Jacob Vowels and his family used FSA loans to help keep their family farm in the family.
When the future of a three-generation Idaho farm was uncertain, the Farm Service Agency’s support to a beginning farmer helped keep the family’s agricultural legacy alive.
Three generations of Jacob Vowels’ family had once farmed nearly 2,000 acres along the western edge of the fertile Palouse in Idaho, but in 1991, like so many other small farms in the West, their operations ceased and their land was leased.
In 2007, Jacob, the eldest of three sons, had earned a college degree from the University of Idaho, married his wife Anna, was a new father and a successful business owner in the housing sector. That same year, the lease on the family land came up for renewal and his parents and grandparents asked Jacob if he might be interested in farming the 675 acres of rolling wheat pea and lentil fields.
“I realized when the opportunity presented itself that it had always been my dream to carry on the family farm,” Vowels said. “But it was clear from the beginning that there were many big obstacles I’d have to overcome to make it really happen.”
The first step was to find adequate financing to acquire the resources it would take to begin operating. Vowels turned to the Farm Service Agency and qualified for a low-interest loan for operating expenses and equipment. That first harvest in 2009 was memorable as Jacob’s extended family poured into the shops and fields to lend a hand, while his small children delighted in the prospect of a fun future on the farm.
Now, in his fourth year of farming more than 800 acres, Jacob hopes to add more acres and own his own land some day. He credits the Farm Service Agency’s commitment to help young producers like him successfully return to farming as one of the critical factors in his decision to pursue a future in agriculture
“FSA’s help has been invaluable,” said Vowels. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do than farm the ground that my great-grandfathers established.”
