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Tara Barrett is one of the most interesting people

I've ever met.

Our Tara Barrett is live on the scene

and has the very latest.

Let's go back out to the scene

where our Tara Barrett is standing by.

Hi Tara.

Tara Barrett is also in Champaign tonight-

NewsCenter 17's Tara Barrett joins us now

live from Springfield

When she decided to leave a very successful career

in broadcasting and had a future she'd put in her time.

Good morning and thanks for being with us,

I'm Tara Barrett.

And I'm Scot England.

Time flies when you're having fun.

I've never heard of this.

I've never heard of someone going from the news desk

to the tractor seat.

H is for Hume, population 400,

but Hume is also the hometown

of NewsCenter 17's morning anchor Tara Barrett.

We're looking for a picture of Tara Barrett

when she was young.

Let's see. - Okay.

This one, she was in the little Miss Andrew Patty pageant.

So this is the home that Tara,

did she grow up here in this home?

She was two.

You know your daughter's going to kill you guys

for letting me come in your house.

Her grandpa now he'd be rolling

that a woman's taking over the farm operation.

Scot, let's talk for a second, just me and you.

Just me and you.

Yeah, not Tara. - Oh.

In the last year, there's been three times now

Tara has stolen our spotlight.

Yes.

When she was having a baby.

Yes.

When she had the baby. - She had the baby.

And now she's leaving on a jet plane.

She announced that she was going back to the farm

and I says, you're doing what?

Tara Barrett's last day on our morning show.

You're not coworkers, you're friends.

The biggest thing I think I've learned from her

is that people of character make it through.

Things all kind of changed

when Tara's brother Cory got killed.

She's overcame a lot of things.

It's kind of a rough card that she was dealt.

When her dad passed away, I thought, oh,

she don't realize what she's getting into.

So today we're hauling corn out of the bins.

We've got the auger set up already

and we'll start unloading some corn,

haul it in town

to the elevator, which thankfully our local elevator

is only four or five miles away from most of our bins.

So it doesn't take too long.

We can fill up a truck and get it to the elevator

in about a half an hour.

So doing that all day, we can get quite a few loads in.

If I like the price today, I'll say,

go ahead and sell 10,000 bushel

and then I'll have a certain amount of time

to get it hauled in.

I was thinking about how much my mom did on the farm.

Yep, we were teenagers when we got married

and he worked at the fertilizer plants

and he was a coal miner for five years,

because my family was in coal mining.

He was raised about two miles south of here

in a little farmhouse.

And you know, I knew a lot of women

that were involved on the farm.

You know, my grandma was involved on the farm.

Yeah, my mother always told me that hard work

is good for you and you last stronger.

And she said, if you love your work, you'll do fine.

How old were you when you got married?

21.

And tell me about your husband.

He was no good.

No, I'm just kidding, just kidding, Gene.

But yeah, he was a hard worker

I will say that, a very hard worker.

He had farmed all his life with his dad.

So, but I hadn't, my dad didn't seem

to think us girls should be out there,

they didn't teach us too much.

So did you end up helping your husband on the farm?

Yes, from then on I had to work out in the field

with him a lot.

I did chores, I milked the cows

and I thought it was great being on the farm.

Did your kids help you guys on the farm?

Not till they was 12 years old.

I've got a son who's ready to run the combine next year.

I mean, he really does wanna run the auger wagon.

He's nine and he thinks it's time for him to take over

and honestly he can do it,

but as a responsible parent,

I don't think I can let my 9-year-old loose

in the auger cart.

But back in the day they would now it would be an issue.

And that's what you do on this road, yeah,

'cause you'll know everybody you pass.

But I think the farmer wave is the one finger wave.

Nashville's close to that.

Is it a different finger? - Yes.

I grew up here.

The house didn't look like that, my parents since remodeled,

but I think we moved here when I was like four,

so that's where my brother and I grew up

and where my mother still lives today.

The Barret home was filled with love

and Tara's brother Cory had a special love

for her from the day she was born.

The minute I brought her in, he adored her.

He would sit by her and he'd rock her

and he just adored her and always did.

Yeah, they were very close.

Yeah, I'm a farm girl, I'm a country girl.

Like I was around it my whole life.

Like we raised hogs when we were young.

We were in 4-H.

She enjoyed growing up on the farm,

but Tara never thought of a future as a full-time farmer.

And I was around it, but I wasn't interested in it.

It wasn't my thing.

I mean, I was pretty set on journalism, I liked that.

So it never even crossed my mind.

So there used to be a tractor factory here, like,

I don't know, the 1800 or something.

And that was the Hume tractor.

I think there's still one in existence somewhere.

My dad and my grandpa worked really hard

to get all this started and to be able to get enough ground

that you could make a living off of it.

We farm around 1400.

My dad farmed with my grandpa and his brother at one time.

And then finally my dad was able to buy

some of his own acreage.

So we're sitting here in front of my parents' 80 acres,

which my mom still owns.

And the rest of it is farm that we either rent

or share with the landlord.

So they own it, but we split everything 50-50.

Really farming's a Jared's background too.

His grandpa Cleo Duzan.

Cleo Duzan was also a central Illinois farmer.

He went on to become the chairman

of the United Grain Farmers of America.

In 1969, he helped lead a group of tractors

from Illinois to Washington DC to draw attention

to low prices farmers were getting,

He was very eccentric, loud, ornery,

but he was ingenuitive.

He was always trying to pioneer new ideas with farming,

grain dryers and different things

and sold patents to farm fans

and led a tractor drive out to Washington DC.

His first trial run someone told me was he drove a tractor

to Springfield to try it out, to do a test run.

Ran out of fuel about somewhere

between Decatur and Springfield.

Then we have six bins that we filled up this year.

A couple of 'em were soybeans, most of 'em were corn.

We mostly put back corn.

And Tara is hoping for another bin busting crop.

Our yields for corn and beans were really good this year.

Me personally, they were some of the best we've had.

So you're always trying different things every year

to boost your yield.

And since I'm new to this,

I kept things the same as my dad did 'em.

And every year I try to incorporate something

a little bit different.

So when I was in college,

I already knew that I wanted to stay in central Illinois.

I wanted to live here and raise my family here.

So my goal was to work at one of the local TV stations

and I wanted to be a reporter.

