Transition Into A Leadership Role On The Farm

By: Pam Fretwell

Q: What are some of the steps you have taken to transition into a leadership role on your family’s farm operation?

A: “Our farmyard, bins and shops aren’t worth a lot to anyone else except me, so I got a pretty fair price on that doing a contract for deed. The way we did the machinery is we had an auctioneer come out and appraise everything, so I’m doing a lease-to-own based on that value. My sister and cousins don’t have an interest to come back to farm, so it was either me or nobody. I rent all the land that I farm. My two main landlords are my mom and uncle. In these tough years, I’ve been restructuring some land rental agreements towards net profit sharing, and on an immediate family basis finding a deal that’s fair to my mother but also fair to my sister, who’s not active on the farm.” – Spencer Endrud, 28 Buxton, N.D.

A: “When I first came home, my dad, kind of before his health started declining, slowly started letting me start subleasing land from him. My grandfather had set up a trust for all the land we lease from. So we did that and then he increased my responsibility of running the whole show on the farm making seed and herbicide decisions. The next year, it was all our tillages and day-to-day activities while I was slowly picking up a little more every year.