The farmer's wife

Hi I'm Katie sigh. I'll be talking tonight with some members of Wisconsin's agricultural community about some of the issues our farmers are facing today. Let's get started by first taking a look at some scenes from the PBS documentary The farmer's wife. The film takes a close look into the world of a struggling Nebraska farm family. Daryl and one need a bush cutter. We hear the story in their own words their lives and breathes funny. There's a connection to the way that I know most people loneliness and. Need about three quarters twenty. Nine years ago when we first moved onto this arm. We are really optimistic and we want to start farming that I'd be able to stay home and teach to the kids and I still think. Kids need mommy home. We thought we could make a decent living. And I suppose it was just too good to be true. There always is. You know show him what he wants things to be better of course but. So he doesn't want to realize how bad they really are.

So hard for me to see the times Larry get better I can never. Have. Money again. It's a sentiment that rings true for many Wisconsin farmers as well. Tonight we have ag experts from several backgrounds from the University of Wisconsin from the government perspective. Some farmers advocates and some farmers to address some questions raised in the show. Welcome. Not coming from a farm background myself I see this and it scares me. How typical is this family. From what I see it's from my 70 some years experience as a farmer. That if it's very typical in some areas there are pockets of people that are doing well. But when that land isn't this good and people don't have the opportunities of. Parents passing on the knowledge or money or farms. It's very difficult for young people without an even older people who have a debt.

Now can Dave address you are farmers. Do you feel this is your story at all. This is not our story at all. We the land part comes into play. It is very crucial we are on a very productive land but we also did not take over a family farm and we did go out on our own and start our own first generation family farm. And yes it is tough getting started but at the same hand we feel we are very successful at this point and we have struggled some but by no means to this degree. I think one thing that has helped us out an awful lot too we do work together I gave up my career off the farm to expand our dairy farm and one of the things that is critical to us is having a business plan and having. We know that for each acre of ground we rent we know we have to have X amount of production in order for the ground to pay for itself. And I think thats very critical in any business whether in farming or any business that you have a plan and you can show a profit and know what's going to make money because if you are going to make money. I think you have to think about is this the right decision for me.

Now some of you work as advocates and provide resources to farm families do you feel like enough farm families take advantage of those resources. Four hundred ninety two farm families like the bush cutters and as a dairy farmer here in Wisconsin only 8 months ago I was virtually where these people were I was able to turn around and keep working. One of the things we have to to think about though when we see a couple like this is where does their capital come from. In my case my problem was I was new to the area. I didn't have a sufficient credit report because of a divorce. It was all in his name. And the only way I could didn't do anything to manage my business was from month to month to the milk check. And the only thing that changed for me was there was a new plan through our mill plan that allowed me to large my herd to meet the demands of what I needed. All right so what do you do when there is no money. I mean what is says in the in the show she says I feel like we're never going to have money again I mean what do you do.

You know I think farmers are not unlike myself other people that have jobs and me have trouble finding in Street Farmers don't live down necessarily in public that they might be having trouble. And I think that's where we kind of come in to try to help them direct into resources that are out there to maybe help them get them from month to month or help them to get that long range manager's management plan in place so that they do have some continued success. Well let's talk about some of those resources what is out there. One of the things that I've been able to do and through working with Monsanto dairy is start a series of peer groups that focus on specifically dairy women then we also have just producers couples together. But basically what it is it's serves as a support network. And yeah you're also going to talk about things that were having this challenge what are you doing on your operation that we can incorporate but also some very positive things about we're using this for a budget sheet or we're using this computer program those things that they can incorporate because what we've

really found out some of the best resources producers have is each other. And I would echo that to Katie. I direct the Wisconsin farm Center at the department buying culture training. So protection. We have a toll free number that farmers can call I think Wisconsin is lucky to have a pretty good program that can find resources put farmers in touch with other farmers or other farm families because farmers do learn best from each other and that farmer to Farmer networking that is done is is a very helpful resource. And beyond learning how much of that emotional support is also kind of a critical factor. I'm with university extension and one of our goals is to help families with their not only their finances in terms of the farm operation the farm business but also in terms of the family living expenses. And we have in each county we have extension faculty that do work with teams whether it's the the accountants or the lawyers or the Along with the family much as Geany does that then we have teams that

