Heritage Farm

Martha Wearin Rasmussen and her husband Bob of Fairfield, center, receive an Iowa Heritage Farm certificate and farm marker during the Iowa State Fair from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, right, and Iowa Farm Bureau Federation President Craig Hill. The awards were in recognition of Martha Rasmussen?s farms in Mills County being owned by her family since 1854. To qualify, a family must have owned at least 40 acres for 100 years or more in the case of Century Farms and 150 years or more for a Heritage Farm. This year, 345 Century Farms and 69 Heritage Farms were recognized. Locally, a Heritage Award was presented to Peggy and Harley Peck whose Stockport farm has been in the family since 1841. Local recipients of Century Farm Awards were: John A. Carlson, whose Lockridge farm has been in the family since 1902; Kristina Shipler Lott, whose Batavia farm has been in the family since 1903; and Roberts I. Cox, whose Keosauqua farm has been in the family since 1911.