Farming ‘A Great Stress Relief’ For Soldier, Health Care Provider Helping In COVID-19 Battle

In Carrington, he trained under the direction of Dr. Todd Schaffer, who sold Hoff by joining the North Dakota National Guard. So that year, Hoff signed up. Now a Major and a member of the State Medical Detachment, he has had a range of experiences in the Guard, ranging from medical missions and a deployment in Afghanistan to becoming a flight surgeon.

“It’s been a good career,” he said, sitting in his parents’ basement on the farm. “I think it’s going to be a much longer career.”

Hoff’s day job remains in Carrington, where his job includes hospital visits, clinic visits, and emergency room coverage. Combine that with his daycare and a family, and Hoff has a busy life. In 2012, he bought land and continues to farm with his father alongside his other jobs. But rather than adding more stress, Hoff finds it a good way to balance his life.

“In all honesty, farming has been a great stress reliever for me,” he said. “It was an opportunity to come back to where I grew up and what I know. And it gives me the opportunity to get away from medicine, to get away from the daily hustle and bustle.

According to the United States Census of Agriculture, there were 370,619 veteran farmer nationwide in 2017. As a percentage, that means 11% of all farmers are also veterans, ahead of 7% of the general population who served in the military.

Michael O’Gorman is the founder and agricultural director of the Farmer Veteran Coalition. (Photo provided)

Michael O’Gorman, a former organic farmer from California, started the Farmer Veteran Coalition in 2008 to try and connect veterans with opportunities in farming. When he hears of Farmer Services members like Hoff, he reflects on the farmer-soldiers who founded the country.

“This is the history, and the long history, in America,” he said. “We were founded by Washington and Jefferson and farmers who were also soldiers, defenders of the country.”

Brad Hoff’s parents, Doug and Pam, fly a flag on their farm. Brad, in addition to being a farmer and medic, is also a major in the North Dakota National Guard. He finds his time on the farm relaxing and a good way to focus on his family. He wants to seed the swamp beyond the shed with fish for the enjoyment of his children and the children of his family. Photo taken on November 5, 2020 (Jenny Schlecht / Agweek)

When Hoff was growing up, his family farm focused on small grains and livestock. After his grandfather died, he and his father, Doug, decided to get away from the cattle. Today, they cultivate about 2,800 acres, growing mainly wheat and soybeans.

Hoff attended the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND, for X-ray technology, then worked at what was then called Meritcare in Fargo, ND, until he returned to school to be an assistant medical in 2008.

The National Guard hadn’t been on his radar until Schaffer told him about programs to pay for his education and ways to grow and experiment with new things. Hoff joined “active duty for special work,” a designation for service members who complete their education and then directly commanded in the Guard as a second lieutenant after completing their education.

While on medical missions to Ghana, Hoff was part of a team that trains medics in the sister state National Guard and cares for civilians, including treating 1,100 patients over a three-day period.

Farmers, like Brad Hoff, are more likely to be veterans or the military than the general population. (Jenny Schlecht / Agweek)

Hoff said parts of his deployment to Afghanistan in 2014 were similar to medical missions and his regular job at Carrington; he and other doctors took care of the normal and everyday ailments of the soldiers. But it was also part of medical evacuation missions in which medics stabilized wounded soldiers on the battlefield and brought them to higher levels of care.

In recent years, Hoff has become a flight surgeon, which means he takes care of the pilots and makes sure their health is “perfect”. This coincides with his personal interest in theft; he obtained his private pilot license shortly before his deployment. He said he appreciates the opportunities the Guard has provided to continue learning. The next challenge he plans to take on is going to air assault school.

His work at Carrington, he said, is “pretty consistent every day.” It consists of rounds to the hospital, followed by a clinic and covering the emergency room with three other providers. COVID-19 added some difficulty, with regular complications in trying to find beds in large hospitals for people in need of care and trying to cover more ground for sometimes short-staffed facilities.

“With everything going on, it’s a lot more stressful right now,” he said.

Brad Hoff’s daughter, Blayke Bradley Hoff, was pictured with her uniform and ID tags on as a baby. Brad finds that farming provides a place to focus on family more than his daily job as a medic and his job in the North Dakota National Guard. (Photo provided)

Hoff, a fourth and third generation farmer on the current family farm, said the farm offers opportunities to focus on his family. He and his wife, Ashley, have three children who make frequent trips to the farm. Going there allows for more time outdoors and less screen time and experiences than they otherwise would have. For example, Hoff and a parent plan to seed a large swamp that lies between their land to give their children a place to go fishing.

Keeping the farm for another generation is also important to Hoff, who relishes the time he spends with his father.

“I know it means the world to him,” he said.

Hoff also appreciates the change of pace that farm work gives him. It’s not that it’s an easy job, he said, but that it’s just “different from any other profession.” Hard and physical work gives him a sort of escape.

“It’s weird how you don’t need a vacation when you’re on the farm,” Hoff said.

Michael O’Gorman, left, works with interns from the Farmer Veteran Coalition. O’Gorman left a long career in organic farming to found the Coalition, which strives to provide resources to veterans working or entering agriculture. (Photo provided)

Hoff, as part of the medical detachment, is part of the team that performs annual medical examinations on members of the North Dakota National Guard. So, he has spoken to many other members who, like him, return to a farm or ranch, and he finds that others link their enjoyment of farm work to hard work.

This does not surprise O’Gorman, who finds that the sense of purpose in farming meets the sense of purpose many feel while serving in the military.

“It’s that sense of purpose, that sense of mission, that people find in agriculture. People need food, ”he said. “Our ability to feed our country is a national security issue. “

Add to that the responsibility to take care of the land, the environment and other people, and it is an occupation that offers a “healing transition to civilian life,” said O’Gorman.

O’Gorman has had a career in agriculture for nearly four decades, running a large-scale organic produce farm. He never served in the military. But on September 11, 2001, her daughter witnessed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. O’Gorman was in Mexico at the time and struggled to return home with his family to California. And by the time he arrived, his son was in uniform, having enlisted after the attacks.

The Farmer Veteran Coalition and its founder Michael O’Gorman, second from left, are working with Kubota to donate tractors to farming veterans. (Photo provided)

Witnessing her son’s commitment planted the seed in O’Gorman to do something to serve those who serve. Now the Farmer Veteran Coalition is offering the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund, which provides grants to farmers to make their farms run or take a different direction. It could be a piece of equipment, such as a discharge chute, greenhouse, or irrigation system, or it could be an animal to start a livestock operation. The fund has provided nearly $ 3 million in grants since 2011, O’Gorman said. In an additional effort, the coalition is teaming up with Kubota to allocate tractors to some members of the Veteran Farmers Coalition.

One program O’Gorman is particularly enthusiastic about is the Homegrown by Heroes label. The program began in Kentucky, with the intention of giving veteran farmers special recognition in the market. The Farmer Veteran Coalition worked with Kentucky to broadcast the program to all 50 states.

Along with these programs, the coalition is also working with partners such as Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, Farm Credit, AgrAbility and others to help provide resources and programs to veteran farmers. The coalition has chapters in many states and welcomes memberships from veterans or serving military personnel. Its annual conference, to be held virtually this year, is scheduled for November 18-19. For more information visit https://conference.farmvetco.org/schedule.

The US Department of Agriculture also has several programs for veterans, including hiring programs, educational programs, and entrepreneurship resources. For more information visit https://www.usda.gov/our-agency/initiatives/veterans.