shop fully outfitted to do metalworking , welding and every kind of farm maintenance for their trucks and other farm equipment . This kind of self reliance adds to the botton line and is part of the Lutman success equation .
Tommy recalls his stab at college preferring instead , after a year in ag engineering , to return to his roots on the land . After a successful long- and short-haul trucking stint he bought his first combine around 2000 . After that it was full steam ahead as a farmer , photo : susan lutman
working with his father and eventually Ryan and Chris . It ’ s a funny thing about combine harvesters and what they represent . Ryan reflects on a pivitol moment in his life that , he believes , sparked his interest in farming . “ When we were kids growing up and dad was on the road a lot he come home every weekend . That was a time to take care of the lawn and polish the truck . And we always wanted to go over to the farm to see what granddad was up to . He had antique tractors and was always doing something on the weekend . I think it was the early to mid-90s and granddad was getting up in the combine and said hey do you want to go for a ride ? And that ’ s how it started .”
People don ’ t understand the life of a farmer . And how could they really ? Ryan recounts that some customers make fun of early rising farmers and will say , “ You gonna be here at 6 am ?” ‘ No , I won ’ t be here at 6 am ,’ he ’ ll respond . “ They don ’ t realize that we don ’ t go home at 6 pm either — 9 o ’ clock at night maybe . That depends if we ’ re hauling hay because we try to do that in the evenings and often don ’ t get home until 10 or 11 o ’ clock .’ Tommy nods his head and says , “ we actually look forward to the sun going down a little earlier these days .”
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