Saw this on facebook

[dun]

Farming. People think it's a majestic, rewarding, magical experience to be had in the spring or summer when baby calves, goatlings, and bunnies are being born. They think it's all roses and ribbons, cotton candy at the fair farming.
It's not. It's grueling, heartbreaking, gut wrenching… it's staying up all night, praying nothing goes amiss at foaling, calving, kidding times. It's trekking out into tornadoes and lightning because there's a chance the barn was left open. It's struggling to feed, medicate, vet, and raise babies into profit, or more realistically, into old geriatrics that you must put down, or hold as they take their final breath. It's cradling the baby that you thought was safe, because you made it through the normal milestones of danger, while praying the vet makes it in time. It's knowing that every time you lose one, you die a little inside. It's learning the hard way. Breaking ice in 18" of snow, before you've eaten, so the animals get to have water. It's saving up all winter at your "real" job so you can scrape enough to buy the hay and feed they need. And replace it when it's crap, the barn floods, or it didn't last as long as you had hoped.
Yes farming can be magical. Yes it can be fun. Yes it can be rewarding. But if you can't look them in the eyes, knowing they will die in your arms, then don't enter into farming. If you can't go without new shoes, clothes or cars to vet and feed, then don't enter into farming.
If you think it's not in you to spend all night holding a poop covered calf up on his own feet, or giving an enema, or walking a horse that is trying to colic, then please don't enter into farming. It's not a comfortable life. There's no money in it. People will tell you that you're cruel, stupid, or going to end the world. If you're not capable of dealing, don't enter into farming.

 

[Nesikep]

Very true.. unfortunately.. But in a way the hardships make the rewards (however small.. like getting that calf hooked on to those #%$& teats) feel really good.

Breaking ice, staying up late, getting up in the middle of the night, etc.. those are just mild discomforts to me... Worse ones are putting down a great old cow, and the worst has to be the unappreciative customer or kick in the groin when prices suck

 

[City Guy]

Nothing changes until something changes.

 

[Ouachita]

Dun,
I made my first thread in a long time, just a couple hours after yours. Your thoughts are in harmony with mine, although I didn't speak it as you did. All true. My kids are growing up. They are now 100% self sufficient with the livestock. They have a vested interest in what they own. It's a pleasure to be a part of it, AND to watch them grow through these problems you mention. They are determined, and they are full of pizz and vinegar. My day has arrived. This will be the first year that I can stay up all night, outside, watching the deer and the bear come to the feeder...........because I don't HAVE to be anywhere or do anything this morning, at least not early. I've been out here, propped up against my lazy tree, all night. I did doze off a time or two, and just now headed back up the hill to the house for breakfast and then maybe a nap after I watch the sunrise. The kids will take care of the livestock, the feeding, the milking........
I've got it made.

 

[Ouachita]

Dang roosters just started crowing. Time to get back home and turn the coffee on.

 

[Kingfisher]

Dang roosters just started crowing. Time to get back home and turn the coffee on.

Lol. At least the bear didn't eat you!

 

[Ouachita]

I wish I had the patience to post pictures. I've got 4 game cam pictures of this bear. We put the deer feeders out Saturday week. One of them was new. The bear chose to mangle the new one, so I just dumped the corn in a feed trough and loaded the feeder in my truck for repair.
I don't have experience judging size/weight of a bear, especially with pictures, in the dark. But he? appears a healthy 350-375lb at least.

 

[Clodhopper]

Well said.

 

[Ouachita]

Dun, I also wanted to add this;
You write in such a way, I'd hazard a guess that your post above would really change the hearts and minds of some "would be" animal rights folks. Most are confused.........all of them started out confused. Your post is written in such a way to reveal the truth nobody can deny; we all love and care for our livestock as much or more than those type folks care for their chaweinieoodle.

 

[dun]

Dun, I also wanted to add this;
You write in such a way, I'd hazard a guess that your post above would really change the hearts and minds of some "would be" animal rights folks. Most are confused.........all of them started out confused. Your post is written in such a way to reveal the truth nobody can deny; we all love and care for our livestock as much or more than those type folks care for their chaweinieoodle.

I can't take credit for it. I didn;t write it, just was sent to me. But it does pretty well sum up how I feel. That was why I posted it here.
Yup, I'm a softy!

 

[Margonme]

The vocation of farming and animal husbandry connects a person with life and the earth. My beginnings on a farm engaged me in a life long pursuit of geology and biology. A farm is suspended in life. A farm is the earth. The hills, soil, rocks and formations, rocks with fossils, trees, grasses, molds and mushrooms, the sun, the moon, the sky...

Farming is not a struggle, a burden, a labor. It is LIVING.

I often think about my achievements. My beginnings on a farm account for it all. What is Biology? The study of life. What is a farm? A microcosm of life. What is Geology? The study of the earth. What is a farm? A farm is a microcosm of the earth.

Farming is the essentials of what we are as humans. There is no other vocation on this planet where you can experience what existence is about more than farming and raising cattle.

 

[TCRanch]

Well said and I absolutely agree. That said, I'm guilty of perpetuating the "magical experience", primarily to negate the assumption that cattle are treated inhumanely. Last week Tupelo Honey Cafe visited the ranch and took videos & pictures of our herd (and me) to promote Farm-to-Table on their website/blog/marketing. I did discuss the hardships & heartache with the Director of Purchasing but they obviously prefer to promote the warm, fuzzy feeling to their customers. Pretty sure only the footage of them hand-feeding the cows & calves made the cut.

 

[Margonme]

Well said and I absolutely agree. That said, I'm guilty of perpetuating the "magical experience", primarily to negate the assumption that cattle are treated inhumanely. Last week Tupelo Honey Cafe visited the ranch and took videos & pictures of our herd (and me) to promote Farm-to-Table on their website/blog/marketing. I did discuss the hardships & heartache with the Director of Purchasing but they obviously prefer to promote the warm, fuzzy feeling to their customers. Pretty sure only the footage of them hand-feeding the cows & calves made the cut.

Advertising promotes the positive so they were on the right tact to show the warm fuzzy side.

Candidly, there is a negative side to animal husbandry. Some producers should be put in a hog pen for a year. The vast majority care about their animals and make every reasonable effort to meet their needs.

 

[Jogeephus]

I have a guy who buys from me and he is soooo ticky about where he buys his meat. He says everyone treats their animals bad and I am the exception. He tells me my beef is organic. I have corrected him countless times telling him my beef isn't organic nor is it grassfed and that I am doing nothing that most cattlemen aren't doing yet he still insists I'm wrong so I just let him believe what he wants to believe. If I am wrong you guys should be ashamed of yourselves. :lol2:

 

[talltimber]

That sums it for me pretty much as well. Good piece, there. I had visions of glamour and riches, and had predetermined ideas, unfounded, of how things were going to go. That has went the way of the blue goose, mostly. It's been getting "real" here lately.

 

[dun]

That sums it for me pretty much as well. Good piece, there. I had visions of glamour and riches, and had predetermined ideas, unfounded, of how things were going to go. That has went the way of the blue goose, mostly. It's been getting "real" here lately.

I never figured I was going to get rich or even well off raising cattle/farming. But it's having the cows, even when they PO me that keeps me living. It seems to be something to do with having CS(cow flop) in my veins. When I was a yonker people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I always said a farmer. They would say, don;t you mean a cowboy, I would tell them no "A FARMER".

 

[alisonb]

It's knowing that every time you lose one, you die a little inside.

:nod: