The Many Hats a Farmer Wears

Every month the coordinator of our local Farm Bureau Association and I go into our school’s fourth grade classroom to teach “Ag in the Classroom.” This morning two members of the board of directors came along to lend a hand. My husband Joe was one of them. Today’s lesson was about the many hats farmers wear.

We had five of the kids step in the hall to put on costumes and/or gather props. We had them dressed as a livestock manager (cattleman), a weather man, a scientist (plant pathologist), a heavy machinery operator and a businessman. The rest of the class had to guess what professions they were. Then the guys explained how they wear each of those hats on a regular basis.

The guys did great. I think it surprised the kids how much technology came into play for each of those jobs. It probably also surprised them that it’s not just driving a tractor and feeding animals. There are a lot of factors off-farm — even internationally — that producers have to take into consideration on a daily basis when making decisions. It got the gears turning… one of the students (MY SON!) even asked how we get commodities to China or Russia.

We start our “Ag in the Classroom” off each year with a day at the farm. At the farm, the kids rotate through several different learning stations: Wheat, Soybeans, Milo (Grain Sorghum), Beef Cattle, Dairy Cattle, Farm Machinery, Veterinarian. Then each month after, we pick one thing as a theme for our lesson. So far we’ve done pumpkins, pizza (more detailed wheat lesson since we grow a lot of wheat here), candy (yes! more specifically, cocoa, sugar beets/cane, palm kernel oil, touch on international trade) and the many hats a farmer wears.

Since farmers work hard to take care of the land, the next three lessons are spent focusing primarily on natural resources, learning how important it is to take care of our resources, soil composition and what farmers do to conserve our soil.

 

Sigh…

I have been a no-blogging, no-column-writing, and — if I’m being completely honest — no-laundry-doing loser face. What exactly have I been doing during this sabbatical?

Who the heck knows?

Let’s see. We had wheat harvest this past summer. And our county fair, where our kiddos take their projects to showcase all of their hard work. Then we actually left the state for a vacation to the mountains. Then school started. Our daughter who just entered junior high started volleyball. Wheat had to be drilled, soybeans and milo had to be harvested and calves had to be weaned. Then we had meetings and holidays. And hunting. I like going hunting. However, I have not shot anything since my turkey. I went out to hunt deer several times. I just never had an opportunity to pull the trigger. As a couple of friends have said in the past few weeks, “That’s why they call it hunting, not shooting.”

Now that stuff is over. Time to get back to that back burner where I’ve left the beans for so long, they’ve just disappeared from pan.

We have 51 heifer (female) calves left on our operation. We sold the rest of our calves at the end of 2013. Yesterday we had those 51 pelvic measured and evaluated by a veterinarian to determine which ones were suitable to be promoted to breeding females, and which needed to be sold to be harvested for meat. Out of those suitable, we selected 26 to keep ourselves to replace the old cows we decide to cull from our herd in May. That number was decided based on how many head we think our current grass acreage can handle. We’ve been in a drought the past couple of years.

Joe and I have some meetings to attend in the next few weeks, then we’ll be starting calving season. It’s my favorite time of year!

I’ll try to quit being a no-blogging loser face. Take care!