What is your agriculture story?

I have a blog, and I spend most of my time talking about hot topics in agriculture, where America would be with out agriculture, the harsh winter we had and some of us our still having. But I like to bring it back to a personal touch, and I am fascinated about folks Ag story. How agriculture impacts them, if they work on a family operations how many generations removed are they, trials that you fought through. I think that they should be noted and I would love to hear about them. So please post your Ag story so you can share it with myself as well as others on steerplanet!! Thank You Much!! : ) Lindsey

both sides of my family settled near the cherokee strip just after it.  we have the original land patent on one of them.  not sure if we have the other.  during the depression some of them moved to texas to some sort of commune and when the dust settled, they left the commune.  the land is leased out as we don't have enough acreage to make a living.  lots of guys around the property made custom feedlots in the last 10-15 years and most have gone broke.  most of the farmers that we know are getting up there, ie 70's and the others planned enough to branch out and incorporate and increase their holdings.  i don't know any that have a big show house, especially on any of the farms.  my step mom was born in a dugout, and my great grandfather lived in a hole in a ditch for a winter or two till he got things going.  he made limestone fence posts for a while and lots of other interesting stuff.  a while ago, i posted a pic of a covered wagon that was covered with stone and a functional cistern where the family supposedly raised 8 or 10 kids. 

first pic  dad and sister at their home after a tornado 1936
2nd pic  great grandpa and his team (the one that lived in a hole in the ground)
3rd pic  the covered covered wagon that raised 10 kids.

That's absolutely amazing, those are awesome pictures!! It's amazing how agriculture all began, huh? The history just amazes me and makes me appreciate it so much more!!  Thank you very much!

At the very least a 5 generation farmer  ......it is in the blood ! I live in the homestead where my Grandfather made his start .... A good way of live and a great place to raise my kids !

Like they said, its in our blood. My Great grandfather(dads side) owned a large dairy operation up in wisconsin and my Grandparents (moms side) own a farm as do my aunt, who has a large cattle operation in southern illinois and my uncle who has a red angus herd. I personally live in a suburban area so i don't live on a farm, but my cattle stay with my aunt. Its amazing how little city folk know about livestock and ag. A few of my friends come to fairs and love it. Its a totally different life.

i am the 7th generation of my family, and like shortdog we are are on the original piece of land out here in texas.

That's really awesome! I love it when folks come to the fair and ask me about livestock and what everything is about! We usually get interviewed by radio people or the news! Wow 7 th generation...thats amazing, and even 5th generation!! So amazing! Thank you soo much!!

My Ag story comes from the other end of the spectrum. Both my parents grew up in suberbs, one in long island, NY and the other in Aspen, Co. At the age of 4 my grandparents got me a couple ducks to raise in our backyard, little did they know those ducks would spark a love for agriculture. As I grew up my parents decided to move to another part of the state allowing me to finally get my first horse. 4H soon followed, not only did my parents allow me to follow these  new hobbies of mine but dove in with me. The projects spaned from horses, sheep, poultry and finally cattle. When high school rolled around they supported my crazy idea to drive 30min to attend the only ag. school in the district. Now im working to start my own seedstock opperation while showing registered herefords for a local producer.

My parents have given me so many oppertunitys and supported me through the crazy unknown world of agriculture.

Dozer45 said:

My Ag story comes from the other end of the spectrum. Both my parents grew up in suberbs, one in long island, NY and the other in Aspen, Co. At the age of 4 my grandparents got me a couple ducks to raise in our backyard, little did they know those ducks would spark a love for agriculture. As I grew up my parents decided to move to another part of the state allowing me to finally get my first horse. 4H soon followed, not only did my parents allow me to follow these  new hobbies of mine but dove in with me. The projects spaned from horses, sheep, poultry and finally cattle. When high school rolled around they supported my crazy idea to drive 30min to attend the only ag. school in the district. Now im working to start my own seedstock opperation while showing registered herefords for a local producer.

My parents have given me so many oppertunitys and supported me through the crazy unknown world of agriculture.

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That a great story, no matter where you come from you have a ag story, dosen't matter if you have a huge operation, a backyard farm or your a ag teacher. Your life has been impacted by agriculture. Thanks for sharing!!

