"Let's Talk About F-A-R-Ming"

I want to thank Painted Hand Farm for taking the time to post comments on last week’s F-A-R-M blog.  It’s good to hear from you and know you share many of the same feelings I do about agriculture.  As farmers, it is our responsibility to help others know what it means to F-A-R-M for a living, and what it means to every consumer on a daily basis.  This message can be shared on bumper stickers, in blogs, or by bumping into someone in the grocery store who looks puzzled about food and where it comes from!  Don’t wait for commodity check off programs to do the public relations for you.  Grab the opportunity and speak up in support of farmers.  It’s amazing what people don’t know!

When it comes to not knowing, I am the first to admit that blogging is all new to me.  It is part of an evolutionary publishing world.  Nevertheless, I am learning how to navigate this new technology that allows me to write this column in my farm office and paste it onto Lancaster Farming’s website without wasting fuel.  Last week, I was cruising along on my computer’s keyboard and feeling quite proud of my adaptability in posting my second blog when I realized I had actually “replied” to my first column.  Ooops.  Try again and follow Editor Dave Lefever’s directions more closely this time.  As I successfully completed the task (hearing imaginary cheers coming from his office in Ephrata, Lancaster County), I heard the telephone ringing.  Answering it with an eye on my computer screen that might signal Dave was calling to warn of a fatal error to deflate my elation at having completed the blog before 8 a.m., I heard my mom’s voice asking me:  “Do you want your heifers in both pastures?”

What?  It took a few seconds to transport myself away from the virtual world of my blog and into farming reality.  As my mind absorbed what was being said over Alexander Graham Bell’s old-fashioned communication mode, my mother suddenly had my full attention as my heart raced faster than the speed of my Internet server.  Why were the heifers in both pastures?  Was the fencer not working because of the previous day’s storm?  Had the hi-tensile fence or a post been knocked over somehow?  Were they going to venture beyond the confines of the pasture fence once they knew they could?   With all this warping across my brain cells, I managed to ask with less than a calm composure if my dad knew if the fencer was working or how the heifers got through to the other side.  Her response gave me no comfort when she said, “We don’t know.”

Jumping out of my chair, I told her to tell Dad I would be on my way to their farm where we keep our yearling heifers throughout the summer and fall.  My parents’ farm is a forty minute drive from our farms in Berks County so I knew I had to get rolling.  I was heading out to grab another fencer, just in case, before leaving and decided to call to see if there was anything else I might need.  That was a good decision and saved me a trip to Hershey when Dad said he discovered the heifers had somehow bumped a gate open and helped themselves to the greener pasture on the resting side of the grazing system.  Relief!  My heart quit pounding like a drum after a minute or two.

Calming down, I went back to the computer as I sipped a cup of coffee and checked my messages from Dave Lefever who was giving me an e-mail “high five” for getting my blog posted right the second time I tried.  I thought about how quickly my sense of accomplishment had changed to anxiety thanks to my cattle in that short time frame.  The experience of roller coaster emotions is pretty standard for farmers.  We are elated when we get our crops planted in April, and become anxious when Mother Nature turns off the rain in May and June.  We are ecstatic when our livestock are bred to better sires than the year before, and are devastated when birthing difficulties or illness claim the calf, lamb or piglet before it’s had the chance to grow up to be the best one we ever bred.  Farming’s highs and lows can sap your psyche.  Sometimes it’s good just to talk about them.  Find some humor, or reassure someone that there is a better day coming.

We all can relate stories of things that happen on the farm that bring us great joy or great sorrow, calm or stress.  They happen every day, week, year, or as the kids say, 24-7-365.  That’s life on the F-A-R-M.

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