Next-Gen Spotlight: Illinois Siblings Capitalize On Their Location to Expand Their Farm Revenue
Twins Wayne Gehrke and Carolyn Brummel both had a desire to come back to the family farm after graduating college but needed to find enough room in the operation to support two new employees. With heavy land competition from more established producers, the duo decided to make the most out of what they already had and began working to expand the hay and pumpkin sectors of Gehrke Family Farms.
Q: What’s the biggest opportunity for your operation?
Wayne: The biggest opportunity for us was our location. We’re located an hour west of downtown Chicago. In the county we live in, the population is just under 600,000, so there are a lot of consumers. We started making hay and selling it to the hobby equine industry in the area and the Chicago Thoroughbred tracks. We also started a pumpkin business with a roadside stand on the main road, which has expanded every year. We’re continuing to grow and meet a need that our neighbors are looking for. The nice thing about that for us is it really allows us to make some income that isn’t just corn and soybeans, which is a hard industry to crack into if you’re young and competing with established growers.
Q: What has been the hardest part about getting started?
Carolyn: Even when you grow up on a farm, going back full time can be overwhelming from the sheer amount of things you realize you don’t know. I’ve been in it for almost a decade and there’s still so much stuff where I’m like, “Man, if the rest of my family was gone, I would be finding a different job because there’s no way I could do this alone.” That’s really intimidating at first, but it’s also important to recognize that there’s no way to know it all right away, and we try to play to each other’s strengths.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve received?
Wayne: Don’t say no right away. We bought a prefab building this past year to use as storage and an indoor sales location. Carolyn presented the idea, and my initial reaction was “We don’t need that.” But after looking at them and figuring out how much they cost, I realized it wasn’t a bad idea at all. Saying no right away is a good way to miss out on opportunities and rub people the wrong way.
Q: What advice would you give others?
Carolyn: I have a lot of friends that took a few years to work off the farm, rather than going straight back to the farm. I also worked for a year in Austria after college, and it was an incredible experience. I think there can be a lot of value in that, and I think I would encourage my kids to consider doing the same someday.
Wayne: Go back and check your attitude at the door. I graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in crop sciences. I thought I knew how to grow crops, but I wish I had stopped to ask “why” more. Why did we do it this way? Or why don’t we do it that way? I wish I would have taken to that mindset a little bit earlier than I did.
Q: Where would you like your operation to be in five to 10 years?
Wayne: I want the operation to be making enough money that I can comfortably not have to work every day out of the year from sunrise to sunset. It doesn’t really matter to me which side grows to make that happen, but as long as I’m financially stable and comfortable with taking a day off, that’s important for me.
Carolyn: I don’t have kids yet, but hopefully it’s in the near future. I’m already very busy now and want to find a way to stay active in farming as well as be a present mom at the same time. I would like to hire employees outside of the family to help keep everything running after we have children and have a healthy work-life balance.
Q: What is your favorite way to relax?
Wayne: Downhill skiing. In the spring, we have planting and then it’s hay season. Then we’re into pumpkin season and next is row crop harvest. So, I love winter because that’s when I get time to do things.
Carolyn: I am addicted to international travel. My husband hadn’t traveled internationally before meeting me, and he has enjoyed it too. I love learning about other cultures and agriculture across the world.
