What do you want to be when you grow up?
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| Andrew Lauver: Age 3 |
This is a common question posed to children throughout the world at the family dinner table, or on the playground. For me, the answer to this question is simple. "I want to be just like Dad, because he's a farmer", I would tell my mother and others when asked this question throughout childhood, and even to this day.
You see, as a farm family we're truly trying to build something that will last forever. A sentiment that can be felt over our amber waves of grain throughout this great nation, where according to the USDA, 97% of the 2.1 million farms in the United States remained family-owned farm operations.
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| L to R: Andrew, Kevin, Don, and Jacob Lauver |
How is this so?
The recipe for this success is not so simple, volatile prices, wind, hail, farm accidents, each of these factors can break or hinder such a tradition from flourishing. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, how we conserve the land to ensure the next generation will find it in the shape our ancestors discovered it when they arrived to fulfill their American dream must be top of mind. The path to continual generation success starts with conservation, plus conversation. Again, as a family, we're trying to build something that will last forever. To do so, we must invest to preserve our land for future generations. For example, as a young farmer, I would not have the opportunity to return home to the farm and carry on the family tradition, if it were not for the conservation minded- approach my family has taken for five generations. I know the best thing I can do is to preserve the land through conservation, in order to pass it down to the next generation the way my father and grandfather have done for my brother and me.
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| A grass terrace limiting erosion |
Conservation plays an integral role in the success of our operation and ensures optimal water quality for consumers downstream. Waterways and terraces help prevent erosion, 50 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program filters the water, and we use minimum tillage on all of our acres. We have noticed reduced erosion as a result of using minimum tillage and the terraces and waterways that we have in place. We know it's working because we have seen an increase in wildlife since putting in the CRP acres. The ways in which we do this presently are through the Conservation Reserve Program, terraces, taking soil samples, waterways, and minimum tillage. I encourage farmers to look at their operations and see where they can improve their conservation plan. My advice is to keep an open mind and network with other farmers to learn about successful conservation practices. You may be surprised at how much conservation practices can benefit your farm, both from an economic and environmental standpoint.
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| Soil sampling for Spring nitrogen levels to limit over application |
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| Conservation reserve program land providing wildlife habitat, reducing erosion, and filtering water. |
As I reflect on this life, I revert back to a high school classroom my senior year of High School. I recall the teacher informing us that "You may not realize it yet, but you've each won the birth lottery graduating from High School in this country." Not only had he meant we'd won the birth lottery by being born in America, but by the grace of God that we'd been born in a small rural community where quality of life is unrivaled. As life progressed, I found myself sitting next to my 84 year-old grandfather last fall combining corn for the first time, while he sat in the "buddy" seat I had grown up in. For the first time, I felt like I had cashed-in my birth lottery ticket. A life needs little more to be fulfilled in this country as we work to feed Iowans and the world from our family farm gates. I want my child, if he or she so desires to look up at me and say "Dad, I want to be a farmer just like you." But first, it is my job to now conserve the land and and care for our water quality to leave that door open. As family farms, we are united in the goal of building something that will last forever to feed Iowans and the world.
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| Andrew Lauver: Age 3 |
