Seib success: Strong family ties build farm operation

POSEYVILLE, Ind. — Deep and enduring family ties and continuing to build the farm operation — whether that’s with a new grain handling system or succession planning that paves the way for future generations — are just some of the secrets to the success of Seib Farms LLC.

Mark and wife Sheryl Seib and his brother, Wayne Seib, and Wayne’s wife, Linda, along with Wayne and Linda’s sons, Carl and Matthew, and farm employee A.J. Reynolds, hosted part of the 2021 Purdue Farm Management Tour.

“We have a tradition of women being strong in this family,” said Mark Seib as he introduced the farm’s history.

The farm started with 77 acres owned by Sophia Marenholtz, Mark and Wayne’s great-great-grandmother, in 1898.

“She bought this farm. Back then, it was rare to have a woman own land and hold title to it,” Mark said.

With his wife Sheryl and sister-in-law Linda looking on, Mark added that the tradition of strong women on the farm didn’t end with Sophia.

“That still carries on today, let me tell you,” he said.

Sheryl served as the first female president of the Posey County Farm Bureau and received Purdue Extension’s Women in Agriculture award. Linda works off the farm and is vice president of operations at Pearison Inc.

On The Grow

Today, Seib Farms is a corn and soybean operation, in a 50/50 rotation. Both Mark and Wayne attended college and decided to return to the farm to work with their father, who is retired from farming.

When Mark and Wayne returned to the farm, the farm’s commodities were corn, wheat and soybeans and they had a farrow-to-feeder pig operation, with 150 sows.

“We decided we needed to clean out and do some work on buildings and genetics. Three weeks after we sold out, the hog market crashed and we never went back,” Mark said.

The newest addition to the farm, with the concrete being poured just hours ahead of the guests arriving for the farm management tour, is an update to the farm’s grain system.

“We are doing a leg with an unload pit, new wet bin, about an 11,000-bushel pit. It will take our unload times from 22 to 28 minutes down to about five to seven minutes,” Carl said.

Carl added that the existing structures have been designed into the new system.

“The biggest thing we did was to find somebody to lay out the new system from what some would call the mess that was there from years of adding on. So, we have a plan of the next 10, 15 years for future expansion to the system. We have a game plan put together for every couple years to keep adding on,” Carl said.

Carl said the new leg was matched with the pit capacity.

“It’s a 90-foot leg. We used a twin freestanding tower, so we can add on a second leg in the future. It’s 10,000 bushels an hour and was paired with the unload pit to make everything match up and work,” Carl said.

Some of the improvements on the farm came by accident. In 2012, the 90-by-200-foot machine shed on the farm was destroyed by fire, which also destroyed most of the farm equipment stored in it.

Wayne said that the disaster taught the value of insurance.

“We lost about $1.2 million in equipment. We made it through with insurance. We had pretty good insurance and got most of the stuff replaced. It took a few years to get that accomplished and settled and finished. It definitely opened our eyes up more to insurance. We are pretty staunch about when we buy a new piece of equipment or used piece of equipment, before we go to pick it up, we make sure that the insurance agent has insurance on it. We’re just very particular about it,” he said.

The Next Generation

One of the topics that the Seib Farm visit focused on was succession planning. Mark and Cheryl have two daughters who are married and live away from the farm with their families.

Wayne and Linda’s sons, Carl and Matthew, are the next generation on the farm, and Mark said that was the logical next step for the farm. The family detailed the process they went through to put together a succession plan for the farm.

“It was logical that Wayne would come with his two boys with the hopes that they would stay. We have been blessed that they have stayed. They both bring something very valuable to this farm operation, Carl with his technology skills and his degree there and Matthew with his mechanical and seed skills,” Mark said.

A goal of all of the farm’s members is to have a backup person who knows each job, so there is always someone who can take over.

“That’s our goal on a lot of things, that we have multiple people knowing different jobs, so there is always a backup person in case someone is not here,” Wayne said.

Mark noted that he and Wayne have turned the leadership roles over to Carl and Matthew.

“Wayne says we keep checking on them, but I feel we keep teaching them. That’s what we want to do. We want to teach them the things that we learned, the mistakes that we made, the things that we have found out through our life’s work on the farm. We want to pass that on to them and hopefully that will carry them a little bit further and quicker and better through their decisions in the farming operation,” Mark said.