For Chad and Marie Denny, watching their son, Jon, begin his farming career highlights the importance of supporting the next generation.
“I feel like we’re a bridge. We’re going to own it for a little while, and then it can move on to the next generation,” Marie explained. “It’s not easy to do that. You have to have somebody who wants to continue it. We just want the on-farm person to be able to be profitable in the next generation.”
The Denny family’s history began in the 1880s in the Mount Hope area of southern Spokane County. Over the decades, the family expanded into Fairfield, south of Plummer, Idaho, and along the Snake River in Whitman County. Today, the Denny family grows wheat, barley, canola, lentils, garbanzo beans, peas, and hay with some bluegrass seed thrown in. They also raise cattle. They are “aggressively” no-till, which Chad said has been a long transition, starting when he was 16.
“We had an epic failure when we first tried no-till,” he said. “It didn’t work well at all. We kind of learned from those mistakes and eventually adapted. We have a really good peer group in the Fairfield area that was really helpful to get us going on it. You just had to figure some things out. We learn from each other a lot. That’s probably been one of the biggest advantages is there’s a lot of transparency between our group of friends.”
Besides Jon, the Denny’s have three daughters: Christine works as an accountant in Helena, Mont., and Ellie and Kendall play sports at Carroll College, also in Helena. Jon graduated from college and returned home to start farming in 2023. He took on primary responsibility for some of the land along the Snake River this year.
“This year was my first full year of my own wheat crop. It’s fun to have your own thing going and just know that you’re the one responsible for all of that. It’s like a big weight on your shoulders, but it’s fun to see it go all the way around. It was a good learning experience for me,” Jon said.
Most families mark certain events in their history. For the Denny family, one of those events is the death of Chad’s brother, also named Jon, in a combine accident in 1999. Marie said Jon’s death divides their lives into a before and after.
“My brother had a lot of health problems, but he didn’t let that stop him. He was quite a guy. We had the jobs we could do. I did the more physical stuff, and then he could hop in a cab and run a tractor 12, 14 hours a day, no problem,” Chad explained. “His role in the fall had been to do all the plowing. And, in his absence, I did it that first fall, and between that and the cattle, it wasn’t going to work long term. (Jon’s death) helped us transform into being more efficient.”
Chad’s father, Jack, is still an active presence in the family’s farming operation, driving the bank-out wagon. During harvest, Marie’s brother also helps out when he can. To son, Jon, being surrounded by family is very important.
“We are very close. I was just talking to one of my friends the other day about it. I told him, ‘my dad’s my best friend.’ He really is. We are together quite a bit, and we talk about basically everything,” Jon said. “Farming with him has been really good. We do a lot of things together, and I’ve learned a lot from him already. I look forward to continuing to learn from him.”
