At 91 years young, you wouldn’t blame John Oncken for retiring and taking it easy. But John isn’t quite ready to hang up his columnist hat just yet. The life long agriculturalist has had many roles over the years but since 1990 has been a columnist sharing stories from Wisconsin agriculture. He joins us to share some reflections on his time in the industry.
John shares that the changing demographics of our state’s dairy farms has been a constant theme. In his opinion, farms getting larger has been mostly for positive reasons, such as families getting larger and working together. While others have claimed that there aren’t many young farmers out there John believes that the young farmers are often the ones that stay home and work so their parents can attend meetings and events. John has loved sharing the stories of young farmers and notes that one significant change he has seen is the number of women working on and running farms.
He shares a few pieces of advice for those in farming. The first is that you need to be a smart business person. Farmers wear many hats and “running multi-million dollar business off the kitchen table” takes people with a wide range of skills. And for young farmers he says to pick a good partner, no matter if that person is a family member or spouse, having a good partner is key to managing a complex business. He also reminds generational farms to make sure they have a plan for transition, both as children and as parents.
Sue Hellenbrand says
O how I loved my visits with John at the Green County Breakfast on the Farm. John always cared deeply for our hosts.