Harvest of Thanks to our Farm Family

Tonight My Farmer and I get recognized as a finalist for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation's Young Farmer Achievement Award.  This recognizes young farmers, ages 35 and under, for their growth and progress of their farm and leadership achievements through the start of their career.  We are both honored and humbled to be finalist this year and we can't wait to find out tonight how we place!

Being a finalist for this award wouldn't be possible without our farm family.  We have been very fortunate to have such a great support system behind us.  Both of our families, neighbors and community members have backed us in different ways.  I wanted to recognize a couple members of our farm family to say thank you.

We would first like to thank my father-in-law.  He is the one who gave My Farmer the foundation and inspiration to farm starting at a young age.  He also helped My Farmer get the resources needed so he could build his pig barns in college.  Today, we work daily with each other.  As My Farmer describes in the video, we farm in parallel with each other; while it isn't a partnership, we trade labor back and forth, as well as share equipment.  Working with an established farmer, like my father-in-law, has been a huge asset for us as young farmers, as capital can be hard to get initially.  I also know that my father-in-law works hard to give us the opportunities to succeed, just like we as parents are now doing so for our children.

Next we'd like to thank our neighbor, friend and landlord Merlin.  Merlin has been a long-time family friend and neighbor.  I can't say enough of how great a man he is.  When My Farmer and I were dating Merlin was one of the first people I met from the community.  We instantly connected.  I think at some community events early on some people wondered "who is that girl with Merlin?" rather than "who is that girl with My Farmer?" 😉  Merlin too wants us to succeed.  Besides helping us out seasonally with field work, he is also one of our landlords that we rent crop acres from.  Most importantly, he really is like family.  He is like an extra grandpa for our children and we do fun things outside of the farm with him like going to Nut Frys, Church and Saturday Night Pizza.

The last member of our farm family I want to thank and share with all of you is Rusty.  Rusty is one of our long-time farm workers and I don't know if it is his favorite job, but it is probably the job he does the most, and that is drive semi, like he is seen standing in front of here.  The thing I appreciate the most about Rusty is his hard work ethic and fun attitude.  Things can get stressful on the farm, especially during our busy seasons of harvest and planting, but Rusty knows just what to do calm everyone down and make everyone laugh.  I guess you could say that Rusty helps keep our whole farm family sane during tough times.

This list wouldn't be complete without also thanking both sets of our parents, our sisters, our landlords, Cole, Tom, Hunter and Jared.  It takes this entire crew, this entire farm family, to make what we do everyday possible.  So thank you to our entire farm family. 😊

Do you have extra "family" members or a "tribe" that helps you succeed?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!