Transcript

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Gene Curry: I grew up in a grocery store, and I had uncles that were ranchers and one that had a pretty good size operation. I was always envious of his operation. Just wanted to figure out how to get ours to that point. And as it turned out, he didn't do very good planning and his operation is split up now. So there you go again. It's an ongoing process and it's something that takes dedication. It's about like a marriage.

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Megan Torgerson (narrating): Welcome to Reframing Rural, I'm Megan Torgerson. Today, a conversation with Gene Curry, a rancher and farmer from the Rocky Mountain Front who underwent a personal transformation in the process of passing his ranch down to the next generation.

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Curry: Sometimes I demand results and the consequences aren't as important as the results.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Gene is well-respected for his years as president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and his present position as chairman for the Montana Department of Livestock. My first impression of Gene was that he had the magnetism of a Clint Eastwood character or Marlboro man. He seemed like a well-connected businessman, scrupulous and determined. Someone I wouldn’t want to mess up in front when backing a trailer or lending a hand at a branding. In professional photos, Gene flashes a confident smile in his white wool cowboy hat and tie, and brown leather cattleman jacket. A smile that says, my list of accomplishments is long. 

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As Gene told me the story of his family's succession, however, I discovered a softer quality to him, that of a grandfather who can listen and compromise.That's the story we'll hear today. The story of a childhood spent bailing hay and butchering meat in his parents' grocery store, of a scrappy young adult starting a ranch to pass down some day and of a man in the twilight of his years who dampened his dominant personality to keep his family and farm and ranch together.

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Curry: One of the selling points about Valier is that we deliver fresh air faster than any place in the country. We live on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains, and it's also known as the Chinook Belt.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Gene lives along one of the most dramatic landscapes in all of Montana. From Valier he has a view of Glacier National Park and the start of the Northern Great Plains' sprawling 180 million acres. The Amskapi Piikani, or People of the Blackfeet Nation, refer to it as the "backbone of the world."

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Curry: Lewis and Clark called us the Great American Desert, and, some days it looks more like that than others, but our annual precipitation is somewhere in that 13 inch range.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Gene has lived and worked on the Front his whole life. His parents ran a grocery store in Valier and ran a cattle operation on the side. It was small in comparison to the outfit his two uncles ran, but it gave Gene an early experience of ranching. 

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Gene started working in his parents’ operation at a young age. From early on, he had a lot of responsibility. Gene was still losing baby teeth when he was baling hay more than 50 miles from his parents’ store. He tells me a story that really demonstrates his dedication to an agricultural life, despite his early exposure to its challenges:

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Curry: By the time I was nine years old, I was running the baler and actually was running the baler, west of Browning. And my parents were in Valier. At nine years old. And my grandmother was up there cooking. We had a 16-year-old kid helping us. He was riding the bale sled and I was running the baler and my grandmother was cooking for us.

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No telephone, no running water, basically no vehicle. We had an old semi that nobody knew how to drive except me. And I ended up getting my hands in the belt of the baler and I had to send this 16-year-old kid to a neighbor's place up the creek from us to get help and get us a ride to town.

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Torgerson (narrating): So here’s nine-year-old Gene with a makeshift tourniquet wrapped around his small bleeding hand, waiting in a hay field for someone to come save him. It’s the 1950s so there’s no cellphones, no way to call 911 or notify his parents.

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Curry: So my parents didn't even know anything had happened until we got into Browning and they didn't get there until after the doctor had already sewed my hand back up. And so I guess I started probably too young in the ranching business. I always liked the cattle better than the store.

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Torgerson (narrating): Gene helped on the ranch and did custom butchering at the store until he left for college. 

 

Curry: After graduating, I went off to MSU and I intended on when I started college, maybe being a veterinarian, but after spending some time in college, I decided that four years of college was gonna be enough for me. I just ended up graduating with a degree in animal science and Cheryl and I got married, between our freshman and sophomore year of college.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Cheryl and Gene had their first child, a daughter, the fall of their senior year. After they graduated, they went back to Valier with the hopes of building a ranch for their growing family. Five years later, they were a family of six: mom, dad, two girls and two boys. Gene decided to chase his dream of being a rancher, but there was a hurdle: his family’s small livestock enterprise wasn’t big enough for him to go back to. 

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Curry: And I came back to the ranch and tried to make a living on a few cows and no land. We had a little piece of property up at Kiowa and 40 acres where I live right now. And that was it. No hay ground and not enough pasture. So we had to lease. 

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Torgerson (narrating): These were lean times. Gene was trying to support his family while he pursued his dream of ranching.

