Iowa State’s Angela Johnson makes the three-hour drive to Clarinda every other weekend. It’s become routine by now, a necessary one.

“I go home because it’s a mixture of — I want to; I need to; they need me to and I don’t like to stay [at ISU],” said Johnson, who works on her family farm when she’s home.

The desire to farm drives some students, like Johnson, to go home regularly, especially during the busy fall harvest season.

Students with farm backgrounds are often expected to go home and help during harvest, said Ron Dieter, undergraduate advising coordinator for the economics department.

Dieter sees a potentially negative impact on the students’ academic and social lives when they are working and traveling all weekend, underscoring the need for good time-management skills.

“Students who are working are very responsible. They know that being a student is a full-time job,” Dieter said. “They are self-motivated, aggressive, enthusiastic and they know they need to get the job done.”

Dieter said students who plan to farm after graduation have a preoccupation and a greater sense of urgency to graduate from ISU in a timely manner than those who do not.

Family’s hired hand

Johnson, a freshman in animal science pre-veterinary medicine, lives on a 200-acre part-time family farm. She rents 120 acres of pasture for her 13 cows and two bulls.

“We rely on every member of the family,” she said.

Johnson said she is the family’s hired hand. Harvest time found her driving the grain wagon to the grain bin or local co-op. She also ran errands to get machine parts or lunches.

As part-time farmers, Johnson said the worst part of the weekend is that her family can’t get everything done. She works about 14 hours per weekend.

“I feel like I leave home with things left unaccomplished,” Johnson said.

She said she doesn’t get a lot of homework done on weekends but will take a book with her to read while waiting in the truck.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to farm, but I want to live in a farming community,” Johnson said. “It’s part of my heritage, and I want to pass it along.”

40- to 50-hour weekends

Ash Kading, a junior in agricultural business, went home to Casey nearly every weekend this fall. Without class on Friday or Monday, he leaves Thursday afternoon on the hour-and-a-half drive and returns Sunday or Monday night. He works 40 to 50 hours during harvest weekends.

Kading works on a family farm, which includes more than 5,000 acres (one square mile has 640 acres) of corn and soybeans.

He likes working at home with his dad and he gets paid for farming.

“It’s kind of fun,” he said. “It’s the only job I’ve really ever enjoyed.”

Kading’s day begins at 7 a.m. and doesn’t end until midnight.

Throughout the day, Kading either sits in the combine, which only goes 4 mph, or the grain truck, which waits to be filled. As he listens to country music, he said he is also alert to the sounds of the machines for any problems that may arise.

“You get to grow something and see the result of your work,” Kading said. “You get to see it as it grows.”

Enjoys the land

Charity Winterboer, a junior in agricultural studies, also travels more than three hours to Everly almost every weekend. She leaves Friday morning and returns early Monday morning.

The Winterboers own a family farm with 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans, 200 heads of cattle and 50 hogs. Winterboer rents her own 35 acres, which keeps her busy.

She said she has no regrets about going home.

“I go home because I want to, and because I love the farm,” Winterboer said. “My parents like me to come home, but they want to make sure that I want to come home because they know it affects my studies.”

She hauls grain to the elevator for storage three to five times a day. The wait in line at the elevator to unload the grain can be up to two hours. The time is spent socializing with other farmers.

“It’s pretty cool to see how the crops grow all year and then see how it goes through a machine and comes out as a seed,” Winterboer said. “I enjoy working outside but still having interaction with people and enjoying the land.”

Farming takes away two of the three days that could be spent seeing her fiance, who does not attend ISU.

“My fiance and I plan on going back to my parents’ farm and farming with my dad,” Winterboer said.

Among her peers in the agricultural studies department, Winterboer said it’s common for students to go home at least every other weekend to help with family farms.

Though Johnson, Kading and Winterboer are involved with a several campus activities, they do miss out on the weekend social life.

“I miss out on not getting to be at ISU for the fun things that go on,” Kading said. “You don’t get to go to as many football games as you would have.”

But all three said time on the farm is time well spent.

“Farming isn’t a punch-the-clock thing,” Johnson said. “I like to be outside in the open space, out in the sun and wind. It’s a freedom for me.”