Retiring county ag agent frets over area farmers' future
....By Bill Whitaker
After almost 30 years as county extension agent in Fisher County,
Richard Spencer is pretty much like anyone else in this stretch
of Texas - he thinks Republicans are a bane to farmers.
No doubt about it, Richard has taken on the colors of folks throughout
Fisher County. It's one of those places where yellow-dog Democrats
are as common as pickup trucks, as determined as boll weevils
and as down-to-earth as dust.
This is the land of folks such as 80-year-old Foy Mitchell, probably
the most fierce yellow-dog Democrat anywhere in West Texas and,
along with brother Frank, a longtime mentor to Richard. Folks
like Foy and Frank haven't thought good of Republicans since Mr.
Hoover brought on the Depression.
Richard Spencer is upbeat enough in casual conversation. But engage
him in serious talk and dark fears bubble forth. Come month's
end, Richard retires, and with a heavy heart. If clouds of change
brewing over Washington aren't bad enough for West Texas farmers,
lack of rain over this too-often parched stretch year after dusty
year just makes life worse.
"I came here in '67, and till '81 we made a decent crop out
here every year," the easy-going county ag agent told me.
"From '81, it's kinda been downhill. The last five years
farmers haven't made enough on crops to even pay back the banker.
"The cattle market's been depressed, and it's that way everywhere
I know. I really do worry about farming in the future. If we miss
making a crop this time, some farmers may be in real trouble."
HOME SWEET HOME
Richard has been in Fisher County long enough to be treated
like a bona fide native, but he's actually from Bronte. His dad
worked as a stock farmer but, with the terrible drought of the
1950s, opened a seven-day-a-week convenience store in the area,
one of the first.
Like his dad and mom, Richard worked in the store, which sold
gas, food and functioned as a feed store.
His parents also resolved early on their son would go to college.
They quietly put aside enough to see to it.
"Bronte at that time was about the size it is now - all farming
and ranching, sheep and cattle," Richard said. "It was
a nice place, just like Fisher County is. At the store I'd fix
flats and change oil and then clean my hands and go in and get
somebody some meat.
"You know, I guess my father finally got out of all that
in '72, but till then I continued going down on weekends, helping
out."
Richard Spencer's decision to go into the county extension service
was spurred by his love of overseeing livestock. He spent his
first 3-1/2 years on the job in Brownfield. But when he transferred
to Fisher County, he knew he was home.
Besides the Mitchell brothers, area banker Wayne Harris was among
the first to welcome Richard.
"He's always had a big heart," Richard said. "I'd
been on the job three days, and he came by and said if he could
help in any way, if I ever needed a loan, I should come to him."
Through the years, Richard Spencer has had his share of crazy
happenings, including the time a woman called his office and asked
if he could come out and set the banged-up wing of a wild bird.
He declined the request but did offer suggestions.
The walls of his office in Roby are populated with photos from
countless livestock shows. When I made some crack about how many
pictures of cows and kids he had displayed, he smiled, looked
over at them, then said, "And that ain't all of 'em, either."
He can tell you something about each cow and each kid.
QUITE A HERD
Through it all, Richard and wife Kathy have raised not only
two sons but three more boys from a broken home (and, no, they're
not blood kin), plus Kathy's great-niece, "and now I got
two grandkids, and I guess we're gonna get to raise them, too."
Raising this brood for Richard and Kathy means helping send them
to college, too. Seems the example set by his own parents has
not been forgotten.
Richard takes pride in local kids garnering some $126,000 of scholarship
money from the Texas 4-H Scholarship Program over the years. He's
seen many youths from those programs go on to become farmers.
"He's meant a whole lot to this county, especially those
4-H Club boys and girls," Foy Mitchell told me the other
day. "He taught 'em principles. I'd say all the boys that
he carried to shows, he didn't do wrong with 'em. They all came
out to be good citizens."
But Richard Spencer today fears for farmers young and old, because
so many government programs to aid farmers in times of crisis
are under constant threat. Because farming is an uncertain career
fraught with chance, many teens simply aren't considering it.
"The parents don't want 'em to," Richard said. "And
the kids on their own have heard so much grumbling over the last
four or five years, they don't want any part of it."
Of course, one might say Richard won't have to worry about that
so much. He'll be retired after Sept. 30.
But one doesn't live in Fisher County and think like that. Not
for long, anyway.
----
Bill Whitaker, who's seen herds with fewer cows than Richard Spencer
has on his wall, can be reached by calling 670-5293, ext. 325.
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