 

Curry: Growing up the boys shared one bedroom and the girls shared a bedroom. Actually, when they were young, all four of them shared one bedroom. There were wall-to-wall beds. We had a set of bunk beds and a trundle bed. And when you pulled out the bottom bed of the trundle beds, they just about touched the bunk beds. And in the mornings when it was cold, the kids' blankets would be froze to the wall. So that was in the early seventies when, you know, things were a little tight.

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Torgerson (narrating): So Gene had to make a hard decision. He wasn’t making ends meet with a small herd and few acres. So he pivoted. 

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Curry: 1976, I bought a trucking business because we were basically starving to death. We couldn't keep clothes on the kids back and food on the table hardly. So I bought a trucking business and left her home with the kids and the cows, and I went trucking.

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I was wanting to buy something all through the seventies, dreamt about owning a ranch, looked at some ranches, and my parents were willing to help, but they didn't have a lot of equity to help with, but they were willing to do whatever they could.

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Torgerson (narrating): Eventually, Gene’s dream began taking shape. He built a ranch from parcels sold in foreclosure sales, land that became available because of failed succession or the economic crisis of the '80s. 

 

Curry: My first opportunity at buying land was in 88. I had put some hay up on a place for some farmers from east of Conrad and I leased the pasture on the place in summer and they decided they wanted to sell it and gave me the opportunity to buy it.

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I had no money. They had a cousin that was a lawyer, and there was three brothers. Lawyer and myself sat in the lawyer's office and negotiated a deal, and I ended up buying that first piece of property with nothing down. I took over their payments. And they were happy to get out from underneath the payments.

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Torgerson (narrating): Gene added onto his ranch whenever he got the opportunity. His parents helped where they could, offering the property they owned west of Browning – where Gene caught his hand in the baler – as collateral.

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Curry: They were willing to offer that for collateral. And the bank went with me and I went to the manager. And I showed him my numbers and he said, well, I think they'll work, but do you really wanna work that hard? And I said, well, I do. Yes. Because I wanted to get an operation big enough for my two sons.

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Torgerson (narrating): That was the dream. Gene didn't inherit a ranch. He had to work overtime ranching and trucking, then wait patiently for opportunities to purchase land. He wanted to pass down the land his kids and grandkids would need to live the ranching lifestyle he loved. Gene was pursuing his personal dream of building a successful farm and ranch, but he was also establishing a family enterprise he hoped would exist long after he was gone. While his kids grew, he continued to buy more land.

 

Curry: Up west of Browning right up along Glacier Park so that's our responsibility. So there's gotta be people that are able to do that. We've got pasture leased down by Butte, and that's our responsibility. So we have to have somebody that's able to go down there. And we have pasture leased east of Great Falls, east of Belt up in the mountains there. So somebody's gotta be able to do that. So we're kinda spread out at times and so it takes a fair amount of labor.

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Torgerson (narrating): It took a lot of hard work, and a bit of good luck, to get Gene’s operation to where it is today. 

 

Curry: I'm a risk taker. I've been, as you can probably tell, otherwise we wouldn't be where we are. 

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Torgerson (narrating): Now, Gene has enough land to run a profitable farm and ranch. And it’s busy. 

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Curry: Our operation goes from now we're calving. We won't be through calving yet when we start seeding. Hopefully we'll be done seeding before you have to start irrigating. But we'll be getting irrigation equipment ready and then branding and then moving the cattle to summer pasture or fixing fence. And then we'll ride into the irrigation season. 

 

And then partway through the irrigation season, we start haying and we hay for month and a half or so. A lot of times we're not through haying yet when we start harvest. And then we go from harvest into gathering the fall run of cattle and weaning calves and putting 'em in the feedlot. And so our operation is that. I guess what downtime there is on our operation, probably in January. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): It took Gene and Cheryl a lot of sweat and years to get to the point of having any downtime at all. It took nearly just as long to figure out how to bring the next generation into the fold: 16 years from start to finish.

 

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This season of Reframing Rural is produced in collaboration with Winnett ACES which stands for Agricultural Community Enhancement and Sustainability. The mission of the Winnett ACES is to strengthen their community by enhancing the health of their land, economy, and traditions for future generations. 

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Season Four: Succession Stories is supported by the Plank Stewardship Initiative, World Wildlife Fund, Headwaters Foundation, and American Farmland Trust.

 

Do you have a farm or ranch succession story you'd like to share with us? Call  (406) 219-7465‬ and leave a voicemail to share either your family's experience with succession or reflections you have on the stories you’ve heard this season.

