Breaking Out

What a trip!  I bought my first 80 acres when I was 22 years old and 3 days out of college.  After being turned down by dozens of banks I contacted the Farm Service Agency.  The agent was great and very understanding.  After I had built a farm plan, and done the necessary paperwork I had my first farm.  I still remember my hand shaking when I signed the papers!  

80 feet of mobile home heaven later I had a place to live and the dream was complete.  No tractor, equipment, nothing.   A set of post hole diggers, chainsaw, cedar posts with miles of fencing and 30 acres of clearing to do.  22 felt a lot different than 35 does so I would work during the day and come home and work late into in the evenings.  The land was old clear cut property which was less than desirable, but the price was right and I had a vision and determination.  I remember sitting on that front porch looking at the brush and seeing beautiful green pasture with cows grazing.  Weeks turned into months and a little money would be saved towards renting a bulldozer.  

Feet of cleared land turned into acres and within two years I had cleared the 30 acres.  I contacted the Natural Resources Conservation Service and they helped me to cost share the establishment of the pasture, cross fencing and putting in water tanks to keep the cattle out of the creeks to prevent contamination and erosion.  This is a GREAT program and I highly recommend it to anyone.  Especially someone who is starting out.  There are certain restrictions and everything has to be built to there specs, but it is well worth the time and effort.  

I rented a no-till drill from the NRCS and planted my first pasture.  Everything went great!  The pasture was beautiful, green, lush and then the next Summer came with one of the worst droughts in history for our area.  

Pasture died out.  I was heartbroken.  Money, time, planning, all shot to pieces.  That’s farming.  That’s part of the challenge that keeps me excited.  Two years passed until I could save up enough money to plant again since the federal money would not pay to plant it again. 

Here is how it looks 13 years later.  You may notice that I left some of the brush piles in the pasture instead of burning all of them to provide some wildlife habitat.  This has really helped to increase several species of wildlife in the area.  My rabbit population has exploded and we even have two coveys of quail.

That is how it started.  80 acres and a mobile home.  I sold a herd of cows when I turned 18 to pay my first years tuition at Clemson so I had been out of the cattle business for several years.  A good friend of mine gave me a cow for college graduation.  My new herd began.  13 years, two farm purchases, 500 acres rental property, a good wife, a sweet little girl and 103 head of cattle later here we are!