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Tara Barrett is one of the most interesting people
I've ever met.
(lively music)
Our Tara Barrett is live on the scene
and has the very latest.
Let's go back out to the scene
where our Tara Barrett is standing by.
Hi Tara.
- Tara Barrett is also in Champaign tonight-
NewsCenter 17's Tara Barrett joins us now
live from Springfield
When she decided to leave a very successful career
in broadcasting and had a future she'd put in her time.
Good morning and thanks for being with us,
I'm Tara Barrett.
And I'm Scot England.
Time flies when you're having fun.
I've never heard of this.
I've never heard of someone going from the news desk
to the tractor seat.
[Scot] H is for Hume, population 400,
but Hume is also the hometown
of NewsCenter 17's morning anchor Tara Barrett.
We're looking for a picture of Tara Barrett
when she was young.
- Let's see. - Okay.
- This one, she was in the little Miss Andrew Patty pageant.
So this is the home that Tara,
did she grow up here in this home?
[Tara's mum] She was two.
You know your daughter's going to kill you guys
for letting me come in your house.
Her grandpa now he'd be rolling
that a woman's taking over the farm operation.
(laughing)
(lively music)
Scot, let's talk for a second, just me and you.
Just me and you.
- Yeah, not Tara. - Oh.
In the last year, there's been three times now
Tara has stolen our spotlight.
Yes.
When she was having a baby.
Yes.
- When she had the baby. - She had the baby.
And now she's leaving on a jet plane.
She announced that she was going back to the farm
and I says, you're doing what?
Tara Barrett's last day on our morning show.
You're not coworkers, you're friends.
The biggest thing I think I've learned from her
is that people of character make it through.
Things all kind of changed
when Tara's brother Cory got killed.
She's overcame a lot of things.
It's kind of a rough card that she was dealt.
When her dad passed away, I thought, oh,
she don't realize what she's getting into.
(lively music)
(wind blowing)
(car engine revving)
(corn gushing)
So today we're hauling corn out of the bins.
We've got the auger set up already
and we'll start unloading some corn,
haul it in town
to the elevator, which thankfully our local elevator
is only four or five miles away from most of our bins.
So it doesn't take too long.
We can fill up a truck and get it to the elevator
in about a half an hour.
So doing that all day, we can get quite a few loads in.
If I like the price today, I'll say,
go ahead and sell 10,000 bushel
and then I'll have a certain amount of time
to get it hauled in.
(cool music)
I was thinking about how much my mom did on the farm.
Yep, we were teenagers when we got married
and he worked at the fertilizer plants
and he was a coal miner for five years,
because my family was in coal mining.
He was raised about two miles south of here
in a little farmhouse.
And you know, I knew a lot of women
that were involved on the farm.
You know, my grandma was involved on the farm.
Yeah, my mother always told me that hard work
is good for you and you last stronger.
And she said, if you love your work, you'll do fine.
(lively music)
[Scot] How old were you when you got married?
21.
[Scot] And tell me about your husband.
He was no good.
(laughing)
No, I'm just kidding, just kidding, Gene.
But yeah, he was a hard worker
I will say that, a very hard worker.
He had farmed all his life with his dad.
So, but I hadn't, my dad didn't seem
to think us girls should be out there,
they didn't teach us too much.
- [Scot] So did you end up helping your husband on the farm?
Yes, from then on I had to work out in the field
with him a lot.
I did chores, I milked the cows
and I thought it was great being on the farm.
Did your kids help you guys on the farm?
Not till they was 12 years old.
I've got a son who's ready to run the combine next year.
I mean, he really does wanna run the auger wagon.
He's nine and he thinks it's time for him to take over
and honestly he can do it,
but as a responsible parent,
I don't think I can let my 9-year-old loose
in the auger cart.
But back in the day they would now it would be an issue.
(lively music)
And that's what you do on this road, yeah,
'cause you'll know everybody you pass.
But I think the farmer wave is the one finger wave.
[Scot] Nashville's close to that.
- Is it a different finger? - [Scot] Yes.
(laughing)
I grew up here.
The house didn't look like that, my parents since remodeled,
but I think we moved here when I was like four,
so that's where my brother and I grew up
and where my mother still lives today.
[Scot] The Barret home was filled with love
and Tara's brother Cory had a special love
for her from the day she was born.
The minute I brought her in, he adored her.
He would sit by her and he'd rock her
and he just adored her and always did.
Yeah, they were very close.
Yeah, I'm a farm girl, I'm a country girl.
Like I was around it my whole life.
Like we raised hogs when we were young.
We were in 4-H.
[Scot] She enjoyed growing up on the farm,
but Tara never thought of a future as a full-time farmer.
And I was around it, but I wasn't interested in it.
It wasn't my thing.
I mean, I was pretty set on journalism, I liked that.
So it never even crossed my mind.
So there used to be a tractor factory here, like,
I don't know, the 1800 or something.
And that was the Hume tractor.
I think there's still one in existence somewhere.
My dad and my grandpa worked really hard
to get all this started and to be able to get enough ground
that you could make a living off of it.
We farm around 1400.
My dad farmed with my grandpa and his brother at one time.
And then finally my dad was able to buy
some of his own acreage.
So we're sitting here in front of my parents' 80 acres,
which my mom still owns.
And the rest of it is farm that we either rent
or share with the landlord.
So they own it, but we split everything 50-50.
Really farming's a Jared's background too.
His grandpa Cleo Duzan.
[Scot] Cleo Duzan was also a central Illinois farmer.
He went on to become the chairman
of the United Grain Farmers of America.
In 1969, he helped lead a group of tractors
from Illinois to Washington DC to draw attention
to low prices farmers were getting,
He was very eccentric, loud, ornery,
but he was ingenuitive.
He was always trying to pioneer new ideas with farming,
grain dryers and different things
and sold patents to farm fans
and led a tractor drive out to Washington DC.
His first trial run someone told me was he drove a tractor
to Springfield to try it out, to do a test run.
Ran out of fuel about somewhere
between Decatur and Springfield.
(machinery roaring)
Then we have six bins that we filled up this year.
A couple of 'em were soybeans, most of 'em were corn.
We mostly put back corn.
[Scot] And Tara is hoping for another bin busting crop.
- Our yields for corn and beans were really good this year.
Me personally, they were some of the best we've had.
So you're always trying different things every year
to boost your yield.
And since I'm new to this,
I kept things the same as my dad did 'em.
And every year I try to incorporate something
a little bit different.
(lively music)
So when I was in college,
I already knew that I wanted to stay in central Illinois.