 

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Torgerson (narrating): Gene first started the succession planning process when he and his wife were in their 50s and their kids were in their 30s. Part of Gene's impetus to start planning as young as he did was because he had witnessed a lot of failed successions – some that split up land, others that divided families. The farm that Cheryl grew up on is one example.

 

Curry: Cheryl's dad willed the farm to the five siblings, undivided. And that is my first piece of advice to anyone that's working on an estate plan. Do not, do not do that to your children because, children, they love each other and they all grew up together, but they all left home and they all have their own vision and I’ll guarantee you, if you got five siblings there's five different visions for what should happen.

 

When Cheryl's family farm came up for lease and we started leasing from the siblings, we leased it for 19 years from 'em. And, and it just progressively got a little bit more tense, and that's why we finally ended up selling the farm. But it really affected family relations in that family, because, you know, it just happens and it happens way too often.

 

I saw that firsthand, but I'd also seen some operations around here. The farmland that I bought at Sheriff's Sale growing up in Valier. I looked at that family and thought they had it made. There was excellent farmland. He farmed in the summer. He had a cabin over at West Glacier on the golf course. Spent time over at West Glacier in the summertime, came back and farmed, you know, just a gentleman farmer. I don't know the transition, you know, from the outside looking in, but I just know that he had three children.

 

They ended up running the farm, kind of taking it from their dad somehow. I don't know the transition, but I ended up buying that at sheriff's sale. And it happened within a 10 year time span probably, that that operation went from what I thought was the premier operation or one of the premier operations in the area to bankruptcy.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Having witnessed bankruptcies and going through the experience with Cheryl's family, they wanted something different for their kids.

 

Curry: And so my goal after seeing that, Cheryl's and my goal, we talked about it a lot. We want our children to be able to sit down at the Christmas dinner table together and enjoy each other's company and, and then not just at Christmas, but at Easter or 4th of July or someone's birthday, be able to, you know, have a wonderful time together and not be concerned over who got the best end of the operation or how mom and dad's estate's gonna be split. So that was our impetus.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Keeping his family together is very important to Gene. His kids are all close in age and were close growing up. It's not an experience Gene had. And it's one he hopes his kids are able to maintain.

 

Curry: I had one sister that's seven years younger than I am, so we were never close growing up. We're way closer now than we ever were growing up. I had to babysit her and changed her diaper, the whole smear at seven years old. We just weren't close.

 

And our kids are. We had four kids in five years, so ours are quite close. The boys when they got into high school, if they both swung outta bed at the same time, their knees would've hit. You know, they had twin beds, but the rooms weren't that big and their knees probably would've hit if they wouldn’t have been careful.

 

And the girls are the same way. And they just didn't fight. I mean, only furniture that ever got broke around the house is when I'd be wrestling with the boys. But, you know, so they just, they got along really well. Everything I dreamt about as being a youngster, my children were.

 

Torgerson: So it seems like you were more interested in your family staying together than your ranch, staying in your family. It's kind of what it sounds like.

 

Curry: I guess, uh, you know, while I was in Stockgrowers they put out a book. It said the weak turned back, the cowards never started, but the ones that came persevered and built a ranch and a legacy, and I guess I have that desire for that legacy.

 

I really do. I hope that this ranch stays in our family. Forever. And that's a lofty goal and one that, you know, I have no control over. But, it's just a, it's an ongoing process and it's something that takes dedication.

 

It's about like a marriage. The only way marriages last and are successful is if both people are committed and are willing to overlook some of the issues that, you know, other people aren't willing to overlook. I mean, nobody's perfect, no operation's perfect. And there's always gonna be a difference of opinion. If there isn't a difference of opinion, it's probably gonna be a fairly stale operation.

 

Torgerson (narrating):  To protect the legacy he worked so hard to build, Gene started educating himself on the nuts and bolts of succession planning. The first workshop he attended was hosted by the agricultural lending cooperative AgWest Farm Credit in Spokane, Washington.

 

Curry: One of the focuses of it was transitioning to the next generation. There was operations there that had one employee up to 500 employees. And I can tell you which operation had one employee that would've been Curry Cattle.

 

Torgerson (narrating): That one employee was a young local man. A few months after the event in Spokane, Gene added a second employee, his 22-year-old son, Jeremy. At the time Gene started attending succession courses, Jeremy seemed their likely heir apparent. Over a five-year period, Jeremy and his wife Shannon went with Gene and Cheryl to educational workshops hosted by AgWest in Helena and Great Falls to start working on a plan. A few years later, Gene and Cheryl invited all four of their kids and their spouses  to a two-day intensive family retreat in Kalispell. As part of the retreat, they went through a family history of Curry Cattle Company.

