Farming Like You’re Married To It

Farming is like a Marriage

Running a farm is more than managing animals, fields, and markets. It’s a relationship — one that asks for the same commitment, attention, and care that a marriage does.

There are good seasons when everything feels easy: the grass is lush, the animals bloom, and the sales roll in. There are harder seasons too: droughts, rising costs, or tired bodies that just don’t want to get up at dawn. Like a marriage, it takes steady work to move through both the highs and the lows.

The secret isn’t perfection, it’s presence. Paying attention to what worked in the past, noticing what’s shifting right now, and pivoting to prepare for what’s ahead. Just like in a relationship, complacency is where the cracks start to show.

It struck me recently that about half of small businesses fail within five years — almost the same as the national divorce rate. Agriculture businesses fail even faster. Why? Because it’s easy to get comfortable, or to avoid the hard conversations — with a partner, with the land, or with the balance sheet. Sometimes folks don’t know where to put the work in until it’s too late.

But if you tend to it like a marriage — with resilience, humility, and a willingness to keep learning — a farm can flourish. It’s not just about surviving bad seasons, it’s about building a life and legacy that lasts through them.