“Good morning, Terry.
“I’m alive, I think, but by accident only. It’s been a wild year. Ten days for seeding starting on June the 4th, then 10 inches of rain the rest of June. No summerfallow until mid-August, until all the weeds headed out. Worked what we could. Seeded 400 acres of alfalfa into dry soil because we worked it to death. No rain for a month. No germ(ination). Then when it started raining, it did not stop until we got another 10-12 inches.
“Cutting green canola and over-ripe canola because of spring drown-outs and now the alfalfa we seeded this summer has dead spots from water sitting on it. Our full-time hired man got sick in May; didn’t come back until harvest. We did finish harvest, but only because we bought a third combine. One cultivation in before freeze-up. Now trying to put stuff away for winter, but the storm on the weekend covered everything with four inches of snow.
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“Lost our internet this summer and just got it back in October with a new provider: 1,600 emails, got it down to 400. Did not do much after we met on the succession planning. Will be starting again ASAP. Will touch base as soon as we get ourselves reorganized.
“Thks. — RW.”
That’s a note I received from a farm family early in November. My first reaction when I read the note was, “wow!” I showed it to a couple of people who work with me and their reaction was the same: “wow!” It’s really quite something.
Here we have a farm family who have endured one challenge after another, from weather to personal to technology related issues. What did they do? They persevered through it. It speaks to the resiliency of farm families in general as well as to their commitment and passion. If you didn’t have passion for farming, why wouldn’t you have thrown up your hands in frustration. All right already. We’ve had enough.
But that’s not this family, and that’s not thousands upon thousands of other farm families, either. What I find to be really significant is that the passion and commitment that is so evident here spans the generations.
It’s not just RW, who happens to be the senior generation. He says that the family wants to continue with their succession planning, which means that the next generation, which has experienced the same “year to forget,” is willing to ante up and commit to the long-term future of the farm. That, I think, is special.
There are obviously lots of good and positive reasons why the family wants to continue with the business and endure the challenges so that they can reap the benefits. In my opinion, RW deserves recognition for the leadership he’s provided to his family and to his community.
For countless other farms, the leadership that has been provided by the senior generation is what has got us to where we are and provides the next generation with a solid foundation from which to build into the future. Simply stated, you stay the course. It speaks volumes to the essence of farmers and farm families.
