Hope and Agriculture

We started harvest last week and it is nothing to get excited about. The heat and drought of last summer is very evident in our corn yields. We are harvesting the fewest bushels that I can remember in the recent past, half to a third of what our normal expected yield is. Yet I feel very fortunate that we have some to harvest when many of those around us had nothing. If you want to understand what the main purpose behind crop insurance is, this is the year to look at. It is easy to get frustrated and even depressed when looking at the bottom line this year.

I was at that point. Not only are prices at lows not seen in many years, but we were hit with a drought that affected the corn yields. Then we started harvesting and the breakdowns occurred and each one took a bigger and bigger chunk out of an already small pie. I felt like a boxer who got knocked down, gathered up enough strength to stand up, only to be knocked down again. Then Sunday happened.

I was asked to be interviewed about my faith by our church’s high school class. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive at first, I have always been one with a simple faith in God. I realize there are things and events in this world that I am not going to understand and I at peace with that. I have always joked that when I get to heaven I have a list of questions I am going to ask. Things like; “what is the purpose of mosquitos?” My point is that I am ok with not having all the answers.

We talked about my faith journey and I answered questions about my life and experiences. It was a very enlightening experience and I only hope the young people in the class got as much out of it as I did. The last question I was asked kind of caught me off guard, but my answer helped heal my soul and for that I am eternally grateful. I was asked about hope and my view of it.

The concept of hope is one that I have not spent a lot of time thinking about but one that is the core of what I do and how I keep going in years like this. I would submit that every farmer and rancher is driven by hope. It is hope that keeps us planting our crops year after year, especially in times like these when we have had several years of an ag economy that is subpar at best. It takes hope when the rains don’t come, and the heat beats down on you.

Hope is waking up in the middle of the night when it is icy and bitter cold to go out and check for new babies. Hope is working with that newborn calf or lamb and urging it to get a grasp life and keep going, even when you know the odds are against it. Hope is harvesting that crop, knowing it is going to be a long winter and still looking forward to putting the next crop in the ground.

Hope is at the very core of all of us in agriculture, if it wasn’t we couldn’t get up and go to work each morning. It is the only thing that gets us through years like this and situations like many of us find ourselves in. It would be easier to pack up and find a steady income, but the hope of a better year is what keeps us coming back.

I had never realized how much hope played a role in my life until I articulated what the concept. It was just something like my faith that I accepted as part of my life and had never thought about. It is the eye toward the future and better times that keeps us pushing forward in times like this, without hope there would be no optimism.

Each year we put a crop in the ground and we welcome new calves and lambs into this world even though often the deck is stacked against us. There is so much out of our control we must hope that tomorrow will be better. Quite frankly, without hope, I am not sure how you would continue to farm or a ranch, it is at the center of what we do.

Monday was back to reality with more break downs, crop delays and bills but I found that I could face those things easier having spent time thinking about the role hope plays in my life. Maybe during this chaotic, nerve wracking time we call harvest you will take time to reflect on hope and your hope for the future. No matter how bad this year is, we can always look toward next year and the hope of better times.