About Us

Ideal Farms Partnership is a family farming operation that started with Donald Johnson immigrating from Sweden in 1929. His family settled in the Prophetstown, Illinois, area to begin farming in the flatlands of Whiteside County.

Donald & Doris Johnson had three children: Dwight (Marcella) Johnson, Shirley (Doug) Jensen, and Gary (Joan) Johnson. After military service in the Korean War, Dwight & Marcella farmed in the Prophetstown area until 1967, when they made the decision to move to the rolling productive farmland in Carroll County. They continued a diversified traditional farming operation with cropland, hogs, and cattle south of Chadwick. Dwight and Marcella had three children. The oldest, Michael, decided to be the third generation to carry on the farming tradition.

Mike began farming by renting three farms after high school while attending Sauk Valley College. Mike married Dawn, his high school sweetheart, in January of 1980. Mike and Dawn continued to grow their farming business and family. Brooke was born in 1982, followed by Abby in 1987. Brooke married Austin Crull in July 2017, and Abby married Andrew Sturtevant in June of 2013.

With a passion for agronomy and sustainable soil health, Mike and Dawn have focused on always trying new techniques to continue to raise the bar on higher yields, while improving soil quality for future generations.

Most recently, Andrew returned to his roots and joined the farm in February 2018. He grew up on his family’s hog and grain operation, and has experience in the IT field working for a Fortune 500 company and other large companies since 2010, skill sets that are most welcome in the rapidly changing world of technology in farming today.

Abby utilizes her Communications Degree from the University of Illinois, and works with Deloitte. She also helps with on-farm communications, and website input.

Rounding out our diversified internal management team, Brooke is a CPA (also attending University of Illinois) working for WIPFLI, and her husband Austin is a Senior Account Manager for Jordan Construction.

We have also welcomed five new grandchildren into the mix over the past six years: Reid, Britton, Ella, Anniston and Sophie. They have added a wonderful new excitement and energy into our lives!

To accommodate future family growth, in 2017 the farm family name of Johnson Farms was updated to Ideal Farms Partnership. This provides a platform for the culture of the “Johnson Family Legacy” to continue for future generations.