Large ponds and drainage challenges were common in this area in years past.

“It was said you could canoe from here to Gilmore City or Pocahontas,” Dean Behrendsen said.

Agricultural drainage wells (ADWs) were developed in the early 1900s to discharge ag tile drainage water to underground aquifers. They were a practical option in areas with a lot of limestone in the ground.

Through the years, however, concerns grew about ADW’s role in contaminating groundwater. In late 2024, Iowa officially closed its last remaining agricultural drainage well, capping off 25 years of dedicated efforts to shutter about 195 of these structures in the state.

“Our ag drainage well has been closed for more than 20 years,” said Behrendsen, who noted that many of these ag drainage wells were 100 to 125 feet deep.

While times changed, generations of Behrendsens carried on their family’s farming heritage. Nis and Ida Behrendsen’s son Don and his wife, Adeline, a country schoolteacher from the Manson area, married in 1937. They raised their three boys and one daughter on the farm.

“It was a typical Iowa farm of the era,” said Dean Behrendsen, whose father raised corn, oats and hay.

Education included school days in Rolfe and the Des Moines Township (DMT) building in the country. “In 1959, DMT consolidated with Rolfe,” said Sandy Behrendsen, a 1968 graduate of Rolfe Consolidated School who married Dean Behrendsen in 1972. “At that point, all the junior high students were transported to DMT to utilize that building. It was a fun environment for us.”

Rolfe was a busy community in years past, added Dean Behrendsen, a 1966 Rolfe Consolidated School graduate. The town boasted a Chevrolet dealership, a Ford dealership, three farm implement dealers, a clothing store, a few restaurants, two hardware stores, a dentist, two doctors who would make house calls, two banks, an appliance store, and businesses that purchased eggs and cream from area farmers. The town also had a newspaper (the Rolfe Arrow) until about 20 years ago.

While Dean Behrendsen didn’t mind growing up in a rural area, he didn’t plan on farming for a career.

“When I was in high school, the military draft was still in effect. I thought about becoming an English teacher, so I started college at Iowa Central. Then I transferred to Iowa State, where I studied engineering/construction technology.”

He decided to enlist in the U.S. Army.

“You could enlist for two years back then,” he said. “I spent one year in Vietnam.”

While he was overseas, he began thinking that life on the farm looked quite desirable.

“I wrote letters to my dad asking if he could work me into the farming operation when I came back,” said Dean Behrendsen, who was honorably discharged from the Army in November 1970.

He started farming with his older brother Mike and their father in Pocahontas County in 1971. Hogs were an important income source in the early 1970s.

“I had about 100 sows in a farrow-to-finish operation,” said Dean Behrendsen, who moved to the farm in 1975 with Sandy and lived in the house that Don Behrendsen had built in 1948. “The hogs were really good to us financially.”

The young couple started building a new house on their farm in 1979 and moved in by 1983. They raised their two daughters (Amy and Leah) on the farm.

Dean Behrendsen continued to farm through 2023, which was his last harvest before he retired. The couple recently sold their farmhouse/acreage and have built a new home on the south edge of Humboldt. They have no plans to sell the two Century Farms they own in Pocahontas County.

“Land is a limited, valuable resource,” Dean Behrendsen said. “It’s a special feeling to own land that has only changed hands three times within our family in the past 100 years. Our children and grandchildren understand this significance. We’re thankful that Farm Bureau and the Iowa Department of Agriculture participate in the recognition of Century Farms.”

Behrendsen Century Farm

Established: 1920

Township: Garfield

Number of acres

in original farm: 160

Century Farm Award: 2024

Generation: 3rd