Down on the Farm
Growing up in rural Fond du Lac County, I often viewed area farms as an idyllic slice of rural Americana. Cows out in our neighbor’s pasture would mosey on out of the barn after milking and take their place in the lush pasture along the road, chewing cud and gazing serenely at the surrounding landscape.
Unknown to me at the time was the flurry of activity going on behind the scenes (or barn door if you will): cows kicking off milk machines, a broken chopper waiting out in the machine shed that would keep my neighbor up well past midnight, a calf out of the best cow in the barn fighting scours and a wife ticked off that dinner was growing cold in the house.
When I took the plunge with a farmer 26 years ago, I got a bracing reality check. My neighbor’s problems would become all too familiar. What outwardly appears to be a placid lifestyle is just a calm façade that many farmers embrace when in fact they are inwardly trying to solve 20 problems at once. Next time you pass the farmer on the roadway take a closer look, he’s not counting daisies in the ditch but trying to remember if there’s still time to breed that cow that’s been acting amorous lately or whether or not he shut off the pump out back in the manure pit.
My intent is to journal some of the ups and downs at the farm as well as take a look at the people scratching out a living from the land. Not that the farm isn’t a great place to raise a family, but it does have it moments.
Falling milk prices and skyrocketing diesel prices aren’t anything to laugh about but there are many wonderful things that happen on the farm and out in the back 40 that make even droughts, 15-hour workdays and stubborn animals bearable.
Growing up in rural Fond du Lac County, I often viewed area farms as an idyllic slice of rural Americana. Cows out in our neighbor’s pasture would mosey on out of the barn after milking and take their place in the lush pasture along the road, chewing cud and gazing serenely at the surrounding landscape.
Unknown to me at the time was the flurry of activity going on behind the scenes (or barn door if you will): cows kicking off milk machines, a broken chopper waiting out in the machine shed that would keep my neighbor up well past midnight, a calf out of the best cow in the barn fighting scours and a wife ticked off that dinner was growing cold in the house.
When I took the plunge with a farmer 26 years ago, I got a bracing reality check. My neighbor’s problems would become all too familiar. What outwardly appears to be a placid lifestyle is just a calm façade that many farmers embrace when in fact they are inwardly trying to solve 20 problems at once. Next time you pass the farmer on the roadway take a closer look, he’s not counting daisies in the ditch but trying to remember if there’s still time to breed that cow that’s been acting amorous lately or whether or not he shut off the pump out back in the manure pit.
My intent is to journal some of the ups and downs at the farm as well as take a look at the people scratching out a living from the land. Not that the farm isn’t a great place to raise a family, but it does have it moments.
Falling milk prices and skyrocketing diesel prices aren’t anything to laugh about but there are many wonderful things that happen on the farm and out in the back 40 that make even droughts, 15-hour workdays and stubborn animals bearable.
posted by the farmer's wife @ 8:59 AM
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