Farms.com Home   News

Change to student aid formula would hit Iowa farm families

Darcy and Eric Wemark and their family milk nearly 600 cows at their dairy operation in Ridgeway, near Decorah in northeast Iowa.

The family also has 450 heifers, a 2,500-head swine facility and farms about 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans on land it mostly rents.

The couple’s eldest son, Carson, is finishing his first year at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, where he’s studying agronomy. The 19-year-old plans to carry on in the family business, as does their eldest daughter, Addison. The high school senior plans to head to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to study dairy science next fall.

Carson currently receives federal financial aid through a Pell Grant to help the family pay for the roughly $16,000 annual expense to send him to college, including tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses.

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Legacies of the Land - Episode 2 - Riney Dairy

Video: Legacies of the Land - Episode 2 - Riney Dairy

"After doing all the research and seeing that I'm the 10th generation to farm in central Kentucky, it really opened my eyes to the legacy that we have here." — John Riney

Watch the Riney family's story in AGCO's #LandLegacies series.

Ten generations on the same piece of Kentucky land — and a legacy of family, faith and dairy farming passed from one to the next. In this episode of Legacies of the Land, the Riney family shares what it takes to keep a multi-generational farm going, and why the work still matters.