Hometown: Bolivar, Mo.
Family: Wife, Tommie Jo; daughter, Savannah and son-in-law, Nathan; son, Kyle and daughter-in-law, Meagen and granddaughter Henley; son, Gavin
In Town: Gerald has been a lineman for Southwest Electric Cooperative in Bolivar, Mo., for 31 years.
“We put up the power lines as new homes and businesses are constructed throughout Polk County,” he explained. “We also work in a part of Dallas County and a small part of Hickory County.
“I started with a brush crew and did that for the first four years. We also work during the outages after the big storms.
“For me, the best part of this job is the people. I work with a great bunch of guys. We’re training new ones in the trade right now and they are working hard to learn what they need to know. I have a good supervisor, too, Terry Wolken, so that makes the job easier.”
In the Country: “We have a commercial cow/calf operation with about 40 momma cows,” Gerald said. “I own 80 acres and rent another 88 acres, along with my son, Kyle. We run our own bulls and have started using rotational grazing the last few years. That has really worked out well. It is a little time consuming, especially in the beginning, but I can see a big difference in the grass production now. Kyle works for NRCS so he was the one who was really big on this but it has been a good thing.
“I also put up about 300 bales of hay each year. I’m slowly working to turn this all over to Kyle. We are 25 years away from becoming a century farm. My grandparents, James and Tracy Francka, started our farm and then my parents, Jim and Carolyn Francka, had it. I was pretty much raised up on this farm and it is really special to be able to pass it on to the next generation.”