Tune in tomorrow at 5:30

for the River Region Evening Edition, have a great night.

My goal was to, that was gonna be my career.

Of course, we'll have more on this story tonight

on NewsCenter 17 at 10.

Reporting live in Foresyth, Tara Barrett, NewsCenter 17.

Well the first time I met Tara

was that she was a videographer and we were out on a story.

And that was the start of me watching Tara

progress through the industry of broadcasting.

Thought it was really cool

that there was a female photographer

because prior to that I hadn't worked with any.

She never had that air about her.

She never had that sense of I'm better than someone else

or I'm on TV.

So, no, it was always down to earth

and it was always a real genuine sense of connecting

with the audience.

It felt like she was talking to you.

NewsCenter 17's Tara Barrett joins us

from the House chambers in Springfield now.

Tara, what did you hear from people today?

You kind of knew that there was something special

about her that she wanted to do more,

that she was a good storyteller,

that she had the drive to do a little bit more.

So she just kind of worked her way up.

That's hard to do, it's really hard to express

oneself honestly, on television, and she did that very well.

NewsCenter 17's Tara Barrett joins us live now

to show you how this weather affects

those who drive for a living, Tara.

She became a very seasoned and good reporter.

And then from that she went on and became

a very popular anchor in the morning.

Good Wednesday morning, I'm Scot England.

And I'm Tara Barrett.

It is 6:00 AM and Greg Trumbold is in the house.

Did somebody say Tara Barrett?

The gang is all here.

2:00 AM was the morning wake up call for the news station.

I mean we were on air at five

so had to get there before that,

and I also had an hour drive.

Tara was, I'll say solid, just unflappable.

You know, she has a great sense of humor,

but trying to get her to bust up on air,

it's almost impossible,

you know, that's what I mean by solid.

I feel like I learned so much about the world really.

With Tara, what you see on TV is what she is off the air.

She is truly the girl next door

who happens to be a great TV news anchor.

I loved what I did.

I did like the rush of getting out

and getting a story and getting it back and getting on air.

I really loved the connection with people.

She was on TV for quite a few years.

Did you ever watch her.

Every day if I could.

And the days I missed I had to ask some people questions

what she said and everything.

It was always tough to get Tara

to get into this silly stuff

because you know that wasn't her, her work persona.

In July of 2009, I visited with Tara's mom and dad.

'Cause we're looking for a picture

of Tara Barrett when she was young.

Well I think we'd probably come up with one.

We'll go inside and see.

Okay.

It was an exciting time for her parents

as they celebrated her brother Cory

finally joining the family's farm operation full time.

But yeah, of course you remember it

'cause you know, we'd planned forever.

He was 32 and we'd waited so long

to bring him into farming with us

'cause you just can't snap 'em into farming.

With her brother ready to help her father

on the farm, Tara continued anchoring the morning show.

She was also busy planning for her wedding

that was just a month away.

We dated for 10 years before we got married.

Really?

Yeah, we weren't in a hurry for some reason.

My son Cory was gonna come in with us farming

and actually it was his first day

that he actually was gonna farm with us full time.

But on Cory's first day,

the lives of the entire Barrett family were changed forever.

Things all kind of changed

when Tara's brother Cory got killed,

I lost him in a motorcycle accident, yeah.

This is my brother's motorcycle.

My mom had it redone

and we've just kept it so not sure what,

we don't have any plans for it.

We've just kept it,

'cause again, we didn't have the heart to get rid of it.

Tara was getting married at the end of the next month

and we decided, Tara's like, let's just call it off mom.

And I'm like, no we're not.

I said, Cory wouldn't want you to do that.

And one month after her brother's death,

Tara's wedding did go on.

Tara and Jared's wedding day was a joyful celebration.

One that was needed after a month of unbearable sadness.

When we worked with Tara,

she had some pretty good highs in her life.

She had some really low points in her life

with family stuff, you know, life and death type of stuff.

And like through the whole thing, you know, steady Tara,

like her composure and her strength and like moral fiber.

She's just such a solid person.

So funny story, I went to the elevator

and I went inside to talk to the lady that runs it,

and I left my gloves in there.

And she called me the next day and she's like,

I'm pretty sure it was you that left your gloves

because I'm not sure

who else would've left your sparkly little gloves.

I'm like, yep, those are mine, those are my farming gloves.

I would say our average for corn

is around 200 bushels an acre.

And for beans it's around 60.

But this year it was a little bit higher

and we had corn up in depending on the field,

could be 220, 225, 230,

and then like to see beans at 70.

So see 65, 70, but on an average

probably 60 and 200.

Probably got like two minutes.

The one day I heard and she announced

that she was going back to the farm

and I says, you're doing what?

2011, I was pregnant with my first child

and my brother had passed away a couple years before that

and he helped my dad on the farm.

Ron Barrett's dream

of passing the family farm operation onto his son

would not happen.

But then he came up with a surprising proposal.

He came to me and asked me if I would be interested

in coming to help him,

and then I would have downtime to stay home with my daughter

and to kind of make my own schedule.

So that sounded appealing to me.

Once you have a baby, you're like, well yeah,

I wanna stay with him as much as I can.

The only time she's cried is when we change her diaper

or give her a bath.

And you were in labor how long?

A long time, about 17 hours.

Wow.

You know, every parent always says

you'll never love someone like when you have a child

and you can't describe

that feeling until you do have a child.

And that's really true.

And I remember when I was told

and she told me that she was going to go back to the farm

and I thought being a farmer myself and I know the passion

and the love of the farm

and I thought this is very interesting

for what she's going to go do.

It has been fun, we got the whole group

in the house, Greg Trumbold.

Hey, you know what I mean?

Okay, we've had some, you know Scot England is back

which is good news news.

Tara babe, Tara Barrett.

Tara babe.

Had her baby, you know, yay, and now she's back.

Actually I believe I went on maternity leave

and then just told 'em I wasn't coming back.

You even made me a cake that said Welcome back and goodbye.

Welcome back crossed out.

Yeah, and I got it to the checkout

and they said, did they mess up?

And I said, no, that's the way I ordered it.

That's funny.

Welcome back Tara.

Who would think that you would have such a career change

from what we do following the news, you know, wearing suits

and makeup to going to the farm field

to wake up at the crack of dawn.

