The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
What factors have influenced the most changes in agriculture? That was a question posed to me earlier this year by people from the Minnesota Historical Society. My mind immediately started going through a list of changes in the last 30 years that have influenced our farm, but they wanted to know how agriculture in Minnesota has changed over the last 100 years. I may not know that answer, but I knew someone who would.
The Oliver Kelley Historical Farm is a learning center about farm life in the 1860’s operated by the MN Historical Society. It is located just northwest of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi River.
Thousands of school children have been on class trips to the farm to experience life in the early days of our statehood. Our kids were most excited about seeing oxen pulling a plow.
Recently the Kelley farm has changed their focus, thanks in large part to our commodity groups. They are maintaining the original 1860 farm along the river bottom but up the hill on the sand plains they have developed a new modern farm system to demonstrate today’s agriculture. Now they needed stories of the changes that occurred between these two farm sites.
I invited Deon and Leslie to have lunch with our family to talk about the changes we have seen on our farm over the last 80 years. My father-in-law Ralph has lived through many of the changes in agriculture this past century. (He turned 91 earlier this month!) The two girls scribbled down notes as Mark and Ralph talked farming. This was a perfect day for these two guys as two young ladies hung on their every word. It was great listening to the stories of days gone by and the vision of changes on the horizon.
After two hours of picking and sorting through memories, the girls had all of their questions answered, their notebooks full of dates and events. They were going to combine these stories with others to create a dialogue for their guides to explain changes in agriculture to the visitors of the Kelley farm. The narrative will explain how weather events, wars, economic booms and busts, politics and other events influenced the way we operated our farms. It was interesting to see how our everyday farm life was tied in with historical events over the last century.
Now back to the original question...what factors have contributed to the most changes on our farm?
My take away from the conversation that day could be summed up as the Double E’s…. electricity and education. These two factors have been the driving force in shaping the changes around our farm and farms across the nation.
Ralph talked about how he and the neighbors had to plead with the electric coop to keep coming westward to our township. The coop said there wasn’t enough of a customer base to cover their expenses of expanding in the area. Several farm neighbors banded together and traveled over an hour to the coop headquarters for a board meeting to present a proposal. The farmers would clear a path through the woods and help anchor the poles if the coop would continue to string the power lines to their farms.
The reason these farmers pushed so hard to get electricity to their farms was because a few of them had their own “power plants” on their farms. Sixteen 2-volt batteries were connected to operate a generator. The power was used to run the milk pump, water pump, refrigerator and lights in the house and barn. The “power plants” had a ten year life and they were coming to the end. Either the farmers had to invest in new batteries or extend the electrical lines. The power lines were installed in 1949 and it was a turning point. Agriculture was being pulled into the 20th century and it was half way done.
I have a hard time imagining what farming would be like without electricity. With the flick of a switch we can move hundreds of pounds of feed from silos to mixers to cows. We have instant hot water for calf milk and cooling plates for bulk tanks. We can milk a hundred cows without a single cramp in our hand. How could we use all of today’s technology without electricity? Yes, today’s computerization is creating another leap in advancements for agriculture but it can’t be done without the juice. Electricity revolutionized agriculture and ushered in a new era of growth and development that we enjoy today.
The second “E” is education. Each generation has expanded their knowledge base. Ralph’s dad had an 8th grade education. (What they learned in those 8 years would equal a Master’s Degree today!) He farmed like his father and brothers. If you worked hard enough, you would be ok. Ralph earned his High School diploma and when he came back to the farm, he enrolled in Adult Farm Management classes. These classes were practical, hands on application about finances, bookkeeping, fertilizer applications, crop rotations and other university extension research. Mark earned his two-year degree from the U of MN-Waseca in dairy production. His classes were geared toward how to manage a farm in the 80’s. Today all four of our children will earn their 4-year college degrees in a variety of different majors but all surrounding an aspect of agriculture. Some may even go on towards a Masters Degree.
You still need to know how to put your head down and work but that is only part of the equation to survive in farming today. We must be open to new ideas and technology and willing to incorporate new thinking into solving old problems. I think today’s education factor is yesterday’s electricity factor in the revolutionary changes in agriculture. As electricity was a springboard into the 20th century for farmers, education will be the springboard into the 21st century for next significant changes in farming. It looks like it is going to be a fun ride.
-----------------------------
As their 4 children pursue dairy careers off the farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their Minnesota farm. (Natalie grew up in Stronghurst, the daughter of Becky and the late Larry Dowell.)
-----------------------------