 

Curry: I was really proud to be able to have it all laid out for everyone and including yourself, you know, you don't really go through that chronology of what's happening. You just, you know, life goes on. You just keep plugging ahead and to look back and see how we'd grown. This happened in 2009. And our oldest daughter graduated in ‘89 from high school and our second daughter in ‘90. So, you know, it was 29, 30 years after that that we had this gathering and a lot had changed.

 

So it was good for everybody to see how the business had been put together, how it had grown, and basically how much work and joys and heartache and everything else that went into it. I guess that's part of the legacy that I'm proud of. But also I want them all to understand, you know, that it didn't just happen. When we had that family retreat. We did financials and everything. I mean, I laid everything out. I'm sure the numbers, some of them were eyeopening.

 

But it didn't bother me at all. And I know some people are real tight to the chest on their financial numbers and their management decisions. They knew exactly how much money we owed, what the net worth of the operation was. Everybody that was there saw it all. They helped me, they helped build it, and they deserve to see what we built. And that also was an opportunity to transition into the next step of what's gonna happen upon our death.

 

Torgerson (narrating): I imagine it wasn’t the most comfortable thing to sit down as a family and talk about death and money. They can be such emotionally fraught and taboo subjects. But the Curry family didn’t shy away from the discomfort. My family was the same way. When we had our succession planning meetings leading up to my dad's retirement four years ago, my parents talked land values and property taxes – on top of what would happen if Mom died first, or Dad died first, or if, god forbid, they both died together. 

 

Amid these sobering conversations, my parents also shared histories of the land. That was my favorite part of our succession planning process. They talked about land like the three-quarter section we call White's. It was the first piece of ground they bought from an old farmer named Jim White. In 1984 when Dad drove to Jim’s house in town to sign a contract-for-deed, Mr. White threw in a globe, a fur coat, and a saxophone to sweeten the deal. That’s the same tenor sax I played in junior high band.

 

Succession planning doesn't have to be all brass tacks. Story can also inform how land changes hands. Stories can open us up for vulnerability and conversation.

 

Curry: Openness is way better than trying to spring a surprise on people. ‘Cause those surprises are always the ones that cause the hard feelings. And if there's hard feelings over the open process, you still have an opportunity to try and either figure out how to soothe those hard feelings or work around them, but when the will's read and there's hard feelings, it's written and it's done.

 

Torgerson (narrating): At the retreat, Gene laid all his cards on the table, sharing his net worth and the income potential of the operation.

 

Curry: So without that knowledge and, knowing that's the way it is, I think the kids, it was easier for them to accept the fact that Jeremy being the one that came back to the farm early and has put a lot of sweat equity into the farm and helped us build what we have. 

 

That's what one of them said. We were trying to figure out ways to make it more equal and give them a higher percentage of our net worth. And one of them said, why? We didn't do it. Jeremy's the one that's been there working all these years right alongside you, and he's the one that deserves it.

 

Torgerson (narrating): To help promote this type of free-flowing dialogue, their succession facilitator Michael Stolp invited the Currys to reflect on their behavioral and communication styles through a personality test. I wouldn’t have expected the “Marlboro man of Montana ranching” to be open to such a touchy-feely activity. But the fact that he was so accepting of the idea really speaks to how deeply Gene wanted this process to go smoothly for his family. So they all took something called a DISC personality test to figure out which of their behavioral tendencies influenced their personalities most.

 

Curry: I'm a high D, so dominant. I mean, that, that's me. And, you know, you don't think about how you, what your personality is. At least I didn't. I just did things my way. Well, that's the dominant, that's my way or the highway kind of. And if you don't like it, get over it or move on.

 

Torgerson (narrating): After the family had self-reflected, and reflected back on the history of the ranch, the next step was to look toward the future.

 

Curry: We were talking about the operation and trying to figure out a transition. So at that time, I was running, I was doing the bookkeeping, I was writing the checks. I was the manager, I was the CEO and the CFO, and Jeremy was kind of the foreman, let's call him.

 

And we had one or two employees. But I just made the statement that, you know, in order to make this transition work, if I'm going to step up into or out of the picture, and Jeremy's gonna step into my, CEO/CFO, someone probably needs to be in the management area and somebody that really has some skin in the game.

