Despite the continued warm and dry conditions for most folks in the Ozarks, summer is fading away.
Daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter. I’m not sure if it’s from the changing of the season or the prolonged drought, but I’ve seen a few leaves begin to drift to the ground.
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s not hot (hopefully), but not cool; it’s just right. The cool, crisp air of fall is also a great way to start the morning.
On quiet fall mornings, I like to sit on the deck and listen to the turkey as the sun starts to come up. I don’t always see them, but I can hear the toms gobbling from the timber.
The folks with The Old Farmer’s Almanac are predicting Mother Earth will not be kind this winter, forecasting cold, snowy conditions for most of the nation starting in November, and there is speculation of another polar vortex hitting the region. It will be time to check the woolly worms and persimmon seeds before long to get those opinions. If I do get snowed in, which I highly doubt, I will have to try the publication’s recipe for the “best bread for toast,” which takes 18 hours to make. However, there will not be a bit of pumpkin spice made or consumed at my house. The closest thing might be a couple of pumpkin pies around the holidays, and that’s pushing it.
I might be excited about the entrance of autumn, but I know some folks are not. Many producers are worried about feeding their livestock this fall and winter as what grass we have goes dormant. Several friends are already feeding hay and have reduced their herd sizes in anticipation of hard times ahead. On the upside, markets are pretty good right now.
Hopefully, we will have some decent fall rains to help restore some moisture in the ground before winter, but that’s all up to Mother Nature.
Farming and ranching is tough regardless of the season or weather. There’s never a perfect season in agriculture, but we plug away, hoping for better days ahead. Think about all of the fires, ice storms, floods, droughts, record snowfalls, blistering heat waves, and bitter cold snaps you have endured in your lifetime. Chances are, there were times you didn’t have air conditioning on some of the hottest days, and there was no central heat on the coldest night, but you preserved.
A while back, I read a commentary about how tough farmers and ranchers are. They work 100 hours a week, or more, for little pay. They get branded as animal abusers, yet work feverishly to save a struggling calf. Farmers and ranchers are blamed for climate change and greenhouse gases, yet they are the greatest stewards of the land.
No matter how hard the day before was, farmers and ranchers get out there and give it their best each day.
As the old saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. My friends, farmers and ranchers are the definition of tough.
Julie Turner-Crawford is a native of Dallas County, Mo., where she grew up on her family’s farm. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Julie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
