INVESTING CHECKOFF DOLLARS
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FAMILY HISTORY
THREE GENERATIONS TALK CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITY
BY BETHANY BARATTA
F
or six generations, the Bardole family in Rippey has weathered all sorts of challenges in farming. They’ve not only been able to keep their century farms intact, but they’ve also done so with an emphasis on doing things better. “Dad always tried to reach for a way to farm better. Better for us, better for the soil, better for the water. That was the theme: How do I do it better?” says Roy Bardole. Roy passed that same thinking on to his sons, Pete and Tim, who came back to the family farm in the 1990s.
Since then, they’ve implemented a variety of practices — like a no-till cropping system and cover crops — to help preserve the soils. Today, Tim’s son, Schyler, the sixth generation on the family’s farm, is using a drone to scout the family’s fields and better analyze the nutrient needs from farm to farm.
The real challenges All six generations have faced one common challenge, Roy says. “How do you make it profitable?”
It’s never been easy making money while farming, Roy says, noting that his father farmed during the Great Depression. Roy was farming during the farm crisis if the 1980s. “In the 80s, the bank tried to foreclose on us. If there was a most difficult time in agriculture for me that was it. To think that great granddad, granddad and dad farmed the land and made a go of it. And when I started farming, I was going to lose it. I cannot tell you how deeply that cuts you,” Roy says.
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