I've never heard of this,

I've never heard of someone going from the news desk

to the tractor seat.

But there was something else I think

that was working on Tara, was love

and I think it was love for her family to go back

and work with her father

and her mother side by side on a daily basis.

Good morning and thanks for joining us, I'm Tara Barrett.

And I'm Scot England at 6:30 on a Friday morning

as we say goodbye to our friend Tara Barrett.

That's the last time I'll say that.

It was a little surprising at first

that she gave up her TV job to come back.

To take on the responsibility when her brother couldn't,

it just showed how important family is to her.

So I had her in April

and then got to spend the summer home with her.

And then when we started getting closer to harvest,

I started coming over here

and I actually thought I was gonna be like working on books

or doing things in an office

and I was getting trucks ready for harvest

and learning how to change oil and airing up tires

and greasing zerks and learning all kinds of stuff.

Gene Barrett is what it says.

So this was originally my grandpa's.

This is an international load star 1600,

I think it was from 1969.

And I was not even a dream yet.

We'd get our chemicals

and then I'd have to fill that big tank up with water.

And then we did our own mixing,

which saved you a lot of money, but.

We know we had a wooden ladder to get up and down

in the back and sometimes it wouldn't start.

So nowadays we have a tank so we're moving up in the world.

I must have just used it for one year

and the last sticker's 2011,

and that's when I started.

After I left the TV station, I was kind of a hired hand

and just did whatever he told me to do.

And so this is the truck I would drive over

to the fertilizer plant to get chemicals.

He taught her and he expected her to do it too.

You know, he expected her to grease that combine

and do these things, you know, that you do.

He didn't give her any slack 'cause she was female.

I helped my dad for several years on the farm,

but I by no means knew that I knew it all

'cause I knew I did not.

I just kind of did what he told me to do

and he took care of everything else.

So as far as like there's just so much

that goes into it that you don't know until you are in it

and you are running it between chemicals and fertilizer

and seed selection and working with farm managers at banks

and landlords and the bookwork.

I mean your an accountant too.

She decided to leave a very successful career

in broadcasting and had a future she'd put in her time

and she left it to go back to the farm.

To go from wearing a suit every day

to I mean jeans and a hoodie, it's my typical attire,

I didn't know all the specific things he did

throughout the year.

In my mind it was like, come help at harvest,

come help at planting, mowing in the summer,

got to spend a lot of time with my kids in the winter.

So it was, farming was easy,

but when you're the one doing it

and making all the decisions, you realize it's year round

and there are constantly decisions to be made.

So this is our seed notebook.

So I just kind of draw out a map of all our fields

just to have a visual and write down how many bags

of what variety we need and where we're gonna put it.

Yeah, this just helps me keep track.

I like to be able to see it on paper.

The market's had a pretty big spike last week

because we hadn't had any rain.

It's been so dry, so prices were really good.

So I did do some forward selling for fall

and then I still had some corn at the elevator that I sold.

June corn cash price anyways for our local elevator is 5.51,

which it was over $6 when I sold some last week.

And soybeans cash price right now is $14.78.

So that's great, but I don't have any beans to sell.

We ended up getting a new bean platform

because we had so many problems.

I mean I barely made it through harvest

with that bean platform.

It was a big headache.

In her quiet moments,

Tara might have wondered if she had made the right choice

in giving up her television news career.

Her father never had any doubt that he was doing

what he was meant to do.

He just loved being a farmer, his dad too.

He made her work.

Yeah, sometimes she's come in, she'd say, I can't believe

he just doesn't give me a break mom.

I'm like, you know him, he won't.

She just wanted to be on the farm I guess.

I really didn't want her to

and I didn't want her to be a farmer

and I was so much against it.

You had a a decision in your life about

four and a half years ago?

Yeah, my brother passed away as you know

and then short time later I had my first baby

and my dad needed help so I decided it was the best fit

for my life at the time.

But you know, we're adjusting and I love working

and seeing my parents every day.

Yeah, sometimes when I say, oh I farm now, people say,

you do, like you actually are on a tractor?

I'm like, yep, I'm really in the tractor.

Ron Barrett loved having his daughter

helping on the farm.

And when Tara's son was born, Ron's love grew even more.

He was his buddy.

Him and my son were best friends.

When Tara had Colton, kind of replaced

some of losing his son a little bit.

So he kind of kind of gotten with Colton

and yeah, they were buddies, they were buddies.

You know, he was a farmer right there with him.

Rode with him all the time.

So I think his dream eventually was to have Jared

and Colton farming together.

And that's been our dream all along is to keep things going

'cause we have a son that wants to farm.

Our plan is to hopefully keep it in the family.

I mean that's what we would like.

My son loves tractors, loves farming.

And he imitated everything Ron did.

He said, 'cause Ron would stand a lot

with his hands like this and there'd be Colton

and standing right beside me with his hands like this.

My dad always encouraged me to,

you need to get in the combine and ride with me sometime

and learn how to do all this

because what if I got sick or something happened.

And then I was like, oh yeah, yeah.

And you know, we'll do it sometime, we'll do it sometime.

Like I'll hop in there sometime.

And I never did.

As Ron Barrett planned for his next year,

he spent his free time on a new building project.

He built what we called the new shed

that has a concrete floor and a bathroom,

something he hadn't had before.

So he was really excited to finally, to be able

to work in the wintertime.

It would be one last gift to his daughter.

Unfortunately, he built this

and he only got to have one winter in it

to be able to work on stuff.

So I guess in my heart I try to think of it

as that he built it for me.

He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January.

My dad was sick for six months.

So when it came to planting and spraying

as we progressed through those months,

he got worse and worse.

So it got to a point where

I was helping him get into the sprayer.

I was loading everything because he couldn't lift anything.

He was so sick from the very beginning.

When it came planting time, Tara and I had to lift him up,

push him up into his planter tractor.

He's a tough guy, it was not good.

My mom was having to come out, and he was on a feeding tube.

He couldn't eat and she would feed him in his feeding tube

in the tractor.

I've been a registered nurse forever,

so I kept him at home and I could do all his treatments.

So he did get to stay home on his farm.

We knew that it was stage four cancer

and that he had a very short time.

He was like, well I'm gonna try to make it to harvest,

you know, and at that point I was obvious

that wasn't going to happen.

