Four generations of Nystroms have run century farm
Posted 8/16/02

Since 1901, the Nystrom families have been raising animals and working the land at their family farm near Foreston.

The family was recognized as a 2002 century farm by the the Minnesota State Fair and the Minnesota Farm Bureau on Friday, Aug. 9 at the Mille Lacs County Fair. The Nystroms are one of 189 Minnesota farms being recognized with an aluminum building sign and a commemorative certificate signed by the president of the State Fair and Governor Jesse Ventura.

The first Nystrom to purchase the farm was Gust Nystrom who came to the states from Sweden. Originally, Gust worked on ore boats in Superior, Wis. In 1901, Gust turned his focus to farming and purchased the log home and farm from Nels and Louisa Edman.

It's unclear as to exactly when Gust arrived in the United States, but he did make a trip back to Sweden at least one time. And when Gust returned to the states, he brought his young bride with him - Hedwig Charolotte Petterson. Gust and Hedwig had four children, but in 1896, when the youngest was just two years old, Hedwig died from typhoid fever.

Gust later married Josephina and the two grew potatoes, grain, oats and wheat. They also had livestock on the 158-acre farm, including dairy cattle.

In 1907, Gust built a larger home for his family, which stayed on the farm until 1998.

In 1920, Gust's son Alfred took over the farm. He and his wife, Emelia, had three children. The couple faced many challenges in the depression years, including drought, poor crops and low crop prices. They raised cattle (beef and dairy), pigs and chickens. Because of the lack of feed produced for the cattle, Alfred moved his herd up north to graze. Tuberculosis in the cattle and sleeping sickness in the horses took its toll on the animals and the Nystroms scaled back their farming efforts.

In 1954, Alfred and Emelia's son Lawrence was drafted and went off to Europe.When Lawrence returned from the military, he eventually took over the family farm. It was 1957.

Lawrence and his wife Betty raised mostly dairy cattle during their years on the farm. But, they also raised two children, Karen and Tim.

Over the years, Lawrence and Betty made many changes to the farm, such as adding a pole building, a new dairy barn, a machine shed, a calf barn and silos. The biggest change in farming for them was going from milk being in cans to pipeline milkers and bulk tanks.

"It was important for high quality milk," Betty said.

They became master milk producers and were able to milk anywhere from 15 to 40 cows.

Another improvement was going from small round bales to the use of a bale thrower.

In 1987, the Nystroms sold the dairy herd.

Betty, Lawrence and Tim recalled some difficult times when Tim was a child - mostly weather related.

In the 1960s, there was a snow storm which prevented the family from getting the milk to the creamery. As the milk piled up, the family gave some to the calves and some had to be dumped. According to Betty, a few area farmers even stockpiled it in their bathtubs! When Tim was in high school, there was an ice storm which left the family without electricity for three days. Having become dependent on machines doing all the milking, it was quite a project milking 25-30 cows by hand.

Milking the cows those three days was literally a full-time job.

Though he didn't expect to take over the farm, that's just what Tim did in 1992.

Though he worked at the Stearns County Extension Office for a few years, Tim decided he wanted to take over the family farm because he enjoys being self-employed.

"He likes to play," Betty added about her son's decision to farm.

The farm, which has grown to 275 acres, is now host to mostly crops. Tim and his wife Sue rent land for crops as well. They raise some beef and a little hay for their cattle, but the main focus is the 250 acres of corn and 250 acres of soybeans the family harvests for sale.

"You're also constantly fixing things," 13-year-old Andrew reminds his father.

Tim and Sue built a new home on the farm in 1996. Two years later, they sold the original house that was built in 1907 and it was moved about a mile from their farm.

Tim, the fourth generation of Nystroms to farm the property, talked about the differences between the family farm of today and that of years past.

Sue works at the Foley school in special education and Tim says that is one main difference.

"Sue has to work outside the home, whereas my mother worked on the farm," Tim added.

He also cites the fact that the prices for grain, milk and meat have stayed low compared to the cost of living increases.

"We spend a small percentage of our income on food, compared to other countries," Tim said.

"A lot of people moving into the area will be hobby farmers. What I mean by that is, both [husband and wife] will work full-time off the farm.

Otherwise, they'll have to have 300-500 cattle or be a large acre farm," Tim said of the future of the family farm.

Will there be a fifth generation of Nystroms farming the property? Neither Andrew nor his 11-year-old sister, Kathy, know the answer to that yet. Only time will tell.