A Conversation with Kelly Spiering

Park County Open Lands believes those who steward the land are one of the most integral parts of conserving our landscapes for future generations. Ag Lands and Outreach VISTA Carly Hitchcock heard from local Powell farmer Kelly Spiering about his story and what stewardship means to him.

Park County Open Lands: Has your family been in agriculture for a long time?

Kelly Spiering: Four generations. Two in Oregon, and two here in Park County.

PCOL: What is the history of your farm?

KS: My dad got out of the Navy at the end of the war in 1945 and drew a homestead on Heart Mountain in 1949. He moved here in 1950 with my mom from Oregon.

PCOL: What crops do you primarily focus on?

KS: Seed. My dad grew up on a dairy farm, and he refused to have animals, and I said, “I’ll just do the same.”

Our farm is very shallow. It’s got eight inches of topsoil on the bedrock, and because the season’s so short, seed is the only thing that really seems to work where I am. Seed has much more potential in viability as far as economics. Seed can go up and down with the market, so it can be surprisingly lucrative at times. It’s also something that takes a lot of knowledge, machinery, and perseverance to do.

PCOL: What is your role on the farm?

KS: Owner and operator for two more years.

PCOL: What are you doing to ensure the future of your farm?

KS: Transition. I have two sons with families who are presently farming with me, and they will be very capable of taking over the operation and sustaining it as far out as we can see.

I have a large family, and all the other siblings said their number one goal was that the farm would survive. They said, “We don’t need any inheritance, we want this farm to survive.” So that was quite generous of them.

PCOL: What does it mean to you to be a part of the family legacy where your farm continues on?

KS: ‘It’s broader than that. If ‘you’re given the opportunity to farm, ‘you’re given the opportunity to be a steward. And stewardship means that not only do you leave it better than when you got it, but that you were given the stewardship of a resource that is given to us by God. And with that stewardship, ‘there’s an obligation to preserve it for the benefit of the country and the people as a viable operation, as well as a source of food, fiber, and materials for people to continue to live.

PCOL: What are the biggest challenges you face in farming?

KS: The biggest challenge is the population’s misunderstanding of the importance of farms and food production. The understanding of where everything comes from.

The second biggest one is just dealing with what everybody deals with, and that’s certainly not exclusive to agriculture. You can call the weather a problem, but in other businesses, it’s market forces, employees, regulations, and anything. They all have challenges.

So, you can steward the legacy that you have. Weather and crop prices and all the rest have been with farming for generations and always will be. And that’s something you learn to live with. This is my 48th year of farming, and there’s been a lot of times in those 48 years when I was faced with storms, interest rate explosions, market collapses, and everything else. Perseverance means ‘you’ve got to hold on for one more year. For 48 years, it’s worked out. That just takes tremendous faith that it’s going to work out.

PCOL: What are some of the most fulfilling aspects of farming?

KS: I think living outdoors, living close to nature, understanding true nature, as well as the hardships of nature, and working with those hardships. Just the beauty of nature.

The biggest thing with farming is being able to do something different every day, all the time.. And then at the end of the day, feeling like you have accomplished something and seeing tangible results from your efforts. ‘It’s when the crops are growing, and the harvest, and just planting the crops and having them come up.

PCOL: How do you view the connection between agriculture and local communities?

KS: It takes relationships with every person in your life. Close, good relationships with every person you meet, every day, all the time, to make it work, and to make a community work. We have an incredibly strong community where I live, and that community means that you are looking out for others.

And for the 48 years I’ve been farming, if somebody gets hurt, we’re there. There’s equipment there to do harvest, there’s equipment there to do the plowing, there’s people there, there’s food, you’re buried in support and visiting and well-wishing. That is the community that we live in, and it’s a broader community in the Powell area that’s just super concerned about the welfare of their neighbor. It’s just so comforting to know that when those tough times come, there’re people right there.

PCOL: What are your thoughts on the future of agriculture in this region?

I think the Bighorn Basin is one of the crown jewels of agriculture in Wyoming. And if we can preserve irrigation and preserve the people willing to do the work, we have a future that is vital to the food security and economic security of our county, our state, our nation, everything.

Luckily, we have a lot of families moving in that were squeezed out of areas because of subdivisions and they’re moving here. They’re just really good, hardworking people who come here and want to be farmers. That’s just such an incredible gift we have because you can’t run the future generation off and expect [farming] to survive here.

PCOL: How does your livelihood connect with Park County Open Lands?

KS: Park County Open Lands offers an opportunity for anyone who wants to preserve their land from development and for those who want to see their lands stay in farming or ranching and preserve the heritage they are passing on. They have the opportunity to protect it from development, the opportunity to preserve that legacy beyond their own family. This gives that opportunity to say it will not have houses over it. It will be protected.