((PKG)) MAKING A LIVING: CLIPPER GOODRICH
((TRT: 06:46))
((Topic Banner: Making a Living: Clipper Goodrich))
((Reporter/Editor/Producer: Ailin Li))
((Camera: Wayne Gassmann))
((Map: Dover, Kansas))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
We are standing in a field of soybeans that are about to be harvested. If you’ll notice, a soybean comes in a pod and inside the pod are the beans. And there’s the soybeans that make the things that you really need and enjoy, possibly like your cellphone, plastics. It’s a very versatile crop. Here in America, corn and soybeans are the dominant crop. China is one of our large buyers of soybeans and grain products and I've kind of wondered how folks do the things they do over there. I've kind of seen a little bit of it.
((NATS))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
Hi, my name is Clipper Goodrich. I’m 36 years old. I’m a first-generation farmer in Kansas and this is my ordinary life.
It depends, totally, weather conditions permitting, we could spend anywhere from eight to 14 hours a day harvesting.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
My love of farming did start when I was a young child. I was five, probably about five years old, watching a farmer work his field next door to us. I just kept pacing and looking at him and finally he decided to stop and pick me up and give me a ride in his tractor and my love started then.
Toward the end of high school, I kind of knew I wanted to be in agriculture. The gentleman that actually gave me the tractor ride was needing a hired hand at the time.
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
He offered me a job. So, I started as an employee at the farm.
Six years into working for him, he allowed me and my now business partner, Ross, to start leasing farm ground. We started farming with our first 24 acres [9.7 ha]. We have grown kind of ever since.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
I absolutely love farming. It is also a love-hate relationship at times. Our success and failure is determined by the weather and outside conditions in the markets that we don't have control over. It is a stressful and rewarding job, all in one.
There was one year that I lost a large sum of money. The next year was good enough that I overcame that deficit and had a little bit left over. This year appears to be a very good year with the prices and the yields that we are having. So, it's a very fluid deal.
[Last year] on my side of the farm, I had about $165,000 of gross income and I had about $150,000 in expenses. So, I profited about $10,000. However, I made my payments.
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
My expenditures per month usually are around $2,000 for the house, insurance, and other items.
Income just varies. I’m always able to make ends meet, it seems like.
My mother is a wonderful lady. My dad was kind of wandering a little bit, just a country boy, but also, they are a little eccentric. They never married.
I was raised, until I was 16, I was a vegetarian. That’s when my parents split ways. So, I lived a little different life
as now I eat meat. I hunt.
So, things have changed a little bit.
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
They raised me to kind of question authority a little bit, to respect authority though, to be an independent thinker. That's one of the key qualities that I believe my parents blessed me with.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
I live in a small community southwest of the capital of Kansas. Community is Dover. Population is kind of hard to measure. Dover is an unincorporated town and I believe there might be about 100 folks living there.
I have lived here all my life. One of the blessings that I've had is not moving around.
You build relationships that I just don't know that can be beat, in my opinion. You get to know people. You know their kids. You go to school with them.
It's something that's very special and should be cherished.
((NATS: From the movie, The Wizard of Oz))
((Courtesy: The Wizard of Oz/Warner Bros.))
Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore.
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
It’s surprising, everyone has the opinion of Kansas from kind of The Wizard of Oz and other things where it's a pancake flat state and in my opinion, it's not.
If you get off the interstates and travel the state highways,
there's wonderful abundance of things to see and sites and things to do. It’s kind of an underrated little state.
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
One of the great things that happened in our nation's history kind of started boiling over here, you know, John Brown started the quest to end slavery. It's a wonderful thing.
((Courtesy: AP))
The first Native American vice president [Charles Curtis] was from our state.
((Courtesy: Reuters))
We used to be, sadly we’re not anymore, we used to be the aviation capital of America.
((Courtesy: AP))
We are still kind of breadbasket of America with the wheat production out in the western part of the state.
((MUSIC))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
I do have several hobbies that I do. I enjoy hunting. I enjoy competitive shooting.
We are lucky in this state, in this country where we live. I have a little bit of property. I am able to go out behind my house and I can practice there without having to go to a range.
I'm a practicing concealed carry license holder, also with doing a little reserve deputy work with the local sheriff's office.
I've always been about giving back to my community and I feel that I would like to serve my community more.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Clipper Goodrich
First-Generation Farmer))
I absolutely plan on spending the rest of my life farming. There’s always unforeseen consequences, you know, a downturn in the market and you might be forced to do something else. But if things go to plan and they have gone to plan, I plan on doing this till the day I die or till the day I can’t be a help to the younger generation.
((NATS/MUSIC))