Like riding in a sprayer's pretty bumpy,

and he was in a lot of pain and he just pushed through

because in his mind you have only so much time,

you had to go on the ground, you had to get that done.

So he got it done.

He wanted to make sure we had a full crop

and everything was paid for on it.

So that's what he did.

But we did get to our last field,

it's not a square field, it's oddly shaped.

And he said, I can't do it anymore.

I'm just in too much pain.

He said, do you think you could spray this field?

And I was like, no, I can't.

Like, I have no idea, I mean I'm riding with you,

but I don't know what I'm doing.

I told him, I'm sorry I can't.

So he finished spraying it and we came home

and I helped him out and we drove him in a golf cart home

and he really was bedridden after that

And just went downhill from there.

And he passed away in July.

What was that like for you

when dad got sick?

Oh, my heart was broken.

I never missed anybody so bad my life.

He never complained.

And I know he was in a lot of pain and he never complained.

The only time he broke down was when Colton

had just been here and he said,

"I won't get to see Colton grow up."

And that's the only time he broke down, yeah.

He was his buddy.

And he wants everything he had, you know,

like his sunglasses and his wallet and he wanted all that

and I mean he just treasures that stuff,

a work shirt or whatever.

Oh he really, yeah, he really misses him.

It is kind of a rough card that she was dealt.

It was really scary and it was really stressful.

And to lose him it was like, you know, we have 1600 acres

of crop to get outta the field.

So she hopped in the combine.

I would run the auger wagon.

He got the crop in that spring.

And then I took over by myself harvest

that first harvest of 2018.

Ron passed away in July.

So obviously we've got the crop in the ground,

gonna have to do something with it in the fall.

And it all landed on Tara.

Three people helped us haul.

I called them the apple dumpling gang.

But we got her out.

Especially in a small town

where everybody knows everybody,

people would immediately ask like,

what are you guys gonna do at the farm?

And I was like, well I'm taking it over.

Like I remember telling people that at the visitation,

like I'm taking it over

even though I wasn't sure that I could do that.

I just was saying that

'cause I wanted to, I was going to try to.

Put in a very difficult situation

when the person that's taught you everything you know

is all of a sudden not there anymore to help you

and can't ask 'em a question or anything,

and so very tough situation for her.

We have three different farm managers.

So I called all of those farm managers right away

and told 'em what happened

and that we wanted to continue farming.

When her dad passed away, she took over

and oh my, I prayed and prayed 'cause I thought,

oh she don't realize what she's getting into.

Spent half a day or more in the DMV

getting titles switched over on trucks

and figuring out, working things out with my mom

on how I'm gonna buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth

of equipment and will anyone loan me money

because I don't have any collateral besides my house.

She got things organized and she kinda understood

anyways the way Ron run everything.

Yeah, I went a couple of different directions

trying to find someone who will loan me

a quarter of a million dollars.

'cause I said, how in world did you run that combine?

She said, I got a book and studied it.

When she took that over, she worked

and worked and studied and studied.

I for one was so proud of her.

It's scary to get into a big piece of equipment.

Like now it seems like nothing to get in that sprayer

and back it outta the shed.

But if you've never been in it, you're looking at this

or the combine, you know, you're looking at these huge

pieces of equipment like I'm gonna back that outta the shed

without hitting it on something or it's really intimidating.

And then you get in there and there's 500 buttons

It's really hard for anybody man or a woman.

Yeah, when the grain, big grain trucks got stuck

and she said, let me go get the backhoe outta the shed

and I'll get it out.

I'm thinking good god, how many women could go do that?

I wouldn't know what to turn.

But yeah, we got the backhoe and pulled her out.

So scared that I'm just gonna have all these farmers

in the area looking at me,

oh she didn't know what she was doing,

she's doing that wrong, she's doing this wrong.

Her grandpa now he'd be rolling

that a woman's taking over the farm operation.

This is my dad's truck, my mom gave it to me.

So it's a 2011 Chevy Silverado.

I thought I'd try to save it for Colton

but I don't know, I think it's got like 260,000 miles on it

And I'm quite a Christian

and I prayed for her every night.

So I started in 2011 and he passed away in 2018.

You know, it sounds like a lot of time to be on the farm

so you would've learned a lot.

However, I had never thought about taking over the farm.

I didn't learn how to run the combine

and I had no idea what he did in his office

I knew the basics, I knew how to drive the trucks,

I knew how to haul the grain in and clean out the bins.

When it got into taking it over,

I realized how much I didn't know.

His plan he kind of had a plan for us,

he's like, you'll never be able

to farm all of this by yourself.

He's like, it's just too much.

But I think maybe between the two

of you you could do half of it.

And you know, in my mind I'm like

well I'm gonna try for it all.

Like we're gonna try it, we're gonna do it.

When he got sick he asked that,

I made sure I kind of kept an eye on Tara to help her out

with whatever she needed.

You know, she kind of got dealt

into the full operations mode

and it is a lot different from when you're just helping

versus making all the decisions.

My dad had a lot of faith in me,

like I don't think he would've asked me

to come help him if he didn't think I could learn

and do things.

You know, I wasn't even sure I could do it all either,

but I wanted to try 'cause I wasn't willing to give up

what my grandpa and my dad for years had worked hard to get

and to keep farming for all these years.

And I have a son who wants to farm

so my goal was to pour everything I had into it

to try to at least give it a run

and see if I could handle it.

She was there for Ron when he really needed it

and that's what counts.

Because at first I felt kind of alone

and then the more you talk to people you would say,

you know, oh so and so, she runs the combine,

and so it made it easier

for me to think,

okay, I can do this,

'cause I mean I was really scared

and unsure even though I said yes I am going to do it,

I wasn't sure how.

And the memories that she made with her dad

in a short period of time that she was with him

before he died, she'll take those the rest of her life

because in that atmosphere of being a farmer,

they had it all together

and they had the joy of working together.

I have found women online showing them

with their kids in the tractor with 'em

and you know how it's a family operation

and they show you their daily lives and what they're doing.

So I think that's been great of really showcasing

women on the farm and women in agriculture.

You know, I have a lot of friends that are farmers

and I feel like everybody's been really supportive.

Even my dad's friends that he worked with around here,

they've been very supportive

and I think just about anybody would answer my questions

or help me out if I needed.

