Carrying on the family legacy

The cemetery headstones sitting on the hill overlooking the Nothdurft farm just outside Gordonville are monuments to the long decades of toil that turned this once wooded country into prime farmland.

The weathered old stones have seen more than 100 years of changes, including six generations of Nothdurft farmers, most recently Paul and his son Jeremy. In 1901 the family bought what was then a small homestead. They worked the land and turned it into today's 550-acre farm with another 300 acres of rented ground.

On this land the family grows corn, soybeans and wheat. They also raise cattle. Now the latest generation in the chain of Nothdurft farmers is looking toward the future, to the day when it will take over the family farm and lead operations well into this century.

That task falls on the shoulders of one son, 20-year-old Jeremy.

"There's nothing else I'd rather do," said Jeremy.

As the old saying goes, farming is in the blood. Jeremy works beside his dad, continuing to learn and to teach his father new techniques he's learned studying agribusiness and animal science at Southeast Missouri State University.

A sophomore, Jeremy hopes to join his dad as a co-owner of the family farm when he graduates. But right now that future is in doubt. Like other up-and-coming farmers in his generation, Jeremy faces a future in a profession that is in a state of flux.

Farmland values are going up, making it harder to acquire the land needed to get started, and low commodity prices mean farm operations have to become larger and larger to be sustainable on their own.

Possibly for those reasons, the average age of farm operators keeps going up. Where decades before a young farmer Jeremy's age might find it relatively easy to start his own operation, that's not the case anymore.

Dr. Wes Mueller has seen the change's effect on young farmers firsthand. In his several years as an agriculture professor and chair of Southeast's ag department he has worked closely with young people interested in agriculture and advises them on the future of the industry.

Mueller knows it's becoming harder for young people to start up their own sustainable farm operations. But as farming changes, so do the opportunities for careers in agriculture.

"Ever since I've been teaching agriculture, things have changed, and it's going to continue to change in the future, because the industry has made such dramatic changes" said Mueller. "We still need to eat, and there are so many options available to us, but the way we used to do it isn't the way we do it now."

The changes seem to be squeezing young people out as farm operators, if the averages are to be believed. In the latest USDA census of agriculture, made in 2002, the average age of Missouri farm operators was 56, nearly a steady rise from 52.1 in 1974. In 2002, only 5 percent of farm operators nationwide were age 25 to 34, down from 10.5 percent in 1974.

Now students are going less into production agriculture as farm operators, and pursuing other ag-related avenues like management and research, Mueller said.

Jeremy's plan for his own future fits Mueller's observations.

Jeremy wants to take over the farm, but in order to support Jeremy's parents and his future wife and children, operations would need to be expanded. That means renting more land, since purchasing land would be too costly.

But even renting in today's farm climate comes at a tall prices. Demand for farm ground is high, not just from farmers but from developers. With a scarce supply of land and so much demand, prices have gone through the roof, and farmers are put in competition with their neighbors, especially in Cape Girardeau County.

"We're all trying to find land to rent," Paul Nothdurft said of his neighbors.

Gerald Bryan, an agronomist with the University of Missouri Extension Service in Cape Girardeau County, said today it's almost impossible for a young farmer to start from scratch locally.

"Unless a guy can get a few million dollars together, it can't be done," said Bryan.

As a result, Bryan said he sees more men taking over the family farms in their mid-30s to 40s, when their fathers get ready to retire from the business.

The cost has kept Ben Loenneke, a 27-year-old Southeast ag graduate, from being able to start his own operation. Instead he works at a neighbors farm.

Like Nothdurfts, Loenneke says farming is "in my blood" and wouldn't want to do anything else.

In case he encounters the same problem, Jeremy Nothdurft's agribusiness degree will be his "insurance policy." Of course, pursuing that policy will take him away from the family farm some. This summer he has an internship with Agri-Gold, where he'll consult farmers on seed corn.

That means he won't be available for the sometimes-70-hour weeks he puts in on the farm in the summer. But it will help him get a good job in agribusiness if he needs it in a couple of years.

On the Lorberg farm, just down the road from the Nothdurfts, diversity in operations is the key to passing the torch to the next generation. As 18-year-old Tyler Lorberg, one of three generations of Lorbergs currently working on the family farm, looks to the future he sees diversity as the key to keeping the farm without having to look for more ground.

The Lorbergs install tile-based irrigation technology, which uses the force of gravity and groundwater to keep crops from drying out. That helps supplement the income they receive from the farm.

He said he'll also pursue a degree in agribusiness, something his father and grandfather didn't do. "That could lead me as far as farming and farther, should anything ever happen," said Tyler Lorberg.

Experts like Mueller and Missouri Department of Agriculture director Fred Ferrell see diversification like that on the Lorberg farm, and education like that being pursued by Jeremy Nothdurft, as the next wave in viable farming.

"Number one, to be a farmer you have to wear a multitude of hats," said Ferrell. "You have to be entrepreneurial ... These are the same challenges my dad and I had when I decided to go back to the farm after college graduation. It was the same thing then, just not on the same scale as it is now."

The jobs are there in agriculture, they're just changing, said Ferrell.

As for the age of farmers, Bryan said he expects the average to decrease as Baby Boomers retire and turn over operations to their sons.

Regardless of what agricultural avenue he takes, Jeremy Nothdurft knows one thing -- the family farm will continue to be a family farm for many years to come.

"In a way, I feel like I owe it to dad and grandpa after seeing them out here sweating day after day," Jeremy said. "If I didn't take over, I'm afraid it might go under, and there's a lot of heritage here."

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182