I wanted to live here and raise my family here.
So my goal was to work at one of the local TV stations
and I wanted to be a reporter.
Tune in tomorrow at 5:30
for the River Region Evening Edition, have a great night.
My goal was to, that was gonna be my career.
Of course, we'll have more on this story tonight
on NewsCenter 17 at 10.
Reporting live in Foresyth, Tara Barrett, NewsCenter 17.
Well the first time I met Tara
was that she was a videographer and we were out on a story.
And that was the start of me watching Tara
progress through the industry of broadcasting.
Thought it was really cool
that there was a female photographer
because prior to that I hadn't worked with any.
She never had that air about her.
She never had that sense of I'm better than someone else
or I'm on TV.
So, no, it was always down to earth
and it was always a real genuine sense of connecting
with the audience.
It felt like she was talking to you.
NewsCenter 17's Tara Barrett joins us
from the House chambers in Springfield now.
Tara, what did you hear from people today?
You kind of knew that there was something special
about her that she wanted to do more,
that she was a good storyteller,
that she had the drive to do a little bit more.
So she just kind of worked her way up.
That's hard to do, it's really hard to express
oneself honestly, on television, and she did that very well.
NewsCenter 17's Tara Barrett joins us live now
to show you how this weather affects
those who drive for a living, Tara.
She became a very seasoned and good reporter.
And then from that she went on and became
a very popular anchor in the morning.
Good Wednesday morning, I'm Scot England.
And I'm Tara Barrett.
It is 6:00 AM and Greg Trumbold is in the house.
Did somebody say Tara Barrett?
The gang is all here.
- 2:00 AM was the morning wake up call for the news station.
I mean we were on air at five
so had to get there before that,
and I also had an hour drive.
Tara was, I'll say solid, just unflappable.
You know, she has a great sense of humor,
but trying to get her to bust up on air,
it's almost impossible,
you know, that's what I mean by solid.
I feel like I learned so much about the world really.
With Tara, what you see on TV is what she is off the air.
She is truly the girl next door
who happens to be a great TV news anchor.
I loved what I did.
I did like the rush of getting out
and getting a story and getting it back and getting on air.
I really loved the connection with people.
[Scot] She was on TV for quite a few years.
Did you ever watch her.
Every day if I could.
And the days I missed I had to ask some people questions
what she said and everything.
(laughing)
It was always tough to get Tara
to get into this silly stuff
because you know that wasn't her, her work persona.
(upbeat music) (TV screeching)
[Scot] In July of 2009, I visited with Tara's mom and dad.
'Cause we're looking for a picture
of Tara Barrett when she was young.
Well I think we'd probably come up with one.
We'll go inside and see.
Okay.
It was an exciting time for her parents
as they celebrated her brother Cory
finally joining the family's farm operation full time.
But yeah, of course you remember it
'cause you know, we'd planned forever.
He was 32 and we'd waited so long
to bring him into farming with us
'cause you just can't snap 'em into farming.
[Scot] With her brother ready to help her father
on the farm, Tara continued anchoring the morning show.
She was also busy planning for her wedding
that was just a month away.
We dated for 10 years before we got married.
[Interviewer] Really?
Yeah, we weren't in a hurry for some reason.
My son Cory was gonna come in with us farming
and actually it was his first day
that he actually was gonna farm with us full time.
[Scot] But on Cory's first day,
the lives of the entire Barrett family were changed forever.
Things all kind of changed
when Tara's brother Cory got killed,
I lost him in a motorcycle accident, yeah.
This is my brother's motorcycle.
My mom had it redone
and we've just kept it so not sure what,
we don't have any plans for it.
We've just kept it,
'cause again, we didn't have the heart to get rid of it.
Tara was getting married at the end of the next month
and we decided, Tara's like, let's just call it off mom.
And I'm like, no we're not.
I said, Cory wouldn't want you to do that.
[Scot] And one month after her brother's death,
Tara's wedding did go on.
Tara and Jared's wedding day was a joyful celebration.
One that was needed after a month of unbearable sadness.
When we worked with Tara,
she had some pretty good highs in her life.
She had some really low points in her life
with family stuff, you know, life and death type of stuff.
And like through the whole thing, you know, steady Tara,
like her composure and her strength and like moral fiber.
She's just such a solid person.
(emotional music)
(machinery engine roaring)
So funny story, I went to the elevator
and I went inside to talk to the lady that runs it,
and I left my gloves in there.
And she called me the next day and she's like,
I'm pretty sure it was you that left your gloves
because I'm not sure
who else would've left your sparkly little gloves.
I'm like, yep, those are mine, those are my farming gloves.
I would say our average for corn
is around 200 bushels an acre.
And for beans it's around 60.
But this year it was a little bit higher
and we had corn up in depending on the field,
could be 220, 225, 230,
and then like to see beans at 70.
So see 65, 70, but on an average
probably 60 and 200.
(upbeat music)
Probably got like two minutes.
The one day I heard and she announced
that she was going back to the farm
and I says, you're doing what?
2011, I was pregnant with my first child
and my brother had passed away a couple years before that
and he helped my dad on the farm.
[Scot] Ron Barrett's dream
of passing the family farm operation onto his son
would not happen.
But then he came up with a surprising proposal.
He came to me and asked me if I would be interested
in coming to help him,
and then I would have downtime to stay home with my daughter
and to kind of make my own schedule.
So that sounded appealing to me.
Once you have a baby, you're like, well yeah,
I wanna stay with him as much as I can.
The only time she's cried is when we change her diaper
or give her a bath.
(kisses popping)
[Scot] And you were in labor how long?
A long time, about 17 hours.
Wow.
You know, every parent always says
you'll never love someone like when you have a child
and you can't describe
that feeling until you do have a child.
And that's really true.
And I remember when I was told
and she told me that she was going to go back to the farm
and I thought being a farmer myself and I know the passion
and the love of the farm
and I thought this is very interesting
for what she's going to go do.
It has been fun, we got the whole group
in the house, Greg Trumbold.
Hey, you know what I mean?
Okay, we've had some, you know Scot England is back
which is good news news.
Tara babe, Tara Barrett.
Tara babe. (laughing)
Had her baby, you know, yay, and now she's back.
Actually I believe I went on maternity leave
and then just told 'em I wasn't coming back.
You even made me a cake that said Welcome back and goodbye.
(laughing)
Welcome back crossed out.
[Scot] Yeah, and I got it to the checkout
and they said, did they mess up?
And I said, no, that's the way I ordered it.
That's funny.
Welcome back Tara.
