When Susan Brown started at the Farm Service Agency in 1983, she was a temporary employee at a small desk in a back corner.
She will retire at the end of October as lead program analyst for the Nemaha County Farm Service Agency office. Some of the families she serves are now in their fifth generation of working with her.
"I worked with the grandpas, the dads, the sons, their sons and now their kids," Brown said.
Brown was hired by Marvin Green, then the county executive director, when the agency was called the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. Temporary hires could be extended only 90 days at a time, and her first stint ended around 1985. She returned as a temporary in November 1987 and was hired full time in 1991 when another employee retired.
Since then, the agency became the Consolidated Farm Service Agency and later the Farm Service Agency. The office moved from its location near Pizza Hut to the former Auburn Furniture store for six months, then to its current building at 918 26th St. on Aug. 4, 1994. Brown remembers the date because she tracked the building plans and construction as part of her administrative duties.
Hand-drawn maps gave way to digital mapping, and the office's first computer system gave way to fully electronic records. The paperwork, she said, never shrank.
"The farmers always say when they come in, 'I thought this was supposed to get easier,'" Brown said. "The government loves paperwork. That's just the way it is."
Over the years, Brown has handled acreage reporting, the Conservation Reserve Program, the Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, disaster and emergency programs and payment eligibility and payment limitation, which she called one of her biggest responsibilities. She also processed the office payroll by hand for years.
When she started, the office had nine or 10 full-time employees and several temporaries. Budget cuts have reduced the staff to three: Brown, Rhonda Joy and Emily Gerdes. Brown's position will not be refilled. They are managed by Jordan Schaardt.
In October 2023, Brown traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive an administrative award for service to agriculture, which recognizes non-supervisory employees for significant contributions to the agency's and USDA's goals.
"I felt like the appreciation for everything I had done had just kind of paid off," she said.
The job let her attend every school event for her three daughters. Brown's daughter Emily Zech died in 2020 after a battle with breast cancer. Because the COVID-19 pandemic had closed the office, Brown was able to work from her daughter's home and help care for her during hospice.
"I couldn't have asked for a more supportive agency and friends and family," Brown said.
In retirement, Brown plans to help her daughter Hannah in Lincoln, who is expecting her second child, and spend time with grandchildren who call her "Un." She also plans to play more golf and travel to markets with her sister, who owns a boutique in South Carolina.
"Everyone always kept telling me, you'll know when you know," Brown said. "I just know I'm ready."
The office will host an open house during business hours Oct. 27-28 at 918 26th St. Her family is hosting a retirement party open to the public from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Auburn Country Club.
"I'm going to walk out of here feeling accomplished, like I have helped the local farmers and ranchers," Brown said. "I don't think I'm going to look back and have any regrets."
