Program pairs aspiring farmers, mentors

RICHLAND, Iowa (AP) — He quit his job and drove his wife and their four young daughters across country, a 21st-century pioneer lured to these faraway farm fields by the promise of a life-changing deal with an older stranger.

Isaac Phillips always wanted to be a farmer. But some friends as well as colleagues at the Utah jail where he supervised inmate work crews were leery, telling him: a) don’t give up a steady job, b) you’re making a big mistake and c) it’s a crazy idea.

Phillips knew the business he was plunging into was risky, that there were no guarantees for him in these Iowa hills. And yet, the family moved more than 1,000 miles.

“I thought I may never get a chance like this in my life,” Phillips says, two years into his new rise-with-the-rooster career. “I knew there was no way I could do this on my own.”

How did this thirtysomething Garth-Brooks look-alike, who had the drive but not the dollars, start farming in Iowa?

He had an instant mentor here: John Adam, who planted his boots on this swath of black earth as a 19-year-old newlywed and over five decades helped rear four children, harvested corn and beans, bred sows and collected a wall of plaques and honors.

Now, the two men are working together on Adam’s farm. One day, if all goes well, Phillips hopes to call part of this land his own.

This is farm matchmaking, a down payment on the future of rural America.

The idea is being tried in a growing number of states as farmers are getting older and working longer: The average age rose to 57 (from 55) and the ranks of the 75-and-up set increased by 20 percent from 2002 to 2007, according to a recent survey. Meanwhile, the number of those younger than 25 has dropped by nearly a third.

The high cost of getting started is intimidating, even for enthusiasts such as Phillips.

So what to do?

Pair the two generations in special programs. Aspiring farmers then don’t have to go into deep debt to launch their careers and can hook up with a farmer in his 50s, 60s, or 70s — ideally one who doesn’t have heirs who want to follow in his footsteps.

If their personalities mesh, the two can become partners. Later, the hope is the established farmer will sell, rent or make some other arrangement that keeps the younger one on the land.

There’s a broader goal, too: Save the family farm. And a bonus: Put more kids in rural schools, pour more money into Main Street, preserve small towns.

No one sees this as THE solution for stemming the exodus in rural America. And no one denies there are financial and emotional minefields.

But Dave Baker, the matchmaker who united Phillips and Adam, is a true believer. It’s his job to connect fresh-faced wannabes from across the country with Iowa farmers preparing for retirement — or merely pondering it.

John Adam’s original plan was to build a big family farm.

His four children would be there, then the grandkids, working together.

He started small with his wife, Colleen, and grew big. One day, he expected he’d pass the torch.

Then the farm crisis of the 1980s hit. Interest rates soared, land values plummeted. “The ’80s took the fun out of farming for everyone,” Adam says. “It ruined an awful lot of families.”

He survived, but when his two daughters and two sons “saw their mother and I struggling to pay the bills,” he says, they attended college and found good jobs. He wasn’t one to argue with their success.

His son-in-law works on the farm, but didn’t want to be the in-charge guy, Adam says, so he applied to Baker’s program. He was immediately sold on Isaac and Katie Phillips.

Adam says his own kids “all gave their blessing” to the idea. And he has come to see the Utah couple as extended members of his clan.