- Who would think that you would have such a career change
from what we do following the news, you know, wearing suits
and makeup to going to the farm field
to wake up at the crack of dawn.
I've never heard of this,
I've never heard of someone going from the news desk
to the tractor seat.
But there was something else I think
that was working on Tara, was love
and I think it was love for her family to go back
and work with her father
and her mother side by side on a daily basis.
- Good morning and thanks for joining us, I'm Tara Barrett.
And I'm Scot England at 6:30 on a Friday morning
as we say goodbye to our friend Tara Barrett.
That's the last time I'll say that.
It was a little surprising at first
that she gave up her TV job to come back.
- To take on the responsibility when her brother couldn't,
it just showed how important family is to her.
So I had her in April
and then got to spend the summer home with her.
And then when we started getting closer to harvest,
I started coming over here
and I actually thought I was gonna be like working on books
or doing things in an office
and I was getting trucks ready for harvest
and learning how to change oil and airing up tires
and greasing zerks and learning all kinds of stuff.
(upbeat music)
Gene Barrett is what it says.
So this was originally my grandpa's.
This is an international load star 1600,
I think it was from 1969.
And I was not even a dream yet.
We'd get our chemicals
and then I'd have to fill that big tank up with water.
And then we did our own mixing,
which saved you a lot of money, but.
We know we had a wooden ladder to get up and down
in the back and sometimes it wouldn't start.
So nowadays we have a tank so we're moving up in the world.
I must have just used it for one year
and the last sticker's 2011,
and that's when I started.
After I left the TV station, I was kind of a hired hand
and just did whatever he told me to do.
And so this is the truck I would drive over
to the fertilizer plant to get chemicals.
He taught her and he expected her to do it too.
You know, he expected her to grease that combine
and do these things, you know, that you do.
He didn't give her any slack 'cause she was female.
(laughing)
I helped my dad for several years on the farm,
but I by no means knew that I knew it all
'cause I knew I did not.
I just kind of did what he told me to do
and he took care of everything else.
So as far as like there's just so much
that goes into it that you don't know until you are in it
and you are running it between chemicals and fertilizer
and seed selection and working with farm managers at banks
and landlords and the bookwork.
I mean your an accountant too.
She decided to leave a very successful career
in broadcasting and had a future she'd put in her time
and she left it to go back to the farm.
To go from wearing a suit every day
to I mean jeans and a hoodie, it's my typical attire,
I didn't know all the specific things he did
throughout the year.
In my mind it was like, come help at harvest,
come help at planting, mowing in the summer,
got to spend a lot of time with my kids in the winter.
So it was, farming was easy,
but when you're the one doing it
and making all the decisions, you realize it's year round
and there are constantly decisions to be made.
So this is our seed notebook.
So I just kind of draw out a map of all our fields
just to have a visual and write down how many bags
of what variety we need and where we're gonna put it.
Yeah, this just helps me keep track.
I like to be able to see it on paper.
The market's had a pretty big spike last week
because we hadn't had any rain.
It's been so dry, so prices were really good.
So I did do some forward selling for fall
and then I still had some corn at the elevator that I sold.
June corn cash price anyways for our local elevator is 5.51,
which it was over $6 when I sold some last week.
And soybeans cash price right now is $14.78.
So that's great, but I don't have any beans to sell.
(laughing)
We ended up getting a new bean platform
because we had so many problems.
I mean I barely made it through harvest
with that bean platform.
It was a big headache. (sighing)
[Scot] In her quiet moments,
Tara might have wondered if she had made the right choice
in giving up her television news career.
Her father never had any doubt that he was doing
what he was meant to do.
He just loved being a farmer, his dad too.
He made her work.
Yeah, sometimes she's come in, she'd say, I can't believe
he just doesn't give me a break mom.
I'm like, you know him, he won't.
(laughing)
She just wanted to be on the farm I guess.
I really didn't want her to
and I didn't want her to be a farmer
and I was so much against it.
You had a a decision in your life about
four and a half years ago?
Yeah, my brother passed away as you know
and then short time later I had my first baby
and my dad needed help so I decided it was the best fit
for my life at the time.
But you know, we're adjusting and I love working
and seeing my parents every day.
Yeah, sometimes when I say, oh I farm now, people say,
you do, like you actually are on a tractor?
I'm like, yep, I'm really in the tractor.
[Scot] Ron Barrett loved having his daughter
helping on the farm.
And when Tara's son was born, Ron's love grew even more.
He was his buddy.
(laughing)
Him and my son were best friends.
When Tara had Colton, kind of replaced
some of losing his son a little bit.
So he kind of kind of gotten with Colton
and yeah, they were buddies, they were buddies.
You know, he was a farmer right there with him.
Rode with him all the time.
So I think his dream eventually was to have Jared
and Colton farming together.
And that's been our dream all along is to keep things going
'cause we have a son that wants to farm.
Our plan is to hopefully keep it in the family.
I mean that's what we would like.
My son loves tractors, loves farming.
And he imitated everything Ron did.
(laughing)
He said, 'cause Ron would stand a lot
with his hands like this and there'd be Colton
and standing right beside me with his hands like this.
My dad always encouraged me to,
you need to get in the combine and ride with me sometime
and learn how to do all this
because what if I got sick or something happened.
And then I was like, oh yeah, yeah.
And you know, we'll do it sometime, we'll do it sometime.
Like I'll hop in there sometime.
And I never did.
[Scot] As Ron Barrett planned for his next year,
he spent his free time on a new building project.
He built what we called the new shed
that has a concrete floor and a bathroom,
something he hadn't had before.
So he was really excited to finally, to be able
to work in the wintertime.
[Scot] It would be one last gift to his daughter.
Unfortunately, he built this
and he only got to have one winter in it
to be able to work on stuff.
So I guess in my heart I try to think of it
as that he built it for me.
(inspirational music)
He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January.
My dad was sick for six months.
So when it came to planting and spraying
as we progressed through those months,
he got worse and worse.
So it got to a point where
I was helping him get into the sprayer.
I was loading everything because he couldn't lift anything.
He was so sick from the very beginning.
When it came planting time, Tara and I had to lift him up,
push him up into his planter tractor.
He's a tough guy, it was not good.
My mom was having to come out, and he was on a feeding tube.
He couldn't eat and she would feed him in his feeding tube
in the tractor.
I've been a registered nurse forever,
so I kept him at home and I could do all his treatments.
So he did get to stay home on his farm.
We knew that it was stage four cancer
and that he had a very short time.
