Born to Farm

At 19, Schmitz of Mekinock, N.D., has five years’ experience as a farmer under his belt, and he’s managed to turn a profit every year.

Like many teenagers, Brent Schmitz stubbornly clung to his dream despite the advice of his elders. But Schmitz isn’t just another teenager going against the grain. Instead, he raises it—by the bushel.

At 19, Schmitz of Mekinock, N.D., (pop. 75) has five years’ experience as a farmer under his belt, and he’s managed to turn a profit every year. This year he plans to plant 1,500 acres in wheat, beans, and sunflowers.

“I won’t get rich,” Schmitz says. “I’m doing it because I love it. I can’t see myself doing anything else.”

From the time Brent was no taller than the tires on his uncle’s tractor, he wanted to farm. He refused to let anyone talk him out of it, although some tried, warning him about low commodity prices, high equipment costs, and the continuing demise of the nation’s small farms.

However, the seed was planted when Brent’s uncle, Merle Kroetsch, gave him a 30-year-old combine that had been gathering dust on his farm. Kroetsch thought his nephew might like to tinker with it. Brent had other ideas. “I figured, as long as I had a combine, why not use it,” he recalls.

At 14, Brent asked his father to allow him to plow up 25 acres of grassland behind the family’s home. Initially, Glenn Schmitz opposed the idea. His own father had been driven from farming during the 1950s after a hailstorm destroyed his crops.

“He wouldn’t let me alone,” recalls Glenn, who owns a construction company. “He kept pestering me.”

Eventually, the elder Schmitz relented and lent his tractor to Brent to break up the land.

Tilling virgin soil under a hot, dry summer sun was backbreaking work, but Brent loved it. After seeding, he often could be found in the fields, admiring his crop and soaking in the deep-down, good feeling of farming.

Brent had plenty to keep him busy while waiting for harvest, however. He worked for other farmers from sun-up to sundown, often seven days a week in summer, to earn money for more equipment and to pay his father back for a start-up loan.

The first season, Brent harvested about 30 bushels of wheat an acre. The following spring, as a sophomore at Midway Public School, Brent did the usual teenage things—played basketball, fished, and rode four-wheelers with friends. He also rented another 140 acres, planted it in wheat and beans, and continued to work for other farmers.

“Sometimes it got old, but the goal of farming got me out of bed each morning,” he says. “I thought, ‘If I can’t stick with it now, how am I going to be a farmer?’”

After another good harvest, Brent increased his acreage by 900 the following season. Then, last year, he planted 1,250 acres and added sunflowers. Three months of drought, then hail and a flood decimated most of his crops, but the hardy sunflowers pulled through, providing him with money to plant again this year.

“I thought about all the warnings,” admits Brent, who is pursuing an associate’s degree in farm management from Northwest Technical College in East Grand Forks, Minn., (pop. 8,827). “Then I pushed a pencil to it and decided I just have to be careful and watch my spending, because farming isn’t reliable year after year.”

Brent’s hard work and dedication to farming has earned him the respect of others in the industry. Last December, he was elected to the board of directors of the Grand Forks County Agricultural Improvement Association. Morris Davidson, the county’s agriculture extension agent, says he’s never heard of anyone Brent’s age getting elected to such an office.

“It’s the small farmers that keep communities alive,” says Gary Thiesen, manager of Emerado Farmer’s Elevator in nearby Emerado (pop. 449). “We can’t survive without them.”

“People like Brent are our hope for the future,” he adds.

Patti Armstrong is a freelance writer in Bismarck, N.D.

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