 

You know, somebody that'll take a real interest in the operation. And so, and at that time, we had a young man kind of in mind. You know, everybody's listening and talking about it. Well then about that time, his brother says, what about me?

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This episode was produced with support from AgWest Farm Credit. AgWest knows agriculture isn’t just a business, it’s a way of life. They deeply understand the needs of ag businesses, whether your operation is large, small, or somewhere in between. Stop by a branch near you, or visit AgWestFC.com to learn more. AgWest is an equal opportunity provider, employer and equal housing lender.

 

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Torgerson (narrating): The whole Curry family was just at an intensive succession retreat where Gene's younger son Scott just asked to be considered alongside his brother Jeremy to run the ranch after Gene passes away.

 

Sitting together in a board room in Kalispell was the first time Gene was hearing this. Like his brother Jeremy, Scott also played college football. Jeremy for the Bobcats, Scott for the Griz. But Scott went on to play professionally for the Green Bay Packers. After his time in the NFL, he returned to Missoula, then he headed back to Valier where he bought a convenience and liquor store.

 

Curry: And so, you know, I assumed that he was set in what he wanted to do. And I said, what about you? I said, that's exactly why we are here. Because when we come outta here, I want everybody to be comfortable with the decisions and the direction this operation is taking. So if somebody's wanting to be involved, now's the time because that's why we're here.

 

Torgerson (narrating):  Things were a little tense. The family had been planning for a future where Jeremy was the only sibling running the farm. And now his brother was saying he wanted to be part of the operation, too. In the middle of this vulnerable moment, Jeremy’s wife’s phone rang.

 

Curry: Shannon got a phone call and she went out in the hallway and took it and came back in. Their kids were all adopted. And she came back in and she said well, there's a new baby in Roundup, and if we want it, we gotta be there by noon tomorrow. 

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Torgerson (narrating): So not only was the family in the midst of life-altering decisions about the family farm and ranch – now, Jeremy and Shannon had to decide whether to welcome a new child into their family.

 

Curry: This is a Friday afternoon. It'll be about four o'clock. And you know, Jeremy just got dumped on the fact that maybe his brother wanted to come back and join the operation, and he just says, Shannon, Shannon, we can't, we can't do a new baby. And I still see Shannon, she's a soft heart. And she says, but Jeremy, how can you say no to a baby?

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Torgerson (narrating): Shannon and Jeremy left that night for the maternity ward. When they returned home they brought with them a new baby girl. Gene’s other son Scott and his wife Shauna brought home a pile of questions. Questions about what it would mean for them to join Jeremy in running the farm and ranch. 

 

The Currys spent months deliberating these questions. What would it mean for the two brothers to run this business together?  Could they commit to it equally? Was Scott ready to return to a job with no time off? How would it impact their families? Their succession advisor helped them through this sticky situation.

 

Curry: After about six months, six or eight months of ongoing conversations with Michael kind of helping out and then Cheryl and I and Scott and Shauna. They finally decided that maybe they didn't wanna give up what they had and come back to the ranch.

 

Torgerson (narrating): With that decision, Gene’s original dream of having both of his boys back on the ranch shattered. You can hear pain in Gene’s voice when he talks about this period. 

 

But the family’s succession planning facilitator Michael helped them realize that having just one son running the ranch might be the best situation for the whole family. On a practical level, Gene could also see into the future how having two siblings running the operation could complicate succession for the next generation.

 

Curry: You just see a lot of partnerships with brothers and a few of them work out well, and a lot of them tend to get a little strained, especially after a few years. And then of course when you get to the next generation, you have that much more involvement that you have to consider when you're trying to transition again.

 

Torgerson (narrating): So the Currys moved forward with Jeremy as the next-in-line. During the transition, Gene and Jeremy had to work out their similar personalities.

 

Torgerson: Are you and Jeremy pretty compatible, or, or similar profiles?

 

Curry: We're very similar profiles. Mine says that I can be very result oriented and not very concerned with other people's feelings and things like that. And it turns out that Jeremy is a fairly high D. Not as high as I am, but I say, you know, when it's two guys that it's my way or the highway trying to do something and there's only one highway and two different mys, it gets a little complicated. But, you know, we've worked it out and so it's working good.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Things are working well now, but there were times during the stage of turning the business over to Jeremy, that the facilitator Michael had to check Gene on his dominant personality. 

 

Curry: There was a couple of times that I got pretty strong headed and Michael had to remind me, he said, Gene, why are we doing this? Aren't you doing this to get Jeremy back on the ranch, you know, and keep it in the family? And I said, well, yeah, yeah, that is. Alright then. Gotta act like it. 

