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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 15, 2002

Stephen Gertson—
Farm for the family,
not the bank...

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Stephen Gertson is the
fourth generation of Gertsons to make his living off the land.

The operation is truly all
about family. Stephen is in
a partnership with 10 individuals...his wife Kathy, three brothers, their spouses, and his mom and dad.

"We're all in partnership together," this 35-year-old producer from Wharton County, says. "We have about 2,200 acres of rice we farm every year. And we have about 375 momma cows. On the side of that we have an aerial application business where we do crop dusting and ground applications."

The partnership works because each family member specializes in one aspect of the business. Stephen has a degree in accounting so he takes care of the books for four different family businesses...mainly the Gertson family partnership. He also takes care of the billing and operations for the crop dusting service.

With his strong accounting background, Stephen keeps a close watch on costs and efficiency.

"I'm a true cost cutter," he says. "I don't like to farm for the bank because I don't like debt. Tough times, when they're in debt, that's when people start to go out of business. So in the tough times we start using up what we put away in the good times."

Efficiency is a key to success of the family partnership. The Gertsons have moved from conventional tillage, where they crossed the land 13 to 15 times, to minimum tillage, where they have four passes on a field.

"We've been able to cut the number of tractors we use and the number of drivers and have cut our labor force down," Stephen says.

Having their own rice drying and storage facility also helps the bottom line.

"We can bring our rice in, dry it, store it and then we can sell it...negotiate with the buyer to hold that crop up until June or so, if they need us to store it that long."

Stephen says cattle work well with the rice operation. They rotate rice one year and pasture the next.

"So we're rotating between cattle and rice," he says. "The cattle have to survive pretty much on their own."

Wife Kathy, who is a former teacher and now substitute teaches at local schools, considers farm life a blessing.

"Farming is in our hearts," she says with conviction. "It's just something about being a farmer that's like no other thing. It's a closeness with nature, it's the faith that you have when you put a seed into the ground, that it's going to grow."

Besides offering support to Stephen through the "ups and downs" of farming, Kathy also helps on the financial end.

"Since he's mainly in accounting and bookkeeping, whenever he needs help paying bills or payroll, I'll help him out. I'll fill out any paperwork he needs, do some filing, do some paying of bills," she says.

She hopes their three girls...Amber, age 10; Christen, age 8; and Kara, age 5, find a future in agriculture.

"I would love for my children to go into farming," she says. "Even with three girls, there's nothing that says they can't be farmers."

Both Stephen and Kathy are excited about Texas Farm Bureau's Ag in the Classroom.

"Even though we live in a small town and you'd think they'd know about farming, it's something we take for granted," Kathy says. "And it's (Ag in the Classroom) our way to expose them to what agriculture truly is and how it involves every aspect of their lives. And since our children are our future, and we want farming to be in our future. We need to educate them about it."

Stephen agrees:"I think we have to teach those kids at a young age because as we get older, there's going to be fewer and fewer people that are going to be in the rural lifestyle, farming and ranching.

"We have to educate these kids now that agriculture is important. If we don't teach kids at a young age that farming is important, we might be out of business within 50 years."