Another concern is the new administration. The last time Trump was in office and started a tariff war, our agricultural commodities crashed as other countries, including China, boycotted our grains and related ag items in response to the tariffs on their goods sold to the U.S. Farmers were forced to make major decisions when it came to locking in input costs of seed, fertilizer, etc. Daily we had to focus on the market to lock prices we could live with and get by.

Weather is more unpredictable than in years past. We used to get two to three day-long soaking widespread rains that would relieve and benefit our growing crops. Now rain comes more in the form of popups and storms, which can be more dangerous to crops, and they are also more hit and miss. We rely heavily on Mother Nature to assist with raising our crops.

Animal damage to crops has always been a concern. In the past few years, we’ve seen deer populations in our crops explode, making it the worst since the late 1980s. Here, again, weather’s playing a part. Drought forces the deer from wooded areas and places with little to eat into the fields. Our crops suffer a double whammy: drought and deer. Deer aren’t the only animal culprit, but they do the worst damage. Lower deer populations are acceptable, and we know that all of nature must eat, but when you are losing 10-50% or more of a field’s crop, it’s hard to pay back operating loans and bills.

Despite the aforementioned concerns, those of us in agriculture love farming and wouldn’t trade our profession for anything else. We’ve always faced tough obstacles and the ups and downs of the markets. We use what we’ve learned from those who came before us, combined with our own experiences, to make the best choices possible to put food on the table and do it again the following year. There’s really nothing like working outdoors with your family on the land you’ve grown up on. I have pointed out some pressing issues that we are facing in today’s economic and environmental atmospheres because those are just the realities we live and operate in. But we move ahead and hope for the best in the future ahead of us.

Courtesy PhotoWaylon Smolinski’s niece Luella Alberts sits inside the wheel of a tractor at Green Acre Farms.

This article was written by Waylon Smolinski, co-owner of Green Acres Farms, with his parents, Daniel and Marlene Smolinski. He gives us great insight into grain farming in Northeastern Michigan. Their family farm is located in Alpena County’s Green Township.

Waylon works side by side with his parents, Daniel and Marlene, who started farming on their own, in 1994. Before that, Daniel farmed with his in-laws at Woloszyk Bean Farms for 25 years. All seven of Daniel and Marlene’s kids grew up working on the farm: working in the fields, pulling weeds or picking rocks. It wasn’t all work and no play. The kids played school sports, too.

When Waylon finished high school, he went away to General Motors Institute of Technology to pursue a mechanical engineering degree. With that in hand, he returned home in 2003 to work on the family farm where he just knew he wanted to be.

The farm also gets help from Waylon’s sisters Farrah Smolinski, and Taylor Lucas. Lucas is part of a dairy farm in Posen, but helps at the parents’ farm whenever she can. As for non-family employees, there are always around three to eight at the farm to help with seasonal work and with the on-farm feed store. Waylon says, “We have a great customer base in our community.” Green Acres Feed Store grows and offers animal feeds in either 50-pound bags or in bulk: corn, wheat, rye, oats, millet, sunflowers, sugar beets, soy beans, and any mixable feeds such as chicken, calf, beef, premium bird, goat, horse, and lamb feeds, as well as square bales of hay and straw. The store also offers food plot seeds for larger fields, such as clovers, kale, turnips, radishes, and grasses, as well as bagged fertilizers.

Between individuals and wholesale accounts, the farm is kept busy and able to have year around work. Grain farming can be seasonal, which makes it hard to employ full-time workers.