Strayer Farms named 2022 Logan County Farm Family of the Year
The sunshine shone brightly on an early March day at Strayer Farms along the rolling hills of Township Road 33, just outside of DeGraff, where brothers Robbie, 23, and D.J., 21, have shown great courage and determination in following in their father and grandfather’s footsteps to continue their four-generation farming operation.
The boys spent much of their younger years helping their father, Jay, and grandfather, Robert “Bob” Strayer, with completing the many duties and chores on the farm.
“My brother and I have both been at the farm about every day since we were born,” Robbie said. “We always wanted to help and dad and grandpa always made sure to let us, even though sometimes we were a little too young to be doing what we were doing.”
The sibling pair now considers it an honor to continue planting the fields, harvesting crops and carefully tending to cattle, continuing the many lessons of hard work that reaps an abundant reward taught to them by their late dad and grandpa.
On the first day of harvest in October 2019, the family experienced an unexpected tragedy when Jay passed away at the age of 55 as a result of an accident on the farm.
The boys’ mother and Jay’s wife of more than 20 years, Sadie, said her husband, “had everything taken care of for our family. We were well provided for.”
The Strayers also felt an outpouring of support from their family and the community, who wanted to help them with the harvest that fall.
“We had so many people coming out of the woodwork, and more friends and family stepping up than we ever could have imagined,” said Sadie, who works at the OSU Veterinary Hospital in Columbus as a veterinary technician supervisor of the large animal program.
The mother of two is an Indian Lake High School graduate and said she met Jay, a Riverside High School graduate, while she was working at a bank in DeGraff. The pair were married March 8, 1997. Sadie also is amazed at her sons’ determination in the fall of 2019 and since that time.
“The day after the accident, Robbie was back on the combine in the field,” she said.
“I’m so proud of them, and I know their dad and their grandpa would be, too. Bob and Jay have to be smiling, just looking down at their boys and all that they have accomplished.”
Recognizing the brothers’ perseverance and the family’s longtime dedication to Logan County and the farming community, Strayer Farms has been named the Bellefontaine Examiner’s 2022 Farm Family of the Year.
The siblings said their great-grandmother and grandfather bought the T.R. 33 farm sometime in the early 1940’s. Their grandparents Bob and Mary Strayer purchased the farm after Bob’s parents’ retirement and they raised sheep and pigs, along with row crops.
“Our dad started farming with grandpa when he got out of school, and they expanded the farm some and picked up more acres,” said Robbie, a 2017 Riverside High School graduate.
Since that time, both Mary and Bob Strayer have passed away, Mary in 2005 and Bob in 2012.
Robbie and D.J., a 2019 Riverside High School graduate, each attended and graduated from the University of Northwestern Ohio to study agriculture and diesel mechanics, with the ultimate goal of returning to the farm.
Their leadership plans at the farm were fast-tracked after their father’s passing.
“My brother and 19 and 21 at the time decided we were going to form an LLC take over the operation and keep going with it,” Robbie said. “The management side of thing was pretty difficult the rest of that year and the next year. We are learning to get by, and things have gotten easier for us over the last year. “
Since then, D.J. and Robbie have been able to buy their first farm together. They farm around 1,000 acres outside DeGraff consisting mostly of corn and soybeans, with a little bit of wheat and some hay.
The siblings farm some of the ground on shares alongside their uncle, Dave Bell, who with his wife, Jay’s sister, JoAnne, have been instrumental in helping them navigate their new role in the farm. Strayer Farms also raises about 30 head of beef cattle, starting about 10 years ago, with the boys prompting their father with the idea, they related.
In recent months, the brothers have realized one of their goals after planning and installing a “high tech” contract hog barn, with construction starting in August 2021.
The building that houses 2,500 head of contract pigs was completed in December. Approximately three groups of hogs should be able to run through this building each year.
Robbie said this was a dream of his after seeing a similar fully-automated operation as a youngster.
“All our technology allows us to take care of 2,500 pigs a day in less than 2 1/2 hours most of the time,” he said. “I knew I wanted to do this right after high school.”
The feeders in the hog barn fill automatically every three hours from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the three feed bins have scales under them that the feed mill in Bucyrus can monitor. Feed is delivered to the farm as needed.
In addition, the barn is climate-controlled, and this winter stayed about 70 degrees inside. The computer controls the ventilation based on inside and outside temperatures and decides which fans need to run and how far the ceiling inlets and or curtains need to be opened.
“The pigs have self-serve waters, if the pigs become sick, we can treat the barn through the water system,” the older brother explained.
“In the office, there is a single computer screen that controls everything in the barn. We can remotely monitor this and make changes to this from our phone through an app as well as the farm that owns the pigs we are feeding.
“The barn is also equipped with a phone system so that if it detects anything wrong such as loss of water pressure, sudden temperature change or feed augers timing out it will call to notify us. “
Sadie has a farming background as well, spending her growing up years on a small hog operation near Lewistown. She has spent her share of time operating tractors and tending to livestock alongside her late husband and boys during their younger years as well.
“Mom is always a phone call away and can usually do about anything we ask her to,” the brothers agreed. “She’s also good at keeping us fed when we are busy, bringing us food out to the field.”
“This is all them,” Sadie said, pointing around to the expansive farm operation, including the new hog barn, “but I’m happy to help however I can.”