Lessons From a Lifetime of Farming

By: Gil Gullickson

Pull up a chair. Pour yourself an iced tea in the cool of the evening. And listen to what Lin Warfel has learned over a lifetime of farming and community involvement. The Tolono, Illinois, farmer and land-owner will tell you how a tragedy helped form a special relationship with his grandfather. He’ll tell you how he saw a niche early in his farming career that set him apart from others. Plus he’ll tell you what he looks for in farm renters.

“To me, farming is family and community,” he says. “It’s not living somewhere way off and then coming for two to three days and then going away.”