Wyoming

Hard Work, Sacrifice And Risk: Advice For First-Generation Farmers

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Doug Stark of central Wyoming knew he wanted to farm after high school but quickly had a hard reality check.

“The first year I kind of dabbled at it a little bit–I rented a farm and used my dad’s equipment. That didn’t really work out,” Stark recalls. “I didn’t have enough farm ground to make it all work, and I frankly, didn’t really know what I was doing from a business standpoint.”

Stark ended up at the University of Wyoming to study for an ag business degree. Once he graduated, however, there was no longer a family farm to apply his skills on.

“My dad sold the dairy, liquidated the farm and moved on as well,” Stark says. “It was out into the working world and Farm Credit Services of America.”

Stark stayed at Farm Credit for 37 years, eventually serving as the company’s CEO until his retirement a few years ago. He recently joined the Ag Inspo podcast with Ron Rabo and Rena Striegel to discuss what he believes the next generation of producers need to start a farming operation when one isn’t being passed down.

It’s Possible To Start From Scratch
Stark says the first misconception many young producers have is they can’t start farming by themselves. He says it can be done, but be prepared to make sacrifices.

“Whether in ranching or farming, people I know who did it have worked their tails off,” he says. “They went without a lot of years. They built things themselves. This friend of mine built his own shop by hand. He pounded all the posts, put up all the rafters and ran all the wiring. That’s the kind of thing that you have to do when you’re starting.”

Get Creative
Since first-generation farmers aren’t inheriting equipment, land, or other assets, Stark says they’ll need to get creative.

“How can you look at things differently than the traditional ‘buy the land and buy the machinery’ mindset,” he asks. “Maybe you help your neighbor put harvest corn in exchange for using equipment initially or trade labor.”

That could also look like running a bare-bones, older equipment fleet for a few years.

“I met with a farmer who was stepping in to take over, and he was willing to downsize the equipment line in order to be able to afford to buy into the operation,” she says. “They were going through their inventory saying, ‘Do we really need a planter this nice and this big? Could we get by with something a little less new?’ It was really cool to see that young farmer being willing to consider not running top of the line equipment in order to be able to get in.

Another option is connecting with farmers without children to pass their farm down to - something Starke says is more common than you may expect.

“I can’t tell you how many producers I have known in my role as a leader that don’t have succession on their farm or ranch, and they would love to have a young person to work with to help them get started. It doesn’t mean they’re going to give their farm or ranch to them, but they would get a break and develop a lot of knowledge.”

Striegel shares an example of this she’s seen first-hand.

“I was on a farm where the gentleman didn’t have a lineal descendant as a successor. The young man he was working with was his best friend’s youngest son. Their farm was not large enough to support his two sons, so the older son was on the family farm, and the younger son is now working with this neighboring farmer to take over.”

Take Risks
Starke says you must be willing to take chances, as he doesn’t recall many farmers regretting a risk they took - mainly the ones they didn’t take.

“I would drive by a farm with a client and they would say ‘You know, I had a chance to buy that back in 1969 for $500 an acre, and I passed it up. We could have made it work, but I just was too stubborn. I only wanted to give him $450 and it’s worth $15,000 today,” Starke recalls.

He also recommends having an entrepreneurial spirit and finding ways to enhance the value of your operation.

“Maybe there’s some other agritourism you can employ. Maybe there’s other assets on the farm that you can look at, whether it’s a gravel pit or something that you could develop,” Starke says.

Three Midwestern Farm Credit Associations Announce Collaboration

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 15:26:50 GMT

AgCountry Farm Credit Services, Frontier Farm Credit and Farm Credit Services of America announced they have signed a collaboration contract. The three boards will share leadership, planning and technology responsibilities, while local boards, offices and programs will be retained.

“Continual improvement is vital to the long-term success of any farm or ranch,” said Shane Tiffany, chair of the Frontier Farm Credit board. “Our financial cooperatives are no different. As agriculture gets more complicated and our risks and costs as producers increase, we need to know we can count on our lender. This collaboration better positions us for the future.”

Combined, the organizations have a reach of over 85,000 producers in eight states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

“There are many examples of successful collaborations in the Farm Credit System,” said Nick Jorgensen, chair of the FCSAmerica Board. “This one is unique in allowing each association to share functions where it makes sense, yet retain the local experience we all have come to value from our individual cooperatives and financial teams.”

