Sugar Producer

14 Sugar Producer MARCH 2020 4382-4Artsway12h.indd 1 1/29/20 3:57 PM to harvest their beets without too much incident, then immediately started calling up neighbors who were still in the fields to see if they could lend their time and equipment to the effort. "That's kind of the way we work around the Worland area," says Tom. "We finish up our own harvest and move on to the neighbors' places, no questions asked." Tom and his wife Connie—a Wyoming farm girl who grew up just a few miles down the road from their current home— raised their two children, Colton and Cenzie, on the farm. And while neither has sought out a full-time role on the farm in adulthood, Tom says neither parents or children would trade that experience for the world. "It's an excellent family life," he says. "To raise my son and daughter on the farm was such a blessing. They may not have come back, but the learned the value of a dollar and how to work, and that's still valuable to them." Today, Wesley Clark—Tim's son and Tom's nephew—is stepping up to carry on the family tradition of growing sugarbeets in Worland. With a new generation of Clarks stepping up to take the wheel, Tom anticipates production on the farm to once again ramp up over the next few years. "Wesley is the one who is going to lead this parade forward," he says. "Tim and I built this deal together. We may have had our nose-to-nose encounters over the years, but combining business and family has been good to us." n A new generation of the Clark family is learning firsthand the joys of being sugarbeet farmers "from knee-high on up."

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