(HORNICK, IA) Michael Folsom is just 15 years old. He's not a farmer - yet - but the high school sophomore is learning about agriculture through on-the-job training while lending his father a much-needed helping hand.
Michael Folsom's spent his whole life on the family farm outside Hornick, Iowa.
"We have about 30 head of cattle, a few pigs to feed the family and we do corn and soybeans," says Michael Folsom.
His dad Dave is a first-generation farmer.
"To build all this in one lifetime, that's pretty amazing and he's worked hard at it and he deserves everything he gets," says Folsom.
His father instilled that work ethic in Michael from an early age.
"Work hard, at everything. Just keep working and even if you don't like doing it, just get it over with, get it done," says Folsom.
Michael started helping out on the farm regularly a few years ago and now spends 3 to 4 hours a day working, before and after school.
"Well right now, we're getting in the process of getting ready for spring time so we're changing oil in tractors, making sure the planters are ready to go," says Folsom. "Being around, doing all this stuff, you get an idea of what it's like to have to, all the job you have to do when you get older and what you have to do to be successful."
Farming can be dangerous work. Last fall, Michael's father Dave tore his rotator cuff and had surgery in December. That means he couldn't work for at least 8 weeks, leaving Michael to pick up the slack.
"I'm going to have to start picking it up and I'm ready for it. I can do it," says Folsom.
And he's already thinking about the future, going to college and eventually taking over the operation.
"But I think it's important also to get out on your own and make your own mistakes before you just come and take over," says Folsom. "Start out yourself first and start small and then work your way in."
Michael calls working with his father a "privilege" and enjoys learning the business first-hand.
"If I could do half of what he did, that'd be pretty cool," says Folsom.
Besides school, sports and working on the farm, Michael is also a member of Westwood FFA.
And coming up on February 23, 2012, in honor of National FFA Week, we'll showcase how that chapter is bringing agriculture to its students.
Reported by Erika Thomas. You can contact her at ethomas@kmeg.com to nominate someone who's Proud to be a Hometown Farmer. The Iowa Broadcast News Association awarded this series 1st place Farm & Agribusiness in 2010.