At the beginning of all this I said I think I wanna try

to take over the farm and do it by myself.

And I said, do you think I can do it?

And he said, yeah sure.

He said, I think it's gonna be kind of like drinking

from a fire hose but I think you can do it.

That's right, drinking from the fire hose, that's right.

I was like, what's that mean?

And he is not wrong, it is, I mean it's overwhelming

Because she had a lot of information

coming at her pretty quick that she was having to process

and make decisions on.

Because there was so much I did not know,

like a lot that I did not know.

Where they're buried at, my son and my husband

in Young America Cemetery, there's are tombstones

that is right on the edge of our farm.

I think he would be, I don't know, surprised

but not surprised, you know what I mean?

Like I know he'd be proud.

Can you tell me about your tattoo?

I've got two of them.

I have my dad's signature and my brother's signature.

I guess what started me wanting

to get the one for my brother,

I was just really having a hard time with it

and I had a necklace of his that I wore all the time

and I guess I wanted something permanent of him

to be with me all the time.

He had really beautiful like calligraphy type handwriting

and I just loved his signature so that's why I got that.

And then of course with my dad, since I have that,

I wanted his signature too.

Are you interviewing?

Yeah.

Oh I thought mom better come down and check on you.

This is my landlord.

She's the one that helped me keep on farming.

Since I took over for my dad

I've had really good years

so I guess the first year I started prices were pretty bad

but I quickly got into some good times.

So I've been pretty fortunate.

I've never written out so many bills in my life

until I took over the farm

'cause there's just a lot of different things to pay.

I feel like in farming you could worry every day year round,

but I guess I try not to worry until something's happening

at that time

and deal with the issue as it unfolds.

So here's my minimum payment due

for chemicals and fertilizer, $111,450.

But it's due by June 15th so I gotta pay the full amount.

So the first time I wrote a check like that,

I was like, I'm not even sure how to fit

all the numbers when you write 'em out.

Like gotta write really small.

My dad was very organized and meticulous.

I didn't get that gene so I'm not as organized

and meticulous.

He would probably go nuts if he saw how I stay organized

or don't.

I use Farm Credit.

They have a program for young and beginning farmers

that's a really great program,

and that's who I got my loan through when I first started,

because when you don't have a lot of collateral,

not a lot of people want to give you $350,000.

They also have educational classes that you go to.

So I have gone to all their classes.

The end of July Callie will start her school softball

and they'll play all through August beginning of September

and then she goes right into basketball

and then that goes until November

and she's got a couple weeks off and then volleyball starts.

Tara's family and farming schedule

are both jam packed.

But after years of farming on her own,

this year she finally got some major help

when her husband Jared joined her full-time.

Because at the time Jared too had a full-time job

outside of this, so he was able to help when he could,

but he more would take off for planting

to help during planting time.

And then I have a couple guys that I hire

to help for harvest.

He's making fun of me for using my hands when I talk.

I didn't even know I did it.

I'm sure there's other things you don't even know you do

until you watch yourself.

My dad actually had said Jared should never quit his job

because it's guaranteed pay.

You know what you're making job security, benefits

and when he's not doing that you're gonna have to find

your own insurance, your income's gonna

drop significantly.

And then when Jared was gonna work with her, I thought,

oh my gosh, this is terrible.

Her dad was the same way.

He did not want me to leave Ameren

but this was more important to me.

Ameren was just a job, it was paid good, it was just a job.

I wanted to keep this for more generations.

He had worked at Ameren for about 15 years.

He was in the gas department, he was a welder

He would help me on his after work time.

I never had liked working inside.

Every job I've had, I've been outside working.

He'd work his full-time job and then come here

and have a honey do list of you know, repairs.

Mechanics is not my strong suit.

So you know, he takes care of all that.

And I said Tara, you gonna let Jared run the combine?

She said no.

And I said, you're not giving up that queen seat.

And she said nope.

Something had to give between working full time

and farming more.

Sometimes a scary decision

ends up being the best decision.

So I just decided to jump and say let's do it.

So far so good.

I mean I probably won't even use it all.

I'll probably go... just stop.

It's not fun and games!

See I gotta whip him to get him to work right.

While Tara is quite comfortable

with a documentary crew filming her every move,

her husband is not.

Hello?

Yes.

You want a friend to ride with you?

Do I?

Yeah

I got Kylie with camera ready for you.

I don't want that.

It's your time to shine, sweetheart.

I don't want that at all.

You'll will be fine.

I don't know.

All right, bye.

What a baby.

I got here at 6:30,

but it was a little wet so I couldn't start.

Moisture in the ground

caused the corn stalks to pull outta the ground

and it gets plugged up and you drag a bunch of the trash up.

Yeah, I'll show you in a second.

Oh shoot, that's the problem with it gettin' wet.

To be able to spray your own,

you have to have a private applicator license

in the state of Illinois.

So Jared and I go and take a test.

So we both have our license.

I mean even if you're handling

chemicals you have to have your license.

So I'd like to get 40 more acres done, it's four o'clock.

I need to leave my house at five,

which we're 20 minutes from here.

So may have Jerod go get Colton

and get him to have to be there early to warm up

and I'll finish spraying and I may just go

straight to the game.

Tara's day will end almost 17 hours

after it began long before sunrise.

My son has a baseball game at six

and my daughter has a track awards banquet at six

in two different towns and then my daughter

has a softball game at eight o'clock,

we have someone taking her to the awards banquet

so we can go to the baseball game 'cause Jared helps coach.

When we get done with the baseball game,

we'll go to the softball game.

So we should get home like 10:30 probably tonight.

I've got dinner in the crock pot

and hopefully we'll have enough time

to eat when we get done spraying.

Gotta get home and feed them and get 'em in their uniforms

and run out the door so we can get where they need to go.

Over the years the small farmer is endangered.

It's on the endangered list.

There's a lot of big farmers, big corporations

and not a lot of small farmers left.

So I think the ones that are left are working really hard

to keep their small farms in their family

and keep them going to the next generation.

Normally there wouldn't be seed in there

'cause I haven't opened anything up.

Leftovers dumped on my head.

I'll be finding that all night.

Yeah, right together.

Addie's mom's taking her to the game

so I don't have to leave early

'cause she has an awards banquet

so I can stay for your whole game.

