Brandon and Jennifer: Our Article for the Utah Farm Bureau News

The newspaper features a young couple with their story every month. All of the YF&R state committee members take a turn writing an article about themselves for the newspaper. It was our turn for the August paper.

Our story written by both Brandon and I : I grew up as a city girl who thought all farmers were old and that farming was a thing of the past. I bought my groceries at the store and never gave it a second thought. Then at the age of 26, I moved to Corinne and noticed all the farms around me. It was there that I fell in love with the slower way of life out in the country and hoped that one day I would find myself a young single farmer, but I still didn’t think they existed. Lucky me, I met my farm boy 2 years later. Brandon was too busy to take me out on a second date, so I rode with him in the tractor while he bailed hay, and he gave me a tour of the dairy afterwards. Experiencing all that for the first time, I was totally swept off my feet. I could picture myself spending the rest of my life with Brandon and being a part of the farming lifestyle he lived. I learned very quickly that I needed to buy the appropriate shoes first.

Brandon was introduced to farming at a young age when he started going to the farm everyday with his step-dad. Growing up in Cache Valley, and living 40 miles away from the farm they stayed at work until the work was done. Working those long hours Brandon learned early on about sacrifice and hard work. They ran 300 acres of alfalfa and grain on the side of his step-dad’s full time job at Miller’s. Brandon gained a great love and respect for tractors, trucks, and tilling the ground. At age 14, his step-dad quit his day job and bought a dairy in Lewiston, Utah. There Brandon spent his days milking and feeding cows, and taking care of farm ground in between. Unfortunately, the dairy didn’t work out so the cows were sold a few years later. Then Brandon moved to Ogden where he found a new job at Gibson’s Green Acres in West Weber Utah. Because it’s what he knows and loves, he’s been there ever since.

When Brandon started at Gibson’s Green Acres in 1998 it was a 300 cow dairy, and was a 500 acre corn and alfalfa farm operation. In his early years at Gibson’s, his mornings consisted of feeding and milking the cows, and also herdsman responsibilities. Then he spent his afternoons out in the field farming where his real love and passion was. Eventually, as the herd grew to 1,500 Holstein cows, 1,000 acres of corn, and 400 acres of hay, so did the need for a full-time crop manager. This position was a natural fit for Brandon. For the last 6 years, he’s been able to do what he’s always dreamed spending his days in big green tractors, tilling the earth, and providing quality feed for the cows.

As a crop manager in Weber County, one of Brandon’s greatest challenges in a populated area is finding enough ground to provide adequate feed for the cows. There are several other dairies in our county that have been here a long time, they’re thriving, and have plans to continue farming in Weber County for many years to come. As the economy along the Wasatch front continues to thrive, and the housing market continues to grow, farmers continue to lose more and more of the prime farm ground that Northern Utah has to offer. It forces them to travel further and further each year. Gibson’s is currently farming in 3 different counties (Box Elder, Weber, and Davis County) about a 60-mile radius. It’s a challenge for them to drive heavy farm equipment through towns and in traffic to several dozen fields that range from 5 to 30 acres each. Brandon envies those that farm 1,500 acres on pivots. In contrast, one of the greatest benefits to farming in Weber County is that we are blessed to have some of the most fertile and highest yielding soil in Utah.

We also feel being a part of agriculture is a great benefit to our family life. Brandon tries to involve our kids in his work whenever he can. We have a blended family (yours, mine, and ours type) with a total of 6 children. Baylee is 12; she shows a steer or a lamb in the fair every year. Baylee loves to go with her Dad to shuttle trucks from field to field because she gets to drive. Abbee is 10; she is the dancer in the family. Abbee also had fun being involved in 4-H and showed a lamb last year. Kalyssa is 9; she is my mini-me. She is a little mom and wants to take care of everybody. Kalyssa loves her newest “baby”, a lamb, her first 4-H project. William turns 4 this month; he is our only son. He is Brandon’s mini-me. He too loves tractors, trucks, and farming. If Will had it his way he would go with his Dad to the barn every day. Paisley and Emmy Lou are fraternal twins and look nothing alike. They also have a birthday this month and will be 2 years old. Paisley loves to cuddle. She’ll sit on anyone’s lap for hours and be perfectly content. Emmy is a wiggle worm. She is constantly exploring her surroundings and making messes. Both of them already point out trucks and tractors they see on the side of the road and call every animal a cow.

For me, switching from the city life to a farmer’s wife was an easy decision. Country folk are humble, hard working, and committed individuals. Brandon is rarely home most of the year, and I feel like a single mother a lot, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love knowing all my neighbors and their families, the beautiful open fields around me, the smells of the dairy, and having no tall buildings or sidewalks in site. The best lesson the farming life has taught me is the deep pleasure of sacrifice – Brandon works long hours, which requires more of me here at home with the kids, but we do it for the sake of a better life for our children where we can teach them the value of hard work and the many other character building experiences you don’t get in the city. Plus, I can’t think of any other occupation where our kids can tag along with Dad at work whenever they want to. We’ll always be a part of the Ag industry. This is where our heart is. THE END.

Brandon was chopping hay today. We met up with him to take a family picture for the article by the swather. The dairy is in the background, but its kinda small to see.