I got home yesterday morning after taking a load of lambs to be processed, and Anne was already at the barn starting chores. I joined her in the drizzling rain, and we worked our way through the morning jobs. Not a lot of smiles or conversation. Just wet determination to get it done.
Back at the house over breakfast, Anne asked what was on the agenda for the day.
I mused about taking the day off, then shared a saying I’d heard earlier in the week about farming: “If we’re not doing something, there’s something we’re not doing.”
Unfortunately, that seems pretty accurate.
Anne could tell I’d been a bit down the last few days, so she figured cleaning up around the barns might make me feel better. The pile of wool from spring shearing was still sitting outside the door, along with a collection of other “I’ll do that later” jobs, so off we went.
At first I thought maybe going to the Outdoor Farm Show earlier in the week had put me in a funk. Lots of shiny new things for the “have” farmers and plenty of reminders of how the Joneses live.
But that wasn’t really it.
I’ve been walking some crop fields lately, getting a feel for what harvest might look like. Mother Nature is about finished delivering her side of the deal for another year, and honestly, she tried pretty hard. But between a few decisions I made and whatever else happened along the way, the cobs on the corn and the pods on the soybeans just aren’t getting me very excited.
No real yield checks yet, just a gut feeling after quite a few years of looking at crops. And my gut is making me a little nervous.
I think one thing farmers have to get good at emotionally is carrying risk. Hundreds of thousands of dollars go into planting crops every spring, and then you wait months to find out what you get back, or worse, lose.
Maybe that’s a good farmer’s real superpower. Bearing that weight with ease year after year.
But I’ll admit, some days I’m not very good at it.
Cleaning up the barnyard didn’t magically make the worry disappear, but that silly saying from breakfast did remind me of another bit of advice we’ve all heard a hundred times: do something to take your mind off it.
So that’s the plan.
There’s always another something that needs doing around here anyway. I’ll just keep finding it until harvest tells me how this year turned out.
Farmer Rod