He was like, well I'm gonna try to make it to harvest,
you know, and at that point I was obvious
that wasn't going to happen.
Like riding in a sprayer's pretty bumpy,
and he was in a lot of pain and he just pushed through
because in his mind you have only so much time,
you had to go on the ground, you had to get that done.
So he got it done.
He wanted to make sure we had a full crop
and everything was paid for on it.
So that's what he did.
But we did get to our last field,
it's not a square field, it's oddly shaped.
And he said, I can't do it anymore.
I'm just in too much pain.
He said, do you think you could spray this field?
And I was like, no, I can't.
Like, I have no idea, I mean I'm riding with you,
but I don't know what I'm doing.
I told him, I'm sorry I can't.
So he finished spraying it and we came home
and I helped him out and we drove him in a golf cart home
and he really was bedridden after that
And just went downhill from there.
And he passed away in July.
(emotional music)
[Tara] What was that like for you
when dad got sick?
Oh, my heart was broken.
I never missed anybody so bad my life.
He never complained.
And I know he was in a lot of pain and he never complained.
The only time he broke down was when Colton
had just been here and he said,
"I won't get to see Colton grow up."
And that's the only time he broke down, yeah.
He was his buddy.
(laughing)
And he wants everything he had, you know,
like his sunglasses and his wallet and he wanted all that
and I mean he just treasures that stuff,
a work shirt or whatever.
Oh he really, yeah, he really misses him.
(emotional music)
It is kind of a rough card that she was dealt.
It was really scary and it was really stressful.
And to lose him it was like, you know, we have 1600 acres
of crop to get outta the field.
So she hopped in the combine.
I would run the auger wagon.
He got the crop in that spring.
And then I took over by myself harvest
that first harvest of 2018.
Ron passed away in July.
So obviously we've got the crop in the ground,
gonna have to do something with it in the fall.
And it all landed on Tara.
Three people helped us haul.
I called them the apple dumpling gang.
(laughing)
But we got her out.
Especially in a small town
where everybody knows everybody,
people would immediately ask like,
what are you guys gonna do at the farm?
And I was like, well I'm taking it over.
Like I remember telling people that at the visitation,
like I'm taking it over
even though I wasn't sure that I could do that.
I just was saying that
'cause I wanted to, I was going to try to.
Put in a very difficult situation
when the person that's taught you everything you know
is all of a sudden not there anymore to help you
and can't ask 'em a question or anything,
and so very tough situation for her.
We have three different farm managers.
So I called all of those farm managers right away
and told 'em what happened
and that we wanted to continue farming.
When her dad passed away, she took over
and oh my, I prayed and prayed 'cause I thought,
oh she don't realize what she's getting into.
Spent half a day or more in the DMV
getting titles switched over on trucks
and figuring out, working things out with my mom
on how I'm gonna buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
of equipment and will anyone loan me money
because I don't have any collateral besides my house.
She got things organized and she kinda understood
anyways the way Ron run everything.
Yeah, I went a couple of different directions
trying to find someone who will loan me
a quarter of a million dollars.
'cause I said, how in world did you run that combine?
She said, I got a book and studied it.
(laughing)
When she took that over, she worked
and worked and studied and studied.
I for one was so proud of her.
It's scary to get into a big piece of equipment.
Like now it seems like nothing to get in that sprayer
and back it outta the shed.
But if you've never been in it, you're looking at this
or the combine, you know, you're looking at these huge
pieces of equipment like I'm gonna back that outta the shed
without hitting it on something or it's really intimidating.
And then you get in there and there's 500 buttons
It's really hard for anybody man or a woman.
Yeah, when the grain, big grain trucks got stuck
and she said, let me go get the backhoe outta the shed
and I'll get it out.
I'm thinking good god, how many women could go do that?
I wouldn't know what to turn.
But yeah, we got the backhoe and pulled her out.
So scared that I'm just gonna have all these farmers
in the area looking at me,
oh she didn't know what she was doing,
she's doing that wrong, she's doing this wrong.
Her grandpa now he'd be rolling
that a woman's taking over the farm operation.
(laughing)
This is my dad's truck, my mom gave it to me.
So it's a 2011 Chevy Silverado.
I thought I'd try to save it for Colton
but I don't know, I think it's got like 260,000 miles on it
And I'm quite a Christian
and I prayed for her every night.
So I started in 2011 and he passed away in 2018.
You know, it sounds like a lot of time to be on the farm
so you would've learned a lot.
However, I had never thought about taking over the farm.
I didn't learn how to run the combine
and I had no idea what he did in his office
I knew the basics, I knew how to drive the trucks,
I knew how to haul the grain in and clean out the bins.
When it got into taking it over,
I realized how much I didn't know.
His plan he kind of had a plan for us,
he's like, you'll never be able
to farm all of this by yourself.
He's like, it's just too much.
But I think maybe between the two
of you you could do half of it.
And you know, in my mind I'm like
well I'm gonna try for it all.
Like we're gonna try it, we're gonna do it.
When he got sick he asked that,
I made sure I kind of kept an eye on Tara to help her out
with whatever she needed.
You know, she kind of got dealt
into the full operations mode
and it is a lot different from when you're just helping
versus making all the decisions.
My dad had a lot of faith in me,
like I don't think he would've asked me
to come help him if he didn't think I could learn
and do things.
You know, I wasn't even sure I could do it all either,
but I wanted to try 'cause I wasn't willing to give up
what my grandpa and my dad for years had worked hard to get
and to keep farming for all these years.
And I have a son who wants to farm
so my goal was to pour everything I had into it
to try to at least give it a run
and see if I could handle it.
She was there for Ron when he really needed it
and that's what counts.
Because at first I felt kind of alone
and then the more you talk to people you would say,
you know, oh so and so, she runs the combine,
and so it made it easier
for me to think,
okay, I can do this,
'cause I mean I was really scared
and unsure even though I said yes I am going to do it,
I wasn't sure how.
And the memories that she made with her dad
in a short period of time that she was with him
before he died, she'll take those the rest of her life
because in that atmosphere of being a farmer,
they had it all together
and they had the joy of working together.
I have found women online showing them
with their kids in the tractor with 'em
and you know how it's a family operation
and they show you their daily lives and what they're doing.
So I think that's been great of really showcasing
women on the farm and women in agriculture.
You know, I have a lot of friends that are farmers
and I feel like everybody's been really supportive.
Even my dad's friends that he worked with around here,
they've been very supportive
and I think just about anybody would answer my questions
or help me out if I needed.
At the beginning of all this I said I think I wanna try
to take over the farm and do it by myself.
