I spent a good amount of time at the great Indiana State Fair earlier this month at various events: the annual ham breakfast, opening ceremonies, industry meetings, the Harvest Dinner, hosting tours for folks from the East Coast and enjoying fair traditions with my daughter.
However, something surprised me at the Celebration of Agriculture this year. A family was being introduced as the fifth generation to run their family business and someone behind me gasped with surprise, “Oh my! Did you hear that? The fifth generation!” I was taken aback by their astonishing response to a fact that seemed so common to me, especially in agriculture. But if I’ve learned over time, and apparently had forgotten during my time at the state fair, that not everyone understands the traditions and the generations tied to agriculture.
As I made my way home that day, I stopped at the farm for our daughter to see Dad and for her to hang out with great-grandma’s goose in the backyard. We went inside for a little visit, and as grandpa began to talk I was reminded of that astonished gasp earlier in the day and realized that not everyone gets to interact with multiple generations in a family business.
Most people don’t get to hear the stories about horses pulling plows and outhouses for bathrooms. A majority of people don’t get to watch their ancestors talk while they motion with their worn hands that have seen decades of hard work, hardships and happiness. However, I get to and so does my daughter, even though she doesn’t understand. She gets to experience being the sixth generation of farmers in my family, and I’m not sure what generation in my husband’s. His ancestors are still farming in Germany where they came from, so let’s just say it’s been a few.
My daily work allows me to interact with farmers and agribusiness professionals who have been in the business for generations. It also affords me the opportunity to communicate and work with people who aren’t part of any generation of farming — the ones whose ancestors either weren’t a part of agriculture or might have been at one point in history, but their stories are lost and worn hands gone. So it’s critical we share our stories to folks not connected to agriculture and share stories from past generations.
One thing I’ve learned over the past few years as an adult making decisions in agriculture, not a child playing on the farm, is that each generation faces the ups and downs of agriculture, from the weather to the markets to trade disruptions and everything else in between. It’s constant.
Every generation deals with hardships and tragedy in one way or another. It’s never the same and it shouldn’t be. A lot of people are talking about the current downturn in the farm economy and how young farmers haven’t ever seen times like these or the times that are coming. Maybe we haven’t, but what we’ve learned from past generations is sacrifice and suffering is part of the job and it’s worth it, for the future generations.
And kudos to the first generation farmers for taking the chance and the risk to start something with so many uncertainties, but yet with so many rewards. Without people like them, there wouldn’t be longtime family farms with multiple generations.
And to all the farmers who have been around for generations, stick around. When my daughter stops in for a visit, while her kids play on the goose in your yard, I want you to tell her stories with your worn farm hands of the ways things used to be, in your generation.
Katie Glick grew up on her family farm in Martinsville, Indiana and now lives with her husband and their daughter on their family farm near Columbus, Indiana where they grow corn, soybeans, wheat and raise cattle and have a private seed company. She is a graduate of Purdue University and has worked in Indiana politics. She now works in the agriculture industry within our state. She shares her personal, work, travel and farm life stories on her blog, “Fancy in the Country”.
