Choosing to Leave the Farm

by Karen Emilson

There is life after farming.
That is the message Brandon’s Mike Waddell wants to get out to struggling cattle producers - especially those who have sold their cows or those who are considering selling the family farm.

Mike was 21 years old when his dad, Ken, sold the last of their purebred Shorthorn herd. He remembers the year prior to that, standing in the yard on a hot, dry, windy summer afternoon in 1985 watching as the farm assets were auctioned off. That is something no family should have to go through but Mike believes it made all of them stronger.

A year after the sale and the lease on the land expired, the family loaded everything up and moved to an acreage at Neepawa. The house they moved in to had no running water or central heat.

“If you turned a light bulb and the toaster on at the same time, you were in trouble” he laughed.

Mike said that despite the financial difficulties his parents endured, his memories of growing up in rural Manitoba were mostly good. Childhood memories include pail feeding calves, opening gates for his parents, showing cattle, catching suckers in streams, fishing the whitemud river, and checking the cows during calving season. He remembers being outside, looking up at the starts on a crisp, cool night.

“As exhausting as calving season was, I still remember it as a pretty magical time,” he said, adding that his parent’s decision to leave the farm didn’t leave him emotionally scarred as some might imagine.

Now 38, Mike hopes that by talking about his family’s experience that it might help people who are struggling now.

“It was difficult and life changing but we got through it as a family,” he said, explaining that while times were lean those first few years after selling out, life got better. His dad, who was also an auctioneer, expanded his auction business to include a consignment salvage business and put together an auction barn. Ken’s Auction Service held weekly consignment sales and he filled in at the Gladstone Auction Mart. That led to a business opportunity that would change their lives forever.

“The Neepawa Banner was born in October 1989 out of a combination of our hunger and a community opportunity,” he said. “Dad was spending a lot of money on advertisements for the auction business, and that combined with the backing of a few local contracts by business people who wanted a different kind of community newspaper than what was being offered at the time, starting a rival publication made sense.”

Ken Waddell’s foray into the community newspaper business created a stir province wide and many predicted he’d never last. But 20 years later, the Neepawa Banner is still going strong. He found his niche. Something he enjoyed as much, or maybe even more than making a living off the land.

“He was a very outspoken editorialist and had a very right wing perspective,” Mike said. “And my father’s own personal faith was front and center at times, but he learned to be more diplomatic and his writing style has definitely matured.”
Mike believes that farmers may actually have a better chance of making a successful mid-life change than people in other lines of work.

“There is an honesty and a reality to farming that many people who have grown up in urban centers don’t understand,” he said. “Farmers look at life from a different perspective. They understand cause and effect and are more resilient than they realize.”

He offers the following advice to those who are thinking of selling the farm.

Find something you love to do
Farmers in general are jacks of all trades. They can do pretty much anything. If there is one thing that you enjoy doing most on the farm, that may be a clue towards a career option. Whether it be mechanics, driving, operating machinery or working with cattle, your current interests can give you a clue about what you might like to do. And let’s face it, if being on the farm is causing you too much stress and unhappiness, it might be a clue that farming is not right career choice for you.

Forward plan
Get out before you have to get out. Take a realistic look at your situation and decide the difference between your needs and wants.
“There is going to be pain if you leave farming, but sometimes there is pain if you stay farming,” he said. “What everyone needs to decide is which pain is greater.”

Know your strengths
There is nothing that shields farmers and their kids from the reality of life.
“People who have never had a hand at producing their own food have a limited understanding of cause and effect,” he said. “But farmers know that you don’t stop at 5:00 p.m. if the work isn’t done. This is a tremendous asset to any business. Farmers know what they are capable of and have more to offer than they realize.”

Maintain your integrity
“My dad did a voluntary conveyance which meant all the local businesses he owed were paid first,” he said. “He believed his integrity was the most important thing. It cost him in terms of his credit rating, but looking back, paying the bank last was absolutely the right thing to do.”

Be honest with yourself
“Dad owned and admitted that he borrowed too much money,” he said, “But like so many others, he didn’t see the high interest rates of the 80s coming and got caught in bad circumstances. It is important guys realize the mistakes they made, but also what circumstances were beyond their control. Blaming yourself makes it hard to move on.”
Leaving the farm doesn’t mean leaving the lifestyle completely behind.

“We are living proof that there is life after farming,” he said. “While we didn’t live on the farm anymore, we stayed in the rural area and continued to enjoy all the benefits of that lifesyle, and I have made the choice to do the same with my family. We are raising our children with all the same values I learned growing up on the farm. There is no better life than rural life and just because you leave the farm doesn’t mean you have to leave that behind.”

- Mike Waddell is a Chaplain who works with Leader Impact Group and is a spiritual mentor to the Brandon Wheat Kings Hockey Club. He and his wife Naomi and their four children live on an acreage near Brandon.