Farmer Joe Dise, 24, has a philosophical take on agriculture.
“Farming is the closest career to being altruistic,” he says. “It’s not for the money. It’s to keep the world going.”
At the same time, Dise has his feet planted firmly on the ground. Farming’s personal satisfactions are about getting things done.
“I like the ability to directly attribute success or failure to your own actions and the fact that it is providing essential goods,” he said.
Dise said he chose farming because he wanted “to do something that helps people, manage the land, and work in the community.”
He came to agriculture through his family, which bequeathed him a farming heritage “on both sides.” He grew up next to his uncle Dean Overholt’s farm on Irish Meetinghouse Road in Bedminster.
“I started by helping my uncle David Dise and joined 4-H beef club when I was about 13, then moved on to working full-time for Deer Run (beef cattle) Farm in the summers of high school,” Dise said.
He worked part-time for Overholt while attending Penn State main campus. He graduated with a B.S. in Agribusiness Management, and now works with him full-time.
“It’s basically the two of us, day to day,” with part-time help from other family members, Dise said.
The farm (preserved by Bucks County in 1996), recently reverted to the name “Spiral Ash Farm,” as Dise’s grandfather Joseph Overholt called it.
Dise and Dean Overholt grow corn, wheat and soybeans, and alfalfa, timothy and orchard grass hay, on 25 tillable acres and 525 rented acres “within an hour by tractor.” They also do custom work for clients such as cutting a crop or operating special-purpose equipment.
Dise is a 2023 recipient of Bucks County Farm Bureau’s Jerry Harris & Paul Hockman Young Ag Professionals Grant. He will use the $2,500-grant to “invest in the farm’s hay enterprise.” High-quality hay for the equestrian market is stored in the 1850s bank barn. Replacing the barn doors and improving equipment will help to mechanize haying and eliminate the production-crimping factor of seasonal labor that is perennially in short supply.
Despite the demands of being a full-time farmer Dise is also committed to spreading altruism beyond his farm. He leads a project for Deep Run East Mennonite Church, now in its 4th year, called “Crops for Hunger,” part of a worldwide “Growing Hope Globally” initiative. Revenues from crops grown on the church’s 42 tillable acres are used to ameliorate food insecurity.
Spiral Ash Farm is situated within a venerable agricultural area pre-dating the Civil War, a community where, Dise says, trust, relationships and reputations matter.
There is competition among farmers, but it “has an unofficial code of ethics around land use.” Ultimately good land use benefits the whole community. The more productive acreage, “the better for all of us.”
For Joe Dise, it’s not farming unless it’s farming done right.
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