Primghar, Iowa — The 2024 O’Brien County Value-Added Ag Hall Of Fame recipients have been named.
According to O’Brien County Economic Development Director Kiana Johnson, Johnny Westra of rural Primghar was honored as the 2024 recipient of the Value Added Ag Hall of Fame Award and Fred De Jong & Sons, Inc. of Primghar was recognized as the business recipient of the Value Added Ag Hall of Fame Award.
According to the Ag Steering Committee, successful candidates for the award must have demonstrated leadership, stewardship, community service, and service to the agricultural industry. They must also be an O’Brien County resident or someone who engages in agricultural activity in the county.
She tells us that Westra, his wife and five children, moved from California to Iowa in 2012 with 400 dairy cows. In the ensuing years, she says Westra has grown his operation, increased his dairy herd, and added employees and acres. Westra received two separate nominations for the VAA Hall of Fame Award, which both praised him for his integrity. The nominations said that he shows stewardship in how he takes care of his livestock, the land, and the people around him. They say he is “a leader in his industry and his community and serves both by always being ready to sponsor an event, support a worthy organization, or lend a hand where needed.” They go on to say that Westra’s “strong Christian values are evident in how he interacts with the people around him, the animals in his care and the land he oversees.”
The business winner, Fred De Jong & Sons, Inc. has been in the excavating business over 65 years, says Johnson. The nomination says Fred De Jong established the business in Hull. His sons, Gary, Larry & Darrel, worked with him to learn the business. In 1980, Gary & and his wife Lou moved their family to Primghar, effectively branching out Fred De Jong & Sons, Inc. Gary and Larry began the process of purchasing Fred De Jong & Sons from their father in 1988. At that time, the upsurge in hog confinements being built added to their workload. More recently, the clearing of old farm sites to gain farmland has kept them busy. Their nomination says that the De Jong brothers are “true stewards of the land.” It says the company “worked with the ASCS Office in O’Brien County as well as surrounding areas to help farmers construct terraces and waterways.” It says that planting trees and sowing grasses in waterways is stressed at Fred De Jong & Sons as important ways to prevent erosion and preserve our topsoil. It says that Gary and Larry De Jong have been leaders in the community by donating their time and services for projects such as preparing the site for the Primghar Fire Station and maintaining the Primghar Jaycee’s Figure 8 Track.
O’Brien County Agriculture Hall of Fame Nominations are accepted year round and those received are saved and considered the next year if that nominee does not win. For more information, contact Kiana Johnson, O’Brien County Economic Development at 712.957.1313 or e-mail ocedc@tcaexpress.net .
