I only have my father to blame

My dad, Marvin, celebrating another peach crop at age 88.

Editor's Note (2026): I wrote this column more than 25 years ago for Fruit Growers News and Vegetable Growers News, two of my agricultural publications. At the time, my father was 65. Twenty years ago, we sold our family apple farm McCallum’s Orchard, but retirement never really suited him. He bought 10 acres, planted blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and peaches, and opened Marvin Gardens, a farm market he proudly operated for nearly two decades. Last year was his final season welcoming customers and selling fruit. On his 90th birthday, we planted a new row of raspberries together. Reading this column again reminds me that my father's greatest harvest wasn't apples or berries. It was the values he planted in me: optimism, leadership, hard work and always looking forward. Those lessons continue to shape not only my career, but now my writing as well.

I only have my father to blame

By Matt McCallum

I was walking through the casinos in Las Vegas recently thinking if people really wanted to gamble, they should buy a farm. It would be much more exciting than pulling the one-armed bandit all day next to a bunch of blue-haired women. And the stakes would be a lot higher. Think of the excitement. You could lose all your money in one hailstorm!

For the second year in a row, a late-summer hailstorm destroyed our apple crop. The cruel irony was that by then we had already invested an entire season’s worth of time, labor and money, betting everything on having a harvest to sell that fall. We rolled snake eyes.

And while my father and I could have focused on what we had no control over, we instead looked at what we could do to continue to diversify and be profitable. We went ahead and built a $30,000 addition to our farm market, knowing that our business plan must go forward. And we will make it through the year O.K. because we looked forward and not back.

I'm lucky to have such a great relationship with my father in operating our family farm. He makes me a part of the decisions and I feel like I have an equal voice in the decisions.

I was in Las Vegas in early December to attend the National Potato Council's Seed Seminar and heard David Kohl give a talk titled: "Farm Risk Management: Navigating the 21st Century."

Kohl, an economist from Virginia Tech, says the future of farming hinges on the next generation having the skills to be successful, but that many parents see them as children and not as partners.

One farmer he knew was 64 and had never seen the books. His father died four years later and after the funeral he was finally able to look at the numbers. The farm was $1.2 million in debt and he had to sell it. What a waste. My father makes me keep the books for our farm and has me explain and justify the numbers to him. There are no secrets or surprises.

Kohl said farmers should follow two rules if the younger generation is to be successful on the farm.

The "3- to 5-Year Rule" states that a young person should work outside the business for three to five years.

"Learn on someone else's money," Kohl said. "They will get good networking and labor management skills and they will need these to build the next generation of farms."

People who follow this rule are two times as likely to be successful, studies have shown.

The "Six-Year Rule" says that if a son or daughter does not start making management decisions within six years they will be a hired hand for life. "Teach and share or you'll end up destroying," Kohl said.

The other thing Kohl harped on was goal setting. This is one thing my father has always preached to me and that's why I've always been very focused on where I'm going.

My father, Marvin, has been a minister for over 40 years and has had to get entire congregations focused. It was great to see him in the pulpit, even though he thought I wasn't listening, and see him move the church in a positive direction.

Each new church we would move to would always energize my father. He would focus the church on where it was going and set goals. By the time we left there were more members, a new addition or some other program in place. We moved about every four years, which some wondered if I hated. I really didn't because it allowed me to meet new people and enjoy a different community. I've now lived eight years in one town. A record!

Our family orchard was always the foundation of the relationship with my father. I worked there every summer and disliked the long hours, but it gave me a work ethic like none other and allowed my grandma Lucille to mold me.

Ten years ago my father gave me the opportunity to buy into the farm and together we have a shared vision for the future. Now we don't always agree, but my dad has this unique way of thinking you've gotten your way when you really haven't. I'm trying really hard to perfect it on my kids.

Kohl said that when people hit 50 they go into a coast mode and do not keep building the farm operation for the next generation. My father hasn't done this. In fact, he's now 65 and we are continuing to build the farm, set new goals and plant new apple trees.

Kohl said studies have shown that people who write their goals down will earn 14 times as much as people who don't. My father has always made me write down goals for the farm. I guess he knew something I didn't. He's never said a negative thing about the future of the farm, has always worked toward a solution and never complained.

I've been lucky to have a visionary for a father. Since he's given me a fair chance to manage the farm I thought it was time I thanked him in advance for what it's meant to me long before it was too late.

Thanks, Dad.