Lisa Simpson
Sep 8,2009
In: Finance

The Farm Is Calling Out to All from Lawyers to Dentists, Accountants and Factory Hands

farm

The farm is calling out to all – lawyers, dentists, accountants and factory hands. They are all sharing a common dream of wanting to farm. These dreams are not flights of fancy in the realms of the mind but they have all applied for a special programme launched in Iowa that will connect the aspiring farmers with the experienced ones seeking retirement or just planning ahead.
The younger lot in their 30’s and 20’s have a solid reason for dreaming about farms – they love the green outdoors and yearn for freedom nursing childhood memories of riding with grandfather on his tractor.

Fifty year old Rick Shafer does not belong to the above group. He is much older than the average applicant but he is still trying to go back to the world he has left far behind. He had joined hands with his father on the farm during the 80’s but when the economy with high interest, low prices and spiralling debts forced thousands and thousands into foreclosure he left the fields nursing a hope that he would return within a couple of years. But that chance never returned.

Shafer took up various assignments – loan officer for a bank, machinery salesperson, appraiser of real estate, broker of stocks, bonds and insurance etc. Right now he is a county conservationist with the Department of Agriculture.
He said, “Some people think I’m an absolute blithering idiot to try this because I have such a good job. Others think it’s very logical. You reach a certain point in life and you see your mortality on the horizon and say: ‘Should I play it safe and never achieve my life’s dream or am I at the point here that I go for broke and can say at least I have the guts to try?’”
Middle age has not deterred Shafer from trying out a second time saying that compared to those in their seventies and eighties tinkering around in their combines with tools, he is a child.

Nearly two thirds of those who are applying for the Iowa programme have some experience with farms. One of them is Adam Klein who is a dentist in Minnesota. His grandparents had been in the cattle rearing in South Dakota. The cry of the fields run through his psyche as he explains, “Some guys like to play golf. I just like to farm. … It’s hard to put the words together to really express the excitement of sitting on a tractor in the field with the sun beating down on you.”