Almost forgot to give the cat it's diabetes shot.

So one of our beloved cats has diabetes unfortunately.

So we have to do insulin shots in the morning and at night.

You try to get 'em 12 hours apart.

When we know we're gonna be home late,

sometimes we have to give it to 'em a little early

and you know, schedule's kind of hectic

so it's like I knew I'd immediately like oh no

I have to give the cat a shot so I had to run back in.

All right off to the ballpark.

You know you get nervous when you have

80 mile an hour winds and torrential rainfall.

We've been talking about this backward C-shape.

Never a pretty scenario

because as the storms race out very indicative

of wind damages scenario.

We had a tree that fell on our house,

it had hailed earlier that morning

so we had some hail damage.

Tuscola had tennis ball size hail.

I'm just glad it's standing, I guess I should say that.

I'm thankful that it's just the door

because I don't this shed's, I don't even know,

70 years old I'm guessing.

So no power since one o'clock yesterday probably.

I'd heard up to 90 mile an hour winds

and they stretched out across central Illinois.

So it was widespread damage in our area.

So thousands of people without power.

We have a generator I picked up yesterday

and we have our refrigerators and our freezers

and then we've got another cord to plug our phones

and we're able to get the water heater plugged in

so we could shower.

We're told it might be a couple days

so might be without power for a while.

All the little towns around here,

there's just trees down everywhere.

And on my way back from Champaign, saw some corn down,

not completely down, hopefully it's not snapped

and it'll pop back up.

If it snaps, it's done for.

Our power was out for around three days

and some people were four or five

so we were one of the lucky ones.

Let's see what the sign says.

"We are closed due to power outage, thank you."

I guess she'll call us back.

We're out in the country so I always expect it to be longer

than everybody else,

but the crops we did not have any damage, thankfully.

I really don't know how with that strong of winds

but we got through unscathed.

Let's go Callie.

Go Callie.

Go, Callie!

I just have to keep score and keep track of the balls

and the strikes and the outs.

It's pretty easy, you just have to pay attention.

Good job, Callie.

I have to yell to encourage her if she gets into a slump

and little reminders or maybe she doesn't want me to.

Maybe I should be quiet I dunno.

Good job, you got it Callie.

And I'm also running the concession stand.

Hey I was just looking at the markets,

it's $13.08 for beans for fall,

so I thought I might sell like another two or 3000 bushels.

Okay.

But Tara is concerned about her combine

making it through another harvest.

Typically you put about $10,000 a year into 'em,

then you're looking at buying a new one.

Gotta weigh out how much money

am I gonna be putting into this versus upgrading,

getting one with less hours on it,

which is what we're looking at doing.

I don't want to get a different combine,

I'm kind of emotionally attached to the one I have

'cause it's my dad's.

That's part of the problem.

The other problem is making $40,000 a year payment

In an effort to get her mind on other things,

Tara takes a family vacation.

We went to the Red River Gorge area,

which is a pretty rural area.

It's a big place for hiking and kayaking

and just kind of outdoor nature type things.

So we went zip lining some of us.

I took a lot of pictures and a lot of videos

and remember that pond I was talking about that we swam in

my phone took a swim in that pond too.

But I did find someone who did scuba diving

and they came and looked for it

and they couldn't find it either.

Her time away was needed,

but when she returns to her farm,

Tara's thoughts immediately turn to the decision

she must make as soon as possible.

Should she replace her father's combine with a new one.

Like I said, I'm more emotionally attached to this,

you know, like my dad,

you know he's bought several combines over the years

but this was his last combine

and it was the one I learned in and I don't wanna let it go.

How much is that one?

713 grand. - Jeez.

Mommy's not gonna get that kinda combine.

The one we're looking at is about $220,000.

A brand new one, which we won't be looking at,

quite a bit more than that.

I mean it's over $200,000

and I'm looking at a trade-in of under $100,000.

So it's a big gap

and they probably don't have the sentimental value

I have on it.

I don't know, I feel like this is my combine.

It was my dad's combine and it's gonna be hard to let it go.

I can still remember him when he first got it sitting

in the cab and reading the book.

That's what he always was giving me the book.

You should read the book.

See it has been looked at so much the cover fell off.

That's how much I used it.

But I have my dad's notes in here that I keep

just little reminders like feeder house, drum up for corn,

down for beans, rotor speed, chopper speed,

still have my toilet paper in here.

When you're in the combine for 12 hours

you gotta go to the bathroom.

So thankfully the corn fields are tall.

Not just the fact that it's the cost of having to do it,

but you know, sentimental value to the combine your dad had

and you could tell that was the only thing holding 'em back.

They knew they had a trade

but that was the only thing kinda holding them back

from trading.

I'm like my dad in regards that I do get attached

to things and I don't like to get rid of things

and I like to save money.

But after months of reflection

and consideration in the end, Tara makes the decision

to sell her father's combine.

We're in the new combine.

I am glad we made the switch

because some of the problems we were having,

I haven't had to deal with.

So I had a friend

who said they had something they wanted to give me.

So whenever I found out I called over

to where they were trading in,

and asked if they would pull the the seat out.

And I had this little idea of making a chair for her.

When he brought it in I'm like, what is that?

He is like, it's your dad's chair from his combine.

And I was just blown away.

I was like, they took the seat out of the combine?

I did have to go to the Lori's Pins and Needles

to pick up some fabric.

And I think it's amazing.

So it's my new office chair.

Like I never even dreamed someone would,

I didn't think about doing something like that, you know?

And I don't know, it just really warmed my heart

that he even thought about that

and it's really special to me.

And I took our son to baseball practice at 5:30

and then I left there

because I went to a school board forum.

I'm on the local school board, so went to that.

She not only does the farm, she gets involved

with the school board and everything else.

I've been on the local school board for around six years.

Home of the Raiders.

So I'm a third generation school board member.

My grandpa was on the school board

when they built this school

and then my dad was on the school board for over a decade.

And then I've been on the school board for several years.

It's nice to know what goes on in the school district

and to help make the decisions.

'cause like obviously I care a lot about the district

and I wanna see our kids have a good education like I did.

So this is the original gym built with the school.

My mom and dad played sports here.

My brother and I played sports here,

and all went to school here,

kindergarten through 12th grade.

And now my kids are going to school here

playing sports here.

