John Deere Family Farm Board Game

[Christain Cobb]

Duanewas born on March 27, 1940, to William and Mildred (Luckason) Brokate in Moorhead, MN. He grew up on the family farm north of Hawley, MN. He attended and graduated from Hawley High School. Duane was a farmer for all his life, purchasing his first piece of land while still attending high school. After high school, he worked part time as a mechanic at a local garage for a brief time before working full time on his farm. He met Faye Malakowsky at the Hawley Drive Inn where she worked as a car hop. They were united in marriage on August 24, 1962, in Eksjo Lutheran Church, Lake Park, MN. Duane and Faye raised four children and worked together on the farm. He retired in August of 2004 when he and Faye auctioned their farm equipment and moved into their retirement home on the same property. He continued working with local farmers in his retirement.

Duane was a very active, lifelong member of Lysne Lutheran Church, serving as custodian for many years and partaking in many duties at the church. He was a member of the Lysne Lutheran Church Council and worked on the church cemetery board. He also served on the Cromwell Township Board and the Hawley School Board. He and his family participated in 4-H for many years. He was deeply empathetic, very genuine, and quite stubborn. He wore his emotions on his sleeve and had a soft spot in his heart for animals, especially rescue cats and dogs.

The Farming Game is a board game simulating the economics of a small farm. Published in 1979, it was designed by George Rohrbacher, a rancher in Washington State. The Farming Game painfully reflects the real life difficulties of running a farm. Also, the names and places in the game are the names of families farming for generations in Yakima Valley and other parts of Central Washington. When Rohrbacher invented the game, it was a desperate time for his failing farm and small family, this is reflected in the difficulty of the game, and the multitude of points taken into consideration in farming that are often left up to chance. It is considered a board game which has educational value.[1]

The game's objective is to raise money by harvesting crops and selling livestock, including hay, fruit, grain, and cattle. This is done by moving around the board using one die, similar to Monopoly. Each trip around the board represents a year of farming, and players can increase their chances of earning more money by planting more crops or raising more livestock, which can be purchased by exercising the option given from an Option to Buy (O.T.B.) card a player has drawn during the course of the game.

Elements of the game are intended to reflect aspects of real-life farming. For example, players sometimes encounter "Farmer's Fate" cards that are either good or bad, similar to the "Chance" cards found in Monopoly. One such card allows you to go to winter and collect your annual $5000 bonus. Another card informs you that you may not collect on any of your harvests for the rest of the year. These cards are intended to reflect the element of chance or luck that is involved in farming, which is the aim of the game.

The board itself is divided into squares representing forty-nine of the fifty-two weeks in a year, with different sections grouped together under the usual harvest for that season. Whereas there are multiple sections for harvesting hay (your first, second, third, and even fourth cutting), Livestock are sold only once a year. Similar to real life, poor timing (or unlucky die rolls) can cause the player to miss, or skip over, a harvest.

Players take turns rolling a die, traveling around the board, harvesting their crops when they can. Crops are purchased through O.T.B. (Option to Buy) cards usually referencing "Neighbor Sells Out: 10 Acres Grain", the crops are grouped into Hay, Grain (Wheat and Corn), Fruit (Apples and Cherries), and Livestock (Cattle). Whereas hay is the cheapest to purchase and most often harvested, just as in real life, the chance for large profit is much smaller than with livestock or fruit. What balances this game, and provides the most difficulty for real life farmers, are operating expenses. In The Farming Game, whenever a player harvests a crop, he draws a card entitled "Operating Expense", examples of which are "Pay $500 for Irrigation" or "Seed Bill Due: Pay $1,000". Also, certain spaces on the board instruct the player to draw a "Farmer's Fate" card. "Farmer's Fate" cards are usually unfortunate for the player, including references to the drought in the 1970s in which all the player's livestock are slaughtered.

Template:Original researchThe Farming Game is a heavily chance dependent game, and thus the winner is usually determined by luck.Template:Fact However, a player can increase his or her chances of winning by knowing which crops are more likely to be profitable and use this information to make advantageous trades with other players.