do assist farmers. And we're talking about assisting them in kind of the nuts and bolts you know you're talking about planning finances but I'm also wondering who helps when. With the emotional stress. Because I would imagine you would need help in those areas as well. Yes you know one thing that I found hard when I. Worked with people was to keep my mouth closed and listen. And but once I started listening and no matter how much I felt was wrong with what the people were saying they had to get it out. Farmers are pretty difficult like Thomas said to say with the thing and soul. If they if you let them think they're important or make them feel important because they are important. I think there's a loss of dignity there that we have to restore and some hope. And some pride in themselves. And then from there on you can start. Giving in programs and resources that they can use. Working with a Wisconsin farmer one of the aspects of our of our program is working with the

women who are members. And and as you watch this this series you saw how Juanita. Really took some of the leadership in trying to to build that relationship and we try to get the resources to them seeing there probably that link in that family that's going to take their first step if there are relationship problems in trying to seek some help that traditionally has not been it's not been the male farmer that is opened up to seek their help. Let's talk about relationship for a minute. Most of us who are married manage a household with our spouse but don't also then have to manage a business. And I would think it would be incredibly difficult not to blur those lines that when things are going wrong with the business that that doesn't also seep into the marriage. Is that correct. There's there's an old saying out there that I've heard since I was a little girl when poverty comes in the door goes out. And today when you look at the farming situation you can stand one straight answer to stress. With the lack of tab. But one after one after one day in and day out it always takes its toll

and you start looking for somebody to blame. And that's one thing that impressed me with this film as well as some of the farmers I've worked with here. They blamed they solved. And then Juanita did something about it she just didn't lay down and die. And I think that shows her strength the character that said a lot of us out here in the countryside will be going to say Pat I will say I also think it's important there again to have a plan when we were first married and got started and we were putting in well you sleep still do so but we were putting in so many hours. And after a year of doing this we said this isn't going right. Something's not right. What we decided after a year of marriage was once a week before we had children before we had children once a week we set a weekly date. We got off the farm and we went to see a movie whether we go to the cheap seats whatever. It's an inexpensive evening out we make time for the marriage because that's primarily important. And with three children in their family now we still make a date at least every other week and the two of us will go out.

That's what really moved me about this film is watching the progression of the relationship and I think that's one of the most compelling things about the farmer's wife is the film's intense focus on the relationship between Daryl and when Ada in three years of filming we see them go through some pretty hard times. I mend their own nose. She's nearly 16. We were out at a party. In the country. I said don't tailgate next to move his pickup. And we started playing footsie. With a hell of a good farm operation build up. Until but 1988 when the drought hit us. Something would happen every day. You know between people calling wanting money or people coming into the door wanting money. In 91 the bank could send us a letter saying they were ready to liquidate her operation. And that if not the little girl went to work full time up to four. You know or something.

I suppose it's a constant worry am I going to be farming this fall or am I going to be forced to sell me through it's like they're holding us in the dark cause it you know we have no idea what's going to happen for sure. We're inside a check and they're going to positing to this he writes To can't have any money out of it you know. Well. We're time I just start making decisions on my own. And now I think he has such little confidence in himself. It's like it's a relief to him that he doesn't have to be responsible for making all the decisions. You know I've had to give some my dream because I would have loved to just been a stay at home mom but I guess I like to become proud of the part I had in saving the farm. Sometimes this film just breaks your heart mind at least. And. What do you tell women Kristin you have a women's group. What do you tell women to do when times are really tough. Well one of the biggest things with my group. I think it's just a general support network. You

know whether you were involved in farming or involved in the business you have good times and you have bad times. But just as far as a support network you know that other people are in that together. And I think it's very optimistic because they they plan goals you know this worked in our operation how can it work in years and it's very optimistic forward thinking how can we make things better. You know not dwell on you know finding the solution is the key. I think you also learn in this support group how other families work with the older generation. Which I think is a real interesting situation for the Bush cutters in that they are trying to eventually take over the farm that Darrell's father owns and throughout the movie that we don't know exactly what the finances are on that farm how much debt it's carrying and so forth. So whether or not the operation is viable is always a it's always a question. And I think that whole idea of sharing finances and talking about succession issues and compensation for that for your work I think that's always difficult so I think the fact that they

use a mediator at one point I think is wonderful. I mean that's a third party that can sort of help direct direct this this interaction between those generations. Why is it always difficult does it have to be difficult I mean here you're talking family you're passing out a business from a father to a son or daughter. Why does that have to be difficult. Times are different. With the older generation like myself then it is with the younger they we had better advantages at certain times. Values of land and machinery were much cheaper than the machine we bought 20 years ago will sell for the same price tractors as they did then. So these people. There's a lot of misunderstanding the older generation not understanding the young and being criticised by the older the younger ones being criticized and the other thing is their blaming themselves which they should not do. They should look for solutions like we're talking about for instance the gap in the nav to the two international trade programmes are going to bring prices down. They're there.

