12 CapitalPress.com
March 13, 2015
Family farmers keep up with latest innovations
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
SHOSHONE, Idaho — The
Taber family moved to Idaho
from Pennsylvania in 1975,
when Chris was 6 years old and
Darren was 2. Their youngest
brother, Matt, was born in 1982.
“As a young man, my dad
came out West every fall to go
hunting, then decided to move
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here,” Chris said. “He had a
farm in Pennsylvania and two
sons and there was no room for
expansion — no way that his
children would be able to farm
with him.”
The name of their farm is a
combination of names.
“My dad’s name is Don, my
mother’s name is Beverly so
they took the first of his name
and the last of hers to come
up with Donley Farms,” Chris
said.
They raise corn, hay and
grain, and started raising sugar
beets in 1991.
“I was out of school by then
and wanted something different
in the crop rotation and talked
my dad into planting 80 acres
of sugar beets. Within a few
years the farmers in our area
bought the sugar company
and formed a co-op. By then
we were growing 300 acres of
sugar beets,” he said. “We usu-
ally go 5 or 6 years with alfal-
fa, then plant corn. We are on
a 4-year rotation of crops be-
tween beets. The sugar factory
frowns on shortening the beet
rotation very much, or you tend
to get more disease problems.”
They generally follow corn
with beets, then come back
with corn, then malt barley,
corn and back to beets.
Water is a challenge on dry
years.
“Some crops take more wa-
ter than others, so we might be
stuck with small grains on some
fields 2 years in a row because
there wasn’t enough water for
anything else,” Chris said.
The goal is to have the high-
Donley Farm
Owners: Chris, Darren, Matt
and their father, Don Taber
Location: Near Shoshone,
Idaho, since 1976
Crops: Corn, hay, sugar beets
and malt barley
Size: 5,000 acres
est quality of whatever crop
they raise. “We do some test
plots, to be on the front end of
new varieties. This gives first-
hand information on which
experimental varieties might
be available in the future,” he
said. They try to find varieties
that do well in their farm con-
ditions.
Chris is the farm manager.
His dad and brother Matt run
the dairy.
“Darren helps with the dairy
and the farm, runs the baler and
puts up all the hay. We do cus-
tom harvesting; we chop and
thrash a lot of corn and grain
for other farmers. When harvest
starts in late July we are busy
until everything is finished —
sometimes into December,”
Chris said.
They do contract harvesting
Heather Smith Thomas/For the Capital Press
The Tabers work in the field on their 5,000-acre farm near Shosho-
ne, Idaho.
for a big dairy, which enables
them to run new equipment.
“If we were just doing our own
crops, we’d have older equip-
ment, trying to keep it running
as long as possible — upgrad-
ing only when we have to, rath-
er than when it’s more advanta-
geous,” he said.
Chris also runs the forage
harvester and combine.
“This is my time for myself,
my peace and quiet, away from
the daily grind of dealing with
employees and other tasks.
I spend a lot of time on the
phone, because in summer we
may have 34 employees,” he
said, adding that it’s a big job
keeping track of everything and
making sure it all runs smooth-
ly.
“We built a large shop in
2008, and have two full-time
mechanics besides myself,
working on the equipment,”
Chris said.
“We try to be diversified.
My dad is on several boards in
various ag industries and brings
those experiences back to the
farm. He’ll tell us we ought to
try this, or grow that. We put
those principles to work, to op-
timize what we are doing, be-
cause we can’t just go out and
buy another farm.”
Land is too expensive, he
said, “Yet we need to expand,
to keep family members on the
farm.”
Creative ideas can often be
more effective than trying to
farm more land, he said.
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