At the end of 2022, AgCountry, based in Fargo, ND, had a reported loan volume of $11.6 billion. Frontier Farm Credit, based in Manhattan, Kan., had a volume of $2.6 billion and FCS America, based in Omaha, Neb., reported $38.3 billion.

“Our three boards are comprised mostly of farmers and ranchers. We were elected by our fellow member-owners to make decisions ensuring our associations fulfill their mission to current and future producers,” said Lynn Pietig, chair of AgCountry’s board of directors. “Each association enters this collaboration in a financially strong position. By working together, we can achieve benefits of scale that make us even stronger.”

The collaboration is expected to take effect no later than April 1, 2024.

Wyoming Officials Help Rancher Build Wildlife-Friendly Fence

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:17:22 GMT

As he hitched up his black 101st Airborne Division ball cap, Karl Lankford leaned against a freshly planted fence post and admired the shiny barbless wire lining his land at the base of Sheep Mountain in northwestern Wyoming.

“We coulda used barbed wire for the middle two wires,” Lankford said, pointing to the four-wire fence. “But gol’ dang, I just don’t need it for my cows.”

Lankford’s new fence was installed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Habitat and Access Branch as part of an initiative to provide wildlife a safer path through private lands, Wyoming Game and Fish Senior Game Warden Bill Brinegar said.

“We found out he was maintaining a fence we should have been helping maintain,” Brinegar said. “When he told us about some of the issues he was having with wildlife getting tangled trying to access a stream on the other side and his plans to move the fence himself, it just seemed like the right thing to do.”

Because Lankford’s land borders the Forbes/Sheep Mountain Wildlife Habitat Management Area, Brinegar said game and fish was partly responsible for the fence but decided to pay for the project in full as part of an effort to build relationships with landowners and showcase how fences could be made wildlife friendly.

“This is my pride and joy — this fence here,” Lankford said as his lips curled into a broad smile beneath his long, gray handlebar mustache. “This will mean 20 or 30 more elk, deer and antelope the people of Wyoming will have to enjoy.”

Researchers at the University of Utah recently determined an average of one hoofed animal for every 2.5 miles of fence died annually from getting tangled in fence and an average one was found dead near a fence annually for every 1.2 miles of fence in Utah and Colorado, Wyoming Wildlife Foundation documents state.

“The main thing is it’s a barrier to wildlife movement,” Brinegar said. “Wildlife need more movement space to survive.”

Many of the problems with traditional fences occur during the winter or after a hard spring, he said.

“In the winter when antelope are already fatigued, they will stack up against a fence if they can’t find a spot to crawl under,” Brinegar said. “If no one comes along and lets them through, they will literally just stand there and die.”

When the fences are too high or the wires too close, he said deer, which prefer to jump over fencing, get tangled in the wire and often die from their injuries.

“Fences that are in a bad location can be detrimental to sage grouse, too,” Brinegar said.

Combating the problem is costly for ranchers, but he said grants were available to help private landowners pay the cost of installing wildlife-friendly fence.

“The absolute best is three-wire (fence),” Brinegar said. “But you can do it with four-wire.”

Depending on the purpose of the enclosure, lay-down fencing could be an option, he said. Another solution could be moveable power fence or adjusting the height and spacing of the landowner’s current fence.

No matter the solution, Brinegar said he hoped to use Lankford’s fence as a showcase for one of the many possibilities available to landowners willing to work with Game and Fish.

“One of the most important roles as a game warden is we are basically a liaison between the public and the ‘department,’” he said. “If you build that trust between the game warden and the landowner, then maybe when they have a problem with elk tearing stuff up, they will with work us on an access program.”

In many cases, he said landowners are more than happy to cooperate with game wardens in wildlife preservation efforts, because the landowners take care of the wildlife as if they were their own pets or livestock. However, getting out the word about federal grants for land improvements can prove to be a barrier in its own right, he said.

“One of my long-term career goals is to get as many miles of wildlife-friendly fence as possible,” Brinegar said.

A red dachshund sauntered between Lankford’s feet and paused beneath the newly installed wires as if to admire the craftsmanship.

“That’s Jade — she’s after gophers,” Lankford said. “She’s the huntin’ist dog you’ve ever met.”

Returning his attention to the fence, the Vietnam veteran bent over inspecting several staples holding the wire in place and patted a post affectionately.

“If you look at the way they spaced this wire, there’s no way a cow will get through this,” he said. “It’s a really neat thing for me. I’m just so appreciative of what they done. This will save so many elk.”