Based upon the probabilities of landing on each square and the average selling price of each commodity, Hay is slightly less profitable than Grain, while Cattle averages about 1.5 times as much profit as Grain. Fruit is even more lucrative, earning about 2.5 times as much profit as Grain.

Thus, a player's first choice should always be to plant as much Fruit as possible. In fact, the advantage is so great that the winner will usually be the player lucky enough to draw the most "O.T.B. Fruit" cards.

A player's second choice should then be to raise Cattle, however, the game limits the number of Cattle you can raise on the farm to 20. In order to raise more, you must lease additional land, but in doing so you must pay a large fee. This fee is, in fact, higher than the total profit you are likely to earn on the Cattle by the end of the game! In other words, not only will you likely lose money on the investment, but you will also be losing the opportunity to invest your money in more profitable commodities. Thus, you should never lease additional land to raise Cattle.

A player's third choice should then be to choose to focus upon either Grain or Hay. If two players can agree to swap commodities so that one grows only Grain while the other grows only Hay, then they will both have a slight advantage over other players who grow both crops because they will pay less in harvesting fees. Note, however, that the Grain player will still have a slight advantage over the Hay player, which may make negotiating such a deal difficult. Another disadvantage to this strategy is that it decreases both player's chances of harvesting. If a player grows both, he removes a lot of the variability involved in his expected profit.

Jim Erickson represents Madera Irrigation District on the Friant Water Authority Board of Directors. Jim was born, raised, and still lives on the original home ranch his great-grandfather bought in 1924 in Madera. He graduated in 1978 from Madera High School and is a third-generation Fresno State graduate with a B.S. in Ag Business. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Lori, and they have two sons and one daughter. Mr. Erickson runs a successful farming operation with his sons and has more than 36 years of experience in the agricultural field. Jim is a second-generation MID Board Member and has been actively involved in many agricultural organizations, including past president of the Madera County Farm Bureau. Mr. Erickson was appointed to the Friant Water Authority Board in December 2016.

Josh Pitigliano serves on the Friant Water Authority Board of Directors representing Lower Tule River Irrigation District. He is a fourth-generation farmer and works alongside his father and two brothers. Their diversified farm and farm management business is spread across multiple irrigation districts. Josh attended Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo majoring in Agribusiness with an emphasis in Farm and Ranch management. He served as chairman of the Tulare County Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee and later sat on the Tulare County Farm Bureau board as a director. Josh is married to his wife, Jennifer, for 14 years and counting and have two wonderful boys, Wes and Ike.

Cliff joined the Friant Water Authority Board of Directors in March 2014. As a director, he sits on the Finance, Human Resources, and O&M Committees. He also serves as alternate director in the Executive Committee. Cliff and his family have farmed in Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District since the 1970s. He was appointed to the LSID board in 2013. As the LSID representative, he also represents the District on the East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability (EKGSA) board of directors He also serves on a local packing house board of directors and has been active in the local community during his adult life. Cliff holds a Bachelor of Arts from California State University, Bakersfield, with concentrations in History and Psychology.

Loren serves on the Friant Water Authority Board of Directors representing Hills Valley Irrigation District, where she is board chair. She is a member of the East Kings River groundwater Coalition and a past chair of the California Ag Leadership Program. She also serves on the Ann Reimers Foundation, the Otis Booth Foundation, Children's Institute Board of Trustees and the Reining Horse Foundation. When not spending time with grandchildren or showing reining horses, she loves to fly fish and enjoy the beauty and serenity of nature. Loren grew up in Southern California and moved to the San Joaquin Valley in 1975, working in her family's cow/calf operation. After graduating from the California Agricultural Program, she became more involved in the family citrus operation working closely with her dad Otis Booth. Today Booth Ranches is a vertically integrated citrus operation growing, packing and marketing their products all over the world. Loren also enjoys raising and showing world-class reining horses. She has two children, her son Jake Sill and daughter-in-law Chiara, live in Visalia with their darling children, Sinclair and Charles Ensign Sill. Her daughter, Blair and son-in-law Bubba Moffett, live in Scottsdale, Arizona with their darling children, Eloise and Duke Moffett. Loren attended Cal Poly State University, Pomona, and Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo.

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