Their schedules are slanted to do that and for instance right now the prices of dairy corn and other commodities are exactly the same as they were or less 20 years ago. Meanwhile costs are going up so we need to work together to raise the prices or hold them at a level so that these people don't blame themselves and get caught in the emotional mess like you see there. So it's very difficult and these aren't easy things to talk about either with family when you're talking about succession and money and giving up your livelihood. It's a matter of trying to release control and likewise a farmer that has. Had that farm passed on to him. And it has lived on that farm also left a mess not that's not easy for somebody just to decide. I've had it I'm going to walk away and necessary let my son or daughter take over. It's just emotionally difficult to to walk away from something that's been a big part of your life. And and I think you see a little bit of that here but I think as we look at transitions of farms it's very important

that they start you know that they start building that relationship you're seeing where kids are showing cattle at the fair and eventually owning that well before they even are at a high school. And so they're studying that transition and I think it's very important to this whole series is about relationships. And if if they're able to to work through that I think you can carry on a successful farm operation. Did you take on the family farm. No we did not. We started our own first generation farm. One of the things I want to get to here that has not been brought up is education. I only have a couple I only have a high school degree but if you put together the time that I spend reading going to management conferences all that sort of stuff. You know I could've probably graduated college three four times now and have time in what too many people do not do is they do not spend the time to read research and. Make some decisions when they do it. Don't sit here and say well dad did it this way so I want to do it this way. Take the time to research it and we aren't melting the same breed of cows that my dad will be there and of

course when we did that only it was quite a drastic change. And the older generation might feel criticized by the changes being made by kids right. Same or we felt criticized as well. Yeah we I mean at that me they me feel criticized by then as we went into this we also did not receive. While his folks were pretty good but especially from the people our own age and people in general did know. They did not support we took a lot of reading just to move into jerseys from Holsteins we took a lot of guff about it and and I think that. You have to be supportive no matter where you are. Your family would be supportive and like Dave said education. Because I know like for us where Juanita went back to school when we started our farm our first three years I was still finishing my degree I was had gone back to school after taking some time off out of high school but we made a conscious decision at that time that. If anything went wrong if we had an accident or something went wrong. I've got that degree to fall back on and I think that's important for people to realize is that you get your

education and you've always got that. Do you have hopes of your children taking over your farm. It would be nice but we're not planning on it is their decision. We everything that we do on the farm is based as far as from a family standpoint right now one of the things we did do is expanded for the reason to spend more time with our kids because with having some employees in the dairy industry it's a seven day a week job twice a night morning and night. Well if I have to be there morning and night or one of us has to be there somebody is missing kid functions at school. So we expanded for that reason. Now. Some people really frown at it when I say and we both agreed on this. If I can when our kids graduate and when they graduate from high school if they want to go on to school that we'd like them to go on to school naturally but if they don't they're out of the house. They're not we're going to have fun. You go out you get you learn what it's like to live on your own even if they come. They can go there for a go get a four year degree and bury

science with all intentions or coming back home or going on the farm. Still going to say see any year. They'll find a job. Learn what it's like to be out somewhere else and then come back you'll have all renewed respect for how nice it can be at home also. You can chime in here folks. Sure I agree with that. Our children we had 10 children and all of them went on to school and we did exactly what he's saying there that it was their decision and we did not build our farm for them. And I've seen farmers that have it was really really difficult because they expected too much from the kids and the kid maybe did not want to do this. So we do need to let the children get out and make some of the rest of the world and get an education. I keep going to school I would not if I had time but I'm too busy to be involved in other things but it's very very interesting to go to school now. I think another concern that that we have with the with the Bush cutters is that that whatever plan they have for the future it the getting it down on paper and

talking to the Father and Mother and getting that lined up earlier. In other words if they're 10 years 9 or 10 years into this marriage with three little kids and it looks to me like they're living with a lot of uncertainty and insecurity not knowing where he stands relative to the other brothers and sisters if something should happen to the Father and the mother on the way home from church we I suspect that that farm would be divided up evenly among those siblings which would not take into account all the sweat equity that Carol has built up in that farm. And the fact that they've waited 10 years sort of concerns me. The other comment that I noticed the Darrell made was he said I don't know what the bank's going to do. Thank you. I don't know if I'm going to do our business last year he felt like he was in the dark and really a farmer should know where he stands and if Heath feels like the bank is going to do something that he doesn't know about he ought to go and see the bank you know is he

talking to the policy they were at home ha. Yes they were if I may change and that doesn't mean that they can walk into the bank like a normal person and secure a loan in a week. In this particular case they went through the appeals process. That's what they were talking about on the supervised bank account. They did not have any right to their money after they finally won the right to the operating line and that line was fought for for over a month which means when it came in there their crop went in later than it should and then it turned out everything was gone if they didn't gamble. But the one thing that does concern me and when Jeannie was saying is that there is not a month that doesn't go by that I'm talking to are financial. For us it's a banker he knows what's going on when it's happening and that's going to happen whether F-ed me or what you are but that is a necessity we are our banker knows us he visits our farm when we make changes when we're going to do something he's always apprised of it well ahead of what's going to happen and that didn't concern me is that I didn't see them.

