To Be a Farmer

I am eighteen years old, live in a midwestern city, and I would like to be a farmer. Here are my thoughts about future options and my plan.

I learned in American history that farming as an occupation has for centuries been passed down from generation to generation. The German tradition, the base for much of midwestern agriculture, called for the oldest son to inherit the home farm. His siblings had to find another farm or, preferably, find a spouse that might inherit a farm.

The farm operation was guided by tradition, the crops and livestock adapted to the area and the soil, and the farm size dependent on what the family labor and a team of horses or, by the mid-1900s, a tractor could handle. The market for crops, livestock, and poultry, or milk and eggs, was local.

In the early 2000s, there exists an entirely different circumstance and farm business structure. As I drive the countryside I see vast acreages of a single crop, equipment of massive size and dollar cost for planting or harvesting, and it is rare to see chickens or pigs around a farmstead. From time to time in the spring I see cows and their calves grazing green pastures but most cattle are in large feedlots or a series of open structures, perhaps holding up to several thousand head. Down the road I might find a complex of four or five metal sided buildings, each with batteries of large exhaust fans at one end and what appear to be feed bins at the other end. I gather these complexes hold thousands of broilers, layers, or pigs. The only dairy farm in our county has more than three thousand cows, three shifts of workers, and milking is around the clock. The milk is rapidly chilled on its way to a tanker and one tanker departs for a distant processing plant about every eight hours.

The local banker told my dad that some of these farmers have more than a million dollars invested and may borrow as much or more each year for annual operating expenses, such as seed, fertilizer, and livestock feed. Dad says those farmers must already have a good bit of what is called equity – – land, equipment, animals, or savings – – to be able to borrow such amounts of money for operations.

When I read farm publications, focus seems be on three things. The first is marketing, the use of contracts or what is called the “futures market,” to limit the farmer’s financial risk. Second is plant and animal genetics, the lines or varieties that yield more and that are tolerant to disease, insects, or, in the case of crops, to pesticides. Third is government programs and control, from subsidized revenue insurance to rules for handling animal waste.

In the newspaper or major news magazines, mention of agriculture usually involves global competition and trade, from the status of Brazil’s crop to Europe’s bans on some genetically modified grains. There is more to farming than just tending the animals and crops.

I like to work and earn money. I have carried newspapers since I was twelve. In the summer I mow lawns; in the winter I scoop neighbors’ sidewalks. Both of my parents have good jobs, but there is no way I can accumulate, or my parents can provide, the money I would need for any of farm  operations I see in the area.

To become some type of farmer, it seems to me I have three options, 1) find a job at one of those large animal operations or crop farms and try to work up to a management position, 2) find a job and career where I can save enough money to buy, live on, and operate a small farm of my own, or 3) find a spouse or relative that lets me become part of and maybe help grow an existing farm business.

I will hedge my bets. Having my parents’ encouragement and some savings of my own, I will enroll in a college of agriculture. I will get a part time job, either in one of the college labs, on one of the college farms, or on a farm near the college. If I take a summer break from college, I will seek a job on a farm, in one of those large animal production units, or in a farm-related business. In those four years, odds are that one or more specific area, perhaps through a college course or instructor, will capture my interest. At the same time, I may find a future spouse whose interests parallel mine and who will support and encourage.

I realize that, at age 18 and yet without that college and work experience, those three options are only general options. If time and fate bring me to intense interest in animals, I may find myself pursuing graduate study in such a discipline as animal genetics or nutrition, even construction engineering, with emphasis on poultry or livestock facilities. There could be a parallel route in crop production, even in the horticulture or turf grass area.

If I should be fortunate enough to find a future spouse whose parents or grandparents need one of my intense desire to join the family farm operation, and our personalities and goals mesh, that could fulfill my current dream.

Should none of these latter routes emerge, I am determined to find a job in some business or perhaps even in education, that will keep me close to agriculture. It should give me exposure to existing farm operations, keep me alert to the business and technology trends, and also let me save enough to somehow start my own farm.  If that be the eventual route, a high priority in job search will be finding the right boss, a person that will help me grow and develop.

Fifteen years from now, in 2031, I hope to retrieve this “plan” from my files and review what will have happened.

 

Duane Acker

1007 words