Last Monday, my coworker Traci Bruckner, Center for Rural Affairs intern Christine Hass and I hit the road, headed southwest from Lyons, Nebraska. Our destination was a farm tour at Fulton Farms in Litchfield, Nebraska. During the tour, farmer Kevin Fulton, proudly said he doesn't own any piece of farm equipment worth more than $10,000.

A fleet of 4-Wheelers used by summer interns and Kevin and his wife Amy's three children are the most valuable pieces of equipment Kevin and Amy of Fulton Farms own. Kevin told the story of his farm's evolution from row crops to grass-based production and his movement from a system dependent on expensive equipment to one that relies more on human labor.

Provoked by low corn prices in the mid-1990s, Kevin's focus changed from growing row crops to building healthy soil, improving the farm's pastures and cattle herd and direct-marketing beef. Growing numbers of livestock on Fulton Farms increased the need for human labor. On the tour, we met interns from Western Pennsylvania and Western Iowa who traveled to central Nebraska work on the farm. The interns benefit from working on the farm by having a learning-by-doing experience with a farmer who is willing to teach them. The Fultons and the surrounding community gain additional labor, new perspectives and fresh enthusiasm from the interns.

Kevin views having more people working the land as essential to rural development. Workers on the Fultons' farm spend money in town, supporting local businesses. The Fultons eventually hope to encourage interns to stay long-term by helping them start their own enterprises on the farm. Honey bees, vegetable gardens, and raising more pigs are enterprises the Fultons hope to build.

If we want to attract new people into farming, we need more people like the Fultons who are willing to share their experience, homes and land with newcomers.