Ag Dayyyy!

Guess what day it is??? It’s National Ag Daaaaayyy! And the 50th anniversary of National Ag Day at that!

Agriculture: it affects EVERYONE’S lives and I do mean everyone’s! Without agriculture, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the homes we live in; well, they just wouldn’t be possible.

Agriculture has played such an incredible role in my life and honestly, is one of the largest contributor’s that has made me who I am.

Little 6 pound, 11 ounce Martina had no idea what a wonderful little farming world she was just born into. Here’s a little bit of my story in agriculture….

My lifestyle was a bit different than the other children I went to school with. I lived on a dairy farm and that changed the whole trajectory of how we “did” things in our home. Summer vacations meant one parent staying behind to run the farm and sometimes, it meant dad missing evening events because he had to do field work or the inevitable happened – the cows got out or the milking equipment went down! Mornings started bright and early, and some evenings went well into the late hours of the night. The crowd gate didn’t always work right and occasionally it would stop moving all together. There always seemed to be incredibly temperamental heifers that kicked and numerous cows just plan down planted those hooves in the ground and didn’t want to move. Did I mention when it snowed? Oh boy, as if daily chores weren’t enough on the average day, the snow just tacked an extra hour onto everything and I can assure you, I do mean everything! And the summer heat… yikes! Goodness there were some days in that barn that were a scorcher. I would go in the barn office just to remember exactly what air conditioning felt like. And when you had some place to be in the evening or on a Sunday morning; rush, rush, rush, go, go, go (and yes, unavoidably, something would come up to inconvenience your plans). There was late night calf pulls, the knocks on the door at 2 in the morning telling us our silo was on fire and trying to bucket break calves that wanted no parts of sticking their little mouths down into that milk. My farming days consisted of enough mud puddles, sloppy messes and cow tails to last a lifetime, praying for rain and a plentiful crop during the “droughtful” days of July, even earlier than normal milkings on the day the milk tester came, equipment breakdowns that cleared the entire rest of your schedule for the day and holidays that were spent with all the cows (yeah, even the kicking, temperamental heifers) rather than sitting around a big table leisurely fellowshipping over delicious food.

Farming sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? Why aren’t we all farmers, right? Who wouldn’t want to do this as an every day occupation?

I have to admit, there were some incredibly difficult days on the farm. It’s stressful, it takes A LOT of your time (no punching in and out for us!), and some days, you just wish those darn cows would take a vacation! It’s not easy work - if you aren’t into getting up early then it definitely isn’t going to do you justice to change careers and if you mind your vehicle smelling like cow manure, I would have to say you probably shouldn’t add this to your resume. But let me tell you about all the blessings because of agriculture and dairy farming in my life….

Sunsets and sunrises, how often do you notice them? Let me tell you what, I never found a deeper appreciation for these two moments each day more than when I worked on the farm. It brings a whole new life to the sky and the time to spend with God and thank Him for the blessings we are given each and every day. My farming days consisted of daily “it’s a new day!” sunrise photos and tractor silhouettes when the sun was just about down behind the mountains. (Oh! And cows, there were LOTS of cow pictures taken in that barn!) The time spent with family – oh our perfect little farm family. Now I’m not just talking blood relatives here – no, our employees, they were our family. They just “got it”, they just “understood”. We had each other’s backs and there was no backing down from each other until you got your point across, but it was an honest, fun, caring and supportive relationship. We had our disagreements, but when you work together that many hours out of the day – you get over it pretty quick! You see farming is a lifestyle. Your whole life IS the farm and with the farm comes some pretty incredible people. The laughs and tears we shared will be carried with me for an entire lifetime.

Did I mention my pet cow? Yeah, us farmers, we had (ok, some of us had) pet cows. When I started milking years ago, I was standing at the end of the milking parlor bringing in the next row of cows. Naturally, being that cows are rather nosy animals, the next cow would come part way into our milking parlor waiting to be let it. This particular time, it just happened to be my dear sweet Molly (little did I know). As I was standing with my arm up on the button to close the gate, Molly left out quite a spectacular sneeze and being that her nose was rather slimy, inside and out, I definitely got the brunt of that situation. I know, totally gross, but we became best buds after that! (I can assure you though, this is not how I fell in love with my husband – just in case you’re wondering, it only worked for her 😉). Molly was my favorite cow in the herd and we celebrated birthdays with party hats and whoopie pies, Christmas with lights and Easter with a set of bunny ears – thank goodness she must have loved me back! It’s rather fascinating how quickly a big ole bovine can become your best friend. The day that cow had to go to auction was one of my hardest farming days. From pop tarts to whoopie pies, Reese cups to peanut M&M’s, our pets of the herd certainly lived their best life in our barns!