And I said, do you think I can do it?
And he said, yeah sure.
He said, I think it's gonna be kind of like drinking
from a fire hose but I think you can do it.
That's right, drinking from the fire hose, that's right.
(laughing)
I was like, what's that mean?
And he is not wrong, it is, I mean it's overwhelming
Because she had a lot of information
coming at her pretty quick that she was having to process
and make decisions on.
Because there was so much I did not know,
like a lot that I did not know.
Where they're buried at, my son and my husband
in Young America Cemetery, there's are tombstones
that is right on the edge of our farm.
I think he would be, I don't know, surprised
but not surprised, you know what I mean?
Like I know he'd be proud.
(heartfelt music)
[Interviewer] Can you tell me about your tattoo?
I've got two of them.
I have my dad's signature and my brother's signature.
I guess what started me wanting
to get the one for my brother,
I was just really having a hard time with it
and I had a necklace of his that I wore all the time
and I guess I wanted something permanent of him
to be with me all the time.
He had really beautiful like calligraphy type handwriting
and I just loved his signature so that's why I got that.
And then of course with my dad, since I have that,
I wanted his signature too.
(lively music)
Are you interviewing?
Yeah.
Oh I thought mom better come down and check on you.
This is my landlord.
(laughing)
She's the one that helped me keep on farming.
Since I took over for my dad
I've had really good years
so I guess the first year I started prices were pretty bad
but I quickly got into some good times.
So I've been pretty fortunate.
I've never written out so many bills in my life
until I took over the farm
'cause there's just a lot of different things to pay.
I feel like in farming you could worry every day year round,
but I guess I try not to worry until something's happening
at that time
and deal with the issue as it unfolds.
So here's my minimum payment due
for chemicals and fertilizer, $111,450.
But it's due by June 15th so I gotta pay the full amount.
So the first time I wrote a check like that,
I was like, I'm not even sure how to fit
all the numbers when you write 'em out.
Like gotta write really small.
My dad was very organized and meticulous.
I didn't get that gene so I'm not as organized
and meticulous.
He would probably go nuts if he saw how I stay organized
or don't.
I use Farm Credit.
They have a program for young and beginning farmers
that's a really great program,
and that's who I got my loan through when I first started,
because when you don't have a lot of collateral,
not a lot of people want to give you $350,000.
They also have educational classes that you go to.
So I have gone to all their classes.
The end of July Callie will start her school softball
and they'll play all through August beginning of September
and then she goes right into basketball
and then that goes until November
and she's got a couple weeks off and then volleyball starts.
[Scot] Tara's family and farming schedule
are both jam packed.
But after years of farming on her own,
this year she finally got some major help
when her husband Jared joined her full-time.
- Because at the time Jared too had a full-time job
outside of this, so he was able to help when he could,
but he more would take off for planting
to help during planting time.
And then I have a couple guys that I hire
to help for harvest.
He's making fun of me for using my hands when I talk.
I didn't even know I did it.
I'm sure there's other things you don't even know you do
until you watch yourself.
My dad actually had said Jared should never quit his job
because it's guaranteed pay.
You know what you're making job security, benefits
and when he's not doing that you're gonna have to find
your own insurance, your income's gonna
drop significantly.
And then when Jared was gonna work with her, I thought,
oh my gosh, this is terrible.
Her dad was the same way.
He did not want me to leave Ameren
but this was more important to me.
Ameren was just a job, it was paid good, it was just a job.
I wanted to keep this for more generations.
He had worked at Ameren for about 15 years.
He was in the gas department, he was a welder
He would help me on his after work time.
I never had liked working inside.
Every job I've had, I've been outside working.
- He'd work his full-time job and then come here
and have a honey do list of you know, repairs.
Mechanics is not my strong suit.
So you know, he takes care of all that.
And I said Tara, you gonna let Jared run the combine?
She said no.
And I said, you're not giving up that queen seat.
And she said nope.
(laughing)
Something had to give between working full time
and farming more.
Sometimes a scary decision
ends up being the best decision.
So I just decided to jump and say let's do it.
So far so good.
(inspirational music)
I mean I probably won't even use it all.
I'll probably go... just stop.
It's not fun and games!
See I gotta whip him to get him to work right.
[Scot] While Tara is quite comfortable
with a documentary crew filming her every move,
her husband is not.
Hello?
[Jared] Yes.
You want a friend to ride with you?
[Jared] Do I?
Yeah
I got Kylie with camera ready for you.
[Jared] I don't want that.
It's your time to shine, sweetheart.
(laughing)
[Jared] I don't want that at all.
(laughing)
You'll will be fine.
[Jared] I don't know.
(laughing)
All right, bye.
What a baby.
(laughing)
(machinery whirling)
I got here at 6:30,
but it was a little wet so I couldn't start.
Moisture in the ground
caused the corn stalks to pull outta the ground
and it gets plugged up and you drag a bunch of the trash up.
Yeah, I'll show you in a second.
Oh shoot, that's the problem with it gettin' wet.
(beeping)
(lively music)
To be able to spray your own,
you have to have a private applicator license
in the state of Illinois.
So Jared and I go and take a test.
So we both have our license.
I mean even if you're handling
chemicals you have to have your license.
So I'd like to get 40 more acres done, it's four o'clock.
I need to leave my house at five,
which we're 20 minutes from here.
So may have Jerod go get Colton
and get him to have to be there early to warm up
and I'll finish spraying and I may just go
straight to the game.
[Scot] Tara's day will end almost 17 hours
after it began long before sunrise.
My son has a baseball game at six
and my daughter has a track awards banquet at six
in two different towns and then my daughter
has a softball game at eight o'clock,
we have someone taking her to the awards banquet
so we can go to the baseball game 'cause Jared helps coach.
When we get done with the baseball game,
we'll go to the softball game.
So we should get home like 10:30 probably tonight.
I've got dinner in the crock pot
and hopefully we'll have enough time
to eat when we get done spraying.
Gotta get home and feed them and get 'em in their uniforms
and run out the door so we can get where they need to go.
(motivational music)
(cool music)
Over the years the small farmer is endangered.
It's on the endangered list.
There's a lot of big farmers, big corporations
and not a lot of small farmers left.
So I think the ones that are left are working really hard
to keep their small farms in their family
and keep them going to the next generation.
(machinery roaring)
Normally there wouldn't be seed in there
'cause I haven't opened anything up.
Leftovers dumped on my head.
I'll be finding that all night.
Yeah, right together.
Addie's mom's taking her to the game
so I don't have to leave early
'cause she has an awards banquet
so I can stay for your whole game.
