Plowing ahead

Despite changes, farming expected to endure

Flathead family farmer Bruce Tutvedt rises early but he fires up his computer before his tractors.

"Both my father and I check the price of wheat and cattle daily," he said.

His computer screen keeps a running display of the global markets, giving Tutvedt the latest prices paid for commodities.

"We do this to spot trends and then pick a price that is advantageous with our cost of production," Tutvedt said.

With fluctuating markets and currency values playing a vital role in profitability, today's farmer needs to know a lot more than how to plow a straight furrow.

According to Tutvedt, success in agriculture requires as much training in economics as in farming and growing. Both areas have become increasingly technical since Tutvedt, 51, and his father, Harold, 78, earned agricultural degrees from Montana State University, Bozeman.

Bruce Tutvedt said changes during his father's farming years boggle the mind.

"He went from horses to auto-steering tractors," he said.

Advances during Tutvedt's own life follow a similar curve. He admits with a laugh that he considers himself still borderline at running his indispensable computer.

Even though technology always changes, Tutvedt said anyone serious about a career in agriculture needs a college education. He said an ag degree provides entry into the second- or third-highest-paying job market out of Bozeman.

As 16 percent of the Montana economy, agriculture offers plenty of career opportunities for graduates. But even with a degree, most won't start a successful farm from scratch.

"The capital required is very, very high," he said. "It's much harder to do with just hard work. That's the fact."

Tutvedt said the trend to bigger, more technical farms doesn't mean the death of the family farm. He said about 95 percent of large operations still belong to families.

Over many years, those families invested in land and new equipment to improve efficiency. Tutvedt said his father bought his first self-propelled combine more than 50 years ago.

Although a senior citizen, his dad still deftly runs the latest combine.

"He can do more in one day than we could do with four combines before," Tutvedt said.

With so much invested in equipment and land, farmers have little margin for error. Tutvedt said the line between success and failure has become much finer.

But agriculture has new tools available to help farmers avoid costly mistakes.

"We have sensors in the ground which tell us when to irrigate," he said.

Sensors also monitor the soil profile, giving valuable information about when and how much to fertilize to avoid leaching.

Tutvedt said farmers need to keep abreast of new techniques and judge which ones they can adapt to add profitability to their particular situation. To keep up-to-date, he belongs to an extensive list of professional organizations including the Montana Stock Growers and the Montana Grain Growers.

Tutvedt serves as the chairman of the state farm service agency that administers federal farm programs in Montana. He has also represented the National Barley Growers as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

"I enjoyed that," he said.

Along with barley, Tutvedt's crops include wheat, hay and some peppermint. He also runs a cow/calf operation and he buys some cattle for his feedlot.

But changing times in the Flathead Valley may change their involvement with cattle. He didn't buy too many this year and he foresees the family going out of the business completely because of traffic and closer neighbors.

"When a calf gets out, it's a bigger issue much quicker," he said. "There's also an issue of traffic and mortality of cattle."

Tutvedt said that traffic also has forced farmers to keep their crop lands closer to home base. He said his family has decided to give up leases on the north and south sides of town.

"You can't get machinery in and out of traffic," he said.

Tutvedt said most Montana drivers remain courteous to farmers driving their slow machines. The problem boils down to just too many cars on the roads.

"It's better not to risk an accident," he said.

He enjoys repeating a statistic he heard that tells the story: The Flathead now has fewer than 40 large farms and a thousand Realtors.

Along with challenges, growth has brought opportunities for Flathead farmers for new uses of their land.

New construction brought a demand for gravel that Tutvedt has helped supply from his pit in the West Valley.

"It's been a very good business but the planning process has been trying," he said.

He said some people living in West Valley didn't want to see these kinds of changes and businesses. According to Tutvedt, his gravel operation has become a lightning rod for people's frustration over change.

It has galvanized many in the Flathead to push for planning to guide growth.

"I spend more and more time at land-use meetings, just because we're involved in a lot of issues," Tutvedt said.

He foresees a time when his family may change the use of some of its land from farming, particularly that closest to the new high school. Tutvedt studied other communities where high schools attracted a new radius of development.

But he doesn't foresee the demand for land spelling the end of farming as an economic driver here. Tutvedt envisions a few large farms surviving and a lot of hobby farms emerging.

Recent record-breaking market prices have put the fun back in farming for Tutvedt and others making their living in agriculture. He called farming a nice way of life that will endure.

"Agriculture will continue to be a part of the fiber of the economy of the Flathead into the future," he said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.