Bob Schrock was one of the first farmers in the Southern Plains to add winter canola to his dryland crop rotation, but he had another claim to fame.
“How many farmers you know can surf?” he asked following one of his many speaking engagements at the Southern Plains Canola Conference.
At the time, the Kiowa, Kansas, farmer was pioneering a new crop as a founding board member with the Great Plains Canola Association. He was also spending half the year in Florida, where he was fulfilling a dream of teaching his daughter, Ellie, to surf.
On Jan. 29, Schrock and his wife, Lori, were aboard the regional jet that flew from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., and collided with a military helicopter just minutes before landing. All on board were lost. Ellie, a student attending college in Philadelphia, was awaiting a visit from her parents.
Visitation, funeral and burial services for the couple were held last weekend in Kiowa.
Labor and risk
Earlier in his farming career, he ran as many as 7,000 head of stocker calves, often retaining ownership through the finishing stage.
But running stockers was labor intensive, and buying stockers involved considerable financial risk, he said.
“I always say it will take you 30 years growing wheat to lose all your money, but you can do it in three years with cattle,” he joked.
As an early adopter of no-till and rotational cropping, he found he couldn’t get his no-till crops to a level he was satisfied with by grazing them, so he made the decision to eliminate cattle from his operation.
“I can teach someone to ride a combine or a tractor,” he reasoned. “And that’s a lot easier than to get someone to feed and doctor cattle when it’s 100 degrees outside.”
He turned his attention to a custom seeding, scouting and harvesting business called Premium Grain, which allowed him to cover twice the acreage and helped pay for his investment in specialized air-seeding and harvesting equipment. He was soon generating more revenue with less labor.
At his own expense, he conducted countless on-farm research trials, and consulted with equipment manufacturers on how to improve seed-to-soil contact on planting equipment.
His innovations drew national attention and landed him on the cover of Successful Farming magazine, which he compared to “being a quarterback and being on the cover of Sports Illustrated.”
“My wife likes to say, the pioneers get the arrows, and the settlers get the land,” he said at the time. “I’ve been experimenting with six crops (wheat, canola, corn, milo, soybeans and sesame) in different rotations, but I have found that a wheat-canola rotation fits best in our area.”
The weather in the area would prove to be an ongoing challenge. “We farm across 16 miles, but last year, we had hail on every acre,” he recounted at one point. “We still had some 80-bushel wheat even with a 40 percent yield loss. But that was a tough one to deal with.”
That same year ample spring rains convinced him to double-crop.
“It looked really good for the first three weeks,” he said. Then the region was hit by a flash-drought. The summer crops failed, and fall-planted crops still hadn’t emerged late in the year.
But he managed to take it in stride. “I tell myself it builds character,” he said.
Living their dream
News reports have revealed many passengers on the fatal flight were actively pursuing their dreams. On board were young figure skaters competing at the highest level of the sport, supported by coaches and parents, and young lawyers and teachers passionate about their chosen careers.
Pilots on both aircraft were high achievers who had accomplished their goal of flying in a professional capacity.
Schrock was living his dream, too.
During an earlier interview, he described his father as a workaholic who didn’t have much time to get to know his own kids. After finding himself on the same path, he reevaluated his lifestyle and decided to make a change.
By reprioritizing his money, he reprioritized his life.
He found a way to prioritize his family, provide great memories for his daughter and honor his love of the water, while staying anchored to the soil of home along the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
“Growing up, I drove tractor for dad and did what I was told, but it didn’t do much for me,” he recalled during one interview. “I couldn’t have dreamt of where I am now. The volatility of the weather and markets is tough. I’d rather have a more consistent paycheck. But I’m content, and I’m truly passionate about what I’m doing.”
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