Lee and Tiffany Lakosky: Built Like a Degelman

Being a farmer is a blessing. Without having a relative or close family member in the industry, it is not common to go to college hoping that someday you will become a farmer. Due to the demand for farmland and the price of equipment, farming is usually a career that is passed down from generation to generation, but Lee and Tiffany Lakosky did not have that. 

“Our story is one in a million: we had the opportunity to become farmers and can now pass this way of life on to our kids,” said Lee Lakosky. 

Lee and Tiffany both grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Growing up in the city, they had no direct connection to farming in their family. Instead, Tiffany became a flight attendant and Lee, a chemical engineer at an oil refinery in Minneapolis.

Lee had always loved to hunt and worked at an archery shop throughout high school and college. Soon after they met, Tiffany joined him and grew an interest in hunting as well. Around this same time, Lee began writing hunting articles for outdoor magazines during his free time, without any expectations of what it would lead to. 

He began building up contacts throughout the industry until some friends approached he and Tiffany and suggested that they start recording their hunts for Realtree’s Monster Bucks series. So, they bought a camera and did just that. “We didn’t do it for the money, we were just happy to be a part of it,” said Lee.

After only a couple years of filming each other, ScentLok reached out to Lee and Tiffany about hosting their own TV show. Although it was a risk, Lee quit his stable job and he and Tiffany moved to southeast Iowa to pursue their passion and begin a new career within the hunting industry. Tiffany soon joined him in pursuing hunting  full time.

The risk that they took by leaving their old lifestyle behind turned out to be better than either of them could have imagined. After only the first season of their show, it became the highest rated show in the history of the Outdoor Channel. From there, “Crush with Lee and Tiffany” continued to take off and has turned into a much bigger business than they ever anticipated. “It was not something that we set out to do, it just fell in our laps,” says Tiffany. “God definitely had a plan.”

What many people may not know, along with filming their TV show, the Lakoskys have been fortunate enough to find the time and resources to make farming a priority in their lives as well. “We feel so fortunate that in this day and age we had the opportunity through hunting to acquire land to farm,” says Lee. After they moved to Iowa and built up their farm ground, they rented it out for a while before eventually taking over and farming it all themselves.

The way Lee and Tiffany see it, hunting and farming are linked; they need one to have the other. The food plots they plant and the crops they grow each year are food for the deer. Lee does not view faming as work, but rather as preparation for hunting season. Ever since adding in the farm work, he says that hunting has gone from a seasonal activity that he looked forward to, to a year-round process that he loves.

Since moving to Iowa and beginning to farm, the Lakoskys have seen how their simpler lifestyle has benefited their family as well. In a world full of distractions and technology, they are blessed that their children, Cameron and Raygen, enjoy being outside tagging along with them, whether they are riding in the tractor, sitting in the blind, or on the boat learning to fish. “I love how farming is a simple analogy for life,” says Tiffany. “We see what valuable things it is already teaching our kids.

As every farmer knows, in order to have a successful year, dependable equipment is necessary. Earlier this year, Lee and Tiffany met Michael Schmidt who introduced them to the Degelman Pro-Till. Michael believed that the Pro-Till would be beneficial to them to till up farm ground and food plots this spring to prepare for planting. 

“It’s nice having someone to talk to who has a lifetime of experience in the industry and will always be honest with you. Michael has become more of a friend than a business partner.” -Lee Lakosky

Immediately after their 17-foot Degelman Pro-Till was delivered, Lee was impressed with how compact it was. When folded up, Lee likes that the Pro-Till is no wider than the tractor hauling it. The narrow transport makes going from field to field much simpler, especially in the fields that he has to go through creek crossings and ditches to get to. “It doesn’t matter where. If I can get my tractor through it, the Degelman is going through it too, no question,” he says.

This year, Lee used the Degelman primarily to break up sod on his food plots. He says that in the past, he would have had to go over the same ground multiple times to break it up, whereas the Degelman got the job done after only one pass. Additionally, they ran the Degelman with a seeder on it to till and plant simultaneously, which was crucial to saving them time throughout planting season.  “Now that I’ve got more fields to plant, time is of essence to me: it is what I run out of, so I need stuff that works and is not going to break down.”

The Otico furrow roller on the end of the Pro-Till is another feature of the unit that Lee is happy to have. While running with the seeder, Lee says that having the roller is a must. It breaks up clumps of dirt and does a great job packing the soil down to get a good seedbed to work with.

Not only has the Degelman increased his productivity, but Lee has also seen how much stronger and more durable it is than other tillage units he has used in the past. He finds it convenient that each disk is attached individually, rather than being all together in one piece, making them more accessible and easier to remove and replace if necessary. Between the weight of each disk and the sturdy frame, he is confident in the longevity of the machine, and has seen why the brand has coined the phrase ‘built like a Degelman.’ “My kids will be using this same equipment when they are my age; they are built to last you a lifetime,” says Lee. 

It is clear to see that to Lee and Tiffany, having the best and most reliable equipment is extremely important, not only for their farming and hunting operation today, but also to benefit their children, who they hope will continue the operation in the future. “Every family farmer should realize how lucky they are to be able to farm,” says Lee. “It is no secret why they want to keep passing this great way of life down to their children.”