Picture story: Taking the REINS

Being a young farmer isn’t easy—in Missouri or anywhere in the U.S. The average age of farmers had been steadily increasing in the last thirty years and average income made from farming is going down, according to the USDA. 

Cost of land is increasing, student debt is on the rise, cost of resources is higher than it was a decade ago, and many other challenges embattle farmers trying to enter the business.

But this story specifically follows a young farmer who is determined to stick with it. It’s been a family tradition for over a century. Zach Emmendorfer, 21, had to get started farming earlier than he expected after his grandfather passed away in February, but he’s taken it in stride and started the growing season on his own all while finishing up his last semester at MU.

Zach Emmendorfer, 21, stands in a wheat field next to a barn on his family’s farm in De Kalb, Missouri, on Monday, April 18, 2016. Zach’s great grandfather built the barn in 1912 using wood from the farm.

Zach looks out the left window of his tractor before he makes a turn in the cornfield. This growing season is the first that Zach will plant without his grandfather. He has rouhgly 400 acres total, and planted corn in 200. He will plant nearly 115 more acres with soybeans, and the rest is pasture.

Zach plants corn in one of his fields in De Kalb, Missouri. Zach has been doing field work since he was 13, but started driving tractors with his grandfathers at age 7.

Zach looks at an old ear of corn that was laying on an unplanted field. Zach grows dent corn, which is primarily used for animal feed or ethanol. Dent corn is identifiable from other species of corn beause of the tiny dents on the tops of the kernels.

A young red angus cow looks through a barbed wire fence on a field in De Kalb, Missouri. Zach’s cousin Dave Reddick owns part of the land that their family has owned for over a century. In addition to growing crops, Dave has Angus and Red Angus cows. In the future, Zach hopes he and and his cousin can join and run all the land they inherited together.

Zach drives his grandmother back to her house after visiting one of the fields his family owns. Zach’s family has records of owning the same two large sections of land in De Kalb, Missouri, from as early as 1850. But knows for certain his ancestors have been farming since at least 1905. His grandfather took over the farm from his grandmother’s father in 1950.

Zach and his grandmother look at a photo of himself with his grandfather wearing their Future Farmers of America jackets. Both were presidents of a local FFA chapter when they were in high school. His grandfather was the Atchison County Community High School FFA president in 1949 and 1950 in Kansas, and Zach was the FFA president for the North Platte chapter in Missouri in 2010 and 2011.

Zach reads over a question on his last exam for his Grain and Material Handling class. Zach took over the farm after his grandfather passed away, but he still had to finish up his last semester as the University of Missouri where he studied Agricultural Systems Management. During the semester, he drove back and forth from Columbia, Missouri and De Kalb, Missouri, to plant and attend classes.

Zach picks up corn seed from the local Missouri Farmers Association Agri Services center in St. Joseph, Missouri. He uses De Kalb brand seed. Zach decided to take up the family business because of his grandfather. “My grandfather did it and was so passionate and respected in the community for being a good farmer,” he said. “I think it just has always been important to me to keep that tradition going.”