3 Things I Wish I Would Have Known Before I Started Farming..
This one comes from the heart because so often we think of farming as this incredibly amazing thing, which it is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so dang grateful for the live I get to live and being the 5th generation on our farm — but that does not mean I don’t struggle with pieces of it. So, here we go with the deep thoughts that haunt me sometimes.
You’re going to lose livestock no matter how good of a caretaker you are.
This is the hardest piece for me to follow because all I wanted to do growing up was to become a veterinarian. Animals are my favorite thing on this planet and I will be the first to do nearly anything to try and save one. It’s hard enough losing one of old age, a common injury, etc.. but losing the ones you least expected hurts the most. For example, last year I lost a 2 year old first calf heifer to hardware disease a month after she had calved. That hurts the soul so much. She should have had 8+ years left in the herd. She was a beautifully built heifer with the best temperament too. Then this spring we lost another 3 year old heifer from the same group to Listeria. She went from completely fine eating feed out of our hands to death’s door in a matter of 6 days, leaving a 6 week old bull calf behind. That’s the hardest pill to swallow. We can’t save them all, no matter how much we try, how much we spend and how much we pray.
Stress management and mental health are a huge challenge.
I always knew things were stressful growing up watching my parents, but I had no idea until I started experiencing it for myself. Growing my herd and losing 6/15 of those new first calf heifers within that first year to a variety of issues out of my control was a huge smack to the face. I lost a lot of sleep. I definitely lost a good chunk of money I had just invested and borrowed from the bank. Since then, I’ve experienced stress in a variety of ways and I know it’s just the beginning, but damn.. it’s hard some days. Really hard. We can’t control the weather, markets, livestock, crops, supply/demand or really any of it — but we can control how we handle situations. Having an outlet for stress & staying on top of mental health is KEY!
You are constantly going to be learning because you’ll never understand it all.
It’s no surprise that I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to crops or equipment, but I’ve been taking a lot of steps to learn more. I thought I knew a lot about the livestock piece of things, which I do — but I’m constantly learning there too. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts that comes with being a farmer though. I love learning, especially when it’s a topic I’m truly interested in. I’ve honestly spent more time learning about crops and equipment than I ever wanted to and it’s been a major struggle, but it’s also been a great way to learn. However, the part that haunts me is that I’ll never know it all and sometimes I feel like the biggest idiot when in certain situations. My #Enneagram8 self needs to let that go. (IYKYK)
There’s many more ‘things’ I could list — but those are my top 3.
I love this life. I wouldn’t want to do anything else, but maybe if you’re a newbie — it’ll help you be a little more prepared, though I
doubt anything will ever have us prepared for what all happens when you’re part of the 1.5% feeding the world!
Catch you next time,
—Andrea