The current family farm started with 80 acres from Robert’s Grandpa and Grandma Paul and Irmina Pobst, along with another 80 acres from Grandpa and Grandma Clarence and Mary Graviett. Robert’s parents Bill and Marietta Graviett purchased the farm from their parents. Then Robert and Carla Graviett purchased the farm from his parents in 1994.

Farm

When Robert and Carla started farming, Robert had a full time job which he continued working until he retired in 2015. Carla also worked substituting for the local mail carrier for 15 years. Farm life was the life they wanted for their children and working jobs off the farm was how they supported their family while they grew the farming operation. They have raised their four children on the family farm and taught them that hard work and love of the land are values they would use when they were young but also values to take with them into the future.

a woman and two children are walking

While Bill and Marietta Graviett had the farm they not only raised row crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and milo, they also produced items such as tomatoes, watermelons and cantaloupes. Added to this, they ran a hog farming operation.

When Robert and Carla Graviett purchased the farm, they decided to take the more traditional path of raising row crops only, while adding popcorn to their list of crops.

They have made many improvements since taking over the operation. The most noticeable would be having the land leveled so they could start flood irrigation on their crops. Flood irrigation is a labor intensive endeavor which has become more manageable over the years with the addition of polybag and risers. They also added more land to the operation, purchasing 80 from their cousin Thomas Leland and Sandy Graviett.

One of the greatest pleasures today on the farm is when some of their grandchildren come out and want to help in the shop, ride around checking irrigation or riding on the combine and tractors. Sharing these experiences with the next generation of future farmers gives them hope that one day their family farm will be handed down and the family tradition will continue.