(lively music)
Almost forgot to give the cat it's diabetes shot.
So one of our beloved cats has diabetes unfortunately.
So we have to do insulin shots in the morning and at night.
You try to get 'em 12 hours apart.
When we know we're gonna be home late,
sometimes we have to give it to 'em a little early
and you know, schedule's kind of hectic
so it's like I knew I'd immediately like oh no
I have to give the cat a shot so I had to run back in.
All right off to the ballpark.
You know you get nervous when you have
80 mile an hour winds and torrential rainfall.
(exciting music)
- We've been talking about this backward C-shape.
Never a pretty scenario
because as the storms race out very indicative
of wind damages scenario.
(thunderstorm roaring)
We had a tree that fell on our house,
it had hailed earlier that morning
so we had some hail damage.
Tuscola had tennis ball size hail.
I'm just glad it's standing, I guess I should say that.
I'm thankful that it's just the door
because I don't this shed's, I don't even know,
70 years old I'm guessing.
So no power since one o'clock yesterday probably.
I'd heard up to 90 mile an hour winds
and they stretched out across central Illinois.
So it was widespread damage in our area.
So thousands of people without power.
We have a generator I picked up yesterday
and we have our refrigerators and our freezers
and then we've got another cord to plug our phones
and we're able to get the water heater plugged in
so we could shower.
We're told it might be a couple days
so might be without power for a while.
All the little towns around here,
there's just trees down everywhere.
And on my way back from Champaign, saw some corn down,
not completely down, hopefully it's not snapped
and it'll pop back up.
If it snaps, it's done for.
Our power was out for around three days
and some people were four or five
so we were one of the lucky ones.
Let's see what the sign says.
"We are closed due to power outage, thank you."
I guess she'll call us back.
We're out in the country so I always expect it to be longer
than everybody else,
but the crops we did not have any damage, thankfully.
I really don't know how with that strong of winds
but we got through unscathed.
(dramatic music)
(people chattering)
(people cheering)
Let's go Callie.
Go Callie.
Go, Callie!
I just have to keep score and keep track of the balls
and the strikes and the outs.
It's pretty easy, you just have to pay attention.
(people chattering)
Good job, Callie.
(cheering)
I have to yell to encourage her if she gets into a slump
and little reminders or maybe she doesn't want me to.
Maybe I should be quiet I dunno.
(laughing)
Good job, you got it Callie.
And I'm also running the concession stand.
(people chattering and cheering)
Hey I was just looking at the markets,
it's $13.08 for beans for fall,
so I thought I might sell like another two or 3000 bushels.
Okay.
[Scot] But Tara is concerned about her combine
making it through another harvest.
Typically you put about $10,000 a year into 'em,
then you're looking at buying a new one.
Gotta weigh out how much money
am I gonna be putting into this versus upgrading,
getting one with less hours on it,
which is what we're looking at doing.
I don't want to get a different combine,
A: I'm kind of emotionally attached to the one I have
'cause it's my dad's.
That's part of the problem.
The other problem is making $40,000 a year payment
[Scot] In an effort to get her mind on other things,
Tara takes a family vacation.
We went to the Red River Gorge area,
which is a pretty rural area.
It's a big place for hiking and kayaking
and just kind of outdoor nature type things.
So we went zip lining some of us.
I took a lot of pictures and a lot of videos
and remember that pond I was talking about that we swam in
my phone took a swim in that pond too.
But I did find someone who did scuba diving
and they came and looked for it
and they couldn't find it either.
[Scot] Her time away was needed,
but when she returns to her farm,
Tara's thoughts immediately turn to the decision
she must make as soon as possible.
Should she replace her father's combine with a new one.
Like I said, I'm more emotionally attached to this,
you know, like my dad,
you know he's bought several combines over the years
but this was his last combine
and it was the one I learned in and I don't wanna let it go.
How much is that one?
- [Cory] 713 grand. - [Scot] Jeez.
Mommy's not gonna get that kinda combine.
The one we're looking at is about $220,000.
A brand new one, which we won't be looking at,
quite a bit more than that.
I mean it's over $200,000
and I'm looking at a trade-in of under $100,000.
So it's a big gap
and they probably don't have the sentimental value
I have on it.
I don't know, I feel like this is my combine.
It was my dad's combine and it's gonna be hard to let it go.
I can still remember him when he first got it sitting
in the cab and reading the book.
That's what he always was giving me the book.
You should read the book.
See it has been looked at so much the cover fell off.
That's how much I used it.
But I have my dad's notes in here that I keep
just little reminders like feeder house, drum up for corn,
down for beans, rotor speed, chopper speed,
still have my toilet paper in here.
When you're in the combine for 12 hours
you gotta go to the bathroom.
So thankfully the corn fields are tall.
Not just the fact that it's the cost of having to do it,
but you know, sentimental value to the combine your dad had
and you could tell that was the only thing holding 'em back.
They knew they had a trade
but that was the only thing kinda holding them back
from trading.
I'm like my dad in regards that I do get attached
to things and I don't like to get rid of things
and I like to save money.
(lively music)
[Scot] But after months of reflection
and consideration in the end, Tara makes the decision
to sell her father's combine.
(lively music)
We're in the new combine.
I am glad we made the switch
because some of the problems we were having,
I haven't had to deal with.
(lively music)
So I had a friend
who said they had something they wanted to give me.
So whenever I found out I called over
to where they were trading in,
and asked if they would pull the the seat out.
And I had this little idea of making a chair for her.
When he brought it in I'm like, what is that?
He is like, it's your dad's chair from his combine.
And I was just blown away.
I was like, they took the seat out of the combine?
I did have to go to the Lori's Pins and Needles
to pick up some fabric.
(laughing)
And I think it's amazing.
So it's my new office chair.
Like I never even dreamed someone would,
I didn't think about doing something like that, you know?
And I don't know, it just really warmed my heart
that he even thought about that
and it's really special to me.
(lively music)
And I took our son to baseball practice at 5:30
and then I left there
because I went to a school board forum.
I'm on the local school board, so went to that.
She not only does the farm, she gets involved
with the school board and everything else.
- I've been on the local school board for around six years.
Home of the Raiders.
So I'm a third generation school board member.
My grandpa was on the school board
when they built this school
and then my dad was on the school board for over a decade.
And then I've been on the school board for several years.
It's nice to know what goes on in the school district
and to help make the decisions.
'cause like obviously I care a lot about the district
and I wanna see our kids have a good education like I did.
So this is the original gym built with the school.
My mom and dad played sports here.
