THE LAND WE LOVE AND THE FOOD WE EAT

Undying love of the land

In the latter part of 2020, I had a major surgery that put me out for several weeks and I took the opportunity to binge watch the Yellowstone series, starring Kevin Costner as the central character John Dutton. While much of the series was far more dramatic than I can relate to, I did relate to how the characters portrayed the undying love of their land, while also struggling to preserve their family legacy. Dutton, in a strikingly similar fashion to what I’ve said about the land I’ve grown up around, said that “If someone had all the money in the world, this [land] is what we would buy”. One of the greatest fears I have is losing the land we own or that our farm would ultimately fail under my watch. My wife, Amy, and I bought 80 acres in ‘09 and another 80 acres in ‘18. I literally give thanks to God almost every day for the land we have.

You can’t control the price of beef or hay or the diesel it takes to take the cattle to auction or the hay out to the cow.

Farming is not the easiest life

And while the land is one of my great loves, working it and keeping it is not always the easiest life. There is a scene in Yellowstone that is a glimpse of the sentiment I have about our farm, and most of my farming friends seem to share.

Ranchin’s a terrible business grandson. Terrible? How? Well, where do I start? You can’t control the price of beef or hay or the diesel it takes to take the cattle to auction or the hay out to the cow. There’s federal regulations and state regulations, county regulations, and these people…suing us, complaining about the way we raise the food they eat. What else… Blizzards and droughts and half the herd trying to kill itself in the river and the other half lookin’ for a hole in the fence so it can go stand in the middle of the highway and get hit by a car, or wandering into the forest and get eatin’ by a wolf or a grizzly…  …Well if ranchin’ is so hard, why do you do it? Because it’s one hell of a life, Tate.

Stewardship of the land and feeding the world

Personally, I don’t think agriculture necessarily has to be a terrible business. I once read a quotation from a young producer in Texas that stuck with me, essentially saying that “Farming as a lifestyle makes for a terrible business. Farming as a business makes for a wonderful lifestyle.” I pretty much adopted that viewpoint and believe it to hold true. Farming in the current environment and market may not be easy, but from a business standpoint, we are here to supply what the market demands. I have been made a steward of some of this earth while I am living, and I need to listen and be humble while considering the way we raise the food that we provide to our customers.

-David Bachman

Manager – Bachman Family Farms