A family farm northeast of Biscay is full of history — a history of family legacies, of changes in Minnesota farming, of hard work on and off the farm, and of neighbors pitching in together.
Today, the farm is owned by Kevin and Dawn (Krcil) Hagen, the fourth continuous generation to work the family farmland. It is one of 124 farms slated to be honored this year at the Minnesota State Fair as a Century Farm. Dawn is the original family farm owner's great-granddaughter. She and Kevin operate the farm along with their children, Bethany and Kyle Hagen. They purchased it from Dawn's parents, Robert and Joyce (Guggisberg) Krcil.
"The building site and 40 acres in Hassan Valley and 40 acres in Rich Valley were bought by my grandpa (Joseph Krcil) in 1910," Robert said. "At that time, it was a farm that everyone had at that time. They had cows, pigs, chickens, corn — no soybeans — grain, oats, wheats, barley, and then alfalfa for hay for their (milk) cows. ... They did everything. And you had a garden so you could produce and survive without buying much."
Joseph and his wife Katherine (Podhrasky), passed the land on to his son Elwin Krcil, and his wife Gladys A. (Svoboda) Krcil.
To see all the work done, the family teamed up with neighbors to work as efficiently as possible.
"We had arrangements where we'd help each other," Joyce said. "A lot of people exchanged help to make farm operations work."
"They didn't have corn pickers, and they didn't have combines. So there was a threshing crew," Robert said. "My dad, when he was in the 1940s, he had a corn shredder. He went around in fall."
Then a neighbor purchased a two-row corn picker and used it to help others.
The Krcil farm had a dairy operation until Elwin's heart attack in the 1950s. That's when the farm switched entirely to crops. For about 15 years, Elwin and a neighbor grew seed corn, which was processed in Howard Lake. Soybeans began appearing in the area around 1948, Robert recalls.
This photo from 1953 shows Robert Krcil, left, helping his father Elwin in the field of their McLeod County farm that’s been in the family for 100 years.
Robert and Elwin in 1953
"My uncle bought one of the first combines so that we could grow soybeans," he said.
Over time, the operation became primarily corn and soybeans.
The farm transferred to Robert and Joyce in 1970, and finally to Dawn and Kevin in 2005. But the family's local farming history goes back even further. The Podhrasky family owned the land from around 1887 to 1903. And Anton Krcil bought another 80 acres in Rich Valley Township in 1873. That land transferred on to Anna (Krcil) Vorlicek sometime around 1914. She sold it to Elwin in 1954. The land remains in the family farm operation to this day.
Joyce recalls that at one time it was more conceivable to farm full time without extra, outside work. But it became even harder over time. She said Robert kept a full-time job outside the farm.
"It was never easy to make it farming without an extra job, because you reinvested and reinvested and reinvested," she said. "And that's true for many, many people."
The same went for Kevin and Dawn for a long time until they had enough land.
Today, Kevin and Dawn and their children farm around 900 acres. That figure includes 700 in McLeod County and 200 in Kandiyohi County that has been in Kevin's family for more than 150 years. Kevin's family's farm was registered as a sesquicentennial farm in 2015.
"I grew up on the farm in Kandiyohi County," Kevin said. "When I went to college I continued to help on the farm."
"I probably didn't help too much as a kid with actual farm work," Dawn said. "We did picking rocks and spraying beans and corn detasseling. But I didn't do the tractor driving, field work and stuff at that point. So I was a farmhand to some extent, but not like my kids are doing today."
Generations of the family have been part of local 4-H and FFA clubs. Gladys Krcil, Robert's mother, was a 4-H leader for many years with the Biscay Wheelers. Robert was a member, and a Hutchinson FFA member. Growing up on her family farm outside of Morton, Joyce was a 4-H member as well. Dawn and her three sisters — Bobbi, Kimberly and Merry-Ellen — were members of the 4-H Town & Country Club of Hutchinson. Kevin was a member of the Arctander Aces 4-H Club in Kandiyohi County, and part of FFA throughout high school. Bethany and Kyle have both been part of the Glencoe-Silver Lake FFA. Kyle has held an officer position for the past five years.
Bethany grew up picking rocks, making lunches and helping with other tasks, such as with the grain cart. Recently she learned more about tractor driving. She will attend the University of Minnesota this fall to study animal science and become a veterinarian. She is known as the caretaker of the cats and the dog on the farm.
"We had a chicken barn," Joyce said, "but it's turned into a cat house."
Kyle, a high school senior, started mowing lawn at a young age and worked his way up to the smallest tractor on the farm. Now he drives semitractor-trailer and combine for the operation.
"I see myself coming back after high school and college," said Kyle, who plans to carry on the family farm.
