As we tend to our farm and raise our livestock, our way of life provides not only our means of making a living, but also brings a deep sense of satisfaction and humble pride. Humble pride might seem like a contradiction of terms, but it’s the only way I can describe accurately the sense of fulfillment and gratification farming brings, while acknowledging all we have is on loan from God.
Now, Kay, you might counter with, What about those times the barn cleaner breaks and you’re stuck in the barn the whole morning, or a cow freshens and goes down or a calf is stillborn or just as a whole field of hay is ready to harvest your chopper breaks? Oh goodness, the list can go on into infinity. One must take the good with the bad.
Despite all of that, there is a deep-seated affirmation that tending to our dairy farm is our life’s work, just as God purposed, for we try hard to produce a quality, Grade A milk product, clean, wholesome and life-sustaining. When my husband and I come into the house at night after putting in a full day’s work, we are tired to the bone and hungry but content, our labor done, knowing our animals are settled in for the night, their needs met.
Just now, our outside heifers are getting fed in a bunk out in their yard instead of by their headlocks. For a couple of days, as he has time, my husband is in process of cleaning out their barn. The animals have been let to run together so that he can leave gates open wide and easily access all three pens. As soon as the weather warms and the barn is clean, we will shift the older ones in pens inside the cow barn to the outside heifer barn.
My husband parks their feeder bunk in a central spot in the yard, accessible to accommodate all of them out there. One day, I was watching the gate as he was filling their feed wagon from our silage bags. The heifers started moseying around near me, their curious nature getting the best of them. Presently, I realized they had created a half-circle just a few yards away from me. As I watched, their bodies moved in and soon they were so close together their noses were almost touching.
Every head was turned in my direction, and I counted almost 25 faces. As I looked them over, it dawned on me that I had bottle-fed each one, then pail-fed them, had cleaned and bedded their pens, threw them wafers of dry hay and shovels full of silage every single day, twice a day, for months, to get them to this stage.
A couple of heifers are already bred and one was showing signs of an imminent birth, her newly swelled udder hinting with the promise of a baby calf in the not-too-distant future. We brought that one into the cow barn just days later. Before long, I’ll be bottle-feeding her calf, and the circle will continue.
Watching them, I was flooded with thankfulness to God that we had this group of beauties, so close I could reach out and touch them at this point. Shuffling inward, they had shrunk their half-circle to within just a few feet of me, their ears pointed forward, their noses in the air, trying to sniff out exactly who I was.
Soon I heard the tractor bringing their feed. I stepped toward them to move them out of the way and opened the gate wider so my husband could bring in the wagon. They followed him like he was the Pied Piper, eager to fill the hole in their belly.
Meanwhile right now, inside the barn we are raising a red Angus bull calf. This one is a magnificent animal with the promise of bulk and strength to follow. He came into this life with a little assistance from my husband, as the momma was struggling to deliver this rather large calf.
A couple of weeks old now, he’s eating with gusto and has a very determined look about him, complete with a wide, powerful head, large snout and broad shoulders. The sunlight streaming through a nearby window shows off his burnt-copper coat. He is so pretty! We’ve named him Big Red, of course.
As husband is working in the barn, I catch him pausing to gaze at the calf and once I caught him ruffling up the top of Big Red’s head and scratching behind his ears, all the while saying in a low voice, “Huh, Big Red? How ya doin’, huh?” It made me smile.
Every day I try to find something on our farm to be thankful for, and I don’t have to look very far. Quality milk, healthy, inquisitive heifers and a robust, red-haired Angus calf are a few examples, there to bring a smile.
(“Giving thanks always to God the Father for everything, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:20)
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