BLACKFOOT, IDAHO
Three generations of financing with Farm Credit and 80 years of farming later, this family is just getting started.
In 1937, just three years after Idaho AgCredit opened its doors in southeast Idaho, the late Thain and Helen Evans, obtained their first loan from Idaho AgCredit for $750 to purchase a few milk cows and some chickens. Their son, Dean Evans said, “Each morning mom would go out and gather eggs and go around and sell them to the locals and in town and dad would milk the cows, that’s how they put food on the table for us kids.”
Blackfoot
In 1947 the Evans family moved from Malad to Blackfoot where they resumed milking cows and began row-crop farming in the Wapello area as Idaho AgCredit customers in the Blackfoot office. Dean and his wife Janet followed in his parent’s footsteps by beginning their own farming operation in the Blackfoot area and obtaining their first loan from Idaho AgCredit in 1978 and have been members/borrowers continuously since then. Dean and Janet, along with their three sons and one daughter, have worked together to build their operation to a sustainable size.
In 2000, their oldest son and his wife, Gary and Mary Lynn began farming then three years later his second son and his wife, Blaine and Kayla joined Gary and Mary Lynn and began their joint operation in the Blackfoot area. In 2005 Dean’s youngest son and his wife, Doug and Julie joined the family tradition and began farming on their own in the Wapello area. A few years later the kids joined their two operations and have been farming together and financing with Idaho AgCredit ever since.
Rockford
The family is well diversified when it comes to growing crops: they produce potatoes, sugar beets and wheat, with an occasional rotation of barley. They are well-known for their sugar beet growing capabilities and have been named top producers several times. A few years back the boys had an opportunity to expand their land base west of Blackfoot into the Rockford area, purchasing their first farm and growing their operation to over 2,800 acres and in 2015 Dean expanded his operation to the Rockford area as well to over 650 acres.
Looking to the Future
When asked what their future plans are for their operations they stated, “We plan to maintain our current size and crops, but transition more of our rented ground to owned ground.” This 3rd generation farming operation prides itself on the fact that they are all involved from Grandpa Dean driving a tractor, the wives driving harvest truck, to any one of the 16 grandchildren moving pipe. It takes the whole family to make their operations successful and to keep it going on to the fourth generation.
Doug commented on their borrowing relationship with Idaho AgCredit, “We have never dealt with anyone else. Idaho AgCredit is always open to new ideas; they have financed us even though most of our ground was rented which is pretty risky. And they have continued to finance us during difficult times.” Their conservative management, excellent work ethic and extensive production knowledge combined with the reliable financing options of Idaho AgCredit have been good combinations for 80 years and counting.