My story starts on my dads side of the family with my great grandpas parents.  They came to America with the last name Johnson.  While they were on the ship over here, they meet a couple by the name of Berglund and became great friends.  They watched over each others stuff while the others slept.  When they arrived in America they looked at the Johnson line and determined it was too long, so they switched over to the Berglund line.  Thats how the Berglunds came to America.  My great grandpa was born after that, raised on a farm, when he got older he started his own dairy farm and did that till he was about 70.  then he sold all of his cows and all but five acres of his pasture ground, that has now since turned into subdivisions of Overland Park.  My dad and Grandpa farm about 900 acres and run roughly 200 head of cows with calves.  Thats my story.

Sassy2899 said:

My story starts on my dads side of the family with my great grandpas parents.  They came to America with the last name Johnson.  While they were on the ship over here, they meet a couple by the name of Berglund and became great friends.  They watched over each others stuff while the others slept.  When they arrived in America they looked at the Johnson line and determined it was too long, so they switched over to the Berglund line.  Thats how the Berglunds came to America.  My great grandpa was born after that, raised on a farm, when he got older he started his own dairy farm and did that till he was about 70.  then he sold all of his cows and all but five acres of his pasture ground, that has now since turned into subdivisions of Overland Park.  My dad and Grandpa farm about 900 acres and run roughly 200 head of cows with calves.  Thats my story.

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That's really amazing, sounds like you have your hands full!! Everyone's story on here has just had me in awe! I just would like to thank everyone!!

My grandfather left Pennsylvania to seek his fame and fortune in Oklahoma (Hobart); After a few years at my grandmothers insistence he moved back east and purchased a farm in Ohio in 1920. He brought 7 shorthorn cows and a bull on the train with him. 90+years later the only outside cattle that have  been added to the herd are herd bulls. I can proudly say that every cow in my herd can be traced to the cows that came to Ohio on the train.

My story is sorta in between everybody else's lol. My parents were both city slickers, but my mom has always loved animals, & my dad hates them. Well... my dad enlisted in the army and was stationed in Alabama, then my mom got moved to the same base as a civilian nurse- and then love,marriage, baby carriage- you know the drill . So they both lived on base in the married couples housing and thats where I was born- they decided to settle nearby in Georgia in a little town of about 300 people 30 mins west of Atlanta. Thats where my ag story starts My dad had gone to college before the army so he got a job managing an USDA slaughter plant- and his supervisor lived across the road from us and managed a 300+ head herd of Angus crosses. He would take me out every morning on the front of the 4 wheeler to check on the herd and I fell in love! Much to my dads displeasure my love of animals, specifically livestock, has stuck with me through the moves and big cities. And now I show cattle, and plan to start my own herd

Both of my parents are 3rd generation- Beef and Dairy:
My mothers' youngest brother wanted a shorthorn heifer. Years earlier her father had taken a group of kids to a all beef breed auction and picked up a Lakeside female for that young lady( Very mother of Michigan's first lassie queen).
They wrote to Lakeside "looking for a shorthorn for our son".  Lakeside phoned back and said come on over.  On the way through Evart they stopped for direction - stopping at my Great Aunt's store.

My "mom" climbed out of the truck and into the store to ask for direction. Aunt Janet thought she was a very attractive lady, called the farm to alert my grandmother. "Get a clean shirt on George ( my dad) this lady looks like a "keeper". It took me almost 40 years to hear this version. I asked one day over lunch and a couple glasses of wine.  They later went into details about conception of myself and missing a Shorthorn Banquet in TN? No one wants to hear this but it just cracks me up. Apparently sales in Tn were pretty big?

Basically anyone that was rasied on a farm knows it's just pure love, passionate love : It's not about a jumbo paycheck or answering to anyone - you gamble like no other. I can honestly say that each of my siblings knows the value of a dollar, a hard days work and the true feeling of satifaction.

