Marion County farmer Chasen Stevenson says he always planned on returning to his family’s farm near Knoxville after graduating from Iowa State University.

"All I ever wanted to do was come back here. It was just trying to figure out how to make it work," says Stevenson, 28, taking a break inside the cattle shed as he waits for a storm to roll in.

It turned out that cattle helped Stevenson get his start in...