I am often asked why I like being a farmer and to be honest it was never my lifelong dream to farm. I farm today because the people I most care about in the world farm and they are in it for the long haul.
I grew up on a farm and even though I enjoyed being hands on in the day to day running of the farm and the lifestyle that comes with it the idea of being a farmer was most definitely not on my list of top 10 professions.
I have been back on the farm for ten years now and I will be the first to admit farming is a highly rewarding profession for a multitude of reasons.
Today I will list just a few
Firstly farmers are an essential service, they feed people and whether people admit it or not everybody wants to be needed.
Secondly farming today is a very risky business and I like the mental intensity, the constant review process, the drive to get up each day and do it better. The fulfilling challenge of balancing productivity, people, animals and the planet
Thirdly inspirational people farm. Feeding, clothing and housing the world now and in the next 50 years is going to require an extraordinary effort. This means we need extraordinary people to take up the challenge. When I work with inspirational people, they light my fire, feed my soul and challenge me to continue to strive to make a unique contribution to agriculture and the community.
and then there is this
the satisfaction you get when you have managed to farm in a way that balances the needs of the rainforest and the animals who live there
with farm productivity that allows you to supply 50,000 Australians daily with milk whilst at the same time ensuring your cows cow remain happy and healthy.
the buzz you get when next gen share the passion and commitment
the fascination of watching generations of cows tread the same path each time they walk into the paddock
the amusement you get when the cow who detours to the water trough
then charges down the paddock like a teenager to ensure she doesn’t miss out on the sweetest grass
and the special relationships you develop with the people and the animals in your team
the satisfaction of working with next gen
to turn this
into this
then this
and today
Picasso Corner a triumph for community partnerships, biodiversity and the farm
and then the raw reality of watching the circle of life each day. When the chickens you nurtured from eggs are killed and eaten by a goshawk (thanks to twitter verse for identifying my nasty bird) and wake up next morning and remember the chickens got three weeks of a great life they wouldn’t have had without you interfering with nature. Even if in the end it was nature who decided they would play a different role in the food chain .
I love to farm because its real, there is a true sense of place and time. There is an purity and an innocence that comes with a respect of the land that feeds us that living and working in the city will never deliver
You could have just said you like cows licking your ears.
Seriously a good article about farming motivation – nice balance of romance and realism. The images are beautiful.
Thanks Justin I readily admit I didnt want to farm and did something else for 30 years but when my son came back to the farm and bought a whole new way of thinking with him I just so wanted to be part of the vision of next gen and work side by side with him to make it happen
Such an inspiring blog post. Congratulations to you for having such a great attitude and actually making a difference. The transformation in them photos really says something!
I love the way bloggers describe their dairy cows. They aren’t an animal I’ve ever been around so it’s fascinating to think of them with personalities and traits. One of the local teens in our town has been bottle rearing goats and I was so surprised at how these goats behaved. They had so much personality, and their little tails would wag when they got a bottle. I guess there are lots of animal with attitude, not such the kittens and puppies.
Thank you Krystle Yes spending so much time with your cows in the dairy each day and raising them all from 1 day old you find that are just like humans – there are bossy one and ones with attitude, ones that behave like naughty teenagers and always think the grass is better on the other side of the fence and do everything they can to go there and there are ones that are just adorable