Merle and Jean Kaiser are the fourth generation to farm the land that has been in the family for more than a century, and they are the third generation to earn the status of Master Farmer/Master Farm Homemaker.

Both Merle and Jean grew up on farms near Paola in Miami County but attended different schools and participated in different 4-H clubs.

They met after high school graduation and were married in 1970.

For the first six years of their marriage, they lived in Manhattan, where he ran an asphalt plant and she worked at a local bank. In 1976, with their first child on the way, they decided they wanted to return to the farm.

"The years of growing up on a farm and being active in a 4-H club instilled in us a strong work ethic as well as teaching us to make working fun. We are in agreement that the family farm is a great place to raise a family." Jean says.

Merle went to work for the family farm partnership, milking cows at his Uncle Ed's dairy. Together, with the help of family, they built their ranch-style brick home, and Jean settled in to be a stay-at-home mom to first Kathy in 1976, then Kelly in 1979, until both were in school.

Their farming operation has centered more on livestock than on crops. They have 100 head of beef cows, about 40 calves and stockers, and 40 head of finished feeders.

"We keep steers and feed them out to sell as beef," Merle says. "We have a lot of repeat customers."

Merle says they have gotten out of growing wheat with the recent severe market downturn.

"This really isn't wheat country anyway," he says. "And we always found ourselves in the position of needing to be doing hay in the middle of the summer when harvest rolled around."

They pride themselves on their conservation efforts and received the County Farm Bureau Natural Resources Award in 2007.

FARM PRIDE: Merle and Jean Kaiser have marked their century farm with a limestone post and sign.

One thing they will miss about raising wheat, however, is the value-added enterprise of having small square bales of straw to sell to neighbors and area businesses.

The Kaisers pride themselves on being able to take advantage of opportunity in whatever form when it knocks.

For example, they purchased a train wreck — literally — hauling home five boxcars, two hopper cars and a tanker.

They built the equipment to move the cars, sold the tanker to a neighbor, stored grain and soybean meal in the hopper cars, used three box cars for storage and dismantled two of them to build a shed for machine storage.

"All of the axles and other train car parts were sold to a train car salvage company to pay for the project," Jean says.

About 30 years ago, they bought another old hopper car and mounted it on a platform 9 feet in the air to allow them to back under it with the fertilizer spreader.

"That allows us to purchase fertilizer by the semiload at a reduced price and lower our input costs," Merle says.

Merle has capitalized on his training in small engine repair to build a well-equipped farm shop from which he provides repair services for neighbors and other area farmers. He also does some custom harvesting work for neighbors.

Never one to let equipment go to waste, Merle and Kelly undertook a project to make their own biodiesel fuel from used cooking oil, using the equipment from the dairy operation they closed down in 1997 to process and store the fuel.

"We can make our own diesel fuel for about 70 cents a gallon, a substantial savings over buying it in town," he says.

They deeded each of their children a 20-acre tract of land. Their daughter and son-in-law built a house on that land and are working to build up a purebred Angus herd. They wanted to buy more land, and their parents sold them an 87-acre tract that had been in Jean's family since 1953.

Kelly is also starting a farming enterprise with 40 acres of owned land and 50 acres that he rents. He rented an additional 40 acres that was overrun with brush with an agreement that clearing away the brush would pay the rent.

Merle says his advice to any young couple starting out would be rooted in memories of his hard-scrabble start in the 1980s.

"Don't be too proud to ask for help," he says. "Work hard and don't ever give up."

Sometimes, he says, answers can be found in unexpected places. He cited the example of his grandfather, Edward Kaiser, who was purchasing the original farmstead from his dad in the "dirty" 30s.

"After he lost his corn crop, he decided to plant popcorn and try selling it. He made enough to make a payment on the farm," Merle says. "The popcorn stalks provided feed for the dairy cow and the pigs."

You have to just keep trying different things, turning to something new when what you are doing isn't working, he says.

Click on the following links to read the other Master Farmer stories: 90 years later, Barker family, Felbush family, Minnix family, Reinhardt/DeGeer family and Tipton family.