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Jesup, IA | Hello Ridger:
I am really not confident that there is anything I could say that would meet your approval. But I do want to invite you to my farm and have a chance to get acqainted with you personally. Maybe it would change your opinion, and if it doesn't, I'd like to learn from you.
Also I doubt that the following things will change your view, but I'd just like to say:
I have 4 kids all interested in agriculture, the oldest just graduated from college, and after they get some work experience away from the family farm, they are welcome to come join in. I'd be very surprised if 3 of them didn't pursue a career in farming. The expansion I have pursued is to ascertain a place for them.
I might also add that I have a few great career employees here at my farm because there was not a place for them at home. Does that count for anything? Because working at my farm has given them a chance to do what they love vs. work at a factory, drive truck, etc.
Also, I'm proud to have helped two young people start farming. One worked for me and borrowed my equipment to start out and is now on his own and doing great. The other needed some capital and direction.
Again, I don't expect any of this to meet your approval. But I'm glad these things are part of my farm heritage and history.
Recently, I let Progressive Farmer write a story about my new (waited and saved 23 years to build it) grain facility. Maybe this is something you recently saw. I let them write the story because knowing what decisions others have arrived at has helped my decision making. But the bottom line is that this was something I thought I could invest in to make the current production on my farm more profitable (cut drying and storage costs, hold grain into better markets). I did this INSTEAD of expanding acres.
Ridger, please make it a point to stop by and introduce yourself sometime soon. You will be welcomed and I'd like to meet you. Magazine articles just make farmers sound like they just push buttons and write checks to rent more land. My life is more focused on drying corn all night, fighting waterhemp, raising kids, keeping trucks and equipment rolling and trying to figure out how to stay in business with $3 corn.
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shortage of farmers
