Farmers

Rolfe and Jill Klefstad Family
Rolfe Klefstad, Founder
Organic Producer
Boyceville, Wisconsin

South of the Hay River in northern Dunn county, among the rolling hills with maple, oak, poplar, and several varieties of pine lies the home of Rolfe and Jill Klefstad. The farm is truly home for Rolfe as he was born and raised on the farm. Rolfe's family roots in this farm go quite deep, as his Grandfather Ingebret who was born in Norway, purchased the land from the Railroad back in 1896. This land was mostly covered with timber, so many hard and long days passed before it had any open fields to farm.

After Ingebret saved enough money, he sent his savings to his parents in Norway so they could come to the new land and live with him. Ingebret married and had three daughters and one son Eric. Ingebret lost his wife while the children were very young, only to be followed by the four children loosing their father Ingebret while still in their teens.

The three girls, Agnes, Oline, Helen, and their brother Eric, decided to carry on this way of life. Clearing land, raising oats, corn, barley, and hay, all with horses, while still milking cows by hand was typical of early 1900 agriculture in northern Wisconsin. When the siblings were young adults and got married, they still continued farming only two or three miles from the home farm; it seems like that is what everyone did back then.

Eric was in his thirties before he married Miriam, a School Marm from Elk Mound. She taught in the same country school that Eric attended as a child, Little Beaver Country School. This school is also where their five oldest children were educated. Eric farmed and Miriam taught school in Prairie Farm until their semi-retirement. Many farmers really don't retire, they just slow down while the next generation gears up to take over. Eric and Miriam passed the farm onto their sixth child Rolfe after farming together for five years.

Rolfe married Jill who taught kindergarten for eight years then later took time to be a stay at home mom while their children were young. Jill has a Masters Degree in Early Childhood/Elementary Education, and currently works at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie as an Administrative Program Specialist in the Office of Teacher Education.

Rolfe and Jill have four children, Erica, 13, Adam, 12, Luke, 11, and Gretchen, 6, who fill their lives with fun and adventure. Their household is busy with school, piano lessons, volleyball, basketball, baseball, girl scouts, gymnastics, and hunter's safety class.

Rolfe farmed for twenty years with chemicals, and antibiotics, as the push and need for more and more toxic substances increased from year to year. In the mid 1990s all of his farmland was receiving one application of chemicals and some of the land was getting two or three applications. When the FDA approved the use of rBGH for increasing milk production in dairy cattle, Rolfe was upset. Rolfe felt it was time to just say no to the latest technology being promoted by agribusiness. While mainstream (conventional) farmers continue to use chemicals, hormones and antibiotics, Rolfe's love for the land and cattle, and his respect for human health will not allow this type of contamination to be present on his farm. For Rolfe, the straw that broke the camel's back was rBGH. Thus came the interest in Organic production, where the use of chemicals, and genetically modified organisms on the land is forbidden. Hormones and antibiotics for milk producing cattle are not being used. Rolfe is finding that these farming practices are exciting and personally rewarding. Now he is proud to be a producing member of Organic Choice, and thrilled to be able to supply the consumer with a healthy product.

Sincerely,

Rolfe Klefstad

Contact
Email Rolfe
Organic Producer
Boyceville, WI
(715) 949-1989