Growing the Future

On the Bone Trail Ep 1: What Farming Does to Fathers

Growing the Future

Show Notes

Jeff Bennett is a fourth-generation grain farmer from the Dodsland area of Saskatchewan, farming 4,500 acres with his dad's operation 800 feet from his door. In this Father's Day episode -- the first in the On the Bone Trail series -- Jeff talks through the generational weight of farming, five consecutive hard crop years including a 2021 that nearly wiped him out, and what it actually costs a man to be a farmer and a father at the same time. The conversation is direct and unhurried: Jeff talks about debt with no shame, about planning for his three young sons with no certainty, and about the four years he went dark -- deleted social media, talked to no one, came back slowly -- before he found his footing again. The close is the Bennett Code piece, a custom Bone Trail Originals engraving he built for his family, and the final line: "Pick that rock. You'll never be closer to it."

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