This interview really stood out to me in several ways. First off, my guest, John Loudenburg is attending his first two years of college at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs. This is not an agricultural college, so he explained that he was getting his general education classes taken care of prior to transferring to a four year university. John explained that he needed to get some time away from the farm to assess if that is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. This is the first time that a student has ever told me something like this. And, I dangerously made the assumption that John had been farming on his family's farm all of his life and was kind of burnt out. But, I was wrong.
John told me that when he started the FFA, and he was coming up with an SAE project he decided to farm corn and soybeans. This was not something that his family was engaged in. His grandfather, whom he had never met, farmed these crops. And John found himself inspired to do the same. So, he found a way to rent ground and purchase equipment when he was 15 years of age. He has been farming and growing his acreage ever since.
John has a very healthy perspective on life, and that is what allowed him to take some time away from farming to make sure that this is what he wanted to do. He told me that after two years away, he has decided to transfer either to the University of Wyoming or South Dakota State University to study agricultural business. He has decided that farming is the life that he wants, and he is now ready to return to what he has started and build upon that.
This perspective that John has led to be a national proficiency finalist this year. It has also helped him to almost double his acreage over the past four years.
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