CONRAD, Mont. – On their wheat farm in northern Montana, Cyndi and Ken Johnson are getting their fields ready for spring planting, including doing some tune-up and repairs on equipment.
“Ken has been welding new caps on the packer wheels of the seed drill and we are getting trucks ready, along with our fertilizer and seed,” Cyndi said. “It’s a whole lot of logistics and lots to do. “
The Johnsons’ farm, Desert Claim Farm, was established by Ken Johnson’s grandparents who came to Montana as homesteaders, opting to homestead in the “desert claim” area where homesteaders were eligible for four times the size of a normal homestead if they were willing to create an irrigation system on the land. The system that served the farm for 70 years was made up of several reservoirs, but eventually did not collect enough water for crops and now is maintained for wildlife and habitat, Cyndi said.
“We are 100 percent dryland at this point, and we grow spring and winter wheat and chickpeas. This year we will also grow canola,” Cyndi related. “We tried growing barley in the past, but it was only feed barley and we moved away from it because of the water situation. It’s also very itchy. There is always grain dust moving around and it’s awful.
“I appreciate those who are growing it so we can have good beer,” she quipped.
Cindy and Ken split up the farm duties, with Cyndi doing the bookkeeping and recordkeeping, as well as doing the spraying. When she is out in the tractor, Cyndi said she has seen everything from a moose to a bull elk and a grizzly bear.
“I asked Ken, ‘What do I do if I see a grizzly?’ He said, ‘Stay in the tractor,’” she related.
People are also reading…
Cyndi also acts as the main combine driver at harvest time. Her daughter and her daughter’s fiancé are also becoming more involved in the farm.
“There comes a point when every farm family transitions to the next generation and it’s exciting for young people to be involved,” Cyndi said. “It’s unfortunate that these days its hard to accumulate the kind of capital needed to get started.”
When she isn’t farming, Cyndi serves as the president of the Montana Farm Bureau. Johnson is the organization’s first female president since its inception in 1919.
“A lot of people ask why we call it ‘Farm Bureau’ when there are so many people who own livestock, but we have to remember when the organization was founded in the early 1900s, everyone was a farmer, as all farms also had livestock,” she explained.
Cyndi said when it comes to animals on the farm, she is a big fan of dogs. Her current dog, a Malamute named Freya, is the “world’s best watchdog.”
“She will watch you do anything,” Johnson laughed. “But it is hard to keep a cat when she’s around unless it’s a very assertive cat.”
Along with cash crop farming, Cyndi said she does love to keep a “huge garden” and has just put in her potatoes for the year.
“We will be putting in the peas and carrots by the end of this coming week,” she concluded.
The Prairie Star would like to thank Cydni and Ken Johnson for allowing our readers to follow along with their operation this summer. We wish them the best of luck this growing season!