The following article which appeared in the 10 May 2003 edition of the Wichita Eagle highlights the importance of family at Engelland Farms.
Chasing dreams often means making hard, but worthwhile, choices
by Sharon Hamric
A year ago, Mark Engelland stood at a fork in the road. Torn by deeply rooted but opposing passions, he knew his decion would realign his family’s future.
He loved teaching chemistry at Trinity Academy, the Christian high school where he coached the soccer team to the 2001 Class 3A championship. After eight years, it would be hard to leave his students and soccer players.
Yet his heart yearned to plow the Sterling farm settled by his great-great-grandfather.
“It was time to decide,” said Engelland, 36, “My dad was getting to the place where he either had to downsize and sell out or upsize and make it profitable for two families.”
Neither of Engelland’s brothers wanted to take on the risks of farming for a living. Both are engineers who live out of state.
“I grew up on a tractor and always loved farming,” Engelland said. “I couldn’t wait to come back here to farm in the summers. The kids loved it, but it was still a tough decision. It’s not a steady paycheck like teaching.
“Farming is risk management. You can work from dawn to dusk and lose it all. Last year we had a hailstorm, and some of our best wheat was gone.”
He misses the people and the interaction from school, but he doesn’t miss grading stacks of papers and filling out grade cards.
Last spring, Mark told Trinity he wouldn’t be returning. He and Sarah put their house on the market.
Sarah, 34, cast her vote to move to the farm. The city girl from Wichita, who met Mark at the University of Kansas, saw the opportunities for her children. Though her kids moved farther away from their Aunt Kathy and from Sarah’s parents, Jim and Marilyn Manweiler, they live just across a soybean field from Mark’s parents.
“It hasn’t been easy,” Sarah admitted. “It’s a long way to the store to buy a gallon of milk. You really have to plan ahead.”
“The kids miss playing with their neighborhood friends, but they’re learning a lot about responsibility by raising their own calves. Nathan thinks he’s ready to drive the tractor.”
“It’s so peaceful and so beautiful out here, but everything’s a trade-off. We get to see Mark for lunch, then we get stuck in the mud. I’m just thankful Mark’s family is so close.”
After a decade away from full-time farming, there was much catching up to do regarding farm technology. His dad and several high school pals who’ve also come home to farm became his teachers.
Engelland grows corn, wheat, grain sorghum, soybeans and sunflowers and tends a herd of cows.
“There was so much more to learn about fertilizer, about crops and everything else,” he said. “I’m the fifth generation of my family to farm this land. I want to take good care of it and pass it on to my sons.”
Nathan, 6, definitely plans to be a farmer. He spends his free time in the barn with the calves. Elizabeth, 10, and Jacob, 19 months, are undecided about career plans.
Heavy rains last fall caused delays in digging the basement and in the delivery of their two-story modular home. Now the family is settle into their cozy new nest.
Instead of staying up late to grade tests, Mark is out in the barn checking on cows ready to deliver spring calves. His daily routine is determined not by a school bell, but by the weather, crop conditions and the needs of his cows.
“It’s been my dream, but I had to make sure it would work for my family. On the farm, you’ve go to be prepared for anything at any hour.”
On the Engelland farm just north of Sterling, the hours seep by like molasses. Days fly by. Calves escape through fences. Crops ripen. Tractors break down. Too quickly, too much rain becomes too little rain.
Each night, as Mark and Sarah tuck their little ones into bed, they say a prayer of thanksgiving for this new beginning.