^«;> 



I at 

 s a 



>RD 



Henry Opfer - Farmer 



\J^^ HE wave of immigration that 



— '^^ swept westward three-quarters 

 ^^ of a century or more ago brought 

 to Southern lUinois thousands of settlers 

 from Germany — men and women who 

 had always lived on the soil, who under- 

 stood its culture and management. 



Throughout the St. Louis fluid milk 

 marketing area, you will find descendants 

 of these sturdy and thrifty settlers today 

 making a good living on land that others 

 deserted or passed by for the more fertile 

 acres west of the Mississippi. 



You can travel mile after mile, for 

 example, in Fayette county, Illinois and 

 find comfortable homes, good buildings, 

 thriving crops and livestock on the light 

 grey silt loam soils common to this re- 

 gion. It was on such land that Farm 

 Bureau member Henry Opfer was born 

 in a log cabin 62 years ago in Wilberton 

 township, in the southwest corner of 

 Fayette county — a few miles east of 

 St. Peter. 



Henry's father settled originally in 

 nearby Washington county, coming from 

 the old country in I860. He bought the 

 farm on which his son Henry and family 

 now reside, shortly after the dose of the 

 Civil War — 1865 — and moved on it 

 two years later. Not until 1880 did the 

 growing family feel that it was sufficient- 

 ly well off to forsake the log house and 

 build the present comfortable home out 

 of finished lumber. 



Henry Opfer, short, stocky, and blue- 

 eyed with a short cropped mustache is 

 one of Fayette county's successful farm- 

 ers although he would be the last to make 

 such a claim. It was a cold wintry day 

 when we stopped to see him. But Henry 

 was out working as usual clad only in a 

 light sweater and jacket — spreading 

 manure on alfalfa stubble. Hard of 

 hearing, he listened closely to catch the 

 questions that unfolded the story of his 

 life work as a farmer. 



One of the first in his community to 

 try limestone — that explains in part his 

 success — Mr. Opfer told how 23 years 

 ago a state employee from the prison at 

 Menard, stopped at the farm one day. 

 He was looking for an outlet for agri- 

 cultural limestone from the prison quarry. 

 He persuaded Opfer to try a carload. 

 It cost 99 cents a ton delivered at St. 

 Peter. The limestone was applied on 

 wheat ground early in the fall. The fol- 

 lowing spring the field was sowed to 

 red clover. 



MARCa 1937 



A New Member Who Believes In The Farm Bureau As A 

 Permanent Institution For Helping Fayette County Fcamers 



MRS. HENRY OPFER 

 "Her co-oparation figured !n the final 

 result." 



He as well as his neighbors were as- 

 tonished when the red clover on the 

 limed soil turned out 21^ tons to the 

 acre. "Everyone asked how I did it," 

 said Opfer. "I told them it was the 

 limestone." 



A few years later he bought three car- 

 loads more. And while he admits that 

 he might have used more limestone with 

 profit, today you will find alfalfa, red 

 clover and sweet clover growing on 

 limed soil all around the Opfer farm. 

 These crops figure most importantly in 

 turning a profit from the rotation of 

 com, wheat, rye, oats, cow peas, and soy- 

 beans on the 337 acres operated by Henry 

 and his sons Carl and Elmer. 



In growing sweet clover as a soil im- 

 provement crop Henry Opfer doesn't 

 follow the practice sometimes recom- 

 mended of plowing under the new 

 growth in the spring for corn. He likes 

 to leave the sweet clover down in pasture, 

 or for seed, and turn it under in the 

 fall. "This system has two advantages," 

 he said. "We often get a seed crop and 

 it rests the soil. We get better corn and 

 wheat crops this way." 



This year a sweet clover seed crop was 

 taken from 26 acres. The seed was 

 whipped out with an old binder rigged 

 up under the direction of the county 

 farm adviser. The platform of the binder 

 reel was screened all around to hold the 

 seed. The speed of the binder reel was in- 



HENRY OPFER 



am satisfied with Farm Bureau all 



around." 



creased by changing the sprocket wheel. 

 As the binder moves through the field the 

 paddles whirl around whipping the seed 

 from the heads of the plants. This sys- 

 tem gets a lot of seed at minimum ex- 

 pense in handling. The seed is later 

 cleaned for sale. 



For the past 40 years Henry Opfer 

 has maintained a stud of jacks and stal- 

 lions which breed about 200 mares each 

 spring. In the post war years — 1918 

 to 1924 ■ — he said there was little in- 

 terest in raising colts. But since then 

 the demand has been better, particularly 

 in recent years. He charges $10 for 

 producing a live colt that will stand up 

 and suck. 



Opfer is dubious about the future out- 

 look for horse breeding. "Tractors are 

 coming in fast again," he said. "They 

 sold 15 in St. Peter this season. That's 

 going to hurt our business." 



The power on the Opfer farm is 

 furnished by a tractor and five brood 

 mares. The tractor is used to operate 

 a threshing machine and other power 

 machinery for custom work. 



The Holstein herd of 18 cows is relied 

 on for a substantial part of the farm 

 income. Fifteen years ago Mr. Opfer 

 experimented by crossing a Jersey bull 

 on his Holsteins. "That was a mistake," 

 he said. "The resulting heifers and cows 

 were smaller and so was their milk flow. 

 We have been using a purebred Holstein 

 bull since 1923. We like Holsteins be- 