You know for us it's a routine we don't go months without talking to the man they knew in the nunnery. Now the issues that we're seeing in this film are they pretty universal or there are some things that are unique to Wisconsin farmers. Well some things are different they were crop farmers and here were dairy farmers and they have a very very busy season and maybe some seasons aren't as busy as dairy farmers were busy every day all day as we've been talking about and so it's a different situation to that degree but they've also in those areas the family farmers are gone. I work with a woman on our board in Colorado so there's no dry land wheat farmers left. The price was so bad and the things we saw here were actually more family farms. People on the land here than in those areas probably don't have much time left just a couple minutes and I'd like to ask you your gut reaction to this portrayal of farm life. Does this give the general public a better

understanding of what's happening on the farm or is it too severe. Personally I feel it's too severe but. I have no we have not lived to that degree and in our. Maybe it's partly due to our area that we live in and also it is as a rule a very prosperous area from the standpoint of productivity of land and just generally people in the area seem the number one thing when you're in a dairy industry when you're milking cows as you need to get a lot of milk out of cows and they make money and that seems to be the case in our area. I would say it's not atypical for farmers who probably started with too little capital and had very little support I felt like they didn't have. The real family support friends support social support that they needed at times that they really needed that so I would say it's not atypical. However I thought it was a little harsh especially from a Wisconsin perspective but the thing that I think impressed me most was the relationship between those two parties and how

that changed between Juanita and Darrell and that to me is the story the setting happens to be on a farm. But the real story is their relationship and how they grew in that standpoint of being a farmer. And having been there. I feel like it's very true. I feel like I want to advantage that I was able to pull up better than they have. Being a Wisconsin dairy farmer I have a monthly check. When your row cropping your you know pending on seasonal income and so when it's further in between whatever captor you can get the further down you go and I think that's one thing we were saying. And I do have to say they really worked on that relationship. I have to admire that in them. I was add that. It's important for the consuming public and the urban population which is over ninety nine percent now of the population to know that it is difficult and that there is should be some dignity connected with raising food when prices are too lol and people are struggling. That takes the dignity out of food. It takes it out of the person who's

producing it. And that's very difficult so they've lost their dignity. We need to put dignity into raising food. How would a dignified profession that is and we should be. Talking to consumers so they're aware of how important that is. And because we get a decent price does that mean the consumer is not going to be able to go to the grocery store and afford to buy a product. That was also typical in that the family living expenses were down to bare bones. And I think that's typical and perhaps essential in a farming operation that the family the living expenses frequently aren't are given maybe did the giving their due in that although one needed talks about how the family is number one and the farm is is number two seemingly the way thanks to her resourcefulness However the way they live. I would almost think it was the reverse. Except for as Jeannie said their relationship does seem to change and we do admire them for that.

I was going to comment that I feel very optimistic as far as the dairy industry in the Midwest and Wisconsin. And one of the best things producers have is now producers can work with management teams you know you're including your banker your including your veterinary nutritionist industry professionals there's a wealth of resources that we can use in order to become more effective. I think along with that there's I think more interest in involvement in trying to be involved in that marketing and pricing side. That was probably part of Agriculture years ago there's there was a gap where we're just going to let the system kind of work and now I think there's looking back at how they can be more a bigger part of the whole chain from the farm right to the consumer. Dave you felt that that really wasn't your experience per se and that pad you truly are the farmer's wife. So as you heard the farmer's partner I would say where the farmer's partner. I think in working together we. Dave and I are aware of the stresses we've been through when we went through expansion when times are tight and you have to work together and you have to find ways that

we set aside time to talk about us and make it work. And I think that I married my best friend and I have to remember that and I have to remember to go to him and say when we didn't went to expansion I did very stressful. Let's talk about it. All right that's all our time tonight. The program is the farmer's wife. I would encourage you to watch it it's extremely powerful. Thank you all so much for being here with us tonight and giving us your unique perspectives on farming in Wisconsin and thank you for watching. Goodbye.