As many farmers know, working with family can at times be fraught with disagreement and tension. Maybe Dad doesn’t want to give up the reins, or a boisterous brother makes life difficult. Fortunately, such scenarios aren’t a problem for the Lindstrom family. The two Lindstrom brothers – Brandon, 38, and Erik, 36 – each manage different aspects of their 3200-acre farm near Amenia, North Dakota (just a bit northwest of Fargo) according to their strengths and mutual trust.

THAT ISN’T TO SAY THEIR PATH HAS BEEN COMPLETELY FREE OF HARDSHIP…

Life is an uncertain journey, and every farm has its challenges. Even the prospect of farm succession wasn’t always clear, as their father, Pete, never wanted to impose a specific career onto his children, opting instead to let them find their own way. That said, the boys certainly enjoyed their rural upbringing.

“The farm is a great place to be a kid,” Erik said. “I might not have always been the best farm kid, learning from Dad, but I was always outside. My first farm job was doing a lot of lawnmowing.”

“It was really nice to just be able to go outside and do what you wanted,” Brandon added. “We always had a sense of something to do. If we weren’t playing, you could always help Dad out with something on the farm, whether it was in the field or in the shop. It was a busy life, but it was good.”

As they grew older and started contemplating their careers, the brothers initially held different outlooks on what they wanted to do for a living.

After all, farm life isn’t necessarily for everyone. Brandon especially noticed how the uncertainty inherent to farming affected his father, so he initially went to South Dakota State University to study pharmacy.

“Growing up, I always remember Dad being worried all the time,” he said. “He was a chronic worrier. If it didn’t rain, if it rained too much, he was always uptight about things like that. After graduating high school, I always said I didn’t want my income to depend on the weather because I saw how much dad stressed every time it rained or didn’t. I wanted something with more stability. I figured pharmacists made good money and don’t depend on the weather.”

Eventually, Brandon took economics classes, graduating in 2009 with a degree in economics and political science with plans for graduate school. On the other hand, as Erik neared his senior year in high school, he realized farm life is what he desired most.

“It got to the point where I decided I should probably do something with my life,” he said. “You think you’ll leave and do big things, but then you realize that’s not what you really want and you maybe took what you had on the farm a bit for granted. I can still remember the moment I understood that. It was at sunset of a gorgeous 70-degree day on the farm. I knew then I’d go crazy if I had to sit at a desk in a cubicle.”

First, however, he wanted to expand his knowledge. Like his brother, he also crossed his state’s southern border to attend SDSU; unlike his brother, he went to study agriculture to learn new ways to improve the family farm.

Regardless of their paths, their father remained supportive of their choices, and the brothers appreciate how he never made them feel pressured to select one career path over another.

“Dad never said, ‘You have to be farmers!’” Erik said. “He wanted us to explore every possibility of what we wanted to do.”

While attending school, both young men would regularly return home to help. For Brandon, though, those trips home led to a change in his outlook. Although he had a mind and passion for business and economics, his continued involvement back home brought him to the realization that he, too, didn’t want to leave rural life behind.

“I just kept taking vacation time to help Erik and Dad,” he said. “I had such a good time with it, I figured I could do it all the time and bring my knowledge to the table. So, that’s what I put on my resume to Erik and Dad – my business knowledge to contribute to the farm.”

SO, IN 2013, ALL THREE MEN WERE REUNITED ON THE FARM AS FULL-TIME PARTNERS.

And just as before when Brandon and Erik were figuring out their life paths, Pete remained patient and open while being highly collaborative while bringing the brothers into the fold.

“I don’t know how it is in a lot of farm operations, but we worked really well with our dad,” Brandon said. “He wasn’t stubborn and set in his ways like a lot of farmers are. He was very open in making decisions. We were fortunate in that way. It was pretty low-key.”

For Erik, although he had his college ag education, he felt his lack of applied experience in the field didn’t qualify him for the level of trust his father bestowed upon him.

“He was always immediately ready for us to be equals on the farm with him,” Erik said. “I struggled to let that happen at first.”

But his father’s patience and understanding won out. Erik recalls feeling a bit like a fish out of water, especially in his first spring working at home. Pete asked him to go out and scout a field to see if it was ready for planting; however, Erik didn’t yet understand how to tell if the ground was fit.

“I came back from the field and told him I had no idea,” he said. “There’s book smarts, and then there’s, ‘What does that dirt actually feel like?’ Dad came out to the field and showed me what to do.”

