In honor of celebrating National Ag Day this week, farmers throughout the state shared their experiences in hopes to help the next generation. One of those farmers was Dave Wilfert who owns Wilfert Farms with his wife Terri and their two kids, Ryan and Kelsey.
Dave explained how running the farm wasn’t the original plan for him. Growing up his parents told him not to farm, so after high school, he went to UW-Oshkosh and received not one, but two degrees. The plan was to go on to be in the corporate world, but unfortunately the same year Wilfert graduated, doctors found that his dad had a brain tumor.
Shortly after finding out what was happening with his dad, he and his brother came back to the farm to help their mom run the family business. At that same time, they became a hay and vegetable operation. Fast-forwarding to today, “We’re into processing carrots, we’re into fresh market produce, and we’re into grains and oilseeds…it’s a mix that’s enabled us to be fairly successful,” Wilfert says.
Over the years there have been a lot of changes to what their farm is. They went from a dairy farm to a farm known all around Manitowoc and surrounding counties for their fresh produce. Even with all of the hard work the family has put into the farm, Wilfert said he wishes he would’ve tried to acquire more land earlier in his career.
He mentioned the younger generation of farmers currently looking for land. “It’s so important to have a land base to your farm so that, for lack of better words, you can’t be continually jerked around by those that do own the land.” He explained that when he used to rent land, they would normally be renting from a retired farmer or someone who understood agriculture, so they were easy to work with.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, a lot of the land is inherited by someone who may not know much about farming, which can make it tough to work with them. Those renting the land may think that the farmer’s making a fortune off of the land, so they choose to raise the rent. When in reality, the only one making money at that point is the renter and the farmer’s making very little.
On the bright side, Wilfert did say that it is possible for those getting into the industry to get land. “I think the fortunate thing today is, the low-interest rates make it possible, and some of the government farm programs make it possible for a young person to invest in some land with a very low-interest rate.” Either way, it’s going to be tough to jump into ag these days.
“Honestly, I think it’s very tough for a young person starting off. Unless that young person is involved in a family operation or they’re a part of that family that owns a lot of the assets that are involved in that farm,” he said there’s one other option, “or if that young person decides to work for someone who is willing to end up letting them come in and maybe, possibly at some point be a part of the operation.”
“The more you can learn, the more you can know, and the more experience you can garner and gain by either working for someone or being involved with some part of their operation is going to benefit you a lot,” said Wilfert.
One question that he gets a lot is if it pays for a young adult to receive a college education if they’re going to end up back on the farm anyways. “When I look at my degrees in marketing and economics, I use those college degrees every day…education is still the base of anything we do.” Wilfert brought up how farmers are very educated and tech-savvy people. Farmers aren’t just “brainless people producing the food.”
Wilfert said that one of the most important things a young person in agriculture can do is learn to be involved. “You can start out in high school coming through programs like FFA and 4-H. That will help you with part of that, but also network with whoever you can,” He said you can’t be afraid to ask questions, “One thing I’ve always found with people in agriculture, most people, older people are willing to share what they know or what they learned with you if you simply ask a question.”
He said that the ag industry still has some great opportunities out there, but they’re different than they were back in the day because things are changing so fast. Wilfert explained that if you want to be successful, you need to realize that farming is a team effort. This isn’t something you go out and do on your own. His management team includes himself, his wife, their 27-year-old son, and their 25-year-old daughter. In an industry that can be tough to navigate at times, you need a team where each member has their strong suit. As for the Wilfert team, it seems to work out pretty great.
“Education, experience, networking with other people, all very important things in a young person wanting to be in this industry.” – Dave Wilfert
You can check out the full interview with Dave on our podcast page.
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