By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

ROCHESTER, Ind. — With more than 8,000 acres under cultivation, Dale Smith doesn’t think Smith Family Farms is the biggest in Fulton County, but he likes to believe it’s the best.

Not only the best – but also, that he is the luckiest farmer in the county because his operation now includes three generations of his family.

The 70-year-old patriarch attributes that success to a willingness to promote growth without adding acreage.

“It’s called being open to change,” he said.

 “I started farming on 60 acres in LaPorte County 52 years ago.
We were getting 60 bushels of corn per acre – until we started applying nitrogen and increased our yield by 50 percent.”

Stepping out on faith, he and his wife, Millie, sold the LaPorte County land and moved to a rented farm in Fulton County with their sons, Dave and Kevin, and daughter, Sandy. In 1972, they purchased 320 acres west of Rochester and began accumulating
land while continuing to live on the rented farm.

When their oldest son, Dave, married and decided to join the operation, they built a home on the 320 acres and the younger couple moved into the rental property. Still, the Smiths were concerned if the operation could support two families. That’s when they installed an irrigation system that upped corn production by 100 bushels per acre.

“We’re fortunate to be sitting directly over an underground river,” Dale Smith said. “It’s like being on a flowing well.”

As the nature of the farm changed, so did its production. The Smiths eventually phased out their hogs and cattle to allow time to develop specialty crops that have included green beans, tomatoes, pickles, navy beans, melons and sweet corn, in addition to the farm’s staples of commercial and seed corn, soybeans and potatoes.

Current plans call for adding a blueberry patch.

By the time Kevin was tired of trucking and decided to join the family farm, land prices had soared nearly 300 percent, causing the family to make more changes without adding acreage. They began growing hybrid seed corn, grid sampling and working by satellite.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) helps the Smiths control
seeding rates and enables them to save money by matching fertilizer needs to yield potential. GPS also guides sprayers through the fields with auto steering to prevent overlapping and skipping.

A computerized moisture-control system on their grain dryers allows them to store grain at the proper moisture level.

“Kevin does all our computer work and mapping,” Dale said, ticking off the way in which each member of his family has developed his or her specialty that continues to enable the farm to support three families.

Kevin also handles equipment repair, crop planting, seed corn production and harvest planning.

Dave purchases machinery and supplies, does all the spraying and helps oversee a team of non-family members who help in the daily operation.

Dale, jokingly referred to as “the Big Kahuna” by his sons, remains active, as does Millie, who continues to do all the accounting.
She and her daughters-in-law, Melana and Chris, cook for the men, help with record-keeping and often operate machinery.

Dave and his family continue to live on what once was a rented farm but is now part of Smith Family Farms, while Kevin and his family live next door to Dale and Millie.

Daughter Sandy, a former county official, and her family now live in Kentucky and are not associated with the family farm.

When a fire destroyed Dale and Millie’s home last May, the insurance company moved in a three-bedroom mobile home that served as their combination home and office until their new home was completed in November.

“We saved one year’s records and operated like always,” Millie said.

All members of Smith Family Farms have hobbies.

Dave flies a powered parachute that he uses to do crop scouting,
Kevin runs a pulling tractor and Dale collects antique tractors.

Still, while Dave and Kevin encourage their children’s motorcycle and three-wheeler racing, they are raising them much as they were raised – with a strong work ethic and an eye to future change that will permit some of those youngsters to join the family operation without adding more acreage.