My brother and I played sports here,
and all went to school here,
kindergarten through 12th grade.
And now my kids are going to school here
playing sports here.
I spend a lot of time in this gym.
I enjoy being involved.
I mean if you ask me to help out with something,
I'll probably say yes.
I don't know, I'm not one to sit too still.
And I like to be involved,
I mean I like to be involved in my school district,
my community.
If I can help out, I will.
Farm life I think to most people
is your whole family's involved.
Even like my daughter doesn't necessarily
want to be involved in farming, but she does.
She may not wanna farm but she does come and ride with me
and she enjoys spending time with me in the combine
and you know, you're spending quality time with them
and they're learning and probably don't even know it.
This is a 4320.
It's been sitting in our old shed for quite some time.
Hasn't ran in many years.
But my mom helped my dad.
When we were younger, she was a stay at home mom
and helped my dad on the farm.
So the tractor that she hauled grain in all the time
hasn't ran for years.
And Jared and Colton fixed it up and got it going.
And just recently we had our small town of Hume
celebrated 150 years with a big festival
and Colton had the idea of, well why don't we put that
in the parade and I'll drive it.
So I thought that was pretty special
and it was all his idea.
So we're about halfway done with beans,
more than halfway of this field.
And then 160 acres south of town left.
Been going pretty smooth.
Haven't had any major problems out of the ordinary.
We've had some trouble with some guards breaking
on the bean platform.
Our trucks will haul to the bin, which isn't too far away
and then Colton will start the auger for 'em.
Climb up in the tractor outta school today.
So worked out perfect, they can just unload the truck
and he'll run the tractor.
He got to drive the combine a little bit the other day
and I let him dump on the go.
So he was excited about that.
He was a little nervous, but he did fine.
Honestly, it's probably been one of the smoothest harvest,
knock on wood that we've had so far.
So far it's been a great harvest.
We'll be working on this all day today and into tomorrow.
We can't get it done in one day, it's 125 acres.
So if you look like right now it says
my average productivity is 11.88 acres.
That's a little slower because I'm doing end rows right now.
So normally I can do about 13 acres in an hour.
My son had a football game yesterday,
which it was his last one and I sadly couldn't go.
Jared's one of the coaches,
so I had him go and just did without the auger wagon.
But you know, I'm my own boss so I could have taken
the afternoon off and went,
but I knew we had a field that we could get done
and keep us on a good schedule.
So, you know, I just had to make this decision to stay
and get it done.
And we did get it done so it was the right decision.
But it's just hard, I don't like to miss,
usually I get my crock-pot going in the morning
so that we have food when we get home,
'cause whether we're working in the field late
or if we're going to a ball game,
like we're not getting home
until 9:00, 9:30 or later every night.
So I have two retired guys
that have been with us for a while.
One guy's name is Kim and he's been with us.
He worked with my dad too.
And then Frank's been with us for,
I dunno, it's been a while now, maybe four years.
For whatever reason I've been really stressed today
and kind of down in the dumps.
Ideally I always set a goal to try to get done
before Halloween
and that usually works out,
so that way I can take my kids trick or treating
and you can just have it wrapped up before November,
but I don't think that's gonna happen this year.
Felt like we got our beans done in a good amount of time.
And then we got rained out for a whole weekend,
which thankfully we did get our beans done
before that big rain.
Saturday looks like maybe the biggest chance of rain,
but they're talking anywhere from an inch to two inches.
So that already tells me we're gonna get into November.
(lively music)
So anyways, the elevator closes at six
and I know everything's not gonna fend in that bin.
So I've been trying to like periodically send the truck
to town so that we could work past six
and try to finish this field and still have room in the bin.
So I've been doing a lot of math today.
I feel like trying to figure out how many bushels
are going to town,
how many bushels we're putting in the bin,
how many bushels are left in the field,
to try to make everything fit and finish it up
and take the auger down and close the bin
before it rains tomorrow and tie it up with a little bow.
So that was the goal for the day, so hopefully it happens.
'Cause I will say when it gets to this point in the season,
everyone starts getting tired, it's very repetitive work.
So if you lose your focus or you start getting in a hurry
'cause you wanna get done, that's when bad things happen.
It can be tough because I also have my kids at home
who are hungry and my crock-pot skills have been lacking
as we've gotten into the season.
You know, I'm all about it at the beginning.
I leave them sandwiches
or something in the crock-pot
so we can all eat when we come home.
And I'm not cooking at nine o'clock at night,
but that wanes off as the season goes on.
I've got friends picking Callie up from basketball practice
and I leave Colton some snacks for after school.
I've got taco meat and the crock-pots.
I did get that done this morning.
So a lot of teamwork, friends, grandmas,
the yields have been great beans and corn.
Actually the best yields I've seen for beans and corn
ever since I've been doing it.
(lively music)
So yeah, I think everyone's probably just getting
to the end of their rope.
We've been going, going, going
and when you're getting towards the end,
you're just getting tired of eating
the same thing all the time.
Getting tired of seeing the same thing all the time.
The exciting wears off after a while
'cause it is weird, like how tired you are.
Like to me this seems like I'm doing nothing.
I'm just sitting here all day long.
But it's to me tiring
because it's like you've been
on a long road trip or something,
even though you're just going back and forth in the fields.
We haven't been shut down,
like I think this is maybe the first year
that we haven't had to stop because of mechanical problem.
And then I think all the trick
or treating stuff's on Sunday,
So I mean either I'll be rained out
and I'll get to go to all that stuff
or I will be in the field and we'll finish harvest.
(sighing)
(cool music)
I don't know why this day has seemed long.
I still need to take my kids to get pumpkins.
I feel like the end of the month and Halloween
and all that has like completely snuck up on us.
When I was pregnant with Colton,
so that would've been 2013,
that was probably the latest harvest we had.
It was getting, I think it was after Veteran's Day
like so well into November, and I had him December 8th.
So there wasn't even a lot of time there.
Like I remember being towards the end of harvest,
like, oh we need to figure out a name for this child.
So I brown the hamburger in it
and then just let it keep on normal then.
So you might stir it up please.
And then I figured you could just get a bag of Doritos
or Fritos and make like a little taco in a bag.
Sound good?
Better than a peanut butter jelly.
Grandma got him a pumpkin pie so I had to get whipped cream,
but it sounds like he's just eating the whipped cream.
All right, I gotta go bud.
All right, I'll talk to you soon.
(inspiring music)
I think they're getting tired of it too.
She's done amazing things, she's learned a lot.
She's overcame a lot of things.