Field work was one of my favorite times of the year. There is something so special about being out amongst the crops in the beautiful God given sunshine during the day and as the sun began to go down in the evening. We have a somewhat large collection of stories from over the years of occurrences and fun we spent in the fields and we were blessed with many helping hands over the course of our dairying days as well. There’s such a special and unique connection that happens out in the fields. And, field meals were quite fun too! I think I enjoyed delivering the meals just as much. As a child, I remember spending time with my dad in the old JD Forage Harvester – sitting in the little buddy seat made me feel just like a king sitting on his throne. It was pretty special and getting to spend that time with my dad was the best. The last year we farmed he taught me how to plant corn on our one farm right behind my house and later that summer he showed me how to run the discbine to mow hay – of course my hay rows weren’t nearly straight as his (dad was a stickler for straight corn rows and hay laying) but what an experience I had! And you should have been there the day I learned to drive dump truck, whew, what a night! The moments out in those 300 acres are ones that I hold near and dear. No, I can’t get them back, but the bonding experiences I had with my dad and with our two employees were out of this world! Living on a farm, you have the opportunity in so many areas to learn so many different (and rather unique) skills. You don’t have to go looking for the opportunities either, they’re certainly all around you – breeding cows, giving shots, I learned all those attributes with the people that loved me so much and cared more than I probably even knew. That’s one of the many humongous blessings agriculture, and God, of course, has given me!

Have you ever watched something grow? From a calf to crops in the field, the gift of growth is quite something. I always enjoyed bottle feeding a sweet little calf but watching them grow into a full sized animal and having them in the milking parlor, knowing you raised them up from itty bitty newborn to a mama herself – what a career reward! I have watched corn being planted in these fields all around me now my entire life and yet, I am still stunned each year at the transformation this tiny little seed goes through. Most recently, we have had tomatoes growing on our farm. A teeny little sprig of a plant is placed into the dirt and after just a few short months, a large tomato plant with over 100 tomatoes popping out all over it is in it’s place. And I get to watch that transformation everyday! That my friends is a blessing and thousands of little miracles all over this farm’s dirt.

Agriculture has given me so many reasons to thank God. Getting to work alongside my parents and be a part of our family’s legacy has filled my heart. These are years I will forever and ever cherish. My great aunt and uncle worked hard to establish our family’s farms, and to get to be a part of that, not many have that opportunity. Farming is so much more than just the job. 98% of the farms in the United States are family owned – that’s a really big deal and definitely shows what this industry is all about! I have also met some pretty amazing people along the way. When we farmed, one of the things I enjoyed most was being a part of a larger community. That community reached far beyond just the county lines. We were a small part of such an enormous industry; and even though some people look down on our industry, it’s something I was beyond incredibly proud to be a part of – I knew I was making a difference everyday I got up to milk those cows. I knew that God had blessed me with an opportunity and one that not many can say they have experienced. I knew the struggles farmers and those in agriculture have to go through. I knew the amazing experiences one can have working in agriculture – from dairy farming to working in an agricultural forage lab to now working with crop and agriculture insurance – I am stunned at just how amazing, influential and NECESSARY agriculture is in our everyday lives. Let’s say an extra “thank you” today to everyone we know working in agriculture (you’d be quite surprised how many folks contribute to this community), say an extra “thank you” to God for blessing us with the land and animals that make up the agricultural industry, and don’t forget to say a little “thank you” to a bovine in your life today too; afterall, they are responsible for the milk that makes ice cream and I am definitely thankful for that goodness in my life!

Fun Agricultural Facts:

1. We consume approximately four gallons of ice cream a year per person (I’m positive I’m at least double this amount); fortunately, the average cow produces enough milk per day to contribute to two gallons of ice cream.

2. Many of our daily products we use each day are actually byproducts of food produced by those in agriculture – from detergents to x-ray films and beyond!

3. Agriculture is comprised of 10.5% of US employment.

4. 82,368 crayons can be made from just one acre of soybeans!

5. Some of the newest and most exciting careers in agriculture include an agricultural lawyer, bee keeper, cocoa farmer, drone technologist and animal geneticist.

Don't forget to thank a farmer!