By The lives of Alfred “Alfy” and Doris Larson provide a rich rural history lesson infused with pride in the family they raised on their farm near Columbia.
Displaying his sharp wit, Alfy, 96, recently shared details from his 79 years working with the land and cattle.
As a team, Alfy and Doris are proud of their four children, 10 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren, many of whom work within the family businesses that includes their livestock operation, livestock order buying, trucking company, and corn and soybean farming.
“All our kids have distinct personalities,” 93-year-old Doris said. “The best gift is their love for each other as they work together and share their love of farming. Every day is a blessing.”
The Larson family in 2015 at the 65th anniversary of Alfred and Doris Larson of Columbia. The couple will celebrate their 75th anniversary in October. Courtesy photo.
Larson legacy
On Alfy’s side, family roots trace five generations in South Dakota. Born in the family farmhouse in 1928 to Carl and Mae Larson, he went to school in Columbia, graduating from high school when he was 17. His class had nine students. The family lived along the James River where Alfy loved to trap and hunt, and that paid off for a young person.
“The township paid us a bounty of 2 cents for each gopher tail I delivered,” he said.
With five big horses and a two-bottom plow, Alfy’s dad could cover five acres a day. Wheat yielded 20 to 25 bushels per acre, and corn about the same.
In the 1930s, there was so much dirt in the air, the family would have to light a lamp in the daytime, Alfy said. Farmers plowed their fields in the fall, which left them bare. There were no shelter belts to tame the wind. Clouds of grasshoppers rolled through, eating everything and stripping the land.
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“Many people found themselves in debt, and many lost their farms,” Alfy said. “Insurance companies bought much of the land up. Maybe about a third of the families stayed on the land, and the owners let them farm. What else could they do? Later, they’d let farmers buy back the farms.”
He remembers his dad had a mortgage and worried he would lose the farm. When he finally paid off the mortgage, he was thrilled to hold the abstract for his land and vowed he’d never go into debt again.
The year Alfy graduated, the nearby Turner ranch came up for sale. It was a half-mile east of Columbia and next to the family land.
“Dad didn’t want it. I had a little money saved, and the land was cheap. I talked Dad into lending me money to get it. I bought the land for $30 an acre. I give Dad credit for helping me with that,” Alfy said.
The Larsons didn’t have a tractor until 1941 or 1942 when they bought a used John Deere Model A in Britton. That tractor, a treasured family heirloom well-maintained with fresh paint, still sits in the machine shed.
Advances in farming machinery interested the young farmer.
“When going to Aberdeen to get parts one day, I watched a combine out in the field moving by itself,” Alfy recalled. “I couldn’t believe there was no tractor hooked up to it – it was self-propelled. When I told my dad what I’d seen, he said, ‘No, sir, that’s not possible.’ I couldn’t convince him. He just didn’t think that could ever work.”
Eventually, the Larsons had one of those fantastic machines.
Farming demanded a lot of work, with Alfy’s parents working together.
Picking corn by hand
“When Mom and Dad would pick corn by hand, they’d hitch a team of horses up to the wagon and then each of them would work their way down a row,” he said. “They were doing well if they got four rows done in a day. Can you imagine that?”
After graduating from high school, Alfy had no desire to go to college. A dedicated cattleman for most of his life, he started his career by raising hogs.
“I wanted to farm and run livestock. Raising hogs was good for me, and I learned a lot,” he said. “I cleaned pens. I fed some cattle on the side. Hogs had a lot of issues with disease, and I eventually dropped them in 1965. That’s when I decided to buy cattle and run a feedlot.”
Alfy and Doris Larson were married in October 1950. Courtesy photo.
How the sweethearts met
Doris was born in 1931 near Houghton. Her parents, Harold and Louise Dennert, eventually moved the family to her grandma’s farm 7 miles north of Columbia. Doris was thankful for the conveniences they had.
“We were very lucky to have a windmill and a light plant to provide electricity and an indoor bathroom,” she said. “I often think of how much my grandmother did to care for 11 kids. She had to carry water for cooking, cleaning and washing. Now we just stick our dishes in the dishwasher.”
Doris said her immigrant grandparents passed down the importance of church.
She rode her horse to St. John’s Parochial School, which was north of Columbia, where many of her classmates were cousins. As a freshman in high school, she soon noticed a certain young man.
“Alfy sat in the front row and always grinned at me. He taught me to play whist, and we played a lot of cards,” Doris said.
High school sweethearts
Later, Alfy and a friend went to Columbia to watch a school play. As they drove, they saw Doris and her friend walking, and Alfy picked them up in his 1935 Chevy. Doris missed her planned ride home from the play, so Alfy then offered her a ride. He apologized for the broken car window.
“It was cold, and she lived 10 miles out in the country,” he said. “When she wished me goodnight, I dared to ask, ‘Would you care to go out with me if I get the window fixed?’”
The answer was yes, and they began dating.
As things got serious, Alfy worked on getting the Turner place in shape. When he told his dad he was going to get married and live there, his dad said, “Well, I suppose you could starve there as well as the next guy.”
Utility services extending to rural America were huge milestones. With rural electricity, rural water and rural telephone, life changed.
“Dad was so excited to get the (Rural Electrification Administration) yard light connected on the farm. You could hit a switch and see the whole yard as bright as day,” Alfy said.
Doris remembers when she and Alfy finally got a phone in their house, he forgot they had one and drove to town to use the phone there.
The couple’s engagement anniversary on March 25 continues to be a time for a special supper. This year’s 75th supper was celebrated at home.
After enjoying years of farm life, the couple moved to Aberdeen in October 2002.
