For nearly four decades, Pat Chapman has climbed into the combine and harvested pass after pass through her family’s wheat fields near Lee’s Summit, Mo.
“I enjoy it,” she says. “I look forward to it every year.”
Pat is driving slower in the combine this year because the grass grew too tall. Spring rains pushed the family’s wheat harvest about three weeks behind schedule. Hay is the clan’s primary crop, and the family puts up over 20,000 square bales and 800 round bales annually. However, this year, harvesting both crops feels different.
“We’re short about three people,” Pat says. “And [with] my husband being gone, we’re really short on help.”
It’s the first season the Chapman family has farmed without one of its patriarchs; Pat’s husband, Lloyd, passed away in March after nearly 64 years of marriage. The three Chapman brothers were pillars on their farm, and their absence has forced the next generation to stretch into new roles with new tools.
“We’re doing the best we can and just trying to keep the legacy going,” says Tara Reiter, Pat and Lloyd’s daughter, from the tractor cab as she bales small squares. She’s worked on the family farm since she was a kid.
“It’s been a year of filling some of those roles,” says Brian Chapman, Pat’s nephew. “Even though I’ve done a lot of the roles, I’m having to do more now. And Tara is having to do more, and [her son] Dylan’s really having to step up, too. The last week and a half has been a huge transition of trying to get a lot of that stuff done.”
The Google Generation Takes Over
The year of transition means Brian, Tara and Tara’s son, Dylan Reiter — a fifth-generation farmer and Pat and Lloyd’s grandson — are working more hours outside on top of their full-time jobs, off the farm. Dylan says it’s been a year of filling in the gaps that were left by his grandpa.
“He would always get everyone started in the field, going in the first circles, the first laps,” Reiter says. “And then he would say, ‘Put it in B3, 1,500 RPM, and you just go.’ So, not having that this year is definitely a learning experience.”
Now, Dylan turns to tools his grandfather never needed — trading authentic intelligence for the artificial kind.
“We’re all learning,” he says. “We’re learning everything that we really didn’t know 100%, and just having the YouTube video, AI, ask a question. So, it’s been pretty hard. He was the AI, the dictionary. But this year, so far, we’re figuring it out.”
“We’re winging it,” Tara says. “Making a phone call here or there, or a YouTube video.”
‘That’s Basically Farming’
“We’re kind of winging it day by day,” Brian adds. “That’s basically farming. You don’t know what you’re doing from one day to the next.”
Change is inevitable, the family agrees. But after years in the field, they know one thing for certain. “I just like doing it,” laughs Pat Chapman from the combine. They’re moving forward, even if it’s at a different speed — and with a little help from Google.
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