I spend a lot of time in this gym.

I enjoy being involved.

I mean if you ask me to help out with something,

I'll probably say yes.

I don't know, I'm not one to sit too still.

And I like to be involved,

I mean I like to be involved in my school district,

my community.

If I can help out, I will.

Farm life I think to most people

is your whole family's involved.

Even like my daughter doesn't necessarily

want to be involved in farming, but she does.

She may not wanna farm but she does come and ride with me

and she enjoys spending time with me in the combine

and you know, you're spending quality time with them

and they're learning and probably don't even know it.

This is a 4320.

It's been sitting in our old shed for quite some time.

Hasn't ran in many years.

But my mom helped my dad.

When we were younger, she was a stay at home mom

and helped my dad on the farm.

So the tractor that she hauled grain in all the time

hasn't ran for years.

And Jared and Colton fixed it up and got it going.

And just recently we had our small town of Hume

celebrated 150 years with a big festival

and Colton had the idea of, well why don't we put that

in the parade and I'll drive it.

So I thought that was pretty special

and it was all his idea.

So we're about halfway done with beans,

more than halfway of this field.

And then 160 acres south of town left.

Been going pretty smooth.

Haven't had any major problems out of the ordinary.

We've had some trouble with some guards breaking

on the bean platform.

Our trucks will haul to the bin, which isn't too far away

and then Colton will start the auger for 'em.

Climb up in the tractor outta school today.

So worked out perfect, they can just unload the truck

and he'll run the tractor.

He got to drive the combine a little bit the other day

and I let him dump on the go.

So he was excited about that.

He was a little nervous, but he did fine.

Honestly, it's probably been one of the smoothest harvest,

knock on wood that we've had so far.

So far it's been a great harvest.

We'll be working on this all day today and into tomorrow.

We can't get it done in one day, it's 125 acres.

So if you look like right now it says

my average productivity is 11.88 acres.

That's a little slower because I'm doing end rows right now.

So normally I can do about 13 acres in an hour.

My son had a football game yesterday,

which it was his last one and I sadly couldn't go.

Jared's one of the coaches,

so I had him go and just did without the auger wagon.

But you know, I'm my own boss so I could have taken

the afternoon off and went,

but I knew we had a field that we could get done

and keep us on a good schedule.

So, you know, I just had to make this decision to stay

and get it done.

And we did get it done so it was the right decision.

But it's just hard, I don't like to miss,

usually I get my crock-pot going in the morning

so that we have food when we get home,

'cause whether we're working in the field late

or if we're going to a ball game,

like we're not getting home

until 9:00, 9:30 or later every night.

So I have two retired guys

that have been with us for a while.

One guy's name is Kim and he's been with us.

He worked with my dad too.

And then Frank's been with us for,

I dunno, it's been a while now, maybe four years.

For whatever reason I've been really stressed today

and kind of down in the dumps.

Ideally I always set a goal to try to get done

before Halloween

and that usually works out,

so that way I can take my kids trick or treating

and you can just have it wrapped up before November,

but I don't think that's gonna happen this year.

Felt like we got our beans done in a good amount of time.

And then we got rained out for a whole weekend,

which thankfully we did get our beans done

before that big rain.

Saturday looks like maybe the biggest chance of rain,

but they're talking anywhere from an inch to two inches.

So that already tells me we're gonna get into November.

So anyways, the elevator closes at six

and I know everything's not gonna fend in that bin.

So I've been trying to like periodically send the truck

to town so that we could work past six

and try to finish this field and still have room in the bin.

So I've been doing a lot of math today.

I feel like trying to figure out how many bushels

are going to town,

how many bushels we're putting in the bin,

how many bushels are left in the field,

to try to make everything fit and finish it up

and take the auger down and close the bin

before it rains tomorrow and tie it up with a little bow.

So that was the goal for the day, so hopefully it happens.

'Cause I will say when it gets to this point in the season,

everyone starts getting tired, it's very repetitive work.

So if you lose your focus or you start getting in a hurry

'cause you wanna get done, that's when bad things happen.

It can be tough because I also have my kids at home

who are hungry and my crock-pot skills have been lacking

as we've gotten into the season.

You know, I'm all about it at the beginning.

I leave them sandwiches

or something in the crock-pot

so we can all eat when we come home.

And I'm not cooking at nine o'clock at night,

but that wanes off as the season goes on.

I've got friends picking Callie up from basketball practice

and I leave Colton some snacks for after school.

I've got taco meat and the crock-pots.

I did get that done this morning.

So a lot of teamwork, friends, grandmas,

the yields have been great beans and corn.

Actually the best yields I've seen for beans and corn

ever since I've been doing it.

So yeah, I think everyone's probably just getting

to the end of their rope.

We've been going, going, going

and when you're getting towards the end,

you're just getting tired of eating

the same thing all the time.

Getting tired of seeing the same thing all the time.

The exciting wears off after a while

'cause it is weird, like how tired you are.

Like to me this seems like I'm doing nothing.

I'm just sitting here all day long.

But it's to me tiring

because it's like you've been

on a long road trip or something,

even though you're just going back and forth in the fields.

We haven't been shut down,

like I think this is maybe the first year

that we haven't had to stop because of mechanical problem.

And then I think all the trick

or treating stuff's on Sunday,

So I mean either I'll be rained out

and I'll get to go to all that stuff

or I will be in the field and we'll finish harvest.

I don't know why this day has seemed long.

I still need to take my kids to get pumpkins.

I feel like the end of the month and Halloween

and all that has like completely snuck up on us.

When I was pregnant with Colton,

so that would've been 2013,

that was probably the latest harvest we had.

It was getting, I think it was after Veteran's Day

like so well into November, and I had him December 8th.

So there wasn't even a lot of time there.

Like I remember being towards the end of harvest,

like, oh we need to figure out a name for this child.

So I brown the hamburger in it

and then just let it keep on normal then.

So you might stir it up please.

And then I figured you could just get a bag of Doritos

or Fritos and make like a little taco in a bag.

Sound good?

Better than a peanut butter jelly.

Grandma got him a pumpkin pie so I had to get whipped cream,

but it sounds like he's just eating the whipped cream.

All right, I gotta go bud.

All right, I'll talk to you soon.

I think they're getting tired of it too.