 

Because one of the things I read in my personality profile is I demand results and the consequences aren't as important as the results. And, so, you know, he just basically smacked me alongside the head, you know, verbally and said, you know, Gene, figure it out. If you're gonna keep your son here, you gotta be, you gotta keep that in mind and figure out a way to do it. And so I did.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Gene gives their succession facilitator Michael Stolp a lot of credit for keeping Curry Cattle Co. in his family. He gets emotional just thinking about what could have happened had Michael not served as mediator.

 

Curry: I was at a seminar at Stockgrowers here a couple years ago, and I got up and just made a statement because a lot of the people were there. Most of the people there were just trying to figure out whether they wanted to do it, how they were gonna do it, you know? And I just made the statement that if it wouldn't have been for Michael and this planning, I don't think Jeremy would be here today.

 

And that to me is sad to think that I could have driven my son away that I wanted. The reason I built this operation was to turn it over so that my sons would have a better opportunity to ranch than I had. And then to think that, you know, with a little, with a couple of missteps on my part, it maybe wouldn't have happened.

 

And so one of the people that was there told Cheryl afterwards, Gene kinda, his voice cracked a little bit. And it did because, and it is now because I just think that, you know, family is so important, and at times my personality didn't allow me to be as open-minded with family members as I should have been.

 

And, and thank goodness Jeremy had just as stubborn a streak as I do and stuck around through it all.

 

Torgerson (narrating): From what I've seen in my 34 years of life, as people age, they either get more entrenched in their personality traits – the negative ones included – or they grow kinder, start to compromise and see others' perspectives more readily.

 

Gene may have been like a Clint Eastwood cowboy governed by his own set of rigid principles in his youth, but with time, he softened like old leather. 

 

After the family retreat, Gene and Cheryl set the transition into motion. They increased Jeremy and Shannon's ownership role in the ranch and started hosting regular meetings. They conducted mid-year and annual performance reviews. And Gene made a budget.

 

Curry: When I was CFO and CEO, for the last 20 years, I never had a budget. It was all in my brain.

 

Torgerson (narrating): They also created a strategic plan and made a date to review and update it annually. They  wrote job descriptions for non-family employees, developed Jeremy and Shannon's will, power of attorney and healthcare directive. As part of this planning process, they even made it a point to schedule regular family gatherings and date nights with their spouses.

 

Over the course of 11 years, Jeremy started stepping into the roles Gene held previously. Today, he's the one in charge, and Gene and Cheryl are freed up to spend part of the winter in Arizona.  

 

Curry: Jeremy took over the checkbook, November of 2020. So 16 years roughly from the time we started the process until he was actually the CEO and CFO of our corporation and business. And so, and the reason it took that long is probably partly because of the age, you know, I wasn't ready to step back. And I'm still not ready to step back.

 

Torgerson: Do you mind if I ask how old you are?

 

Curry: I'm 76. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): Even though Jeremy’s in charge of the checkbook now, Gene is still doing the work on the farm and ranch he loves. 

 

Curry: Yeah. And so, and I'm still calvin’ heifers. Yesterday morning, or yesterday maybe after I talked to you that Jeremy asked me, one of the hired gal gals that we have working for us has been calving heifers before I got home.

 

And he asked me if, uh, if I was all right calvin’ the heifers without her, 'cause he needed her to calve cows now, and so he needs her out there. And I said, sure, I'm good with that. So I got another, I don't know what, maybe 60, 70 heifers to calve yet. And then I still seed the crop and then I still have a trucking business.

 

Like I told you, I still haul the cattle. I still help in the irrigation in the summertime and then run the combine in the fall and truck the cattle and move them and gather 'em, whatever it takes, whatever needs to be done. And then we were able to be gone for six weeks this winter, so we are transitioning.

 

Well, I think, but I'm not ready to step back totally. And there was a time I think Jeremy was wanting for me to get out of his way, and, uh, I wasn't ready to, and that was, there was some stressful times. Especially about the time that I turned it over, that was the toughest thing I ever did.

 

Torgerson: Could you tell me why did you feel that way?

 

Curry: Oh, because I built, Cheryl and I built this operation. And it wasn't that I didn't think Jeremy would be successful running it, but I just did not want him to make a mistake.

 

I know I was overly expressive of my views to try and help him from making mistakes and, you know, my underlying philosophy, I want everybody to learn from my mistakes and not repeat 'em. But at times that can't happen. You know, you just, sometimes you learn the best from the mistakes and the mistakes that cost you money are the ones you really learn from.

