

SlcVdA out ivWi 



Watching Ha and Donald nail sign to trao It George Kemp, 



Peoria County Organization Director, who sold them a Farm 



Bureau membership. 



By LEW REISNER, Field Editor 

 lAA Record 



ffl 



\WW\ HERE'S a lot of headaches 



s.r I I in getting started but it's 



I been worth it." That's the 



I way Donald and Ila Kuntz, 



M. newly-weds, feel about their 



first four month's of farming 



on their own. 



Alert, friendly, and hard working, 

 Ila and Donald Kuntz are typical of 

 the many well-educated, modern young 

 farm couples who, in a modest way, 

 started farming this spring. 



Her newly painted kitchen and fresh- 

 ly papered dining rooi i indicated that 

 Ila was pretty well settled in their 

 home on the 110 acre farm three miles 

 west of Peoria that Donald rented last 

 fall. 



"All this buying, moving, papering 

 and painting has meant a lot of work," 

 Ila said, cheerfully. To which Donald 

 could truthfully add: "And it costs 

 a lot more than it normally would." 

 In fact that's his advice to anyone, 



Checking over their Farm Bureau-Farm Man- 

 agement account book, Ila and Donald Kuntz 

 ruefully note that expenses are only entries 

 to date. Income side of the ledger should be 

 bolstered later this year. 



9 ' ■ 





^"i 



like himself, starting out. "Be sure 

 you've got enough money on hand." 



Through his 4-H, vocational agri- 

 culture training, Rural Youth activi- 

 ties, and his contact with Farm Bureau, 

 Donald is abreast of up-to-date farm- 

 ing practices. 



His thrifty spring pigs, for example, 

 had been moved in individual hog 

 houses to clean pasture ground. All 

 his corn was planted on the contour. 

 He has joined the Farm Bureau Farm 

 Management Service, although both ad- 

 mitted, ruefully, that their only entries 

 were in the expense section. 



The Kuntz's got their start in much 

 the same way that a good many Farm 

 Bureau families have started before 

 them — through their limited savings, 

 by borrowing from banks, but mostly 

 from gifts and loans from both parents. 

 All of their grain and most of their 

 foundation stock of 14 sows, 30 hens, 

 and two cows, came from home. Ila 

 brought 30 hens from her mother's 

 flock and in addition has 300 spring 

 chickens. She plans to increase this 

 number to 500 next year if she can get 

 a new brooder and chicken house. 



From his 14 Poland China sows 

 Donald saved 96 pigs, an excellent rec- 

 ord for this wet cold spring. An ex- 

 perienced hogman, Donald hopes to 

 expand his swine operations and even- 

 tually would like to raise purebreds as 

 he did in his 4-H club work. 



"We had hoped to milk about six or 

 eight cows. Peoria is close and would 

 make a good market," Donald said. 

 But the high prices for which dairy 

 cows are selling has kept them from it. 

 Their biggest outright purchase and 

 one they are proudest of is their new 

 row crop tractor. Ila admits she loves 

 to drive it, too, even though she 



Ila tries to get her pup to obey as Donald, 



giving his dog a friendly scratch, looks on. 



Pups are liner mates. 



wrapped a harrow around a hind 

 wheel when she was dragging with it. 



Ila and Donald graduated from the 

 Princeville high school in 1943, started 

 going together shortly after gradua- 

 tion, and were married in November 

 of last year. Both are 22 years of age. 



He took a vocational agriculture 

 course in high school, and after grad- 

 uating was an active member in Rural 

 Youth. He took Ila who has also had 

 4-H club work to many Rural Youth 

 social affairs before they were married. 



Now that they are married the 

 Kuntz's have joined Farm Bureau, a 

 logical step since Donald comes from a 

 Farm Bureau family. His father, Ed- 

 ward Kuntz, is vice-president of the 

 Peoria County Farm Bureau. 



What of the future? "We both de- 

 cided before we were married," Ila 

 said, "that someday we wanted to own 

 a good large farm of our own." And 

 with their energy and training, they've 

 every reason to believe this dream of 

 their future will come true. 



♦' 



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JULY- 



