Twenty-something years ago, when I was still teaching school for a living, I can remember delivering a lecture dealing with farm management. The reason I remember it so vividly is the constant questioning I received from one student in particular.
In that lecture, I was trying to stress the importance of keeping one’s input costs to the absolute minimum by utilizing machinery and equipment that would do the needed job as inexpensively as possible without all the expensive bells and whistles. One very intelligent student seemed to disagree with me as he used one of his neighbors as an example.
“I know this one old farmer,” he began, “who drives the top-of-the-line tractor that’s significantly bigger than he really needs, and has the most expensive cab made, complete with air, heat, AM/FM, tape deck, leather seat with air-ride, tinted windows and every other option available, and he seems to be doing just fine financially. So why shouldn’t I copy what he does?” He went on to point out that the successful neighbor also drove the most expensive truck in the community and also had a pretty fancy four-wheeler that my lecture was emphasizing as a “luxury.”
I could sense that the student was not trying to be argumentative or obnoxious, but that his interest was genuine because he wanted to be just like that neighbor someday and needed a more in-depth answer to my suggested frugality.
“The key to your question lies in one word,” I replied, “and that is that your neighbor is OLD.” I went on to explain that even though I did not know his very successful neighbor, it would be my guess that the gentleman started out farming with a Farmall M, or a John Deere B, or maybe even a Ford 8N, if not a team of good horses. My bet was that the farmer’s first truck was a two-wheel drive, half-ton, 3-speed-on-the-column rig that he purchased well-used. I suggested that he visit with the old man someday to verify my suspicion. I concluded that none of the class should ever begrudge an ‘old’ farmer, in the waning years of his long career, a few perks that their life’s work had afforded them. Later in the semester, the young man confided to me that the old farmer had, indeed, started out very similar to my conjecture.
That very same student stopped by for a visit a few weeks ago and, after catching up on old times and families, he stated that he wanted to, “go look at some cows.”
Happy to oblige his request, I told him to meet me outside the garage and we’d hop in a rig and head out to the pastures. As I opened the garage door and backed out of the area in my vehicle, I could sense a raised eyebrow from the student-turned-farmer.
Last winter, I traded my 10-year old, open cab utility vehicle for the same brand with a fully enclosed cab and 4-wheel drive. I rationalized to myself, and justified to my wife, that this new UTV would enable me to do a better job of checking on cows during calving season and probably allow me to save an extra three or four calves per year. I didn’t tell her how many calves it would take to buy it.
The former student started laughing as soon as he sat down inside the warm cab on a chilly December day. “What’s so funny?” I asked.
“You realize,” he began, “that, according to a professor I once studied under, this vehicle is an admission that you have reached the status of OLD.”
“No, no, no.” I quickly answered. “This model doesn’t even have air-conditioning. I have to take the doors off in the summer months, so I can’t be more than late, middle-aged.”
Jerry Crownover is a farmer and former professor of Agriculture Education at Missouri State University. He is a native of Baxter County, Arkansas, and an author and professional speaker. To contact Jerry about his books, or to arrange speaking engagements, you may contact him by calling 1-866-532-1960 or visiting ozarksfn.com and clicking on ‘Contact Us.’
