Tucked at the end of a dirt road alongside rolling hills and nestled next to Circle Lake in Rice County lays a homestead begun in 1920 by the Trnka family.
For 100 years, five generations of the Josep Trnka family have called it home.
“It’s nice to see the farm sticking in the family,” said Joseph B. Trnka, who goes by Joe. “It’s not so common anymore. With the price of land and the cost of farming, it’s nice to be in my situation. I hope to pass it down to my kids some day.”
This year he and his family are among 154 Minnesota farms to be recognized as a Century Farm by the Minnesota State Fair and the Minnesota Farm Bureau.
Joe and his wife, Lisa, bought the farm from his parents in 2000. Their home is a stone’s throw away from the homestead where his parents, Joseph C. and Nancy still live.
“It’s a different world now,” Joe said of farming. “Family farms aren’t there like they used to be.”
When he was growing up, he said, during the school year, he would get up, do chores, go to school, come home, do chores, and play sports and participate in other school activities.
“The dairy was seven days a week,” he said of the farm that had anywhere from 28 to 32 Guernsey cows and several acres of cropland to tend to.
In summer, it was all about the farm and baling LOTS of hay, with less time seeing or spending with friends until the Fair. Once the county fair arrived, it was time to gather, celebrate, and enjoy being together.
“If you weren’t milking cows, you were baling hay,” he said.
As a teenager he wanted to follow in his...
To see more on this story pick up the June 11, 2020 print edtion of The New Prague Times.
Trnkas celebrate being a Rice County Century Farm
