Young producer brings enthusiasm back home

By Larry Dreiling

As hard winter wheat fields across the prairie turn from green to gold, young people complete another school year. For some, it means taking on a new job.

For a few, that job is farming.

Among young people who have left home for college to make a return to the farm upon their graduation in the last couple of years is Ashley Colglazier.

Colglazier, who farms in Perkins and Chase counties of Nebraska, is typical of young (18 to 35-year old) U.S. farmers and ranchers.

According to the 15th annual survey of participants in American Farm Bureau Federation's Young Farmer and Rancher Program, released last March, 79 percent of those surveyed said they were more optimistic about farming than they were five years ago. As professional opportunities continue to abound, the percentage of young farmers who envision their professions as lifelong remain high at 92 percent.

"Farming's in my blood, fortunately," Colglazier said.

Colglazier, who married her husband Tim following her sophomore year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln began a partnership with her parents, Dan and Josie Hughes, as well as renting land from them. This approach allows Colglazier to try different agronomic pursuits separate from her parents.

"When I left for college, I knew I wanted to do something in agriculture, but it wasn't until I was a couple of years into college that farming started calling to me," Colglazier said. "I was a biological systems engineering major and then I headed into agronomy and I just loved all the classes I took in that major. That's when I knew."

The young couple returned to the Grant, Neb. area in January 2006. Colglazier is employed in town as well as the office manager at the Perkins County Extension office. Tim Colglazier is the information technology specialist at the local hospital.

"His dad's the town doctor," Colglazier said. "Over the years, I've been exposing Tim to farming. Last year, he helped plant wheat and he's penciled in some time to help plant millet."

When Colglazier told her parents she wanted to come home to farm, her mother, Josie Hughes, said one word.

"Absolutely."

Adds Dan Hughes: "We are in a unique situation where my older brother-in-law and I sort of farm together. He's getting ready to retire and leave our partnership and so we have one generation moving out and another moving in. That another generation wants to continue farming is great. The fact that its our kid makes it better."

"We share the same values and we've been lucky along the way." The Hughes's also have a son, Tyler, who has just completed his sophomore year as an agronomy major at UNL. Tyler Hughes is spending the summer in an internship to a crop consulting firm.

Colglazier shares the sentiment about luck and the blessing of parents.

"It blows my mind that some parents wouldn't be supportive. I know everyone's situation is different and I have to keep reminding myself how lucky I am."

The operation totals 10,000 acres with 2,000 in irrigation. Most of the operation is in a three-year rotation of wheat, a spring crop and fallow. Their wheat variety selections include Jagalene, 2137, Alliance.

"Millet is the one spring crop we're best suited for," Dan Hughes said. "We try to raise dryland corn and occasionally some sunflowers. Millet is good for reducing goatgrass and rye issues. I'd like to see Roundup Ready wheat to get rid of that instead, but we're not going to see that anytime soon.

"We've had some tremendous dryland corn when it rains. You may have a moisture profile when you plant it but you need rain in July and August to make corn grow. The last few years, we just didn't get it. You go 60 miles to the east and last year they had 120-bushel dryland corn."

Returning to the farm is certainly not what many people in agriculture expect of young people, certainly not about young women. Colglazier acknowledges she's atypical of her generation and gender.

"I kind of do go against the grain. Everyone was very encouraging. My professors all said, 'Wow, that's great. Hope it works out,' probably thinking it won't," Colglazier said. "There was only one other woman with me in the agronomy program out of the 40 people who graduated."

Colglazier's first obstacle in getting started as a producer independent of her parents was attempting to obtain an operating loan.

"I don't think the local bankers knew how to handle me, because perhaps they aren't used to having female full operators come in to seek financing," Colglazier said. "I guess I've been a little trailblazing, trying to show them that this is what I want to do. So far, though, everyone has been very encouraging."

Colglazier's dad has been encouraging her to work on her tractor-trailer driving skills.

"I'm preparing to get a CDL," Colglazier said, recalling her first time her dad let her drive a semi-load of corn to market last year.

"It was an invigorating experience, getting on board a big rig and so high up with a lot of power. Dad's a pretty good coach. So much of driving a rig is watching RPMs and just the feel of the truck. I was slipping in and out of gear sometimes, but he was very patient with me. He's a good teacher."

Adds Dan Hughes: "Allowing her to succeed and to fail is very important here. When I started raising two crops in three years my dad thought it was the dumbest idea ever, but he allowed me to try it. I had to prove to him it would work and it did. With Ashley, she'd like to try three crops in four years (in a wheat-corn-millet-fallow rotation) on some ground she's renting from us. I'd like to see if it would work, so we're going to allow her some slack."

Colglazier, herself, is allowing little slack when it comes to following her father as a leader in the Nebraska wheat industry. A past president of the Nebraska wheat Growers Association, Dan Hughes of Venango was appointed last year by Gov. Dave Heineman to represent the southwest corner of the state on the Nebraska wheat Board. His term will run until 2011.

Since her return, Colglazier has been attending meetings of NWGA and was able to attend the National Association of wheat Growers Women's Leadership at Its Best program in April.

The program, sponsored by the NAWG Foundation and Syngenta Crop Protection was held in Greensboro, N.C. and graduated eight women including Colglazier in a three-day course of leadership, lobbying and communication training.

Sessions focused on being an effective leader in an association environment and were supplemented by tours of Syngenta production facilities and a local farm.

"That program was great," Colglazier said. "It really helped to polish my communication skills. I'm learning other new skills. I'm now taking an online graduate level class in leadership at UNL."

Colglazier anticipates a bright future in production agriculture.

"I see a bigger use of GPS to map yields and determine variable rate fertilizer application. In our situation there will be more closely monitored irrigation scheduling or even the production of different crops where irrigation is concerned. We may have to move away from corn or away from irrigation altogether," Colglazier said.

"The rate that technology is changing is changing how I'll be farming differently than my parents in 20 years. In fact, it's the reason I can even think about going into farming. It's no longer physical labor anymore but it's about working smarter and being able to utilize technology."

Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.

7/2/07

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