Life on the farm isn’t glamorous, and it isn’t always fun, but there are times when you just can’t help but smile and soak it all in.
During one of our recent warm evenings, I found myself just looking at the cattle. As I watched, the cows quietly grazed on the remnants of fall grass and one of the bulls bawled in his deepest baritone voice to let everyone know he was there. It’s a feeling of peace and serenity only farmers know.
Suddenly, a young black calf raced across the pasture, bawling and bucking as he darted here and there. Within a few seconds, he was joined by several of his pasture buddies. With their tails up in the air, about a dozen of the baby bovine began making laps around their mothers and the vocal bull, stopping only to paw at the ground and head-butt one another. Some of the calves found themselves atop a mounded area, which meant a good old-fashioned game of King of the Mountain. After a few minutes, they were off again, searching for other new adventures.
Meanwhile, their mothers continued to chomp away, raising their heads only occasionally to see where their offspring had ventured to. Some of the younger mommas bounced along with their calves, but soon returned to their foraging.
After watching the herd for few minutes, I felt an involuntary smile come across my face.
I’m sure there are some of you who have also watched your young calves, lambs or goat kids recently, and I’m pretty sure that same smile came across your face as they bounced about.
As the calves played, I couldn’t help but think that it was a strong sign that spring is drawing ever closer, and that our drab brown landscape would soon be filled with green, as well as hints of pink, red, yellow and blue, which also made me smile. I actually felt myself take a little deeper breath that evening, as if I were inhaling a new season and exhaling the last of the winter air.
Farmers and ranchers are outside year round, no matter what the weather, so I think everyone begins to feel a little better in the springtime, and there is a little more spring in everyone’s step. Maybe because we aren’t so weighted down with layers of clothes because coveralls can be replaced with jackets, and you only need one pair of socks to keep your feet warm. More reasons to smile.
With the spring also comes a renewed sense of optimism for what the future holds for our family farms. We’re always hopeful production costs will go down and that the prices we receive for our products will go up. We’re optimistic that we will have plenty of rain, but not too much, and the list can go on and on.
Will Rogers once said, “The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.”
That statement, made decades ago, still holds true today. If we weren’t optimistic, there would be no reason to keep livestock or even fire up the tractors to work the land.
While we can’t predict what the weather or the markets will be like in the weeks and months to come, we can choose to be optimistic about what the future holds.
If you need a little help trying to renew your optimism, just look at a pasture with young calves in it, or step inside your lambing or kidding barns or pastures. I’m pretty sure it won’t take long for you to remember why you are a farmer or rancher, then you will simply smile and soak it all in.
Julie
