Throughout the past century the family farm has become a dying breed as farming has turned into a commercial business with large enterprises replacing many family ventures.
In an effort to preserve the family farm, Brigham Young University, through its College of Biology and Agriculture, is hoping to foster farm families by training students to use the latest technology and information to manage farms and ranches successfully, said William L. Park, associate dean of the College of Biology and Agriculture.To take that training and research one step further, retailer Sam Skaggs and his wife, Aline, donated land in southern Idaho to BYU in 1984, hoping to help students put what they have learned in the classroom into practice on the farm.
The land, known as the Sam and Aline Skaggs Research Ranch, covers 9,388 acres with 1,672 acres
of irrigated land. The ranch is located seven miles
from Malta, Idaho, about 30 miles south of Burley, in the Raft River Valley and is geared toward helping current and future generations of farmers and ranchers.
"I feel as if this is an opportunity to give something back to the land which so unselfishly gave to my family," Mr. Skaggs, who is not a member of the Church, said in a speech when the ranch was dedicated.
Mr. Skagg's grandfather - the Rev. Samuel M. Skaggs, a Baptist minister - homesteaded a piece of land in the early 1900s, less than 50 miles from the research ranch. The Rev. Skaggs set up a farm with his wife and 12 children in American Falls, Idaho.
To supplement his family income, the Rev. Skaggs built a small store, establishing the framework for what later became the Safeway food chain.
"The purpose of the gift [of the land to BYUT was to be certain that we did not allow the family farm to fade away into non-existence," said Elder L. Tom Perry of the Council of the Twelve, in a recent interview with the Church News. Elder Perry is a personal friend of Sam and Aline Skaggs.
He added: "The backbone of our nation has been the good, basic family farm. During recent years it has been under great pressure to survive. The research farm is attempting to find a way to make it possible for these family farms to be profitable and to continue to be a strength to the nation."
James N. Wiltbank, BYU animal science professor, said: "Our goals are not only to give students practical intern experience, but also to do research to prove that these findings are viable and will work."
Students learn about such things as artificial insemination, improved animal genetics, embryo transferring, altered fertility cycles and genetic alterations on plants at the ranch.
By putting theories to work and conducting experiments, they are able to do research that may well be the tool to help tomorrow's farmer thrive, not just survive, explained Brother Park.
BYU animal science researchers are hoping to develop a procedure, named the Skaggs Research System, which would get high quality cattle to market faster at a lower cost.
"The largest cost in a beef cow ranch is maintenance, the feed it takes to support them," Brother Wiltbank explained. "If we are going to make the family farm more economically viable, we have to decrease maintenance costs."
The idea of the Skaggs Research System includes impregnating fast growing heifers, cross breeding cattle to generate animals with smaller fat percentages, increasing herd fertility and enabling heifers to give birth to twins.
The end result of the system is getting more cattle to market faster, which results in higher profits and higher levels of production. Under the program, it takes less than two years to take a cow from birth to market. A normal cycle takes about three years.
Last year, 67 heifers were bred at the research ranch and 33 conceived from the first breeding. The 33 cows gave birth to 51 calves. Normally the 33 cows would have had about 30 calves.
"We hope to be able to demonstrate this system to students and others so it can be done in a ranch situation," said Max V. Wallentine, BYU animal scientist and director of the BYU Agriculture Station.
Scientists at the research ranch are also working on selecting sires that produce leaner, yet flavorful meat because they make more money for the producer.
More than 300 acres at the research ranch are also devoted to improving range land for grazing by developing grazing systems to utilize grass, crop residue and crops more efficiently.
"There are so many exciting things happening in agriculture," Brother Wiltbank added. "In the next few years we will be able to twin cattle, control disease and many other things. It is going to take intelligent, hard working people to carry agriculture forward."
While farm work is challenging and physically taxing, Brother Wallentine said the number of BYU students who are interested in farm management is up nearly 20 percent from what it was five years ago. "What we want to teach them is that the opportunity is there [to succeedT," he said.
"The payoff to the hard work involved in farming and ranching," Brother Wiltbank explained, "is experiencing the thrill of holding a live calf, for example. You make things happen, and get to see them happen. That's the thrill of it all - seeing new things grow and develop."
Students can choose from 139 majors that are agriculturally oriented in the Animal Science Department at BYU, Brother Park said. About 20 percent of the students come from farms and the rest come from cities or rural communities. About 25 percent have production-oriented hopes and goals of being associated with the agriculture business.
"We don't have trouble generally with students raised on farms," Brother Wallentine remarked. "Most of these kids know how to work. They have to work to get their education. And they provide good, solid leadership in the industry after they get their education. I think it's the work ethic as much as anything."
To be successful on the farm, it takes good management, good livestock, a good feeding program, a good breeding program and a good market, he added.
"It also takes a smart, profit-driven person to put it together in a package to make it work," Brother Wiltbank said. "To run a farm successfully a person needs to know about business, economics, animal science, the use of herbicides, meeting environment protection rules and has to be half a mechanic."
Teaching others more productive farming and ranching techniques is also beneficial for the Church, Brother Wiltbank said. "We can't raise enough food on welfare ranches and farms to support the Church in case of disasters. We need some people that are on farms that could provide a source of food, not only a source but the know how."
Regular field days and seminars for farmers are held at the farm and at BYU to share the latest research.
"If you look at the history of American agriculture, we have a colonial basis of privately owned, privately controlled farms," Brother Park explained. "And they were primarily operated by families. That is part of the productive heritage that we have in our country. There isn't anybody that has done a better job of increasing food production than in this country."
While the Skaggs have provided the land and the pivot irrigation system for the ranch, there is still a need for additional funding to support a teaching program for students, Brother Wallentine commented.
BYU hires some students part time in internship programs to give them hands-on experiences with actual production situations as well as research, but there is only enough housing for two or three students to work on the Skaggs/BYU ranch, Brother Wallentine explained.
"We need to increase the amount of support for academic activities," Brother Park remarked. "We are doing some research and teaching, but nowhere what the potential is or what we think is needed. The university has been very supportive. We just need an endowment fund established."
"Much of the latest technology in agriculture tends to encourage larger units," he continued. "They seem to be the ones that can take advantage of the latest technology. We are hoping that the technology we are researching can be utilized by smaller farms."
The benefit of the family farm is that those who manage it usually have a deep commitment to its success because it belongs to the family, Brother Wallentine concluded. "Management has to have a commitment to the farm. That is not easy under corporate circumstances unless they feel like the farm is theirs."
