View From The Cab

By David Tollefson, Columnist

Karen Schwaller, a regular columnist on THE LAND magazine, writes from her grain and livestock farm near Milford, Iowa. We present and former livestock farmers know something about WORK!

She has an interesting take on the title. Here it is:

It’s no secret that farmers and ranchers are busy people.

Have you ever tried to schedule a vacation with someone who spends their lives tending to the land and animals? It’s like watching a hamster wheel go ‘round and round’. There’s just no end to what needs to be done.

As the social media saying goes, “Farm kids clock in at age five, and never really clock out.”

There simply isn’t time; and when you’re a kid and loving it, time takes a holiday.

Feeding the world is no small task. Ask any farm family – their lives are different from those of so many others, and all in the name of both earning a (hard) living, and providing for all people. They are humbly providing for so many more than their own families. 

And because they spend their lives cultivating both land and relationships with man and beast, it is common to hear, “I better get to work.”

My husband works all night long in his dreams. It’s hard to imagine he has even an ounce of energy left by morning to get up and actually do the work, after he’s been fixing trucks and tractors, birthing animals and dealing with farm problems all night long.

The word “work” is central to the success of the farm. It’s like a storm coming. You can’t be afraid of it and you can’t put most of it on the back burner to deal with later.

It warrants its own place in the halls of acronyms. Let’s examine these letters of the word a little further, to help us understand the way a farmer thinks.

“W” – This letter stands for the wrinkles they get from worrying about the weather and weed control. They have whopper-like worry sessions now and then, and cannot explain the ‘why’ sometimes when things go wrong. That’s a lot of W’s.

“O” – This letter stands for the obstacles they face so often between government regulations, O-rings that need replacing and birthing sessions that go awry. They try to be organized, but most times they would rather put on a pair of overalls (odiferous as they may be if they are dealing with manure) and stay out of the office. It’s probably just as well. Discussions with the other half can take on an obstinate tone now and then – especially at tax time.

“R” – This letter reminds me that farmers and ranchers keep their nose to the grindstone because they have rent to pay. And if that’s not enough to keep them rallying, they regularly consider resistance issues and root problems – in both plants and relationships. Working with relatives can be as rewarding as it can be risky. Sometimes farmers/ranchers run short of time and become a little rifled; and when that happens, there’s always some job to relegate to a relative, or try to run out the clock themselves. You would not want to run into a farmer or rancher in a dark alley – especially after rock picking or sweating it out racking up hay all summer. They’re pretty ripped after that. 

“K” – The main letter in “work” that is owned by the farmer is the word “keep.” There are so many things for them to keep: land in the family, animals alive, kids busy and interested in carrying on the work their parents did for all of their lives without killing the desire. They have to have a kettle-full of knowledge to keep up with annual industry changes, and would love to kick those worries down the road a bit.

It’s such a simple statement: “I better get back to work.”

But the layers lurking within that four-letter-word leave lasting ripple effects.  Farming is all-encompassing. There’s so much work to do, it involves the help of every member of the family, and there’s no getting around the challenging financial times and time-crunch seasons that come with it.

While we love it, there are times when I simply want to escape to the Klondike or somewhere and see if panning for gold might be a safer bet than waiting out those markets.

If my husband agreed, he might not be so exhausted from working all night long in his dreams.

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It’s hard to beat the nice sunny day as I write this. I was out in the field yesterday doing a little digging with my field cultivator, and it worked well. It’s just fun to be out there stirring the soil, especially thinking of a year ago and how long it took before we even got out in the fields to pick rocks.

A year ago we were still pushing snow, and I was worried about how to get the water from the melting snow away from my house.

As we farmers begin moving machinery on the roads and highways, just keep in mind how slow we are moving compared to most of the speed limits on state, county and township roads!!

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Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net