State fair honors local farm family

Mark and Jill Lukavsky of rural Washington were one of six families that received ?The Way We Live Award? at the Iowa State Fair Aug. 13. According to a press release from the Iowa State Fair, the award is given to families who demonstrate a daily dedication to animal agriculture and exemplify farm values derived from hard work and a love for the occupation of farming.

Jill is the daughter of Dan and Jean Peiffer. She grew up on a farm west of Washington. Her father farmed when she was a young girl. He got a job off the farm but the family continued to live on the farm even though the ground was then rented out.

Jill was involved in 4-H as a child.

?For my projects, I always did things like clothing, visual arts and photography,? Jill said. ?When I was young, I also showed rabbits.?

Jill graduated from Washington High School in 1996. She went to college where she majored in business and then obtained a job at Washington State Bank in 2000, where she works to this day as a loan administrator.

Mark is the son of Don and Barb Lukavsky. He grew up on a farm six miles south of Washington. Mark remembers taking care of the hogs and beef cows as a little boy. By the time he was 10, he was driving the tractor. He was the youngest of five siblings, and all of them were expected to do their part on the farm. While none of his siblings took an interest in farming after high school, Mark knew at a young age that he was meant to tend to the land and to its creatures.

?I showed hogs and cattle in 4-H,? he said. ?I really enjoyed the fair. That?s what got me interested in farming.?

Mark graduated from Washington High School in 1993 and then studied ag production in college. He moved back home after college where he continued farming with his dad. It is a farm that his been in his family for generations.

?Some of the property belonged to my grandpa and some of it would be my great-grandpa?s,? Mark said.

Mark and Jill were not in the same graduating class, but they knew of each other through 4-H and because Jill?s sister Jami was in Mark?s class. Jill said she met up with Mark at the Keota Fun Days in 1999. The couple married in 2004 and they now live on a farm near where Mark grew up on south of Washington.

Mark slowly took over more and more responsibilities on the farm from his father, who had been battling cancer since 2001. In 2009, Don passed away, leaving Mark in charge of the entire farm. That included 300 acres of beans, 400 acres of corn, 14,000 pigs and 70 head of a cow-calf operation.

?The last eight years Dad was with cancer, he was still able to run errands,? Mark said. ?My mom retired the year he passed away, so now that is her role. She shuttles me around. She helps me run equipment back and forth. She mows around the hog buildings. When I need something, she?s there to help. She tells people she?s working harder in retirement than when she had a job.?

Mark said his farming and livestock operations have grown bit by bit over the years.

?We raise a few more pigs and hogs than we used to, and I?ve bought land here and there,? he said.

Despite his additional workload, Mark has been reluctant to hire help. He hires a local man to power wash his buildings and another who helps him haul grain in the fall, but that is the extent of his contracting.

Mark explained why he has so few workers:

?I wouldn?t say it?s because I don?t need them. I definitely could use them, but everything costs money. I?m trying to expand and keep things in line without the cost of labor. That?s why I do as much by myself as I can.?

Mark said that doing so much by himself leads to long days.

?There are never enough hours in the day, but sometimes quitting time is quitting time,? he said.

One of the few breaks the Lukavskys have from farming is the Iowa State Fair.

?It?s our summer vacation,? Mark said. ?It?s a little bit of a get-away for the year.?

The Lukavskys had never heard of ?The Way We Live Award? until last winter. Mark recently served as the president of the Washington County Pork Producers and in 2010 he received the Iowa Master Pork Producer award for his district. One of the organizers of the event e-mailed the Lukavskys to tell them they would be good candidates for ?The Way We Live Award.?

The couple had to fill out an application and write an essay about their farm.

?Writing the essay wasn?t too hard,? Jill said. ?It?s not like writing a college essay about something you?ve never experienced. It was just a matter of finding enough words, which I had no problem doing.?

In late May, Mark and Jill were informed they were among six families chosen to receive the award. They later learned that there were 71 applicants in the state, and that applications as old as three years were up for the award.

?The whole point of the award is to find people who exemplify farm-family values,? Jill said. ?They look to farmers who are very dedicated to what they do. My guess is that they picked Mark because he is a one-man show. Other farmers have hired hands for as much as he does.?

Mark said he doesn?t know why his family was chosen. He said one reason is that he raises livestock and grows crops, which was what the selection committee was looking for.

?There are not that many farmers who own their own pigs,? he said. ?There are farmers who do just custom feeding, but that is usually for another operation.?

The Lukavskys were given their award Aug. 13 at the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center. State fair representatives went to the Lukavskys? farm in June to take photographs and interview Mark and Jill. Televisions at the learning center ran photos and video clips of the family that weekend.

?It was a pretty neat deal to be recognized,? Mark said.

Mark and Jill have two children ? Lauren, age 4, and Tyler, 18 months. Mark said he hopes his kids take over the farm when they?re grown but that he?ll be all right if they don?t.

?There are other jobs out there with less stress than farming,? he said. ?Farming is so dependent on the markets and the weather. It?s a gamble every day, and you never know what the next day will bring.?