“I never thought I’d leave the farm,” Alfy said. “Our youngest son, Carson, was considering building a house because of their growing family. We decided we’d build in Aberdeen, and he moved to our farmhouse. That made good business sense.”
Alfred and Doris Larson were the co-grand marshals for Columbia Fest 2023, which featured the dedication of the Columbia Ball Field and City Park. Courtesy photo.
Sharp eye for cattle
In 1968, Alfy started buying fat cattle for major packers.
“Fats were as low as 25 cents a pound, and now they are $3 a pound for an 800-pound steer,” he said. “Besides Aberdeen, I’d go to area sale barns – Oakes (N.D.), Eureka, Ellendale (N.D.), which are no longer there.”
Their son Ray appreciates his dad’s eye for cattle.
“Dad has a good mind and excellent eye for cattle,” Ray said. “Representatives used to come to our yard to make deals on cattle. The phone was ringing all the time as five packers looked to purchase cattle. Now, that’s all done over cellphones.”
When Alfy started working with cattle, the Hereford breed was preferred. Now, the demand has changed to Angus based on what packers and restaurants desire. Producers and customers can track cattle carcasses all the way through the processing plant to know exactly what the background is on that animal. As the business became more concentrated, facilities in Sioux Falls; Fargo, N.D.; Watertown; Huron and Luverne, Minn., closed.
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In 2010, the major packers took control of the industry. At that time, the family diversified by expanding into buying and feeding cows, providing feeder cattle backgrounding and working with small private cattle processors.
Even though he lives in Aberdeen, Alfy’s valued advice continues. His sons and grandsons continue to buy cattle with consultations from Alfy as he closely watches cattle sales at several sale barns over the internet each week.
Local processing option is important
The Larsons believe having Demkota Ranch Beef is an enormous asset for the area as it provides a local market for cattle. Without local sales, producers must ship the animals at least 300 miles for processing. Currently, trucking costs $6 a mile.
“I wonder if Aberdeen and Brown County residents realize how important Demkota Ranch Beef is to the economy,” Ray said. “Over 900 people work there besides the people who finish the cattle. That has a tremendous impact. The beef is offered for sale at Ken’s SuperFair Foods, plus ships beef to many places such as New York City, Las Vegas and the West Coast.”
Alfy Larson’s first tractor was this used John Deere Model A. This photo of Alfy with sons Carson and Ray was taken in 2010. Courtesy photo.
Farming changes
“In the early days, Mom and Dad each operated a combine,” their daughter Joyce said. Mom ran the machine with the umbrella. They’d come into the house with their faces black, covered in field dust. We kids worked with them. Ray ran the grain truck, and I cooked – she only knew how to make roast with potatoes. Some hot nights in the early 1960s, we’d head to Sand Lake and jump in with a bar of soap to clean up.”
Differences in crop yields are huge. Today, one trip of about 15 minutes around a field to open it up can fill the combine hopper with soybeans.
“That would have taken my dad a couple of days to harvest that much,” Alfy said.
Significant changes started in the 1980s with the use of chemicals for weed control. The family stopped plowing and changed to no-till practices in the fields. Years later, to spend more time on livestock, they sold their combine and hired custom harvesters. Custom operators now plant their crops, freeing the Larsons from dealing with machinery.
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When he started buying, a calf in the spring would bring $100 to $150 at the sale barn. Bottle calves went for $75, now they bring $750. When they had the feedlot, calves would be $25 or $30.
“One year, I hauled one to Edgeley (N.D.) and got $5. It’s supply and demand. There was no demand at that time,” Alfy said.
Corn prices were as low as 40 to 50 cents a bushel, and he’s seen it as high as $8. Ear corn was a dime an ear. Wheat was as low as 30 to 40 cents a bushel. The cheapest fat cattle were $18 or $20 and are now $2.10 per pound. Doris used to keep track of transactions on a paper tablet. Now computers track the information and provide reports.
The first land Alfy bought was $25 to $30 an acre, and now some in the Columbia area has gone as high as $13,000 an acre. Cash rent depends on the land and who wants it. At one time, it was $12 to $15 an acre; now it’s $175 to $225.
Interest rates when he first started were around 6%. Alfy saw that swing up to 20% or 21% in the 1980s.
Gas was as low as 13 or 14 cents a gallon and now hovers around $3 per gallon.
In some of the driest years, the Larson land got only 6 inches of moisture. Alfy remembers 1956, 1959 and 1976 as dry years, and the family is glad it’s gotten snow and moisture this year.
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One of the biggest advances is being able to take low-producing land and make improvements to increase productivity, he said. Farm equipment has improved tremendously, along with prices for the machines. Crop genetics can produce yields of 200 bushels an acre of corn even with dry conditions. But raising a crop costs $500 to $600 an acre. Some seed corn with stacked genetics is $300 a bag when it once cost 10 or 11 bucks.
The increase in chemical prices has made manure more valuable, so the Larsons use it as fertilizer on their fields.
While their lives are at a slower pace now, Alfy and Doris continue to play cards, enjoy trips to the country and keep up with the activities of their kids and grandkids, especially if baseball games are involved.
“Farmers rely on God more than anyone,” Alfy said. “We have good, rich land in the Jim River Valley. We are blessed to have a great family, good machinery, good seed, good fertilizer and are truly blessed when the Lord gives us rain.”
Connie Sieh Groop of Frederick is a veteran journalist and writer who has focused on all aspects of the agriculture industry during her career.
Connie Sieh Groop
Connie Sieh Groop of Frederick is a veteran journalist and writer who has focused on all aspects of the agriculture industry during her career.