95-year-old continues farming even while staying at assisted living facility

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) – A 95-year-old farmer in Iowa doesn’t plan to quit any time soon, even while he’s staying at an assisted living facility.

Bob Pflughaupt just completed harvest last month with a crew he organized and led.

“You’ve got to have the will to farm,” he said.

His son-in-law takes him to visit his farm once a week.

“It keeps you going,” Pflughaupt said.

Earlier this year, the farmer grew corn stalks outside his unit at the assisted living facility.

Pflughaupt hosted a contest among his co-residents to see who could guess the height of the plants.

After growing up on a farm himself, raising his two daughters on his farm was a given.

“I just enjoyed working out there with Dad all the time,” his daughter Jan Jeffries said. “We were busy all the time. We had livestock, we were grinding feed, we were planting corn.”

Pflughaupt looked back on his life as a farmer fondly and spoke about the many challenges farmers have faced over the years.

Even when issues like money and equipment were draining, he still found himself interested in farming.