 

But, I had been callin’ the shots since I started the operation, and I turned over part of it and part of it. But to make that last big step was tough. But, this year, I think I finally crossed over to where I was able to be gone for six weeks up until now.

 

I couldn't be gone for, if I was gone for two weeks at a time, I was about fit to be tied. I just, I was anxious about getting back and making sure that everything was okay, helping out if I could, whatever. And, it was, like I say, it was not that I didn't think that he could, and he is running the operation fine, but he doesn't run it like I would.

 

And, you know, my personality is the type that, like I told you, it's kind of my way or the highway. So that was extremely difficult for me. And it's taken since 2021 until 2025. I've finally, I think I've crossed that divide. And, you know, Jeremy had called me, or I'd call him once in a while, but mainly he’d just call me this winter when I was down there and run things by me.

 

And other than that, I didn't think much about the operation.

 

Torgerson (narrating):  While it wasn't easy, and it took time for Gene to be able to enjoy his time away from the ranch, it's a milestone. For both Gene and Cheryl, and Jeremy and Shannon.  Being a farmer and rancher is more than occupation. It's an identity, a lifestyle and a legacy. But farmers, like anyone, deserve time off. It's healthy for both generations to have that separation.

 

While my family's circumstance is different - our operation doesn't have as much going on as the Currys and my parents fully retired and moved to town - after years of working so hard, it's been wonderful to see my dad take some real time off. For the first time ever this year, we had a vacation as a whole family and went to Hawaii.

 

My grandpa wasn't that way. He was checking out crops from the driver side window of his pickup after the point it became a liability. My grandpa, like so many aging farmers and ranchers, couldn’t step away from the operation. At first he might have been afraid of what could go wrong if he didn’t have a hand in everything, but then I think he was afraid of what he might miss out on not being there. But when people don’t make succession planning a priority, they miss out on memories and the mental space that could be gained by retiring. I like to think of succession like a dance of country two-step, where taking a step back enables the next generation to step forward.

 

Torgerson: What advice would you have to a fellow manager of a ranch, owner of a ranch who also has a hard time letting it go, passing it on, I guess?

 

Curry: My advice would be: have confidence in the training that you've given your children. And then the other thing, and it is the toughest thing for me, is to step back and let 'em make some of their own mistakes.

 

Everybody's thought process works different and I guess just be willing to step back and let 'em run it and make a few mistakes. You know, the tough part for me was, you don't mind a few mistakes, but you don't want 'em to make that business altering mistake. That could be financially devastating to the operation or to the relationships and that mistakes are high. For sure they are. You know, most of the time you get a second chance, but not always.

 

And, the other thing is: get it written down. Because if it isn't written down, it didn't happen. So you know, and get a will, you know, wills, they're fluid. You can change 'em anytime, but if you don't have one the state of Montana or somebody else is gonna make it for you. And they'll make the decisions that you didn't make and wouldn't have made if you'd had the opportunity to make 'em.

 

So that's the advice I have.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Gene shares his experience navigating succession where he can. He tells a story of talking to his friend Brad who's a bit older than him and who was flabbergasted by Gene's move to let Jeremy take over.

 

Curry: When I turned the checkbook over, he just couldn't believe that I'd done that because he said he'd lose control. I said, well, you're gonna lose control someday when they throw dirt on you. You're not gonna have any more control. Well, about a year later, it was in the fall, and I was shoveling out a grain bin. And I just happened to think of what he said about losing control and transitioning. And so I had the auger in the grain bin and a little bit of wheat around the base of the auger. I had the bin cleaned out all except the last few bushel. So I took a picture of that auger in the bin and sent it to him and said, Brad, here's what happens when you turn the checkbook over. Jeremy's at the bank meeting with the banker, and I'm shoveling out a grain bin. And he texted back. Not good. 

 

Torgerson: That's a dirty job. 

 

Curry: No, it is, but it's it, you know, he said not good, but I thought, no, it's good. It's good. Because that's when you know that the transition has happened. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): When Gene shared this story, it reminded me of my dad’s last fall farming. Dad was inside a flat bottom grain bin sweeping wheat into the auger while coughing up grain dust that snuck in through his N95. I stood outside peaking my audio recorder in through the tiny door, feeling guilty I wasn’t helping him, but trying to document the sound of his final days as a farmer. Dad ducked down to make it through the mini door, then took a puff of his inhaler and breathed the clean wet air of early fall. Part of me was glad he didn’t have to do this dirty job anymore. But part of me was worried he may not feel the same sense of purpose that being a farmer and rancher provided. I think that’s what makes some farmers hang on too long.

