Blake and Tasha

How I got started in agriculture

(Blake) I went to college to become an electrician, and about halfway through I knew I wanted to come back to farm. So, Dad geared up the farm to get it ready for me to become part of the operation. Now, I handle most of the farming and the decisions as far as things like crop inputs.

Our family business approach

(Blake) We have a lot of trust in each other. If somebody ever makes a decision, it’s never a bad one. We’ve never had that issue in our family dynamic.

Why we work with FCSAmerica

(Blake) They know agriculture so well, and can help us with decisions that have long- or short-term implications for our operation. Just being able to talk to them about the decisions we make is so helpful because they have so much experience with different operations, what works and what doesn’t work. They do a great job of giving us a lot of information so we can make good decisions.

How we make decisions

(Blake) If we have a big decision to make, we get together, sit down and talk about it at length. If it’s more on the cattle side of our business, Brant takes the lead and has more input because that’s more his area of expertise. If it’s on the farming side of the business, I have more input. We understand our roles and work well together that way.

Advice to other young and beginning farmers

(Blake) Stick with it. There are good times and bad times. The biggest thing we’ve had is great parents who taught us to work hard and work together. Dad let us be involved from the beginning with decision-making and things like that. Learning to work together has served us well over the years. It’s just the way we were raised.