When our leased tractor, over 60 years old, was shooting oil from the power steering I knew I needed help. I couldn’t figure out how to remove the casting and diagnose the leak so I turned to a friend and fellow farmer, Rich Folot.
Folot has been growing in Larimer County all his life, making this his 77th season. He has managed operations including a dairy, hogs, sugar beets, silage corn, hay, hemp, beans, and probably many other crops. Currently he is running a, mostly solo, cow/calf operation, hay, and sugar beets on his 150 acre farm. Big tractors, big trucks, big bills.
I met him in 2019 when I was looking for help plowing up our original acre. Driving around through the backroads north of Fort Collins his farm happened to be the first I stopped at. With equipment in many stages of repair and several tractors I thought whoever lives here has the tool I need. So, I knocked on the door. No answer. Then, towards the equipment yard around the house, a diesel truck fired up.
Two guys pull around giving me that tough “Can we help you?” stare. They asked what I was doing. I explained the situation and ended up jumping in their truck to join them for breakfast.
Over our pastries I had been talking about heirloom dry beans. How I thought they would be a smart crop. Rich got excited about the idea, telling stories of cutting pinto beans for years and selling them to a grain elevator. At that scale they paid $.22/pound. When I told them we could easily sell beans at a farmers market for $4/pound he about fell out of his chair.
We tried to get some old equipment running, but eventually I took another route to open the ground. The season went on and I didn’t make it back over to his farm. Later that winter, Mary and I walked into the same diner where we had pie and there was Rich was sitting over breakfast. Welcoming hellos were exchanged then he told me that he had grown beans. About 5 different kinds an acre apiece. He had also bought a grain cleaner that only needed a few parts. That following year, since the cleaner was not running, we scooped dry beans by the bucket and sorted the rocks out by hand.
I was blown away. Here I was, a nobody as green as they come, but had an idea. He took it and ran, eager at the opportunity to change and incorporate another business into his operation. While everything hasn’t panned out, his openness and thrill in life is inspirational. (If people have interest in getting the grain/bean cleaner operational and growing some combine scale staple crops lets connect!!)
Getting old is not easy, especially for someone still so inspired mentally. He has had a run of health issues limiting what he can accomplish. Driving around Rich was outlining plans for his farm, ways he could continue to work into his 80s. The ever present opportunity to sell the land for development and cash out combined with chronic pain, it is admirable that he would rather grow crops.
Folot is a lifelong learner and grower. As feed costs rose he decided to put his cows on pasture this winter. Driving past the field you could feel his excitement watching the cows chew plowed alfalfa roots.
“They’re paying dividends!” he’d exclaim as the cows broke up the tough material instead of a tractor. When operating at his scale every pass saved with a tractor impacts your bottom line. He is inspired by “nature farming” and I am astounded by his open mind. Imagine you have been raising cows, possibly for most of your life, in confinement. Then, at 77, installing mobile electric fences and setting them loose. It is easy to get stuck in your ways, running the same tracks in your mind. Yet, here is a man whose is ready to grow like fresh soil.
When I got him in front of my tractor it didn’t take more than an hour and a trip to the hardware store to diagnose the problem. From there a trip to get a part and I was able to install it solo. The dude is truly a master and a student of farming.
Rich is an embodiment of the current state of agriculture. We need to shift from the extractive and exploitive practices of commodity farming and transition to something ecologically, financially, and socially regenerative. People like Rich bear personal experience to the current paradigm and can offer the younger generation not only practical but philosophical skills. The elders must be represented in the conversation in moving towards a new system of food production.