I have enjoyed these stories,
My great great grandfather was killed by a bull in Holland,My great granfather had an altercation with a member of the Royal family and had to get out of the country fast.He snuk on a boat taking a load of Holsteins to America and subsequently went to work for the people who imported them.The family died of small pox and my great grandfather and another worker burned the place down and hoboed to Texas where he joined a threshing crew and worked his way to Nebraska.From there he moved to Chicago where he farmed and marketed the produce through his own grocery store,a  vertically integrated operation.My grandfather started in business trucking livestock to Chicago and developed a feed business.He became the largest Pillsbury feed dealer in the nation.My dad was in the first class to graduate from K-State in the feed technology school and I think it was looking through his college text books as a young kid that first spurred my interest in Agriculture.My dad was very instrumental in helping get me started with Shorthorns and continues to be a great encouragement.

I didn't start out on a farm.  My poor parents ended up with a little one after I brought home a couple runt pigs and lambs for FFA/4-H.  I had livestock flowing thru my blood since the day I was born.  I was suppose to be the 6th generation of butchers in our family.  Sadly, I lasted 4 days and am on the producing end now.  My greatgrandfather was a butcher in PA, he also logged in the mountains there.  My grandfather as a little guy often rode the draft horses down the mountains with the logs.  He came to Ohio when my mom was very young.  He was the head kill forman at Sandusky Dressed Beef were he retired.  He was also a horse trader (yeah he had a line let me tell ya lol).

I always thought horses would be my passion, but it didn't end up that way.  Met a guy that was a dairy farmer on the way to the National FFA convention in 1986, what a girl will do to impress a guy lol.  I started showing for them and helping him milk when I got a chance.  My love of cattle started there.  Went to OSU/ATI thought about Dairy (the guy didn't work out lol) and new it was impossible for me to start my own so I went to beef reproduction and management.

Thru that dairy guy, and playing mud volleyball I met my husband.  Boy, I'm glad I ended up with him lol.  We did row crops and had a small feed lot of dairy steers.  Land values and rent went sky high and knew we had to do a change if we wanted to continue farming.  We bought our ranch in Missouri in 1999.  We now run 30 cows, no row crops, and are doing grass fed lamb.

Funny how life gives you twists and turns and how it all turns out!

Like several others have mentioned here, I am the 3rd generation on this farm. My grandparents homesteaded here in 1903. They boarded a train on their wedding night and headed west to check out a piece of land that was available to homestead. All they had heard was that this land had a small creek running across it. They settled here and had 12 children on this farm. I am always amazed at the fortitude these early settlers must have had as my grandparents lost their 3 oldest children in a two week period... two to rheumatic fever and one to an ruptured appendix. I think this would probably destroy most of us today, but they continued on and raised another 9 children.

Shorthorn cattle arrived here shortly after they arrived in 1903, and part of our farm was broken by a Shorthorn steer and a large mule hooked together. Apparently they worked very well together. All the farm work was done by horses, and in a few years there were over 50 horses tied in our barn, just to do the field work. I am old enough to remember the last of these teams which were used mainly to feed the cattle in the winter, but I can also remember over 20 sets of harness hanging by each stall. In 1917, the Scottish government gathered an entire ship load of Shorthorns and brought them across the ocean to Canada. They were then shipped by rail over 2500 miles to Brandon, Manitoba where they were sold in an auction. Scotland had been through some devastating floods and the Scottish government arranged this sale to assist some of their farmers. This sale was called the Scottish Flood Relief sale, and my grandfather wanted to help his countrymen out. He took the train ( over 200 miles) to Brandon, and purchased his first purebred registered Shorthorns. I doubt very much if he had any idea what he was starting when he purchased these cattle, as we are still raising Shorthorn cattle today.

I feel very fortunate in that I have had the opportunity to do the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I do not remember any time in my life when raising cattle wasn't what I wanted to do. I will say that there have been many 'bumps" along this road, but looking back, I do not think I was wrong in sticking it out. I may not be rich in terms of my bank account, by I feel that I have been given more wealth that cannot be purchased with money.

Thank you everyone!! I never thought that my post would bring that much attention!! These are super amazing stories, I think more folks should know about them!! I have been sharing everyone's stories with my family, friends, FFA chapter, grandparents and they all had the same reactions as me!! Thanks Again!!