A 10-year-old boy with ambitions to take over his family’s 200-acre beef farm in Wisconsin has invested his life savings in a rare antique tractor to help his parents.
Hard-working Caleb Bergner is one of four siblings being raised on the Bergner Beef Family Farm in Pulaski, Wisconsin. Caleb attends a nearby Catholic school, but when he’s not focused on school work, he’s hurling 50-pound straw bales, feeding calves and cattle, and tending the land with his mom and dad. Mom Jill Bergner, 40, is a fourth-generation farmer.
“It’s not too often that kids beg you for a tractor!” Jill told The Epoch Times. “Our neighbor ... was just a few days short of turning 93 years old, and he said it was time for him to downsize, so he put it for sale.
“We drove past it for two days, and Caleb and his younger brother kept begging me to stop in there and ask the guy how much he wanted, so we did. The only thing that my husband said was, ‘They don’t make these tractors anymore,’ so that’s when we knew we were going to get it.”
Caleb bought the well-preserved 1948 McCormick Farmall Cub on May 2 for $2,800 with money saved from eight years’ worth of chores and selling animals at the county fair. Caleb’s father, Jason, who has ridden tractors since the age of 12 and uses a John Deere plow and drag harrow to work the land, showed Caleb how to care for his new ride.
The budding farmer, who plans to plow the garden, pick stones, and “pull things around” with his Cub and wagon, said: “[I feel] really good, because it’s my first one that I ever got. ... [My dad] said it was a good chance in life to get it because otherwise you could try to buy another tractor, it could be too much money, and I might not have enough.”
Caleb, who has worked in the fields his “whole life,” is already a dab hand on the farm. And he and his siblings have also been riding in the John Deere with their dad since they were babies.
Jill said all their kids have watched them work on the farm, and once they got “old enough to hold a broom” that’s when they start helping at the farm. “That was Caleb’s first job, learning to sweep the feed into the animals,” Jill said.
For Caleb, his dream is to “work hard and learn how to fix things.”
The mom said: “My husband and I thought this would be a really good starter project for kids his age to learn. Not only does he have this tractor, but now he has to maintain it. ... Down the road, things may break, and he will have to learn how to fix it.” Jill said.
The proud mom says her son is a very hard worker and loves to be the center of attention. With their commitment to the animals and land, the family works seven days a week through rain or shine and finds it hard to take vacations. But they don’t complain, said Jill, whose four kids have learned practical skills and the value of hard work through helping keep the farm afloat.
Jill wishes more kids could have such hands-on experience, and even learn to love the life, like Caleb.
“Country life is so much different than city life,” she said. “You learn its ups and downs every day; things can change, weather can change, animals can get sick, life changes on a day-to-day basis, but you pull through it and you work together as a family. I wish more kids could have that exposure, and experience and learn responsibility.”
