They just don’t get it!
April 29, 2011
On the road; not so much this week. Although I made a quick, one-day trip to western Kansas, I was mostly within the confines of the office. Also, more time at home!
Never would I pretend to be a bona-fide producer, but wife Karol and I have a small, hobby cowherd that we enjoy, and do try to profit from: seriously! When visitors come over, I point to the barn, pens, gooseneck trailer and fences and say, “There’s our camper and our boat.” We have spent a fair share of disposable income on these items. Although I do not always want to know what our capital investment is per cow!
I did not have the opportunity to join in my family’s operation here in Kansas, but I always wanted to be able to keep my hands in it. Likewise for Karol, she was raised on a diversified crop and livestock operation in Iowa. We like our cows! We try to instill some of this passion for agriculture in our children. They help with chores, clean the barn, break calves to halter and lead, learn to wash and groom and show their calves in 4-H. We call it “character building.” They call it work!
This morning’s experience was one that made all those days when doing chores on cold days with biting winds and snow, carrying bales across frozen ground and thwawing out my supposedly “frost-free waterer” worth it all. You understand… you know what I mean if you have a love of the land and livestock and have farming and/or ranching in your blood.
This morning’s air was calm, and it was cool. The cows were grazing leisurely just inside the new fence that I had finally finished a few days prior. The calves stopped to look, and were interested in me taking their picture, but only for a little while. Pretty soon they scampered off, anxious to find something more intriguing than the chore boy in old jeans and a jacket and cap.
I had just kicked them out on grass the evening before; the calves had been running with their tails held high and kicking up their heels! Even the cows were enjoying the new space and surroundings as the warm season grasses have started to perk up; grazing eagerly on the big and little bluestem, sideoats and Indian grass…and away from the dry brome hay they had consumed all winter in the dry lot. Two great scenes in less than 12 hours! Wow!
Ninety-eight percent of the people in this country don’t get the chance to enjoy this. I love it! I love the smells, the sound, the sight of cattle grazing on pasture at sunrise. The experience is one I live for, even if it is on a small scale. I want to share it with everyone, and I think we’d have more friends in agriculture if we did.
To many folks right now, agriculture is a dirty word. They are far removed from the farm and ranch. They don’t understand it any more than I understand their lives and what they deal with every day in Chicago, St. Lous, Kansas City, or Philadelphia. Maybe they just don’t get it. But I really wish they would! We need to tell the story.
Next week, I’m off to the Texas panhandle, southwest Iowa, and north central Oklahoma. Till then, adios!
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