Farm couple sets priorities, finds contentment

By Jennifer M. Latzke

It's a dilemma many young farm couples face in a time where land prices are high, and input costs are even higher.

How do you start to grow a farm without supplemental income from an off-farm job? And, just when does that off-farm income become more of a hindrance than a benefit?

Those were questions James and Dana Born, Perryton, Texas, had to find the answers for themselves.

Today, the Borns farm about 3,000 acres of non-irrigated sorghum, wheat and corn in the Panhandle of Texas. They have three children, are building their first home, and have reached a point where they no longer have to work off the farm to sustain their family. But, it took them several years of work and determination to get to this point.

It started with a date

It all started in the early '90s, when Dana, a city girl from Tulsa, moved to Perryton to take a teaching position at the local junior high school. The only things bringing Dana to the Texas Panhandle were the promise of a good job, and a cousin whose husband was the local veterinarian.

"I knew two people in town," she said. "I thought I'd moved to the end of the world, but I really did like it." The area and the people grew on Dana, and she was content with rural life and her little two bedroom apartment in town for several years.

But, one day, she decided that she'd had enough adventure and that it was time for a change. So, Dana began filling out applications for teaching jobs back in the big city.

That's when James stepped into the picture.

"He asked me out on a date," Dana said. "At the time, I was filling out applications for jobs and I had them all in my second bedroom. After that first date, I just knew there was something there, so I closed the door to my office and I didn't work on those applications again. After our second date, I threw them all out and I didn't look back."

James was a local boy who'd graduated from college in 1991 and come back to the area to teach agriculture education at Perryton High School. He was also working on the side trying to build up his farming assets, and help out his parents who were dealing with his father's cancer diagnosis and treatment.

"When I was a senior in college, my dad got cancer," James said. "I was doing my student teaching in Booker and decided to lease his ground from him and I also picked up a lease that he'd had from some other landowners. Between the two parcels I had about a section and two-thirds or so.

"Over the years, I poured everything I had into being an ag teacher and into the farm," he said. What part of his attention left over was for Dana and their blossoming relationship. Eventually, through the teaching duties and the farm work, the couple decided to get married and begin their journey together as a farm couple.

Learning to farm

It wasn't all rosy, though. Dana, as a pure city girl, had to learn how to farm, with her new husband as her teacher.

"I barely knew the difference between a tractor and a combine," she said. "I didn't know about all the programs in the agricultural field. I didn't know what FFA was or what James did with the program. I was learning a whole new world." Fortunately, James was a patient teacher, she said.

"The first time I ran a tractor I was plowing a field and scared to death," she said. "Now I can do just about anything that needs to be done on the farm. Where he needs help, I help. I can drive down the road in a semi truck because James taught me. It took a while to learn all the steps to running a farm, and I'm still learning every day."

For James, Dana was a blessing, especially in those first days of putting together their farm.

"She can drive a truck, a grain cart, whatever we need done," he said. "She went to marketing classes with me to learn about markets. She learned whatever she needed to do to help us out. We're truly equals in this business."

They had to be partners in order to realize their dream, James explained. At the start, James and Dana were still teaching full time. James also had a custom farming business on the side. Together, they put in 22-hour days during busy harvest and planting seasons, which were also during the school year.

"Our biggest obstacle was the increase in land prices," James said. "The toughest thing for a young farmer to do now is to make land pay for itself, free and clear. There are a lot of investors coming in, buying up farm land." In the Ochiltree county area, hunters and investors are buying farm land at prices difficult for young farmers to match.

"We own about two-thirds of our land and lease the other third," James explained. "We've tried to use our other ground to pay off the next piece and so on. To me, the most important thing is to own our ground." Owning their own ground takes one less factor out of the risk equation, he added. But, owning that land came with long hours and a two-income household.

The Borns' hard work in building their farm was necessary in order for them to realize their dream, but a change was quickly coming.

Re-evaluating priorities

After a few years, the Borns re-evaluated their lifestyle. James was still teaching, although Dana had resigned in 1999. The farm work still required long hours, and their family was growing, but they weren't spending very much time together.

"For a while, James and I were teaching and busy on the farm, on different tractors, not seeing each other for days," Dana said. "We decided life shouldn't be such a rat race that you don't see each other. Our goal was for both of us to quit teaching and stay home and raise a family and farm."

"We'd grown the farm to about 3,000 acres and we were doing all the work ourselves with a little help from my dad and my brothers," James said. "We'd always decided that we'd grow the farm so that it was sufficient to meet our immediate needs." The couple had reached a point where the farm was actually paying for itself and they didn't need the income from teaching. They had also started their family, and they wanted to spend more time with their three children, Lonnie, Ethan and Evan.

Lonnie, as the oldest, shadowed his father in the field, planting wheat and harvesting sorghum. Ethan, though, who was just a toddler, was slowly getting used to James being gone.

