page 1 of 1
For a farmer in Plevna.... It's a GIRL thing
The Hutchinson News - 06/18/2007
by Amy Bieckel / abickel@hutchnews.com
PLEVNA - Humidity enveloped the Moeckel farm, causing Gayla Moeckel to brush back her red hair in frustration.
She had just stepped into one of her muddy fields of wheat, nearly ripe except for the rain. Two months ago, she had hopes of harvesting a bin buster - 60-bushel wheat, some of the best of the decade.
But last week, Moeckel shifted through the thin stands of her failing crop - some heads and stalks turning black and laying flat on the ground from freeze, hail and torrential rain. "We had ideas of grandeur," she said of possibly purchasing a new spray rig, as well as updating some of the farm's 20-year-old equipment with the money from the crop.
But with little left to harvest, that probably won't happen this year, she said.
It's those thoughts that keep her awake at night, wondering if she made the right decision. Folks said she was crazy, after all.
But standing amid her soggy field, this woman is hell-bent to keep the family farm going - the operation she and her husband toiled over for more than 30 years trying to make a living. He died three years ago. And 57-year-old Moeckel has continued running the large cattle and grain operation despite it all.
Each spring she calves 100 cows and heifers. And this June, she'll harvest 900 acres of wheat, along with another 600 acres of her father's. "They wonder why I'm fighting it," she said of what her neighbors think of her keeping the farm. "They tell me, 'Sell the land, sell the equipment. "But I'm not going to give Uncle Sam that much money," she said with a smile, then added, "Where else would I be? I wouldn't be happy."
Gayla Moeckel calculates how much seed to load into the drill. Moeckel has two workers who help her in the fields, and she adds 15 during harvest. Farmhands Troy Young and Adam Zimmerman prepared to go to Zenith to drill milo - the only field dry enough to run the planter. "We've been fixing fences, fixing water lines, culverts," Young said of the water damage. "It's been hectic since May 21."
A year ago, Moeckel couldn't even beckon in rain. Thunderheads seemed to roll by.
Drought took a toll on the wheat crop, and the triple-digit temperatures of July on her fall crops and pastures. Moeckel said she needs to move the truck, but before she can do that, she has to put the wrenches into sets.
This year is just the opposite. Rain came and went, and came again. So much rain, in fact, that small ponds have formed in her unplanted milo fields as well as washed out acres of wheat. She lay in bed listening to the drops hit her roof and window until 2 a.m. one night, concerned about the milo she and her hired men planted the day before and about the unharvested wheat in her fields. "It's horrible," she said. "We got another 1.40 inches. We had planted another 40 acres of milo yesterday, but we'll probably have to replant at $72 a bag - $300 in all." With all the rain, she also worried about whether she could get all the milo acres planted before the insurance cutoff date of June 25. "I finally took a couple Excedrin PMs and went to sleep."
Flooding and wheat harvest are just a couple of obstacles Moeckel has been dealt in the past three years, saying life has been a blur since husband Jeff died Oct. 22, 2004. She had to go into debt to keep some of the land. She's been through a multiyear drought. Her fertilizer costs have gone up 63 percent since 2004; fuel shot up by 78 percent. Without government payments, Moeckel admits her farming days probably would be over. "And people think we get rich doing this," she said.
For years, she kept diaries of what she and her husband did on the farm. Now, she uses them as a guide - when to plant, when to spray.
However, Moeckel has plenty of help, she said. Her daughter, Marcella, lends a hand with the operation, as well as has her own herd of meat goats and cattle. Gale and Diane Fowler, friends and fellow farmers to the east, have been there whenever Moeckel needed advice and guidance.
So have her parents, Clint and June Peacock, and her brother, Howard - all of whom will help with this year's harvest. Howard Peacock takes two weeks of vacation each year to help his sister and father cut around 1,500 acres in all. Clint Peacock said he wasn't surprised his daughter stayed in farming - becoming the third generation to make a living from the land. "Gayla always liked farming and the cattle," he said. "It's quite a job, but I think she's doing a good job."
It's not a one-woman show, Moeckel said. "I'm humble enough to know that it has taken a lot of effort from a lot of different people," Moeckel said. "The man upstairs is the main one who gives me support."
Moeckel admits she has no idea how the wheat in her fields will yield this year. She just knows it's not the 60-bushel-an-acre crop of early April. "Thirty-bushel wheat, that would be a blessing - pie in the sky," Moeckel said as she worked from her farmhouse preparing for harvest. But listening to talk around the area, yields could average anywhere from 2 to 20 bushels an acre. "I can't imagine how long it will take to get a bin full of wheat this year," she said. She admits she's a little less optimistic than her father.
At age 80, Clint Moeckel has been through his share of harvests. He underwent a quadruple bypass in February. It didn't slow him down much, though - he was on the phone just days later to order a used combine from Pankratz Implement in Hutchinson for this year's wheat harvest. But even her father said he hasn't seen this much rain before harvest. "We don't need any more rain," he said. "That's sure against us now."
Yet there are positives that come with the rain, Moeckel said. The dry, thirsty land has been replenished. Farm ponds are full. She no longer has to worry about hauling water to the cattle. Moreover, the soybeans and oats couldn't look better.
As long as her farm stays in the black, she'll keep farming, she said. "Our land has been in the family for 100 years," she said. "Yes, I love the land and am proud of my ancestors and want to take care of 'their' land. As long as I have health and my many helpers, I will continue to try to make a living on the land."
By the numbers
Out of the state's 90,000 farm operators, 21,603 are women, according to the 2002 Census of Agriculture.
The number of females in charge also is growing in Kansas, jumping from 4,272 in 1997 to 5,659 in 2002, the census reported.
Women-run farms also have increased nationally, with 228,080 women in charge in 2002 - a 38 percent increase from the 1997 census.