“There’s lots of little things like that,” Brandon said. “You’re always, always learning, and sometimes you need somebody with the experience to show you what the books can’t. That’s the nature of farming.”

Despite moments like this, both brothers were able to leverage their knowledge to improve the farm in their own ways. For example, Erik was able to study the family’s planter and show how upgrading would be a good investment; Brandon excelled in the business management side. When the farm pivoted to a greater focus on corn, all three Lindstroms worked together to find ways to raise better crops and make drastic improvements in their yields.

“Working with our dad was pleasant, and we miss having him around,” Brandon said.

Unfortunately, their three-way partnership was not destined to last as long as they’d hoped. During Christmas week of 2018, Pete seemed out of sorts during a family dinner, which led to the discovery of a glioblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor. Pete began treatment and was given six months to live. On top of that bad news, Brandon and Erik had their most difficult year of farming, regardless of the circumstances. 2019 was a cold and extremely wet year, so the Lindstroms’ corn was unable to ripen in time for winter. So, before they could get bank funding and planting for 2020, they still had to finish the 2019 harvest.

“That was definitely a trial by fire,” Brandon said. “It wasn’t fun trying to explain to the banker that we had the corn, it was just ripening out in storage (in the field). It was one of those years where if you could farm through that, you could farm through anything.”

Fortunately, during this time, their dad remained lucid and could give input on how to deal with issues. They took advantage of this fact and asked him more general questions about how to deal with the tough years, since he’d successfully farmed through the 1980s.

The two big takeaways were: don’t spend money; and never be the first person to try something, but be second in line to try it when it works for someone else.

“I agree with the first point somewhat, but sometimes you have to spend money to make money,” Brandon said. “The second point is where Dad was different from other farmers. He was always willing to try new things and recognizing when something doesn’t work so you don’t waste more time on it.”

“Dad was always pretty good at adopting new technologies for an older guy,” Erik added.

Pete passed away in 2021 at the age of 62…

Following his passing, Brandon and Erik continue to work to build their farming operation, expanding their use of new technologies while removing yield-limiting factors one step at a time in an effort to control what they can.

They’ve updated equipment, tiled their ground, and now are turning their efforts toward variable rate planting and fertility by using tools like the VRAFY platform and soil sampling in small, GPS marked, repeatable grids.

“We’ve really focused on improving our technology,” Brandon said. “We’ve experimented a bunch with populations and fine-tuned that so in times of lower crop prices, we can minimize costs without hurting yield. This technology doesn’t cost much on a per acre basis to improve the job we’re doing. Variable planting populations has been huge, and we’re doing the same with fertilizer. Even if our bill is the same or a little lower, and we’re being more efficient. No spot is wanting for anything.”

On the crop protection front, the Lindstroms have appreciated working with Jordan Swanson, their local Hefty Agronomist from the store in nearby Casselton.

“One thing I’ve learned in business is if you’re not great at something, find someone who is,” Brandon said. “The most important thing is putting together a good team for your farm. Hefty’s is a big part of that from the agronomy standpoint, and it feels almost like having an agronomist on staff. What impresses me most about Hefty’s is they just try to make you a better farmer. Yeah, they’ll make some money off that, but their focus is making you a better farmer, and in return you’ll be a better customer. Their attitude is making your operation successful.”

“If we’ve got a weed we need to kill, Jordan will know an option and will try to do it at the most affordable price. He’s really good at finding ways to kill things at a decent price point. Our previous supplier was giving us advice that actually hurt our crop. Not only did Jordan tell us a better way, but he could tell us why mistakes were being made. It was really his knowledge that won us over. He takes a lot of time to help out with a lot of issues that come up over the course of the year.”

After seeing Jordan’s approach, Brandon and Erik have also expanded their knowledge by attending numerous Ag PhD events like the Field Day and soils seminars, plus they like to catch Brian and Darren’s Ag PhD Radio Show via podcast, as they can listen in anytime and go back several years to reference information.

FOR THE LINDSTROMS, ALL OF THEIR EFFORTS TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND IMPROVE THE FARM ARE PAYING OFF.

In 2024, they set a new farm average yield record, surpassing the previous record made prior to Pete passing away. As they work together to move forward and build upon his legacy, they look forward to continue adopting new technologies and utilizing the resources they can to take their operation forward.

“Hopefully, we’re doing the right things, as opposed to going backwards not having Dad’s advice and help,” Brandon said. “The goal is to always be improving.”

“I think he’d be proud of the work we’ve done,” Erik said. “But we need to be ready for anything going forward. I don’t know what technology is coming next but we’re going to meet it.”