In the fertile farm country of Fayette County in the southwest reaches of the diocese, there’s an appreciation for God’s creation that city folk might not understand.
Farmers’ livelihoods are rooted in the rich soil where they toil day after day, year after year, not only to make a living for themselves but also to help sustain the world, directly and indirectly, with the crops they produce.
Farming requires a great deal of faith. Work hard, do everything correctly, and you’re still at the mercy of God. Too much rain, not enough rain, hail, windstorms, wild animals or insidious insects all pose a threat to potentially destroy the fruits of their labors.
And yet Catholic farmers persevere, knowing that there are no guarantees of success, because they love the land the Lord created and blessed them with as caretakers.
At this time of year, when men and women are hard at work in their fields during the final stages of harvesting their crops, thankfulness abounds as they count their blessings to make their living off the land.
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 24, many of those who are blessed to share a meal with family and friends will give thanks for the farmers whose labors helped to bring the food to their tables.
Anyone who hasn’t visited a farm might not appreciate what it takes to raise crops.
“I think they don’t understand all the labor and the time that it takes to raise the animals or grow the crops,” said Jim Garland, a longtime farmer in Fayette County and a member of Washington Court House St. Colman of Cloyne Church. “I think they don’t understand the commitment.”
On an early November afternoon visit to rural Fayette County, where the fields are as flat as tabletops, the harvest was nearly complete. Unseasonably warm and dry fall weather allowed the massive combines that collect the crops to do their job quickly and efficiently.
In farm country surrounding the Washington Court House area, there aren’t an abundance of Catholic farmers, but some reside in the same area. Two of those families live right down the road from each other.
Jim and Missy Garland have lived in the area and worked the land from the time they were married in 1975 by Jim’s uncle, James Garland, then a priest in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati who later became an auxiliary bishop in Cincinnati and then the bishop of Marquette, Michigan.
Like the Garlands, longtime neighbors Jeff and Bridget Sollars attend St. Colman of Cloyne Church. Together with their sons, the Sollarses farm 4,400 acres in a number of parcels spread across the county.
Since 1985, Jim and Missy have lived in the house where Missy and her three brothers grew up.
Missy was not raised Catholic, but she came into the Church before their marriage. Her parents and a younger brother later became converts.
Jim farmed with his brothers for years until they decided to split up a few years ago. One of the Garlands’ nephews is Father Brett Garland, who was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Columbus in 2018 and is now the pastor at Delaware St. Mary Church. His dad, Joe, farms the Garland family’s land.
Missy joked that her mother warned her not to marry a farmer because it’s not an 8-to-5 job. The days are sometimes 16 hours long. But she also carved out her own career as a nurse.
Jim currently farms 200-plus acres split mostly between corn and beans. Some of that land and the house where they live was owned by Missy’s parents, and her grandparents before them.
The Garlands’ son, Luke, a University of Mount Union graduate who works for Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, helps on the farm, especially with the financial and planning aspects of the business.
One of Luke’s strengths is studying the grain markets to determine the best time to sell their corn or beans to bring the best price.
“All you can really do is just raise what you’re raising, and then whatever the prices are in the market it’s what you’re going to get,” Jim Garland said. “You can try to control when you sell (by keeping the grain in storage), and that’s the part that Luke likes a lot.”
The 1980s were a particularly tough time for farmers. Many had to sell their land because of high interest rates.
“It’s a known fact that a lot of suicides happened because of money problems,” Jim said. “You could get upside down real quick with just a few bad mistakes, and it would stress you out.”
That’s where faith plays a big role.
“You work hard and you’re trying to pay the bills and things aren’t going right, you can get pretty down,” Jim said. “You probably could go to confession every day because you say a lot of things you shouldn’t say.
“But as I’ve told Luke, we’ve had some challenges, and you just have to say, ‘Another day at the office,’ when something breaks and it’s $1,000 to fix.”
Jim recalled a significant test of faith back in 1988 when the state experienced excessively hot and dry conditions.
“It was a bad drought, and we were at the point where things were almost beyond the point of no return,” Jim recalled, “and we got a really good rain. It’s in God’s hands when that happens because He’s got to make it rain.”
Farm operations have changed through the years. It used to be that the farmers owned more of their own land. Today, farmers’ fields are typically owned by multiple landlords.
“At one point, we were pushing about 3,000 acres with seven or eight different landlords,” Jim said, recalling the days when he and his brothers were farming together in a partnership.
The corn and beans that most farmers grow in Ohio shouldn’t be confused with sweet corn and the types of beans raised in gardens. It’s commonly referred to as field corn, which has multiple uses that include ethanol for fuel, animal feed, corn syrup and dog food.
