I farm because I grew up doing it. I grew up on my grandpa’s hip, on my dad’s hip. While following them around and riding around with them, I learned a lot. I feel like I know more about life and get to learn more about life than the average person because I am part of a grander circle. I get to see life come into this world and I see life leave this world. How many other professions get to see that?

Somebody asked me in second grade what I wanted to be. I said I wanted to farm. The feeling of wanting to farm has always been there. Sure, sometimes in the difficult times, I have that feeling of why am I doing this? And in those times, I say to myself that I have always wanted to do this so why not keep going. It’s more than just a farm for me. Obviously it is a way of life, but it is also a business that needs to succeed and I need to make decisions based on that.

In my early 20s, I had plans. I wanted to be here by X and there by Y. I understand that a lot of the issues in the dairy industry are out of my control. So, what I have been working on lately are the things that I can control. If I want this place to survive and thrive, I can’t just go with the status quo. I have to work on the things that I need to fix and not think about the things that are out of my control.

Cole & Crew

It’s hard for me to pull time to work in the office, but I am getting better and trying to delegate more because I want the farm to do better and I need to be better family oriented too. Since I was young, I have always worked 7 days a week. I have a family now and I want to instill a good work ethic in them, but I also want to instill family time in them as well. Even though it’s hard to balance that, I have a team that I can trust to do those things so that I can focus on other parts of my farm and my family. I look at my employees as leaders and I am giving them tasks as such. It’s not that I am going away, but I am trusting them to do stuff without me.

 Part of what’s driving me right now is accepting the fact that farming is not easy, but let’s get on with it and figure it out. Nothing has been given to me and nothing will be given to me. What’s different now is that the changes that are going to happen in the future are going to be mostly mine and that’s a little nerve-wracking.

Cole & employees