Farmers and Optimism

Want a little insight into the ever optimistic mind of a farmer? Today, even before we know how this year will end financially, Dad and I ordered seed for next year. Yes, the soybeans are still in the field, we don't know how well they will yield or what price we will get for them. Yet, we have already ordered seed for next year.

Farmers and ranchers have to be the most optimistic people I know. Isn't that who you want in charge of producing the food you eat? Oh sure some of us are gruff and may seem pessimistic on the outside but inside we are optimists to the core. Think about it.

We plant our crop, milk our cows, watch over the calves, etc..... without ever knowing whether we will make money. We contend with things out of our control like the weather and never once, seriously, consider quitting. It never even enters our mind.

During the bad years we are already planning for next year because it has to get better. Raising food is what we do, it is who we are and we cannot picture ourselves doing anything else. Hence, the eternal optimism. I guess that is the kind of person it takes to be in farming and ranching, to not know what your income is going to be in any one year but knowing without a doubt what you will be doing.

So with any luck tomorrow we will start combining soybeans, already secure in the fact that the planning for next year has started. That is why you can feel secure in the knowledge that the food you depend on will be there next year and the years after. Because, just like the land we live on, those of us who farm and ranch aren't going anywhere.