She's done amazing things, she's learned a lot.

She's overcame a lot of things.

I'm proud of everything she's learned

and how she handles everything.

She does a really good job.

I always stop and take my annual picture.

This field butts right up to the cemetery

where my dad and my brother are buried

right next to each other.

So like, I'm glad they're right here.

I always like doing this field

'cause I feel like they're definitely with me.

When I'm going through here.

Even though I know they're with me all the time,

but they're literally like right up against the field.

And it is emotional, I mean.

Harvest is always kind of an emotional time for me really.

Well I always just stop and take a picture,

just kind of a reminder that they're with me

when I'm in this field.

Just makes me feel close to them.

Like I know they would both be really proud of me.

Yes, I couldn't be prouder

and people talk about her.

I grin from ear to ear.

And then the whole month of December

is in the office, period.

That's my focus, trying to do Christmas shopping

and get all my bookwork done.

At that time you're also ordering seed

for the next year already

if you want to get some of the bigger discounts,

like I had mine ordered in November of this year to plant.

For the landlords that she has or the farm partners

to stick with her,

to stick with her says something about them.

And then meeting with farm managers,

I also go and have meetings with them to renew a contract

to continue on for the next year,

'cause you don't wanna buy your seed

and make all these plans and then you're not farming it.

An owner of property wants continuity.

And I would say when they saw her come back

and then they saw her dad pass away,

there had to have been a bridge there that said

we want to stick with her.

We like what she's doing.

There was a confidence in there,

but I think hats off to the people that stuck with her

and I think probably it was a good decision for them.

Tara is thankful for those who stuck

by her over the last decade

and that loyalty paid off for everyone.

The farmer's daughter has proven she could handle

all the ground her father did.

And as she looks into the future,

she is hoping to expand her family's operation.

I mean, yeah, yeah.

We would be open to taking on more,

especially now that Jared's with me full time,

could definitely handle farming more so.

Yeah, and you always with farming have to be thinking

about the future.

So you know, Colton's gonna be 10 and at some point

the goal is to bring him into farming.

So you definitely wanna make sure you have enough ground

to have your family involved

so that everybody can make a living off of it.

All your inputs have gone up significantly,

so it was definitely a lot more expensive

to get your crop in the ground

and then to take care of it

as it was through the growing season.

But you guys are gonna make money from this year?

Yeah, we'll make money, yeah.

Family farms it's real important to keep it in the family

and let the generations just keep going.

Going to the next generation, that is my goal.

I have my grandpa, my dad, me,

and then I would like my son or daughter

and of course my son's nine

and he's already wanting to be part of it,

so I have no doubt he'll be ready to take it over.

Oh yeah, Colton, and oh my goodness.

He's all about farming, all about farming.

The essay say that Colton wrote,

Why Harvest is the Best.

Why Harvest is the Best by Colton Duzan.

Have you ever ridden in a combine or a grain truck?

Have you ever ridden in a combine grain truck?

These are important parts of harvest.

Harvest season is the best season.

Harvest season is the best season.

Harvest is fun because you get to drive equipment.

I can drive the combine and auger cart

I ride in the trucks if I want to help

unload the trucks in the bin.

During harvest,

I also get to have a lot of friends over

and I get to spend more time with family

And I get to spend more time with family.

Harvest season usually has a nice temperature

and it's usually cool.

Usually it's t-shirt weather or sweatshirt weather.

Some people might not like harvest season.

Some people might not like harvest season

because they might think it's dusty

and they might be allergic and may get annoyed.

In conclusion,

if you're riding a combine you will realize

it's fun and harvest season is the best season.

In conclusion if you go right in a combine,

you will realize it's fun

and harvest season is the best season.

I love, it just warms my heart that he loves it so much.

That's him, he's very passionate about farming.

He enjoys it.

It's not something that's taught to him,

it was the love for farming was already in in him, you know?

And I don't know if it's from the time he spent with my dad,

I think he was four when my dad passed away.

So they did spend so much time together.

He was this little right hand man.

It just makes me so happy that he loves it so much

and he is so passionate about it.

He could probably farm it now.

I mean, he's that engaged in farming.

So he will be seven generations.

She's full of character, you know,

she's I guess a Midwestern stereotype of strong character,

hard work, determination.

She probably embodies what agriculture

is about in a community.

A young person has come back that raising her family

and I think that's why she left a very good career

in broadcasting to go back maybe to the farm

to get those values that she has looked for

and has been able to do for well over 10 years now.

She's a seasoned farmer.

Oh I, I'm just so proud of her, of course.

She's just got good ethics and morals,

so I had no doubt she'd be fine.

Tells you a little bit about her character

and about her adjustability

and about her willingness to make that farm a success.

How was it having a camera crew

follow you around for a year?

Oh, it was strange, I think at first,

I'll be honest, I really dreaded it.

There's something about being the interviewee

instead of the interviewer.

I much prefer that position than just being on camera.

I mean, I was younger and thinner

and life was just a little different

when I was an anchor before.

Now I'm over 40 and have two kids and a lot more stress

and I just really didn't wanna be on camera, but here I am,

I'd say when she's either sweating, scooping a grain bin

or something that's pretty rough,

it's hard to think that a news anchor would be doing that.

But shows that I guess you can do about anything,

put your mind to it.

She is running a business,

probably a multimillion dollar business.

It's the biggest thing I think I've learned from her

is to like the ups and downs that life throws you.

You know that that people of character make it through

and come out the other side and survive

and thrive and she's thrived.

What would they think of you farming this year?

I mean, I always think that my dad

would probably be really surprised.

Like I don't think he probably would doubt I could do it,

but I think he would be surprised that I'm doing it all.

For years I have had the title in my mind.

And then you didn't find out until you saw the trailer?

When I saw the title, it reminded me, I have a shirt

from when I was young that says Farmer's Daughter on it.

I was probably one or two years old.

It's got my name on the back

and this the only piece of clothing that I have.

That shirt is how many years old?

I'll be 43 so you know

The Farmer's Daughter, it was meant to be.

I guess that's just crazy.

♪ "What for?" ♪

♪ "They're just gonna' leave you stranded on the shore." ♪

♪ "You better get it right, hurry up." ♪

♪ "It's good but it's not good enough." ♪

♪ "Just do your best and push ahead but what for?" ♪