"It got to the point that my son would say 'Hi Daddy' or 'Bye Daddy' as I was going out the door," James said. "I knew something had to change. It was scary to depart from teaching all together, but we had to grow our faith in our provider. You can't be a non-irrigated farmer and not have faith."

So, James and Dana both quit teaching, and haven't looked back.

Today, the Borns' three children, Lonnie, 13, Ethan, 5, and Evan, 2, see the benefits first-hand of their parents' sacrifices. Lonnie attends school and is the seventh grade, and Ethan is being home-schooled for now by Dana, and all three enjoy having their parents around the house more. At harvest, the whole family gets into the field, with James running a combine, Lonnie driving a grain cart, Dana hauling grain in the semi, and Ethan and Evan riding along with either parent.

"We enjoy being together, not running at such a fast pace," Dana explained. "Now that we're both at home, James will help me teach, read the boys a book, or help out with their phonics. I want our children to be children, not running at such a fast pace that they can't enjoy life. And, I've learned by teaching Ethan that it's okay if the dishes pile up occasionally if we're reading a really good book."

At the same time, Dana explained, she and James know that when times are hard, staying home isn't a luxury everyone can afford. That's where the Borns' faith comes through.

"Even when times are bad and the bills are bigger than crops, you know that you'll get through it and it'll be okay," Dana said. "If you want to strengthen your faith, be a farmer."

Grasping new ideas

Besides the personal changes the Borns had to make, there were changes around the farm, too.

After James and Dana quit their teaching jobs, they added a seed sales business to their farming operation.

"We picked up an NC+ Seed dealership to supplement that former paycheck and to increase our custom farming acres," James said. The Borns chose to affiliate with NC+ because of the corporate family atmosphere and the research resources available from the company's variety test plots.

"The most valuable informative tool that anybody can do are research plots," James said. The research data from these test plots has helped the Borns make important production decisions on their farm.

With his agricultural degree, James has been innovative in trying new farming techniques on their operation. He began by planting a few acres of grain sorghum in rotation with his wheat several years back and found that it was successful on their non-irrigated land. At the same time, he began experimenting with no-till techniques and only recently the Borns have fully become a no-till operation.

"We were plowing after certain crops, and we were playing with some minimum tillage, but now we're fully no-till," James said. They've seen all the benefits on their non-irrigated acres, such as less soil erosion, fuller water profiles, and increased yields. But, perhaps the most beneficial is the time no-till allows the Borns to spend not farming, but as parents.

"The number one benefit is the freedom it allows us," James said. "Dana and I do 99 percent of the work ourselves and no-till has really eliminated the seat time we used to spend in the tractor."

Additionally, grain sorghum has proven to be an invaluable tool in their no-till, non-irrigated rotations.

"I planted about 60 or 80 acres to milo in 1996 and that first year we saw 70+ bushels per acre," James said. Coming from a wheat background, that looked pretty good, he added. Today, the Borns are finding grain sorghum to be agronomically and economically ideal for their farm.

"We store some on the farm, and we store some with Perryton Equity, and we market the rest," James said. "We market where we can get the best deal." With the rising importance of sorghum-based ethanol and other outlets opening for their crop such as local swine operations, the Borns have many options open to them.

"We've really been blessed," Dana said. "Not just that we can stay home, but that James is incredible as a farmer and as a father. He does his research on every aspect of the farm. He researches and tries to stay current on the latest technology and advancements. He's really not afraid of change."

Balancing farm and family

The Borns success at balancing farm and family isn't lost to their neighbors and their friends.

A neighbor and family friend, Dan Krienke, is a director for National Sorghum Producers and he explained that Dana and James balance the traditions of their family farm with new ideas.

"Several years ago, their family operation didn't have sorghum in their rotation," Krienke said. "I asked why and James said that they had always just grown wheat. So later on he started the sorghum-wheat-fallow rotation and it's been successful for him. He's always open to trying new technology and new ideas."

Sorghum was such a success that last year the Borns were winners in the National Sorghum Yield Contest, put on through the NSP. Christi Scherler, member services director for NSP, said the Borns know that farming isn't just a business, but it's also about family.

"They're cream of the crop producers and last year they were national winners in our sorghum yield contest," she said. "But farming isn't just a business for them, it's a way of life. Their influence will continue to grow because deep down they know that they're not just growing crops, they're growing futures full of hope and life."

For now, the Borns are content with the size and scope of their farming operation. Eventually, though, the couple knows their three boys will grow up and the farm will have to grow with their needs.

"It's always been our goal that if our children choose to come back to the farm after college and do this, that they have a place to start," James said. "We hope to grow the farm, but not right away. When the time's right we have faith that God will provide when we need it.

"Right now, we're trying to go back to a family-centered farm, the way it was 50 years ago," James said. "But, with modern technology so that our family can work on it and survive."

Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com.

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Date: 12/13/07

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