Of all the seasons, his favorite is fall.
and summer is over, for another year, along with much of the worry. That’s when the air feels “cooler and nicer” and the harvest wind often gives him a gift – a sweet, earthy smell he knows well after more than
“The smell of corn – corn drying in the bins – that’s definitely a good smell.”
It’s a cold winter’s day as Mark Haskins tells his story, inside an Italian restaurant he likes in south Lincoln, not far from the Nebraska Farm Bureau headquarters. He wears overalls and a plaid shirt. He smiles, sets his fork down on the plate and pauses a moment …
As if feeling that fall wind again.
“I do like the fall because it’s also about getting results. It’s when the results come in.”
Mark owns the farm where he grew up near Doniphan, in the south-central part of the state. It’s half a section of good, irrigated land just a mile south and a little east of the town’s only stoplight.
He bought the farm from his parents when he was a young man, back in the ‘80s, after returning from college. He was lucky. It was a good time to buy. Land prices were low. His dad, a good teacher by nature, was at a point in his life when he was ready to slow down yet was happy to stay around to help guide him. Neither his younger brother nor sister wanted to farm.
Despite a few lean and painful years, he was able to pay off the farm in 25 years.
“Some people might ask why I stuck with a career that didn’t pay very well along the way. But I guess I like the feeling of knowing I’d be owning a farm eventually. Even when I was just halfway there – I was halfway there! That always gave me a good feeling.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but I realize it now – I had a wind at my back.”
A few years ago, around his 40th anniversary of farming, Mark noticed that he was starting to slow down himself. He decided to rent his land to a young neighbor couple.
Now in his 60s, he knows this is the fall of his life, he says, a time of transition. Slowing down. Looking back.
It’s a good season, he says, to give back.
Mark, a longtime active member of Nebraska Farm Bureau, recently made a blended-gift pledge to the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation – giving a gift now, of soybeans, and giving a gift later through his will.
Why? Because, he says, he’s seen the Foundation’s results.
He hopes that telling his story now may inspire people like him to consider giving back, too.
“You can see how an ordinary person like me can help a little bit.”
That’s what he saw his parents do. He’s grateful for their example. They’re a big reason he gives back.
They were a generous couple, he says. They showed it by their actions, instead of words. They gave to their church and to other non-profits and charities over the years. His dad was not a gregarious guy, but he believed in the power of organizations, so he joined the Nebraska Farm Bureau.
“When I was a little kid, I’d go to the Farm Bureau picnics and run in the sack races and all that.”
Mark likes the grassroots philosophy of the Farm Bureau – each member gets a vote on new policy. He is active in the policy process, and serves on the Hall County Farm Bureau board of directors.
He’s watched the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation take root and grow from its beginning more than a decade ago. He believes in the Foundation’s mission to support agricultural literacy programs for all people throughout the state. He likes how it focuses on school kids, helping them, directly and through their teachers, understand where their food comes from.
Supporting the K-12 teachers of the state, providing materials and connecting schoolkids with farmers like him are effective ways to help kids grow into adults who value a strong ag economy.
He likes to think about the future of agriculture. For more than 20 years, he also volunteered for Hall County’s Regional Planning Commission, serving as a strong voice for agriculture, in zoning issues, to preserve the quality of farm life.
One of Mark’s favorite Foundation programs is its Ag Pen Pal Program, which connects farmers and ranchers like him with students. Each year the program reaches more than 5,000 students.
He chuckles.
“From my friends who were pen pals, I just got the idea that most of the kids, that they just barely realized how all of this stuff is happening outdoors. They had the idea that food just comes to them from a town or a store. I don’t blame them. They were young kids.”
Giving back to the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation, he says, is like giving a gift to the future of the state’s ag economy, by focusing on the generations to come.
“It makes me feel good that I’m able to try and improve something in the future,” he says. “I like the fact that the foundation is providing those kids with knowledge of how it all works.”
“At the Foundation, they’re trying to be at the beginning of it.”
He never got married or had any children of his own. But he’s close with his brother and sister and their grown children. His brother lives in Omaha, his sister here in Lincoln.
One of his favorite fall memories, back when he was farming fulltime, was when his brother and nephew would come help with the fall harvest. They worked hard every day. Then it was “boys night out” every night, hanging out and having fun. They could get the work done in about a week. When it was over, he’d take them to a good restaurant to celebrate.
On the farm, he says, winter is always when you plan for the future, laying the groundwork for the success of the next season’s crop.
And this time of the year, he says, it’s always fun to think about spring.
“Spring is when you put all that cold winter behind you.”
He smiles again.
“Spring is nice, too.”
