Fifty six years ago, Reggie and Norma Jean Dowell began to carve out a family and farm in the fertile soils of northern Menard County, with a romance that started as high school sweethearts.

“I don’t know why Norma Jean ever went with me – she was the prize of the high school!” Reggie laughs, looking back on their early days at Greenview High School.

Norma Jean doesn’t miss a beat. “I was a farm girl, and I thought he was going to be a smart farmer.”

BUCK STOPS HERE: Reggie Dowell says he learned early on, “I was the only person in charge of what I accomplished or didn’t accomplish.”

Turns out, she was right. Over those 56 years, they’ve built a farm business together, brought their son into the operation, started and sold a seed corn company and given back to their community, earning themselves the 2016 Prairie Farmer Master Farmer award.

Love of the land

The Dowells began farming gradually during the 1960s, working first for Reggie’s father, then as partners with him. When he died in 1967, Reggie and Norma Jean were able to buy the farm from Reggie’s siblings. They began with 380 acres; today they farm just over 5,300 acres in partnership with their son, David. And while they’re no longer in the hog business, having retired their farrow-to-finish hog operation in 1998, they’re remodeling an old confinement building to finish cattle and will soon be in the cattle finishing business.

Any conversation with Reggie and Norma Jean is peppered with two consistencies: love for the land, and gratitude for the people around them.

“We have a love of the land and the people,” Norma Jean says. “You’re not just working for yourself, you’re working for the people, too.”

TEAMWORK: “Our best accomplishment was that we created and kept a stable family,” say Reggie and Norma Jean Dowell. The Greenview farmers live by the following, too: “Work hard and be honest. And be kind.”

The Dowells work with 21 different landlords, and Norma Jean handles most of those relations, even renting ground. Her mission at home is to keep their hilltop farm in tip-top shape, which means a neatly manicured yard and gardens, miles of white fence and well-maintained farmstead. It’s paid off, particularly when one potential landlord wheeled into the farm one day during the ‘70s.

“Norma Jean and the kids were in the yard, riding a pony and just doing what they did,” Reggie recalls. “But she liked that and said, ‘I want you to make my farm look like yours.’”

That deal led to a relationship that led to more farming opportunities, including a farm in McLean County, back when “people didn’t really travel that far to farm,” Reggie notes.

Reggie is quick to credit the people around him for his success. “We’ve been really, really fortunate to have so many people give us the opportunity, and they’ve stayed with us all these years. A lot of people have helped us along the way and we have the best employees.”

Dowells employ three full- and part-time farm employees, and Reggie says the best advice his dad ever gave him was to never ask anybody to do something you haven’t already done yourself.

“Never!” he emphasizes.

The Dowells have given large responsibilities to their employees, who run the planter and combine, and Reggie says everyone knows at any given time how the farm is doing financially, made easier with FBFM records.

“It’s their business,” Reggie says. “It’s not just our business. They’re working with us.”

Taking chances

For grain marketing, Dowells use futures, options, cash forward pricing and some spot pricing. Son David worked as a merchandiser at the Chicago Board of Trade before returning to the farm, and still trades commodities. “We try not to be in a position which is permanent until we have the commodity in our control,” says Reggie of their marketing strategy.

The Dowells emphasis on land and people hasn’t gone unnoticed. “In the community of neighboring and area farmers, many times as I was discussing the year’s farm plans with my tenants and other farmers, I was asked if I knew what Reggie Dowell was doing and how it was working,” says Heartland Ag Group farm manager Ernie Moody. “To say his experience and knowledge were and are highly regarded by area farmers would be an understatement.”

When opportunity knocks, the Dowells have answered, including taking on Horizon Genetics seed corn business in 1998. “The things you do wrong won’t hurt you near as bad as the things you don’t do,” Norma Jean reflects.

Timing was right too; Horizon Genetics dovetailed nicely with their exit from the hog business, and with their son David’s growing management of the farm. With investment partners, Reggie managed Horizon until they sold the business to Steyer Seeds in 2010. He learned a lot about sales along the way.

“I didn’t think I’d want to be a salesperson, but I realized I’d been one all my life,” Reggie says. “Some people think selling is telling someone why they need something. But you have to be honest, hard-working and have a good product that someone needs. And prove you can service it better than someone else.”

“It’s very similar to farming,” he adds.

Check out complete profiles of each of the 2016 Prairie Farmer Master Farmers.

Mark and Karen DeDecker, Henry County

Reggie and Norma Jean Dowell, Menard County

Ron and Julie Lawfer, Jo Daviess County

Bill and Brenda Raben, Gallatin County