The numbing cold of a single-digit dawn was just being pierced by the sun as Corey Baumann rumbled out of the dirt-and-gravel driveway of his family farm aboard a big, green John Deere tractor.

Working the gears of the big, well-used machine from his single-seat, heated cab, he tried to get the tractor rolling as school buses and other early morning traffic whizzed around him.

Slowly, he made his way toward Firelands High School and the annual Future Farmers of America Tractor Day, which sees 20 or more tractors driven to school by students.

A junior at Firelands High School, Corey, 17, plans to keep farming the land that has been in his family for five generations. Currently owned by his dad and grandfather, Ron and Larry Baumann, as a roadside sign attests, the farm is also home to some 300 head of beef cattle which, along with grain, are the family’s livelihood.

CHUCK HUMEL/CHRONICLE

Samantha Miller and Jodie Crawford both rode their tractors to Firelands High School on Thursday.

Not yet 7 a.m., Baumann kept his eyes on the road as he talked about a typical day, which begins about an hour before he’s due at school at 7:30 a.m. After classes are dismissed at 2:40 p.m., he heads home and does a couple hours of farmwork that usually includes feeding calves and cleaning their straw bedding before tackling homework.

For Corey, the hardest work is baling straw on hot summer days and planting and harvest times in the spring and fall, respectively.

“We can put in some 12- or 13-hour days then,” he said as the tractor made its way east along state Route 113 to Vermilion Road, where he joined a long line of traffic. As he approached the high school, the headlights of five or six tractors could be seen rolling toward the parking lot.

Once the vehicles were lined up in the school parking lot, drivers had their pictures taken by shivering friends and proud parents, including Corey’s mom, Judy Baumann.

“I remember coming up here to take his picture when he was a freshman and I started to cry … I realized he was growing up,” she said.

Thursday also saw the school’s annual “Barnyard Olympics” that include fun events like pedal tractor races, a tug-of-war and straw bale toss.

Surrounded by farmland, Firelands High has been celebrating farm life and those who pursue it for nearly 50 years, according to Shanna Finnegan, 26, the school’s Ag(ricultural) Science teacher and Future Farmers of America adviser.

Even as farms are gradually lost to homebuilders and other development, Finnegan says that one in seven Ohioans still derive their living from agriculture.

“Some years are harder than others, but overall we’re doing OK,” Baumann said.

While farming remains a very major industry in states including Ohio, it is evolving. Advances in technology and increased mechanization mean fewer people are needed to operate ever larger tractors, combines, plows and hay balers.

“Instead of going into farming, they’re going into support businesses like feed stores and farm equipment retailers,” Finnegan said. “My sister is studying ag business at Ohio State. She hopes to begin an agricultural business … a feed store.”

Other support services include animal nutrition (formulating livestock feed), food scientists and agronomists — people who study soil management, land cultivation and crop production.

Among the shivering students gathering for a group photo were Samantha Miller and Jodie Crawford. Both are 17 and seniors. Miller, who wasn’t wearing a heavy coat, had just driven an open tractor to school.

“It wasn’t too bad. Just my fingers were cold,” Miller said.

Both girls live on farms and want to continue doing so after college.

Miller plans on a nursing career. Crawford, whose family has a 250-acre farm that produces crops including corn and soybeans, plans to study farm and business management at Ohio State.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

 

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