The New American Farmer

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mechanization make him independent of the Government Had he chosen to "set aside" (not plant) 20% of his 2,000 wheat acres this year, he would have qualified to receive a Government-guaranteed "target price" of $3.40 a bushel. Benedict elected instead to plant all his acres, gambling that eventually he will get a high enough price to make a larger profit on a bigger crop. Whether he wins he will not know for many months. He has signed a contract to sell 40% of his wheat crop, for a price that he says "will cover costs and a little more," and will store the rest to release whenever he judges market conditions to be right. At current prices, about $3 a bushel, his wheat crop would be worth $270,000.

Over the years, Benedict has averaged a return of only 3.5% on the $3.5 million present value of his investment. Of course, since he bought much of the land and many of the machines when prices were lower, his return on original investment is substantially higher; nonetheless, in theory he could enjoy a larger income by selling out and putting the money in bank certificates of deposit paying around 9% interest. Such profits on even the most efficient farms are too meager to interest big corporations. The fears that the family farm would be taken over by "agribusiness" have proved unfounded. Corporations with more than ten stockholders account for less than 2% of U.S. farm sales. Even farms large enough to incorporate themselves generally operate as a family affair—emphatically including Pat Benedict's. His farm, like many others, has been incorporated only to save on estate taxes for his heirs.

Pat employs two full-time hired hands, and during peak planting and harvest periods a dozen migrants from Texas or local high school students. The primary work force is the family: Sons Michael, 20, Blane, 18, Kurt, 13, and Daughters Stephanie, 19, and Lisa, 16. Even eleven-year-old David drives a tractor pulling a harvester that yanks three tons of sugar beets out of the ground every minute. All earn $3 an hour. During the wheat harvest each of them worked eight hours a day in staggered shifts so that some member of the family was in the fields 24 hours a day. Says Pat: "The kids learn that you are paid according to how much you work. That's what it's all about, rewarding productivity."

The only Benedict exempted from chores is two-year-old Luke, and even he tours the fields regularly, bouncing on his father's lap in a pickup truck (his present on his second birthday: a toy tractor). Besides the supervision and paperwork, Pat labors with his hands too, doing most of the machinery repairs himself.

Pat's wife Fran, 43, is somewhat in the background; the Benedict family is a decided patriarchy. A farmer's daughter, she worked as a stewardess for Braniff Airlines and met Pat during a layover in Fargo, N. Dak.; a sister of Pat's who worked at the hotel where Fran stayed introduced them. Fran is the secretary of Benedict Farms and does the bookkeeping. During planting and harvesting seasons she also runs the farm's communications network, relaying messages by private FM radio band between Pat's pickup truck, the other machines in the fields and the outside world—meanwhile whipping up quick meals for all members of the family whenever they come in from the fields, even if that is 1 a.m.