Want to purchase today’s print edition? Here’s a map of single-copy locations.
It’s the people you work with who make farming memorable, and when you’re part of a farm family operation, the relationships become even closer. That’s evident from talking with Linda Lee Drozt, part of our Farm Family of the Week.
How long has your family been farming?
My father’s (Kent Lee) family has been farming in the Homer area since the 1880s and in the Pesotum area before that.
My mother (Marilyn Lee) grew up on a dairy farm in east-central Minnesota. My husband’s grandfather raised cattle in northern Wisconsin after he retired from being a diesel mechanic in Chicago.
My husband, Larry, and I have been operating the farm since we returned from Oregon in 2008. Our son, George, is helping out around the farmstead now, too.
Where is your farm operation?
Homer, both Champaign and Vermilion counties.
How and why did your family come to this area, and where did they come from?
The Lee family ancestors came from Kentucky to Champaign County in the 1850s to farm.
What does your farming operation consist of? Is it strictly a grain operation, or do you also have livestock?
We grow corn and soybeans. My father and his parents sold the last of the livestock in the late 1950s. He missed the cattle but was not sad to see the chickens go.
How many people in the family does the operation support?
It supports my mother and our family.
Do you have any members of the family in the farm operation also working other jobs?
Yes, I am the director of the Office of Research Security at the University of Illinois. I use my vacation days to have fun on the farm. As of this spring, my husband works full time at the farm. He worked at Shaff Implement in rural Urbana before that.
How have you seen farming change over the years?
Everything is bigger, except the number of farmers.
Your farm equipment: Green (John Deere), red (Case IH) or other?
Our cousin, Keith Kilian, correctly points out that the best color tractor is the one that’s fully paid for. That being said, we have mostly Case IH/CNH products.
What makes farming such a good vocation?
It’s the same as any other work; people make great jobs even better. We’ve worked with so many wonderful people — family and friends — over the years. My earliest farming memory is being with my aunt Paulette Brock in the old grain trucks waiting for the next load of corn. She never came to work during harvest without a stack of newspapers and a bag of apples.
When I was growing up, Larry Baird and Wayne Lutz drove trucks for my father. Both were kindhearted and didn’t tease me for overfilling the truck and spilling grain as I was learning.
Our neighbor, Mary Childers, became an excellent combine driver after my father stepped back from farming. When she wasn’t combining, she was babysitting George so that Larry and I could work weekends. Countless others worked with my father and grandfather.
We wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun without them.
What’s the best time of year to be on the farm?
Spring and the excitement of another year, another chance, another lesson.
What soil conservation practices do you employ on your farm?
My father started no-tilling in the mid-’80s. We continue that today.
Please list other areas of interest your family is involved in.
Our family enjoys exploring the outdoors. We are working our way through the national parks and looking forward to George’s Every Kid Outdoors pass that he will get in fourth grade.
