I’m not a farmer. My
husband is a farmer. I was catapulted into it through marriage at the age of
35. Before that, I was just living my suburban life, having dreams of a
creative job and making enough money to have a place to live. Not once did I
think about the American farmer and what they do to keep our country
self-sustaining.
It took me years after marrying a cattle farmer that I only
grasped the mindset. I had to get over the irritation of him never being home
and when he was, a mind that was always planning the next farm day or year. If
it was light out, I never saw him. Dinner was usually kept warm for him in the
oven long after the rest of the family has eaten. A few cool things I learned on those nights
listening to his worry about his cattle and his farm; Did you know that if a
cow eats the leaves off a cherry tree after its cut down, it will kill them? Or
if they engorge themselves on acorns, which they love, they will bloat, and you
have to run them like crazy for them to digest or else they will die? They have to be fed hay bales every day of
the non-grass seasons no matter the weather, they need minerals in the spring
and summer to compliment the grass or they get sick, and if you don’t have
solid fences, they will end up on your neighbor’s farm, and lastly, you have to
spend the entire summer baling hay so they can eat all winter.
My point being farming is a 24/7 mission. A mission they learned from their parents and
grandparents as an obligation to feed America. And America has been so blessed
by the hard work of farmers that we have had enough for ourselves and enough
left over to feed other countries as well!
This comes at a cost though.
Most farmers I know also have to work full time jobs to be able to
afford farming. In the past years, the powers that be have been driving down
cattle pricing, raising feed and supply prices and charging customers even
more. They tried running out the family farm but quickly found out that these
farmers have more resilience and steadfastness than they could even imagine! I
remember one year our tax lady told us that if we don’t make a profit in three
years, its considered a hobby farm and you can’t get an allowance for the
interest on the tractor you needed to feed your cows. Farming is not a hobby, it’s a deep seeded
responsibility these people have to their country. You will not see farmers living in
extravagant homes and vacationing anywhere. Mostly, it’s the exact
opposite. Every dime made goes back into
the farm. So you can eat.
So my personal story? My highly intelligent, educated husband works swing shifts and makes
pretty good money. Money that needs to
be saved for farm equipment, fertilizers, minerals, fencing, etc. because like
I said, cows are selling cheap and supplies are expensive. A few years after we
were married, He was bitten by a Lonestar tick on the farm and developed an
allergy to all mammal meat. If he ate
it, he could go into anaphylactic shock. He kept farming his beef cattle. Years
after that, he was diagnosis with a rare blood disease where the treatment and
outcome was as rare as the disease itself.
Plagued with fatigue, treatments, extreme sickness, he kept working and
kept farming. I pleaded with him a few times to give up all this but I knew it
was futile even mentioning it. He is my hero.
So here we are, April 2020. Let me tell you, this covid stuff? It can’t
match what we’ve endured already.
So the mind set of the farmer? This country has to eat.
Without local farming, there would be a mass starvation worse than any plague
we have ever seen. Stop being afraid of
going back to work. If my husband can continue to do what he does for you,
unable to eat meat himself, with a rare, debilitating blood cancer, then I
think you can wash your hands or wear a mask.
You have a better chance of dying of a fear induced heart attack. We do our part in our part of the country
like so many others exactly like us. Together we feed a nation, without us, the
nation crumbles.
The takeaway; Understand all that goes into what you pick up
at the grocery store. That prime rib
you’re grilling next Saturday was compliments of a family that sacrificed
“family time”, vacations, and personal well being to have it on that
shelf. Also the distributors and
slaughterhouses that process the food prepping it for sale to get it to you. They are all still working to the best of their ability to make sure you get fed. Stop slamming factories for their sacrifice
of working through this pandemic. There are so many unsung heroes in this invisible war.