It used to be that family farms had a mix of crops and livestock. But for the most part, that’s not the case anymore. Factory farms now raise a majority of the animals that supply the food chain, while individual farmers focus almost strictly on crops.
A crops-only operation has its advantages for family farmers, mainly because it gives them more freedom with their schedules. Raising livestock is a 24/7, 365-day-a-year job due to the care that the animals require.
One of the other big changes during the past few decades has been the astronomical cost of high-tech equipment and the vast amounts of data derived from the technology that help farmers in a variety of ways.
Combines like those that the Sollarses use to shell corn can run upwards of half a million dollars, but the machines can pretty much drive themselves and the on-board computers provide instant analysis on yields and other variables.
Modern farming techniques and products also have contributed to increased productivity through the years. A typical average planting used to be 20,000 kernels of corn per acre. Now, it’s 30,000 to 35,000. There’s also better weed control that leads to higher yields, which have doubled and even tripled since the days when Jim started farming.
Because farmers are essentially self-employed, they must deal with expenses such as taxes and health insurance. Often, a farmer’s spouse takes an outside job that includes health benefits.
Missy worked as a nurse for a number of years and carried the health insurance for the family. She’s now retired and is actively involved with the St. Vincent de Paul charitable ministry at St. Colman of Cloyne.
When Jim isn’t working on the farm, he serves on the Fayette County Board of Commissioners, which is the policy-making and legislative body for the county. He was elected in 2018 and re-elected in November while running unopposed.
Jim also has been involved outside the farm at the parish over the years as a CCD teacher, a lector, usher and Eucharistic minister and in the Knights of Columbus.
Similar to the Garlands, the Sollarses’ farm is a family affair.
Jeff Sollars started out in a partnership with his three older brothers. As they have left the business over the past several decades, Jeff’s sons have stepped in to take their place.
Oldest son Zach, an Ohio State University graduate, came back to the farm in 2013 to begin working.
In August, the Sollarses’ younger son, Aaron, returned to the area to join the farm operation with his family after working as an engineer for Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois, for eight years.
Not long after Aaron arrived, harvest time began in earnest.
“Once it starts, there’s no stopping,” Bridget said. “My husband has lived through some really hard fall seasons where you don’t want to be at Christmastime with stuff in the field.”
The Sollarses’ sons are the fourth generation of the family to be involved in farming. Some of Jeff’s brothers continue to help out where needed with farm duties.
Zach runs the family’s substantial grain storage system, where their grain is dried and kept after harvest before it’s sold to various entities.
Zach is also is involved with the Fayette County Farm Bureau and its “Storytime with a Farmer” reading program for schoolchildren that won an American Farm Bureau County Activity of Excellence Award.
The Sollarses also have a daughter, Clare, who graduated from Ohio State after majoring in food, agricultural and biological engineering and works in Columbus for Ross Nutrition.
Bridget handles the farm’s finances and accounting. She had gone to work for Kraft in Chicago after graduating from college and traveled extensively for the company before deciding to return to Ohio.
“I thought I’d never want to live in Fayette County,” she said, “and then you figure out it isn’t as bad as you thought it was.”
As for marrying Jeff, “I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into. You understand the commitment that’s involved in that.
“When I first married my husband, I had to sign a loan agreement. There were a lot of zeros behind those number. That was in the early 1980s, and in ’88 when there was a drought, I’m looking at the low margins in farming and I’m thinking, ‘What am I getting into?’
“But we’ve always worked hard, and I think it’s definitely been an advantage that they all work together, and everybody has different ideas.”
Bridget was raised Catholic. Jeff grew up in the Methodist Church and became Catholic about 15 years ago, taking St. Isadore the farmer as his confirmation name, after accompanying his wife and children to Mass for many years.
“He had been going to RCIA on and off, but they always started in the fall and it’s really difficult to take time off then,” Bridget said. “So, it was hit and miss with classes and hard to get there, but then he decided that he was just ready to join.”
Mass, prayer and faith in the Lord help farmers get through good and bad times.
“You definitely need faith in farming because, in this day and age, you put so much money into the crop,” Bridget said. “And then you hope and pray that the rain comes when it needs to and the prices stay reasonable.
“We never tried to hit the real highs or the real lows. I think, in general, you’ll find that most agriculture families are pretty conservative. And there’s a reason because you have to be able to ride out those difficult years.
“We work hard on our equipment and try to do most of what we can on our own. It definitely paid off.”
That kind of patience to persevere is a virtue that farmers must learn to practice. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)