Bollinger County: A great place to get growing

The Brune family has been farming in Southeast Missouri since the Great Depression, when Doug Brune's grandfather moved to Bollinger County to take over a 134-acre farm.

Since then, the Brune farm has evolved to include a feed store, Brune Custom Feeds, which Doug opened in 1991, the year his son Tyler was born.

Tyler Brune feeds his cattle on his farm in Bollinger County on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016.Laura Simon

More recently, Tyler has started to take on more responsibility, helping to manage the farm, cattle and feed store and building his own storage unit and duplex business, Brune Duplex and Storage, from the ground up.

Tyler, 25, received his first loan from the Farm Service Agency when he was 15, a choice that helped him learn the importance of accountability at an early age. He has been working since then to help improve his business and his family's farm.

Tyler Brune's Bollinger County farm.Laura Simon

"It's kind of just born into you," Tyler says. "You know how some people are good mechanics, some people are good farmers and some people are good with computers. It's just what I'm raised around and what I've been around all my life."

Tyler says being able to work with his father every day is the most rewarding part of being on the farm.

Tyler Brune on his farm in Bollinger County on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016.Laura Simon

"The most important thing is just getting to spend time with my dad, because me and him are really close and we're around each other every day. Seven days a week we get up and feed together every day, he's kind of like my right-hand man around here," Tyler says. " ... We don't always see eye to eye on everything, but we all know that family comes first, and you put God first and that makes everything a lot easier."