Faces of Farming: 155 Years of an Iowa Family Legacy
Todd Poots values his family’s farm because of the joy and prosperity it has brought to six generations.
Todd Poots is wearing a black ball cap with red lettering that reads, ‘Poots Heritage Farm, 150 Years’. There is perhaps no garment in the world that would suit him better.
Poots loves agriculture in a way those removed from America’s farms and ranches may never fully comprehend. He dedicated decades of his career and life to bettering the ag industry, from working the land to contributing through his career at Syngenta Seeds. And he certainly loves the farm his hat represents, which has been in his family for more than a century and a half.
Above all else, though, Poots values his family. If the multigenerational farm proved incapable of taking care of that family, Poots and his wife Marta would never have come back. In fact, for more than 30 years, they didn’t, at least not anywhere close to a full-time basis. Todd and Marta raised their three sons — Preston, Matthew and Clayton — off the farm as Todd carved out a successful career with Syngenta Seeds. But before we get to all that, let’s back up and take a look at the farm Todd Poots credits as the foundation for the man he has become.
The Poots Farm Origin Story
In 1869, Todd’s great-great-grandfather settled on 160 acres near Newton, Iowa. That original 160-acre parcel is still part of the farm, though the operation is about twice that size now. Todd grew up on the farm and, for the most part, loved his youth spent working with the family’s hogs, cattle and crops. Like most farm parents, Jerold and Cynthia Poots passed on the values of community and an honest day’s work to Todd and his two sisters. Dirt under the fingernails and a sunburned neck were badges of honor to be worn proudly, and Todd did.
As much as Todd loved his life on the farm, there wasn’t really a full-time employment opportunity for him on the place after he graduated from Iowa State University. “My folks were pretty self-sufficient here on the farm,” he says. “For a long time, Mom and Dad had no plans to ever really retire. They were just going to work until their bodies couldn’t do it anymore. I feel very fortunate that they held on to it.”
Circling Back Home
Todd got a job right out of college working for the Garst Seed Company, which was later acquired by Syngenta in 2004. He and Marta raised their family in Huxley, Iowa, near the Slater Syngenta facilities, for 35 years as Todd built a successful career at Syngenta. Today, Todd’s role with Syngenta Seeds is focused primarily on corn hybrids and helping growers through his role in supply planning.
Through the years, Todd and Marta kept their family close to agriculture; the boys were active members of 4-H and FFA, and they regularly made the hourlong trip to help Grandma and Grandpa on the farm in Newton. As time went on, Todd found himself spending more and more time back at the old place.
“I was staying in our camper overnight during calving season,” he recalls. “I just got more involved when the need arose. Eventually, Marta and I decided to move back and build our home on the farm in 2022.”
Todd expresses gratitude toward his longtime employer for allowing him to adjust his role with the company to make more room for expanded responsibilities on the family farm. “Syngenta affords a lot of opportunities for employees to transfer and really grow,” he says.
Working Sustainably for the Next Generation
Todd describes the crop and livestock operation as mostly capable of sustaining itself. The farm is home to a 60-head herd of commercial beef cows, which supplies a calf-to-finish beef business that the family is proud to provide several longtime customers. They have about 100 acres of pasture, and the last couple years have implemented more rotational grazing practices to stretch that pasture further than ever before.
“Most of our pasture ground is rolling terrain and not all that suitable for other crops,” Todd says. “That 100 acres is about the size that we can comfortably get through the pasture season with our climate and rainfall. We’ve had three straight years of dry weather, but the rotational grazing already seems to have helped a lot.”
The balance of the farm is dedicated to crops, though in a different rotation than most of the neighbors, with alfalfa rotated with corn and soybeans to help support the cattle.
Through it all, Todd has kept his eye fixed on what has driven him throughout his life and career in agriculture: family. Todd’s youngest son, Clayton, is the most interested in eventually coming back and running the farm. It will take a considerable amount of work and planning, but if that plan indeed comes to fruition, Clayton will mark the sixth generation of the Poots family to cultivate this piece of land. “It excited me to work with the younger generation of agriculture. It’s a two-way street, having them bring their knowledge to me and sharing mine with them,” Todd says.
But Todd and Marta aren’t putting any undue pressure on any of their kids to do that; if the farm isn’t going to provide economic and emotional fulfilment, there’s no obligation. “We’ve got grandchildren now,” Todd says. “You’ve got to be able to balance it. Our place is small by modern standards, and at least for a while it’s going to take both of us farming while having outside careers. But if you really want it, it can work.”
It’s not lost on the Poots family just how rare and fragile a multigenerational business — and particularly a farm — can be. Change must be embraced right alongside tradition. There’s a very fine line between trigger-happy and gun-shy, and the next generation needs to be properly incentivized while respecting the hard-earned wisdom of Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa.
“Of course, I look at some things differently than my dad did when it comes to the farm,” says Todd. “But sometimes I’ll make decisions and come to find out it’s everything my dad did.”
“When it comes to innovation, especially on a smaller farm, you have to be careful,” he continues. “You can’t change the whole world at once. You often have to make small innovations, anything that can help the bottom line. I’m looking forward to a future of trying to get everything we can out of the farm while still being true to the land we have.”
It’s certainly a future worth looking forward to. And if the Poots family continues to stay true to that philosophy, they can probably start drawing up designs for 200th anniversary ball caps.
Cover photo: Three generations of the Poots family in August 2019, celebrating the farm’s 150th anniversary. From left: Matthew and Marissa Poots, Clayton and Grace Poots, Jerold and Cynthia Poots, Todd and Marta Poots, Preston and Mark Poots-Jacobsen.
- Todd Poots balances farm management with a successful career at Syngenta Seeds.
- The Poots family has farmed near Newton, Iowa, for 155 years, making it part of the 1,844 Heritage Farms honored in Iowa.
- Sound land management, including rotational grazing and outside-the-box crop rotations, moved Poots’ farm into the future.
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