• Why would someone become a bison rancher at 60?
• How do you make a living off the land – is it a hobby or a job?
• How wide is the rural/urban divide?
• How long does it take a farmer to teach a Williams student how to drive a tractor with a manual transmission? 

Our Panelists:

John Ager:  I married Annie Clarke during our winter break of 1971, and eventually moved to Hickory Nut Gap Farm in the mountains of North Carolina. We raised four sons, who have in turn given us 9 grandchildren, with the farm and all of its interesting people being the primary setting for our lives. Annie and I have enjoyed serving our community of Fairview over the years, and I was just re-elected to a fourth term in the North Carolina House of Representatives. My son Jamie and his wife Amy have been managing the farm over the years, and if you are interested you can look up hickorynutgap.com.

Sam Beer:  After a couple years milking cows in Oregon, I started a small dairy in western NY in 1975.  Twelve years later our family moved off the farm, and I into a career in plant research.  In 2005 Lucia and I returned to our farm and ran a farmers’ market food stand.  A packet of Tartary buckwheat seed evolved into an on-farm micro flour mill, which eventually found a market for that crop.

Jay Fahn:  Jay and partner Nina Diamond still don’t know exactly how their casual long weekend visit to the Black Hills in 2007 resulted in a bison ranch in NW Indiana, but with a shared dream and joint resources – financial, physical and emotional – they transformed 73 acres of woodlands and row crops into a barn, corral and heavily fenced grass pastures for America’s National Mammal. Those degrees from Williams and Oxford and overseas and domestic career in banking didn’t exactly prepare Jay for the often backbreaking and sometimes heartbreaking stewardship of a dozen North American bison, while Nina’s Manhattan upbringing, her doctorate in psychology, a corporate marketing career and later as a tenured professor was likewise “somewhat removed” from life on the prairie. But somehow it worked out.  (Spoiler alert: In early 2019, the entire herd was relocated to central Illinois. Jay and Nina retain and exercise visitation rights.)

Paul Hannan:  After 40 years of watching from the agricultural side lines, with minor appearances in the bush leagues, Paul Hannan and Cornelia Carey took the plunge into farming in 2009. At their 225-acre Butterfield Beef & Berry Farm, in Calais, Vermont, they raise grass-fed Belted Galloway beef and host a blueberry growing operation split between pick-your-own and custom orders. Clinging to their day-jobs, Paul is known to say “My land surveying business is what feeds my farming habit” while Cornelia runs CERF+, an artists’ emergency relief organization. Daughter Addie is a sophomore at Smith studying engineering and computer science. A dozen Williams students have summer-interned at the farm over the last 11 years.