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November 17, 2000

‘I like working the land’

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Farming and ranching is in Ray Chisum’s blood. It’s all he ever remembers wanting to do. This 33-year-old producer from Jayton recalls the first time his father left him alone in the field with a tractor. He was eight years old. He planted the family’s entire cotton crop at the tender age of 12. And by the next year, with the help of his grandparents, Ray and his brother made a down payment on 600 acres of land. The rest, as they say, is history.

“All I’ve ever been around is agriculture,” this tall, lanky producer says. “It’s what I wanted to do when I got out of school. And that’s all my family’s done for several generations. It’s what I hope my kids will do if I can give them the opportunity.”

Ray and his brother formed a partnership early in life that accumulated a little over 3,000 acres over a 15-year period. Ray and his brother split the partnership in 1995 to pursue individual goals. “I came out with 2,626 acres of property,” Ray says. “From there I’ve added to it through the years. I just farm and ranch. Raise cows and feed a few calves of my own. Raise wheat and some cotton.”

He says that kind of diversification is important to his operation. Not every year’s good for cattle, he explains. That’s why he incorporated cotton farming. “There’s been occasions when that’s kind of kept us going when cattle were down,” he said.

Not this year, however. The last year area farmers were successful was 1997. Extremely dry weather has plagued the Rolling Plains since then.

“No one in this area has made any crops of any kind this year,” Ray says. “That’s tough for everybody. Our cattle numbers are still down from what they would be in a normal year. And a lot of people still don’t have any cattle restocked in their pastures. We’re fortunate enough that we have near normal stocking rates on our’s. But it’s been dry enough it’s made it pretty tough.”

Drought, in fact, is the major obstacle this young producer has had to overcome in his farming career. Good management and thriftiness has helped him stay while others have failed. Government aid has also been helpful.

“I’m thankful for the insurance programs and the government programs,” he admits. “I don’t like people thinking we’re taking handouts from the government. I feel like the people are the ones being subsidized from government payments to the farmers.”

Searching out alternate sources of income has also helped him both expand and stay the course. One source is custom farming.

“I had a cotton stripper and used it in the fall and custom harvested,” Ray says, explaining he raised no cotton on his own when he acquired the stripper. “I kind of got to helping people do some things and baling hay. At times of the year I’m not working my own land, that’s been very important to keeping us going.”

Leasing land for hunting is another source, and is becoming more important to the bottom line as time goes on.

“It’s getting tougher just to pay our taxes on the land,” Ray says. “Property taxes seem like they’ve got out of hand. And that helps a lot of people overcome the rising cost of ownership of land. It’s really important to us now that we’re able to lease our land and have that extra income.”

Ray’s wife, Carla, also plays an important role in the operation. She keeps the books on the far-flung operation. She’s also been known to drive a tractor or gather cattle.

She admits life on the farm is tough. But Carla wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There’s not as many family farms as there used to be,” Carla says. “It takes a lot more effort on everybody’s part to make it all work. The lifestyle, I couldn’t ask for a better lifestyle. I enjoy being out in the country.”

Both agree they will give their children the opportunity to farm if they wish.

“I’m going to try to have the opportunity for any one of them that want to come back and farm or work the land in whatever way they might want to, I’m going to try to have the opportunity for them to come back and do that,” Ray says. “I want them to get an education before they do that.”

For Ray and Carla, their future’s tied to the land. “I just like working the land,” this soft-spoken man says. “I like being on a tractor. You can get a lot of time to do a lot of thinking. I like working. I like being outdoors. I guess there’s not much of anything I don’t like about it.”