Brenneman cherishes farming's link to land

  Joe Brenneman figures he was about 6 when he and his younger brother started driving tractor on the family dairy farm.

 Their feet didn’t reach the tractor pedals, so they improvised.

“Neither one of us was big enough to drive by ourselves. One would steer and one would step on the gas,” he recalled, shaking his head at what today seems like a questionable task for children.

“Looking back, I can’t believe the stuff we did with [farm] equipment.”

The early lesson in teamwork was part of farm life at Creston in the mid-1960s. Brenneman, the Democratic incumbent candidate for Flathead County commissioner, is the oldest of seven children in a family where everyone pitched in with the chores.

Brenneman’s grandfather grew certified seed, so roguing fields by hand to rid them of weeds was part of the workload. But those were sacred times for Brenneman, connecting with the land and loving the outdoors.

He recalled another special memory, sitting under a tree along Holt Stage Road, having lunch with his father and grandfather and eating cherries.

“I grew up in an incredibly stable environment,” the fourth-generation farmer said. “I had a family that was always there for me and you don’t realize [as a child] what a gift that is.”

Staying on the farm after graduating from Flathead High School wasn’t an option, though.

“Dad made it very clear we had to go do something else and preferably leave the valley,” he said. “He encouraged education.”

Brenneman, who was raised in the Mennonite church, headed to Goshen College in Indiana, a private Mennonite liberal-arts college where he earned a degree in education. He had been an honor student in high school without ever doing much homework, but that changed in college when he found coursework more challenging.

There was time for sports, though. He played football and baseball “obsessively” in college and later took on softball in city and church leagues “with equal obsession.”

Brenneman spent two years teaching school at a Mennonite-affiliated school in Pennsylvania.

“I didn’t like it,” he said bluntly. “It was too much being inside.”

SINCE farming would assure an outdoors lifestyle, Brenneman took his father up on an offer to buy into the dairy 25 years ago and he has been milking cows ever since.

He knew the risks and the fact that there are no guarantees in farming. Wheat can go from $8 to $2 a bushel overnight, and on a recent September day, rain was keeping him out of the fields to harvest barley. He grows barley, wheat and hay on 800 acres.

“The last couple years have been grim,” he said, referring to milk prices in particular. “2009 was pretty bad.”

There’s also no let-up with dairy farming; it’s a 365-day-a-year endeavor. Brenneman has hired help — two full-time employees and one “three-quarters-time” worker — and his father, Clifford Brenneman, still helps some, too.

Even so, Brenneman has to make arrangements to be gone when his workload as a commissioner takes him out of town.

Morning milking starts at the Brenneman farm at 2:30 a.m., and it’s not uncommon for him to get a call at 2 a.m. if he’s staying in Helena to diagnose equipment or machinery problems over the phone.

“We have three tractors that have to run every day, and it’s not the most modern of equipment,” he said.

In addition to his job as commissioner, Brenneman has a life outside of farming. He’s a firefighter/EMT with the Creston Fire Department that his father and grandfather helped start.

“The Mennonite church expects you to be servants,” he said. “We’re expected to help other people and make a difference.”

To that end, Brenneman has been very involved in the creation of the recently opened consolidated 911 dispatch center in Flathead County. He founded the Flathead County River Commission and has served or still serves on a host of state and local boards. Rotary is an important organization for him.

In whatever spare time is left, Brenneman is a voracious reader, a habit he picked up because there was no television in his house when he was growing up.

“I like to hike,” he added. “I spent 10 years trying to climb as many mountains in Glacier Park as I could.”

He also worked part time for five years with the Blacktail Mountain Ski Patrol. He “absolutely loved” being part of the patrol, but gave it up a couple of years ago because of a bum knee and a desire for more time with his family.

As the lone Democrat on the county commission in a predominantly Republican area, Brenneman’s views haven’t been embraced on many occasions, but he’s pragmatic.

“By and large, the people who I respect and have chosen to be my umpires have given me good grades,” he said. “I expect them to tell me when I’m not right.”

As a backup, he has the Rotary Four-Way Test posted on his office wall that asks the crucial questions “of the things we think, say or do.”

Is it the Truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com