Daniel’s Starting Path
A high-achieving high school student, Daniel took all the college prep courses and decided to pursue engineering at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, the highest- ranked engineering college in the country. He started in mechanical engineering, but following an internship with A. O. Smith that focused on submersible pumps for homeowners and businesses, he decided he liked digital engineering better. He switched to electrical engineering focusing on computer design and systems, even taking some graduate- level classes, and graduated with a BSEE with honors.
Tat background earned him a position with International Business Machines (IBM) in Rochester, Minnesota. Daniel says, “I worked in Design Automation focusing on data and logistic automation. I wrote code to optimize design for IBM systems 34, 36, 38, and AS400.”
Jamie had earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. She was working as a Registered Nurse (RN) at Rochester Methodist Hospital. Te hospital was part of the Mayo Clinic, also headquartered in Rochester.
A large proportion of IBM’s employees were men. Most of the Mayo Clinic’s nursing staff was female. Daniel says, “In the early 1980s there were no cell phones or dating apps. Young people met through participation in group activities. I belonged to the Cross-Country Ski Club and so did Jamie. Tat’s how we met.”
IBM and the Mayo Clinic organized group events such as bike tours, softball games, or roller-skating parties to bring young couples together, hoping they would marry and stay in Rochester. Jamie and Daniel joined in many of those events during the two-and-a-half years they dated. “We laughingly call it our Roller Romance,” Daniel says. “We married on Labor Day in 1987.”
Back to Sod Farming
After five years of working in a cubicle with 4,000 other engineers, Daniel decided the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence and he’d rather have the sod farming life. He and Jamie had discussed that plan before they married. Daniel says, “I told Dad I’d like to get back to the farm and asked if there was a place for me there. Being a good German Dad, he told me he had many projects at various stages and was not ready to retire, so it would be best for me to start my own farm.”
Daniel resigned from IBM to concentrate on finding a good farm to buy. Always a strategic thinker, he established key requirements for the potential location: close to a viable market with growth potential; good land with an adequate water source; and close to family but not so close that they would be competitors; and Jamie’s stipulation—not in the boondocks. Daniel says, “She wanted civilization and places to shop.”
TPI Turf News January/February 2025
Te site Daniel and Jamie chose for Columbus Turf Nursery borders a four-lane highway now traveled by 55,000 cars daily.
On March 6, 1989, Daniel and Jamie took possession of the land, starting Columbus Turf Nursery. Daniel got 16 acres of custom-blended bluegrass planted that spring. “I felt that was a good start,” he says. “My focus then became learning my ground. We harvested that first crop in September of 1989. I seeded the remaining 240 acres to sod in the fall.”
Maneuvering the Early Challenges
Daniel says, “I was starting with the basic equipment from my Dad. I was undercapitalized and barely had seed money. But I had a goal to have the best product and do the best I could for my customers every day.” Te economy had just experienced a period of farm foreclosures. Traditional farm lender banks saw a man in his mid-20s with no history of working in the state, no family around, and no experience in owning and operating a business. Daniel’s alternative was a bridge loan—a land loan from an insurance company in the form of a 10-year note, amortized over 30 years at 16 percent interest, with a 3 percent penalty for prepayment. Daniel says, “Jamie was working as a nurse. With those tough terms and our limited funds, we needed her paycheck to live on.”
Markets he considered for potential farms were Crystal Lake and Chicago, IL; Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, IN; Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, Ohio; Charlotte, NC; and the Delmarva Peninsula. “I took Jamie to visit the most promising farm locations in the chosen markets,” says Daniel. “We narrowed the search to Indianapolis and Columbus. Te farm we chose was growing corn, beans, and wheat. Te land was sandy clay loam and had a good water source. It was 10 miles south of Columbus on U.S. 23, a four-lane highway now traveled by 55,000 cars daily. I signed the contract for the 256- acre farm in 1988, one year and two months after leaving IBM.”
Daniel started his sod farm operation using the basic equipment provided by his Dad.
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