On an unseasonably warm morning in early November, three generations of the Thiel family put the finishing touches on a successful fall harvest.
It’s unusual for corn and beans to be picked by All Saints Day on Nov. 1, but a dry autumn made the fields more accessible this year.
The Thiels’ work was all but finished in the fields, and it was time to clean the equipment, including a combine sitting where cornstalks stood just days earlier while the remnants of the plants remained stuck in the blades of the massive machine.
“And then it’s back to the house to put all the numbers together and figuring out what you’re going to do next year,” said John C. Thiel, who farms 2,200 acres north of Marion along with his family and parents, John J. and Carol.
A farmer’s work is never done, an old saying goes, and the men and women who work the land won’t argue with that adage. Their schedule is defined by the seasons, much like the Church follows its liturgical calendar.
“Years ago, a farmer said to me, ‘The Lord’s calendar is fixed,’” said Father Thomas Buffer, the pastor at Marion St. Mary Church. “To me, that expresses not only how farmers have to observe the times and seasons, but also how Catholics should be attentive to the rhythm of the church’s year with its fasting and feasting, greater and lesser holy days, memorials of the saints and the rest.
“It’s hard to have a true Catholic Christian spirituality when we think that time is something that occurs within ourselves and can be governed by our own desires and perceptions.”
The Thiels are members of Marion St. Mary Church. John J. and Carol graduated from the former Marion Catholic High School and have lived in the area all of their lives. Carol was raised in the New Bloomington area and attended the now-closed LaRue St. Joseph Church for many years.
The couple has been farming for decades on the land that John J.’s grandfather and father farmed. And through the years, the family stepped up the operation, growing a mix of beans, corn and wheat in multiple fields that they own or rent.
“The home farm is 305 acres that my grandpa bought,” John J. said. “My dad moved down there with eight kids to help farm 305 acres. At some point, he had to expand if he was going to survive.
“Nowadays, you’d starve to death farming 305 acres. That’s what’s happened.”
John C. added, “Six or seven years ago, 1,000 acres was what it takes to make a living, minimum. It’s probably more than that now with the prices and everything.”
Behind John and Carol’s home, where John’s parents once lived, sits a large grain system where crops are stored after harvesting. When the time and price in the marketplace are right, the grain will be loaded into trucks and sold.
Like most family farmers today, the Thiels focus on crops and not livestock. Other than some chickens, the only animals to be found are those that the younger kids raise to show at the county fair.
Having livestock is “seven days a week, 365 days a year,” John J. said. “You’re locked down in that lifestyle.
“Some of the guys around here have pig barns,” John C. added, “but they’re contract raising for the bigger corporations.”
For individual farmers, the business of farming goes beyond planting and harvesting, tilling and discing, fertilizing and fighting weeds and insects. There’s figuring insurance and taxes, buying seeds to plant in the spring, determining chemicals and fertilizers to use and mapping the fields for planting next year.
A farmer also has to account for variables such as the cost of equipment and breakdowns, downturns in market prices and, most notably, the weather. What if there’s a drought? Too much rain? Wet fields in the spring that delay planting? Diseases that destroy the crops? Those are just a few of the things that could affect the end product.
When the unexpected happens, “you hope you’ve put back enough and don’t overspend,” John J. said. “You’ve got to watch your pennies.”
And when farmers must deal with events out their control, that’s when faith plays a pivotal role.
“It all works out,” John C. said. “Nothing happens without a lot of prayers. Say your prayers, and it all works out.”
John J. added, “There’s a lot of stress. It’s a lot of investment. You do everything right, put the crop out there, and it still comes down to Mother Nature and God.”
“You’re not guaranteed anything,” John C. interjected. “You’re not guaranteed an income, let’s put it that way. You’re not getting a salary.”
The Thiels would agree that one advantage of farming is the opportunity to work together as a family.
John J. and Carol have five children. John C. is the oldest, and the youngest, Lynette, works as a physical education teacher at Ridgedale High School and assists on the farm driving tractors or trucks or doing whatever’s needed when she’s not at school. One of John J.’s brothers and a nephew also pitch in.
“It’s a family affair,” said Carol with John J., John C. and the second oldest of John C.’s four children, Nathan, standing nearby. “I always say that God gives us what we need, and I can’t get past that. When we need something, He knows what we need.”
And the family feels blessed to work the land and takes seriously the responsibility of being good stewards of God’s creation.
“That’s all there is, is this land,” John C. said. “We’ve got to pass it down to somebody else. Grandpa passed it to Dad and, hopefully, to our kids and then their kids. As they say, God only makes so much land, and you’ve got to take care of it.”
His father added, “I always said my goal was to leave it better than I got it. You got out of it what you put into it. If you don’t put in any time and effort, you’re not going to get anything out of it. It’s like anything in life.”
