55 Years and Counting From The Tractor Seat

By Bill Whitman

 Recently I met with Dayne and Jenna Jessup. This young man and his family have re-entered farming after skipping a generation. I couldn’t help but wonder how many young folks today are in a similar situation. Dayne talks about memories of riding in his grandfather Don’s John Deere tractor as a young man doing field work. Kindled at that time in Dayne was a desire to farm. When he talked about starting to farm with his family, his grandfather’s sage advice was “Don’t do it”. 

Grandma Donna and Dayne’s dad, Garry, describe a very young Dayne as having an operating farm with toy machinery, stored under the dining room table, and maintaining his fields, made up of the home’s carpet neat and clean. As I looked around when we pulled into his farmstead and when we left, he brought those same attitudes with him to the real world. 

Dayne would go on to college with the intention of becoming a history teacher, but the tug of farming proved too strong. In 2014 he had the opportunity to rent a neighboring farm and with the help of Alan, a neighbor and mentor, started. Dayne began farming using his mentor’s equipment and trading labor and paying custom rates for the use of his equipment.

As happens all too often today, farm labor is generally understaffed and the load put on one person. The Jessup Farm is no exception. The risk of farming rented ground, taking on his family’s ground, the need to provide consistent income for his family, Dayne finds himself involved in a couple of side businesses. Seed sales and Blackstone Ag Solutions, a business spreading all forms of fertilizer, Dayne and his family have become a viable agriculture family.

In talking with Dayne and his family, yet another challenge surfaced that farmers across the country are facing, land values. During Dayne’s lifetime, area land prices will force him to consider other options. Dayne describes his options as “Plan b and Plan c”. It occurred to me that in the very near future this will be a hurdle that forces Dayne and his family, as well as hundreds if not thousands of young farmers countrywide, to recognize that their current environment will evolve and will require relocation. 

When I talked with Dayne and his family about the future, I was struck with their belief that in some way or another, agriculture would be their future. I was also intrigued with the acceptance of their circumstances and their embrace the challenges coming, this year and the years beyond. It was easy to see the future in the eyes of Darby and Stetson, Dayne and Jenna’s daughter and son. With family determined to carry on instilling family values that are found in rural America today, we left the Jessup Farm believing again in American agriculture’s future.

IndianaAg@Bluemarble.net