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The Millershaskis from Lakin are this month’s Ag Heroes not only because they run a multi-generational family operation, but also because their passion for agriculture goes beyond production to advocacy.
Gary and Jana Millershaski farm with their sons Kyler and Jeremy on the same land farmed by Jana’s father Earl, who was born in the farmhouse in 1930. Earl passed away in 2019, but his daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons are proudly carrying on the tradition he loved so much, and his widow Judy still prepares food with Jana for their harvest celebrations. The Millershaskis grow wheat, dryland corn, milo and they have a cow/calf operation. Gary serves on both the Kansas Wheat Commission and the U.S. Wheat Associates Board of Directors, while Kyler serves on the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Wheat Commission Research Foundation Board of Directors.
The Millershaskis have the kind of deep love for Kansas that comes from nearly a hundred years of working the land. “We go that extra step to take care of the ground because we’re excited when it produces better, but it’s also a family heritage thing,” said Kyler. “This is what my grandparents did. They passed it down to my father, now it’s being passed down to me, and I want to pass it down to my kids one day.” The Millershaskis exemplify the Kansas spirit – they are self-starters, custodians of both the land and the tradition of their ancestors, and pioneers of agriculture’s future.
The Millershakis’ operation, and so many other family operations like it, highlight why we need to strengthen and protect crop insurance and preserve stepped-up basis in the tax code. Little rain and high winds across Kansas in the past year have caused nearly unprecedented soil erosion and crop loss, and without the public-private partnership of crop insurance, family operations like the Millershakis’ can’t survive. If stepped-up basis disappears from the tax code, these family operations will disappear from American soil while the government collects tens of millions of dollars in new capital gains taxes.
Whether it’s bad weather or bad policy in Washington, the Millershaskis are determined to keep going no matter what, and job is to advocate for producers like them. “We’re not going anywhere,” said Kyler. “We’re going to keep doing what we do, and doing it well.”
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