By Joe Kertzman, managing editor, Badger Common’Tater
There’s a sense of pride, and a bit of hijinks, when Chase and his younger brother, Dawson, relay the story about accidentally “ripping up” a field when they were young.
“I was around 10 years old and Chase was 14,” Dawson relates. “Chase was cultivating a field and I was riding along. He got tired and decided to take a nap on the box behind the seat. He told me to drive and cultivate the rest of the field. When he woke up from his nap, I had ripped up the field badly.”
At the time, Chase and Dawson’s father, Jerry Knutson, owned and operated Oasis Irrigation in Plainfield, Wisconsin, and K&K Farms Inc., in Almond, where he raised grains, potatoes, and vegetables for canning. Jerry sadly passed away in December 2019 after a tragic snowmobile accident in Michigan.
Suddenly, Chase, Dawson and their mother, Kathy Jo, found themselves running the irrigation business (Kathy Jo) and the farm (Chase and Dawson.)
Before he passed, Jerry had taught the boys valuable lessons about not only raising crops, driving tractors, caring for the land, and hooking up and maintaining implements, but also about respecting neighbors and being forthright and honest.
“He introduced us to neighboring farmers,” Chase relates, “and taught us how to be respectful. Dad was loyal to his family, his career and his community. He gave it to you straight. We didn’t know it at the time, but those same neighbors would be there for us after Dad died.”
“They would just stop out and help when we needed it. They’d tell us to ask if there was ever anything we needed, they were an open book when we had questions, and we asked a lot of questions. Just like Dad, they always gave it to us straight,” Chase says.
Dawson says the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. “You’re looking at the most honest, straightforward, and genuinely caring guy in the county,” he says about his brother, Chase, “and he conducts business with integrity.”
