Soybeans, beef, bees, and battling the weather More and more, younger Ohioans are moving back to work on the farm. BY VICTORIA ELLWOOD
ome members of today’s younger generations — millennials and Gen Zers, if you will — favor a trendier, urban lifestyle, with conveniences like Uber rides and food trucks, bike-sharing, live entertainment, and ethnic eateries. But we found some young adults who prefer working the land, carrying on centuries-old legacies, rearing kids with an appreciation for nature, and growing acres (and acres!) of crops, raising livestock — even tending bees. We talked to three young farm families — each of them a member of an Ohio electric cooperative. They’re among more than 30,200 farmers aged 44 and under across the state, according to 2017 USDA agriculture census data. Their numbers are growing. Five years prior, the same age group came in at about 26,300 farmers.
Jessica and Tyler Basham with their children, Wyatt, McKenzie, and baby Dallas.
What’s it like to be a young farmer today?
Tyler and Jessica Basham (Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative)
I wanted to be self-sufficient. I enjoy being outside, and I’ve always liked equipment and animals.”
The rolling, 112-acre farm near New Concord has been part of Tyler Basham’s family for over a century — but the last family member to actually labor the land was his great-grandfather. Until now.
Put those interests together, and Tyler’s career was hatched. He had helped a neighbor farm in the past, but he admits he didn’t have an agriculture background. “I learned a lot just by doing it — and sometimes by doing it wrong the first time.”
Tyler lives with his wife, Jessica, and their three young children in a pole-building-style home, from which he has happily taken over farm operations. His grandparents still live in the original farmhouse, and his parents also built a home on the property. “The fields had been rented to neighbors for many years,” Tyler says, “but farming has always interested me.
26 OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • SEPTEMBER 2019
Today, he raises show pigs and crop-farms hundreds of acres. His sows produce up to 150 piglets each year, sold in the spring to local 4-H kids who bid on the 12-week-old animals. “Once the pig sale is over, we get out in the fields,” Tyler says. He plants corn and soybeans on 500 to 600 acres (his own plus rented fields). He also raises cattle.
PHOTO BY CINDY BASHAM
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