Callee Pellett is breaking the mold when it comes to farming. Considering the majority of U.S. farmers today are male and nearly 60-years-old, the 16-year-old farmer in Atlantic, Iowa is not your typical farmer. And it's how she's blazing her own trail through drive and dedication, that makes Callee so unique.
According to the last Ag Census, there are 1.2 million female producers, which accounts for 36% of the total number of producers in the U.S. However, if you travel rural America during planting or harvest, it's often rare you see a female behind the wheel of a tractor or combine. Callee is one of the exceptions.
It didn’t take her long to learn her calling in life, even if it meant she was the only girl.
“I don't really remember a point that I was not on the farm,” says Callee. “I've always been out there, but I really started getting into it when I was like five or six.”
Even at a young age, it was hard to pull her out of the combine, because farming is right where she wanted to be. That love for farming is something Callee’s mom, Stacey, saw from her daughter early on.
“She has been daddy's girl from day one, and I was daddy's girl, too, growing up, so I understood that. I’ve always been very supportive of that,” says Stacey. “When Mike would be ready to leave for the farm, she was boots on and probably out the door before he was, and as she's gotten older, she's taken it upon herself to just learn more.”
It was then, that Callee didn't realize being a female farmer wasn't the norm, but once she got older, she started to notice she was one of the few females who want to farm.
With the support of her parents and grandparents, Callee took a big leap a little over a year ago. At the age of 15, she signed her first lease, the same piece of ground that her dad leased to get his start. The farm of nearly 20 acres is Callee’s crop, from start to finish.
“I make the decision on what crop I’m going to plant. I do my own anhydrous. I do my own planting, and I do my own harvesting,” says Callee.
She’s learned how to make those decisions by farming along her dad, Mike.
“I definitely use his expertise, because I’m not an agronomist, not having gone to school for that yet,” says Callee.
Callee will be the first to admit that some lessons in the field have been harder than others.
“I made the decision on what size rows to plant this year,” says Callee. “I asked him [Dad], and he said, ‘You make the decision.’”
And she did, the decision to plant 20-inch rows this year.
Learning by doing, means Callee’s dream of being a farmer is well underway.
“She's really taken it upon herself to not just say, 'Mom and dad, what do I do?’ To see that drive in her to say, ‘I want to do this,’ and then be willing to do the work to learn and earn it," says Stacey.
The Balancing Act of School, Sports and Farming
No matter if it’s volleyball, softball or track season, or if she’s showing cattle for FFA, Callee has a lot on her plate as a junior in high school. Yet she’s still drawn to the farm, even when she’s not supposed to be.
“Last week, I said, ‘Hey, can you run dinner to dad?' And she said, sure. And she has softball practice and has to be at the field at 5:45 in the morning, so I told her to not be out late,” says Stacey. “A little after 9 p.m., I called her and said, ‘Where are you?’ She said, ‘Mom, I’m planting, I know it’s late but I’m on my last round. I'll be there soon.’ You can't get mad at the fact that she went to the field and she's out there planting.”
Long Line of Fierce Females, But Not Female Farmers
Callee has some great examples in her life. Whether it’s her grandparents or her parents, she comes from a long line of fierce females, but not female farmers.
There are 14 family members involved in the family operation. But only two of those are female: Callee and her mom. And only Callee is operating equipment, as well as planting and harvesting her own crop.
Last fall, Callee clocked 107 hours in the field. And the way the Pellett’s farm is set up, all 14 farm together, but each family member owns their own ground. Then, all of the equipment is shared, as it belongs to their separate equipment corporation.
“And then we bill each member of the family for their acres,” explains Stacey, who handles the finances for their operation. “We have a per acre fee for planting and a per acre fee for harvest. And that fee covers the ability to use the equipment on your farm, it covers the insurance, the fuel and the maintenance.”
Whoever works in the field, they then get a credit for those hours, to offset their equipment bill. Which means the more Callee works during harvest or in the spring, the more that can go toward her operating costs.
“Just like everybody else gets credit, her 107 hours was applied to her bill. It was more than her bill for the harvest charges. So, that credit carries over to the spring and will help cover her expenses for this spring,” says Stacey.
Source: agweb.com
Photo Credit: GettyImages-fotografixx
Categories: Iowa, General