The Sands legacy: two centuries of land, family, and faith

Ninety-four-year-old Edythe Sands sits at the dinner table surrounded by memories of generations past and gazes at the faces of her children and grandchildren. “I’ve lived on this farm for 70 years,” she says. “We live a good life. It’s happy.” Then, she laughs and says, “I used to be the boss.”

“You’re still the boss, Mom,” says John Sands, who today works Sands Farms alongside his brothers, Steve and Joe, and their sons.

Ireland to Indiana

The Sands family made its way to the United States from Cork, Ireland, eventually settling in Indiana in 1846, near the future site of the town of Silver Lake.

The farm was passed down through the generations. Brothers Amber Dale and Otto managed it until 1950. Amber Dale’s son, John Isaac, held the reins until 1959, when his son, Carl, took over, along with wife Edythe.

The couple kept busy with 212 acres, a herd of dairy cattle, an Angus herd, and 10 sows. They had 11 children — nine boys and two girls — between 1953 and 1968.

Carl was also teaching and earning his master’s degree in education while farming. He went on to be athletic director, coach, and principal at multiple local high schools until retiring from education in 1985.

Generation six

As Carl and Edythe’s children grew and made their own paths in life, three of those paths led back to the family farm. John, Steve, and Joe would be the sixth generation of Sands family members to work this land.

In 1977, John earned a degree in swine management from Michigan State University, came home, and promptly built his first farrow-to-finish hog barn. “I always knew I’d come back,” he says. “I bought my first truck, tractor, and equipment at a farm sale when I was a freshman in high school.”

“He didn’t tell us he was doing it,” says Edythe of the purchase.

“My first tractor was a Farmall Super M and I was farming 100 acres as a freshman,” John says. As a sophomore, he rented farm ground from a neighbor and told them if they ever wanted to sell to let him know. In 1986, they sold him that farm, and he and wife Marsha raised three sons there: Ryan, Scott, and Aaron.

In addition to raising their boys and working in town, Marsha keeps the farm’s books with John and helps with mowing yards and hauling hay. “I do whatever needs done,” she says.

After receiving an ag mechanic degree from Michigan State, Steve also came home to help farm. He manages the irrigation systems and runs the combine in the fall. He also runs Big Boss BBQ, open Saturdays on a street corner in Warsaw, Indiana. Big Boss serves Sands Farms pork and beef, of course.

Joe stayed in the Hoosier State, earning an agronomy degree from Purdue University, then came back to the farm. “He’s our agronomist and takes care of marketing and spraying,” John says. He also does planting and other spring work and operates the dryer system once harvest gets underway, making sure everything goes into the right bins.

Rapid expansion

John switched from farrow-to-finish to contract feeding hogs in 1996 because the family was farming more ground. By this time his sons were helping on the farm as well. They and their cousins are the seventh generation of the Sands family to work this land.

In 2013, John and Ryan built two wean-to-finish barns. The following year, Scott and Aaron built two more. In the span of two years, the family’s annual hog production jumped from 2,000 to 38,000.

Ryan, Scott, and Aaron own and manage their own hog barns. Ryan and Scott work off the farm and help the family on the farm when they can.

The Sands family currently has about 175 head of feeder-to-finish cattle, primarily an Angus-based herd. They sell freezer beef to local consumers.

Corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay are grown on Sands Farms and on land leased from neighbors. They have leased some of the same ground for 46 years.

Change comes

The Sands family lost its beloved patriarch, Carl, in 2013.

Fortunately, Carl and Edythe had a succession plan in place to ensure the farm would survive. The next generation has followed their lead by being proactive with planning.

Ryan and Scott were already working on the farm when Aaron joined the operation in 2012. He had earned a degree in swine management from Michigan State and had traveled west to work the wheat harvest and was ready to come home. “I had big shoes to fill coming in after Grandpa,” Aaron says.

Joe’s son, Weston, got an ag degree from a technical college and joined the operation in 2021. He runs the sprayer and does a bit of everything. “This is what I always wanted to do,” he says. “When I was a kid in school I always wanted to be here.”

Marsha drove Weston to elementary school when he was young because she worked at the same school. “He was the only kid in elementary school who knew where pickle was growing,” she says. “He’d say, ‘There’s some pickle,’ as we drove to and from school. ‘We need to spray that.’ He knew because of his dad. He just always knew. It has always been in his blood, and he’s doing a great job.”

Steve’s son, Caleb, joined the operation just out of high school in 2022. He operates the grain cart and helps with a lot of mowing and raking, and works with his dad at Big Boss BBQ.

Because members of the seventh Sands generation have chosen to help grow the business, the entire operation is run by family members with no outside hired help needed. “We should be able to just keep going on. They’ll know enough to take it right on, so I’m not worried about it,” John says. “Marsha and I can actually take a vacation.”

Even the eighth generation is learning the ropes, helping out when appropriate.

The ties that bind

Today, Edythe has 39 grandchildren and just had her fiftieth great-grandchild. Steve lives right across the road from her, Joe is less than a half mile away, and John is less than a mile away. None of her 11 children lives more than two hours from home.

Thirteen of Edythe’s grandchildren grew up less than a mile from her house. “I watched all the kids grow up,” she says. “It was just a happy neighborhood.”

John says his family works together incredibly well. Different members have their own niches and specialties and they complement each other so everything runs like a well-oiled machine.

“Someone asked how many arguments we have and I said, ‘Zero.’ Everyone knows what to do,” he says. “We talk about things at the dinner table and have monthly meetings with our CPA.”

Those dinners are still prepared by Edythe, and there are usually seven or eight people around the table each night. “Nobody worries about one guy doing more work than the other,” she says. “Family is the most important thing. We’re just content being together.”

177 years later

What would the original settlers of Sands Farms think of today’s operation?

“When Dad was a kid, he worked the fields with horses. When he came back from the Korean War, he had a little two-bottom plow,” John says. “He didn’t see the automatic guidance like we have now, but he saw a lot of bigger equipment up to 16-row planters before he passed.”

Edythe agrees her husband would be amazed by the technology. “The kids talked about tractors that would drive themselves and I’d say, ‘No way!’” she adds.

Another change is how the family’s grain is sold. There is a large soybean processing and biodiesel plant just up the road. “We used to have a three-hour round trip to haul our soybeans, and now we barely get the semi out of high gear,” John says. “The corn plant is about 15 miles from us so that has been a major help.”

Modern hog facilities would also surprise the ancestors. “It’s so nice how all the automation saves time,” Marsha says.

“We can control a lot of the technology in the hog barns with our phones,” John says.

“That phone is his office,” Marsha says. “Oh, how we’ve changed.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is the Sands’ commitment to faith, farming, and family. Their website says it best: “We take pride in doing what God has called us to do. God willing, we will continue to do so for generations to come.”