Prairie Patrimony by Sonya Salamon

Author:Sonya Salamon [Salamon, Sonya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General, Social Science, Sociology, Rural
ISBN: 9781469611181
Google: J9EVAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2014-02-01T02:41:09+00:00

The Father and Son Working Arrangement

Sons concur with parental expectations that they should earn the right to farm. “Farming should be just like any other business. It took me six years of off-farm work to get where I could go into farming. I wanted it. But just because I wanted it should it be handed to me on a silver platter?” commented a son involved in an extended family operation. Libertyville families with positive feelings about joint operations have negotiated formal business arrangements to assure an equitable exchange of labor, equipment, and land. “Our oldest son is farming with us,” said a full owner of five hundred acres whose son owns sixty acres and farms independently. He “trades his labor for the use of my equipment. I need him and he needs me, so we both can survive. It’s the old American system . . . trade something you do have for something you don’t have.” At another farm, two sons work with a father using a complex, unwritten agreement. To equalize the effects of each man controlling a different amount of land, an elaborate system of dividing the crops and the marketing profits was devised. However, if a son believes the father exploits him by delaying retirement or denying a fair share of resources, the partnership may flounder though succession has begun.

Good working relations prevail if the intergenerational business arrangement allows a son dignity through gradual assumption of decision making, after he proves himself capable. In one family the father as the largest landowner has the final decision, but the sons characterized their decision-making process humorously as “kind of a dog fight,” meaning that a hot debate transpires. By going to college and by gaining some off-farm work experiences in agribusiness the sons won their father’s respect, and they in turn respect his experience and wisdom. After a few years, this father-son operating agreement is still viewed positively by all members, and a successor is guaranteed.

Without a precise business arrangement entrepreneur families develop rancorous relationships. Entrepreneur sons resist parental demands based on what is best for family welfare because such concerns thwart their individuality and, moreover, are unbusinesslike. A Libertyville father, now retired, attempted to farm jointly with his two sons. According to the son now in control his brother was a lazy ne’er-do-well who took but gave nothing to the farm. Furthermore, the worker-son had an unwritten partnership that abused him “as a slave.” A stormy relationship resulted in the capable son leaving and returning several times when the father lured him back with promises of a written operating agreement. Peace came to the extended family only after negotiations forced out the lazy brother and retired the father.

It is difficult for entrepreneur fathers to retire, given their individualistic ownership claims on the farm. Life is justified by hard work and being busy—both equated with making money. If they are not working and making money, Libertyville farmers feel useless and sinful—a sort of death in life. Explained a younger

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