family have overcome some of the biggest struggles a farmer can face.

However, they still stay true to the ideas and purposes of their descendants, those that farmed long before them: to be the best producers they can be.