Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2020

Pitching In
When school activities were canceled in the spring,
students like John McConohy found themselves
with more time to do chores on their family farms
BY megan clark
eastern iowa farmer
Back in March when Central
DeWitt High School announced
they would not be
opening until further notice
because of COVID-19, many
students were thrilled for the extended
spring break because it meant more time
for them to watch Netflix and play video
games. But for senior John McConohy,
things looked a bit different.
McConohy lives and works on his
family’s beef cattle and row crop farm in
DeWitt. He also plays a role in their seed
company, McConohy Seed. Typically,
spring is a busy time with planting and
selling seed, but as a full-time student
who is active in sports, his involvement is
often limited.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, many
of McConohy’s activities were canceled,
leaving him with more time to spend with
his family’s operation. He’s among the
many school-aged kids and young adults
who have been able to spend more time
working along with parents or other family
members on farms the past months due
to the pandemic.
“It’s been eye-opening” he said. “And,
also a little more difficult because I’m not
used to everyday you’re waking up super
early and going to the farm to feed cattle
and doing other jobs like working on
machinery or just being on the farm. It’s a
John McConohy backs up a
John Deere 4020 to load feed.
Eastern Iowa Farmer photo /
Trevis Mayfield