Why I chose agriculture
I’ve been on this farm my whole life. My parents’ guidance helped me determine my decision to farm. They taught me values through chores, caring for the livestock and the soil. I started farming in 1978 right out of high school.
Our greatest challenge
Controlling input costs is certainly a challenge. Seed, electricity, fuel and chemicals are all necessities and seem to be getting higher priced all the time. Sometimes we have to spend money to make more money.
Our vision for the operation
Since we started farming, we’ve tried to steadily grow. Hopefully there will be more changes and we keep growing. We want to look back and be proud of what we’ve done, to create an operation that can support our family. This is what we love and if our kids would like to step into our shoes, we will do everything possible to make it work. We are in the early stages of planning for our kids to potentially step into the operation. It takes a lot of communication and time.
How we know we’re heading in the right direction
I like what we’ve done. We are always trying to make improvements. We make an effort to be good stewards of the land by maintaining terraces and planting cover crops. We’ve updated our cattle-handling facilities to make them safer for us and more comfortable for the cattle. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so we take it one day at a time.
Raising kids on the farm
We taught our daughters the value of hard work when they were young. Every Saturday we would all move pigs and clean pens. And when we would get cattle in, the whole family was there and everybody had a job to do. It was always a family operation. Now that our daughters are grown, they and their husbands help out when they can. It’s good to see the next generation take part in the farm.
What I enjoy most about farming
Roger: I enjoy seeing beef cows walk across the green grass of the Flint Hills with baby calves alongside. This year, it’s rained so the grass is up to the cows’ bellies, the corn ears are fat and the soybeans are tall. I always enjoy seeing what we’ve produced, but in a good year, it gives you an especially good feeling.
Angelina: I like when all our kids and grandkids are here playing in the yard or going with their papa to look at the calves. We enjoy time as a family.
Why we work with Frontier Farm Credit
I started with Farm Credit in 1978 when I first started farming. My parents cosigned a loan for me – and we have stayed with them ever since. They know our operation and we have had a good relationship.
Frontier Farm Credit does a good job with customer service. They are friendly and timely. We feel like they sincerely want our business.