 

Some never will let go. Others will step back to watch the transition take place. That’s the best case scenario. And to get there, producers need to be brave and have hard conversations. 

 

This season has illustrated what it takes to get to a transition that works for the whole family, and the whole farm or ranch. In Malta, the Hammonds were forced into succession planning when a medical diagnosis upended their vision for the future. As you’ll hear in the next episode, for the Bruskis in Ekalaka, it took a persuasive young couple to convince the dad and father-in-law to join them at a succession planning retreat. Despite any earlier reservations or feet dragging, in the end, all the families interviewed for this season – of both the incoming and outgoing generations – have become evangelists for intentional succession planning. What sticks with me is their willingness to brave the unknown with the people they care about most.

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These families have told me the hard conversations become more comfortable with time. And it seems to me, those conversations are the only way they can hold on to their farms. The only way the next generation has a chance to make a life on the land. 

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I ask Gene what he fears could happen if producers ignore their duty to make a succession plan.

 

Torgerson: What do we stand to lose if succession doesn't happen?

 

Curry: You know, it is to me extremely important because, you look at the landscape of Montana, and our rural ag communities are fading away because of consolidation of a lot of the ranches.

 

The cost of ag land makes it almost impossible, I won't say impossible, but almost impossible for someone to start from nothing and build. You know, our timing was good. We were able to buy land. We didn't buy any land in the seventies when it was inflating fast. And then the boom hit the eighties and a lot of the people that bought land in the seventies weren't able to pay for it. And I was a fortunate person that still had the ability to buy some of that land from people that failed.

 

And, you know, they talk about environmentalists, and I think the farmer and rancher are the original environmentalists because if we don't take care of our asset, if we don't take care of our environment, it won't take care of us. And we can't make a living degrading our land and our opportunities. So, and not to say that big corporations won't take care of the land, but they don't have the same passion. They're just a step away from the dirt, you know. Our kids still have that feeling of connection to the land.

 

But, you know, without a transition plan and good planning, there's just no way that can stay in the family. And  that would be a devastating loss because, I just don't see – agriculture, when it gets to be just a big business, it'll be different, you know?

 

Torgerson: Yeah. 

 

Curry: And not, maybe not better.

 

Torgerson (narrating): In closing, I ask Gene what he wants his legacy to be, and he brings up this poem.

 

Curry: So here it is “The Fence that me and Shorty Built” by Red Stegel. Ain't it nice when you finished it? A day's work, you can look back on and say, boy, that was a good one. We picked up all the fencing tools and staples off the road. An extra roll of barb wire was the last thing left to load…

 

Torgerson (narrating): The poem goes on to tell the story of the narrator as a young cowboy who thinks  he’s too tough to build a fence. Angry he wasn’t tasked with a more exciting job, he lazily builds a crooked fence. His supervisor, Shorty, sits him down and tells him his job as a rancher is to do his best every day, no matter the task.

 

Curry: …and someday you'll come right through and look across this land and see a fence that is laid out straight and know you had a hand in something that's withstood the years. Then proud and free of guilt, you'll smile and say, boys, there's the fence that me and Shorty built. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): I can see that looking back on his family’s succession plan, Gene feels the same way the cowboys in the poem would looking back on their fence. Gene put aside his ego and at every turn, he did the very best he could. He always did what was right by his family. And now he can look back with pride on the way he’s leaving his farm and ranch to the next generation.

 

Curry: So sorry about that. But that's kind of my philosophy. And I try not to get emotional, but sometimes I do because that's just, to me, that's a, that's a solid life lesson. And, yes, if we can all kinda remember that, and be proud of what we do, you know, everybody's got a different thing they're gonna be proud of, but if we're proud of what we do, life will be fine.

 

This episode of Reframing Rural was written, reported and produced by me, Megan Torgerson with help from our story editor, Mary Auld, and associate producer Madeline Jorden. Music and audio engineering was by Aaron Spieldenner and Sean Dwyer of Hazy Bay Music with additional music by Skyler Mehal and Chandra Johnson. This season of Reframing Rural is made in collaboration with Winnett ACES, with funding and support from the Plank Stewardship Initiative, World Wildlife Fund, Headwaters Foundation, American Farmland Trust, the Department of Public Transformation and listeners like you. If you know someone who is going through succession planning or who loves a good family agriculture story, please share today’s story with them. To find out more about season four of Reframing Rural, Succession Stories, and past seasons, visit reframingrural.org.