55 Years And Counting From The Tractor Seat

 By bill whitman

 I was talking to my 86-year-old neighbor recently and we wound up reminiscing over the past, trying to make sense of the present and pondering about the future. In all our lamenting we inevitably came around to talking about what it’s going to take farming into the future.

Like every other farmer in the country, I do worry about finances, but when people ask why I do it, even when family asks, it’s because it’s a life of purpose, the real living of day-to-day life on the farm is seeing God’s creation up close and personal. There are so many ways in each day that we see miracles that can only be defined as created by intelligent creation, and we get to see and interact with these miracles every day of the year. As I write this, we’re amid a snowstorm dropping enough snow accumulation that we haven’t seen at one time for several years. This storm is potentially affecting over 200 million people. I heard a meteorologist describe it as “God flexing,” which aptly describes what my wife and I are watching out our front windows.

What I’ve learned over 67 years, is that each time, as a young man, that I thought of leaving the farm, I couldn’t find a single thing that gave me the satisfaction that I found every day as a farmer. Things that I tried gave me a better perspective of how the world works. I saw several foreign countries and learned the stark benefits of living in America when I was in the service. I learned a great deal about business and how big businesses take advantage of people’s ignorance, when I was in insurance. I also learned about how much people need power greater than themselves to have hope when I worked for a large homeless shelter as mental health liaison and development director. In each of these endeavors for me, there was something missing.

When I talk to farmers and ranchers across the country and even in Canada each week, inevitably we will talk about how great it is to be in agriculture. I think most of us know deeply within us we get to see life at its purest. I told someone just today that of the hundreds if not thousands of calves and horses born, I am humbled by the privilege of seeing this miracle, every time. When I’m doing field work in the spring and watch that little seed grow into a harvestable crop and experience the transition day after day, I am humbled.

Over the last six decades, I’ve watched the agriculture environment evolve into something that forces us to consider “what if” every day. Not that things weren’t stressful in the 1980s, but there are far fewer of us today and because the cycles of good years are stretched out more than we saw in the 60s-70s-80s and even the 90s, we generally lost money one year and made money the next, cattle farmers lost money three out of five years and made good money the other two. Today we have a generation of farmers that made money for 20 years and got comfortable with profits, granted, some more than others but as I heard on YouTube the other day, if you didn’t make money between 2000 and 2022 then you really shouldn’t be farming. Today we have creditors that have no idea how or why anyone would do what we do. In their world it makes no sense. Invite them out to the farm or ranch and they’ll frown at the dust on their shoes and car.

So, when our small group of 1 percent of the population has so many issues to deal with every day, why do we look forward to each day? It’s because we love doing what we do. Whether we’re in the livestock business or growing grain or a combination of both, we see every day the fruit of our labor. When I look at a herd of cattle with straight backs and shiny hides, I know that the herdsman is doing a great job and feels good about what he/she does. When I watch crops being planted in the spring and see straight and clean rows, I know the farmer is proud. None of the other 99 percent of the population gets this. When they work on a factory assembly line and complete their quota which takes half the time they’re paid for, how can they be proud of that. So, the reason we do what we do is because it is the one thing we can do where we can be proud of every day’s work. It’s because when we do get a vacation, we know that we earned it, it isn’t “owed” to us.

Horse Sense: Each day begins in the East, is it any wonder it’s also the direction with the most promise.

IndianaAg@bluemarble.net