I was born on a farm where my father was the overseer of the farm. By the time I was born his personal finances prevented him from securing his own farm. We did continue to live on a farm for years as he worked off the farm during the days but milked each end of the day for the farmer whose tenant house we lived in.
I grew up longing to be involved in farming from my earliest memory. As a youngster my father and I would have animals and by the time I was in my final years of high school, I actually peddled Golden Guernsey milk in cream top bottles to my neighbors as well as supplying my family.
My early schooling was difficult to say the least since I suffer from dyslexia and in the early 1950’s there were no recognized educational programs or assistance for schools to address this condition. Most of my education was gained from listening and not reading, and talking rather than writing. I had in eighth grade one reading teacher who identified me and one other classmate with similar troubles. Thankfully he worked with us and tried his best to teach us ways to compensate for our unique condition. While the other student worked very diligently to learn to overcome it, I shamefully admit I stubbornly resisted and honestly “faked” my way through high school.
Since I was twelve years old I worked on a dairy farm. I was right at home around dairy cows and absorbed everything I could and gained a great deal of confidence and knowledge during those years. I graduated college in 1967, with an associate degree in animal science. I took employment in the agricultural industry as a professional animal artificial inseminator. This was a wonderful job that took me to many farms and exposed me additionally to many more management systems.
On Christmas Eve 1967, I received my induction letter into the United States Army. During my two years in the Army I turned down several challenging and potentially rewarding opportunities within the Army. First I turned down Officer’s Candidate School as well as an appointment by orders to the United States Military Academy Prep School. Both of these opportunities would require me extending my service time and more importantly prevent me getting back home to Deborah.
Deborah and I met back in 1965 and by the time I was being sent overseas for service I knew I wanted to marry her who was and remains my best friend. Since I still had not fully learned how to handle my dyslexia, I knew those opportunities would be very hard to do without being found out. After serving my country and being honorably discharged, Deborah and I were married and on our way to building our dreams.
Once we made the decision to try and secure funding to farm on own is really where my book starts. We were very fortunate to have been blessed to have three children join us on our adventure. As hard as building a family farm operation was, we would have done it all over again despite knowing what we know now. There was nothing prior to dairy farming, on my own, nor anything since that could compare to the wonder and joys of operating your very own family farm. During farming I was able to secure a Bachelor’s degree in agricultural business, and later a Master’s degree in education. Perhaps my proudest accomplishment is finally learning to admit my dyslexia but also learning to overcome many of the hardships it exhibits.
No comments about this author would be complete without mentioning that all three of our children have Master’s degrees. Our boys both work as professionals in the agricultural industry and our daughter is a school teacher.