I'm proud of everything she's learned
and how she handles everything.
She does a really good job.
I always stop and take my annual picture.
This field butts right up to the cemetery
where my dad and my brother are buried
right next to each other.
So like, I'm glad they're right here.
I always like doing this field
'cause I feel like they're definitely with me.
When I'm going through here.
Even though I know they're with me all the time,
but they're literally like right up against the field.
And it is emotional, I mean.
Harvest is always kind of an emotional time for me really.
Well I always just stop and take a picture,
just kind of a reminder that they're with me
when I'm in this field.
(inspiring music)
Just makes me feel close to them.
Like I know they would both be really proud of me.
Yes, I couldn't be prouder
and people talk about her.
I grin from ear to ear. (laughing)
(inspiring music)
And then the whole month of December
is in the office, period.
That's my focus, trying to do Christmas shopping
and get all my bookwork done.
At that time you're also ordering seed
for the next year already
if you want to get some of the bigger discounts,
like I had mine ordered in November of this year to plant.
For the landlords that she has or the farm partners
to stick with her,
to stick with her says something about them.
And then meeting with farm managers,
I also go and have meetings with them to renew a contract
to continue on for the next year,
'cause you don't wanna buy your seed
and make all these plans and then you're not farming it.
An owner of property wants continuity.
And I would say when they saw her come back
and then they saw her dad pass away,
there had to have been a bridge there that said
we want to stick with her.
We like what she's doing.
There was a confidence in there,
but I think hats off to the people that stuck with her
and I think probably it was a good decision for them.
[Scot] Tara is thankful for those who stuck
by her over the last decade
and that loyalty paid off for everyone.
The farmer's daughter has proven she could handle
all the ground her father did.
And as she looks into the future,
she is hoping to expand her family's operation.
I mean, yeah, yeah.
We would be open to taking on more,
especially now that Jared's with me full time,
could definitely handle farming more so.
Yeah, and you always with farming have to be thinking
about the future.
So you know, Colton's gonna be 10 and at some point
the goal is to bring him into farming.
So you definitely wanna make sure you have enough ground
to have your family involved
so that everybody can make a living off of it.
(lively music)
All your inputs have gone up significantly,
so it was definitely a lot more expensive
to get your crop in the ground
and then to take care of it
as it was through the growing season.
[Scot] But you guys are gonna make money from this year?
Yeah, we'll make money, yeah.
- Family farms it's real important to keep it in the family
and let the generations just keep going.
Going to the next generation, that is my goal.
I have my grandpa, my dad, me,
and then I would like my son or daughter
and of course my son's nine
and he's already wanting to be part of it,
so I have no doubt he'll be ready to take it over.
Oh yeah, Colton, and oh my goodness.
He's all about farming, all about farming.
[Scot] The essay say that Colton wrote,
Why Harvest is the Best.
Why Harvest is the Best by Colton Duzan.
Have you ever ridden in a combine or a grain truck?
Have you ever ridden in a combine grain truck?
These are important parts of harvest.
Harvest season is the best season.
[Tara] Harvest season is the best season.
Harvest is fun because you get to drive equipment.
I can drive the combine and auger cart
[Colton] I ride in the trucks if I want to help
unload the trucks in the bin.
[Tara] During harvest,
I also get to have a lot of friends over
and I get to spend more time with family
And I get to spend more time with family.
Harvest season usually has a nice temperature
and it's usually cool.
- [Tara] Usually it's t-shirt weather or sweatshirt weather.
[Colton] Some people might not like harvest season.
[Tara] Some people might not like harvest season
because they might think it's dusty
and they might be allergic and may get annoyed.
[Colton] In conclusion,
if you're riding a combine you will realize
it's fun and harvest season is the best season.
[Tara] In conclusion if you go right in a combine,
you will realize it's fun
and harvest season is the best season.
(chuckling)
I love, it just warms my heart that he loves it so much.
That's him, he's very passionate about farming.
He enjoys it.
It's not something that's taught to him,
it was the love for farming was already in in him, you know?
And I don't know if it's from the time he spent with my dad,
I think he was four when my dad passed away.
So they did spend so much time together.
He was this little right hand man.
It just makes me so happy that he loves it so much
and he is so passionate about it.
He could probably farm it now.
I mean, he's that engaged in farming.
So he will be seven generations.
She's full of character, you know,
she's I guess a Midwestern stereotype of strong character,
hard work, determination.
She probably embodies what agriculture
is about in a community.
A young person has come back that raising her family
and I think that's why she left a very good career
in broadcasting to go back maybe to the farm
to get those values that she has looked for
and has been able to do for well over 10 years now.
She's a seasoned farmer.
Oh I, I'm just so proud of her, of course.
She's just got good ethics and morals,
so I had no doubt she'd be fine.
Tells you a little bit about her character
and about her adjustability
and about her willingness to make that farm a success.
[Interviewer] How was it having a camera crew
follow you around for a year?
Oh, it was strange, I think at first,
I'll be honest, I really dreaded it.
There's something about being the interviewee
instead of the interviewer.
I much prefer that position than just being on camera.
I mean, I was younger and thinner
and life was just a little different
when I was an anchor before.
Now I'm over 40 and have two kids and a lot more stress
and I just really didn't wanna be on camera, but here I am,
- I'd say when she's either sweating, scooping a grain bin
or something that's pretty rough,
it's hard to think that a news anchor would be doing that.
But shows that I guess you can do about anything,
put your mind to it.
She is running a business,
probably a multimillion dollar business.
It's the biggest thing I think I've learned from her
is to like the ups and downs that life throws you.
You know that that people of character make it through
and come out the other side and survive
and thrive and she's thrived.
(upbeat music)
(beeping)
What would they think of you farming this year?
I mean, I always think that my dad
would probably be really surprised.
Like I don't think he probably would doubt I could do it,
but I think he would be surprised that I'm doing it all.
(upbeat music)
For years I have had the title in my mind.
And then you didn't find out until you saw the trailer?
When I saw the title, it reminded me, I have a shirt
from when I was young that says Farmer's Daughter on it.
I was probably one or two years old.
It's got my name on the back
and this the only piece of clothing that I have.
That shirt is how many years old?
I'll be 43 so you know
The Farmer's Daughter, it was meant to be.
I guess that's just crazy.
(upbeat music)
♪ "What for?" ♪
♪ "They're just gonna' leave you stranded on the shore." ♪
♪ "You better get it right, hurry up." ♪
♪ "It's good but it's not good enough." ♪
♪ "Just do your best and push ahead but what for?" ♪