Kids and Agriculture

Spring has sprung, the grass is getting greener, winter is dead and all the farmers and ranchers sang Hallelujah! It was a long hard winter but the calendar and the ever increasing temperatures tell us that all seasons eventually fade into the next. But I must say this one isn’t fading fast enough.

Earth Day is another sign that spring is finally here. Earth Day is a time for all of us to celebrate this planet we rely on and a time to reflect on how we can take better care of it. I admit that I like the idea of Earth Day and I like it even more that many of our farm organizations have embraced the idea. After all, farmers and ranchers are the original and the best environmentalists.

Our county has chosen to host our annual Day on the Farm on the Wednesday closest to Earth Day. The Eugene Berges family graciously allows us to use their farmstead and Pottawatomie County farmers and ranchers provide informational stops for each group. All of the fourth graders in our county are invited and most of the schools attend. I know many other counties have similar programs and I think they are the key to educating consumers about agriculture.

Each year I provide a stop where I talk about our native prairie and talk about the different kinds of grasses. I know, what kind of an ag geek talks to kids about warm season grasses. Well, that would be me. I have to say I am always impressed with how much the kids know about the prairie but I am also constantly surprised by how little they know about agriculture.

Pottawatomie County is still a relatively rural county and much of the county’s income is based on agriculture. The kids grow up with fields and pastures all around them and yet many of them do not know very much about where their food comes from. I am also surprised at how few have ties to the farm. Often each class does have one or two kids that have parents or grandparents who farm, but many of the kids do not have any close relatives involved in agriculture. This event, many times, is their first real exposure to farming and ranching.

Just why this is important really hit home last week. My daughter came home from school and told us about a video they had watched as part of one of her classes. The video was about the benefits of organic food and organic farming. Please, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against organic farming and ranching or my fellow farmers or ranchers who choose to do so. I do have a problem with using organic food production as a way to vilify the rest of us who choose conventional agriculture.

My daughter told me that the video said that organic food was safer, healthier and better for the environment. My daughter knew that this was not true and that the crops and livestock we produced were just as safe, healthy and environmentally friendly as their organic counterparts. Her fear was that her classmates would not know the difference. She went on to say that in that particular class that she was the only one who’s family farmed or ranched.

This is not the first time one of my kids have come home from school and told about incorrect or one sided information being presented at school. My problem with this was not that the kids were taught about organic food production, I have no problem with them learning about it. What I do have a problem with is the idea that the rest of us are producing an unhealthy product that is bad for the environment. That is completely untrue. GMO crops, modern herbicides, modern veterinary medicine have made it possible for us to produce a safer product, with fewer inputs, produce more of it while protecting the world around us. All of this has been proven time and time again, but we must be granted access to present a fair and balanced view of real world agriculture.

That is why our Earth Day celebrations and Day on the Farm events are so important. It is an opportunity for us to tell our story, let the consumers meet us and to explain how we grow their food and why. We are faced with a daunting task over the next couple of decades. To grow more food, with less acres and continue to make the air, land and water around us better, but we have to have the support of our consumers. We are the original environmentalists, we know it, but it is up to us to tell the rest of the world.

No Lazy Snow Days Here

You have to love the weather in Kansas. On Monday night we went out at the 10:00 pm ewe check in shirt sleeves. Two days later we woke up to four inches of snow and single digit wind chill. It is awfully tough on new lambs and calves, but at least we had a couple of days to prepare for the worst. Say what you want about the weather but it is never the same here on the plains and it keeps life interesting.

This morning broke (I say broke because we were long up before the dawn and I certainly felt broken) cold, windy and most importantly snowy. Jennifer and I turned on the TV as we got ready to go do chores and saw the crawl across the screen proclaiming the day a snow day for our school district. That meant a lazy day of sleeping in and playing in the snow for most kids. Yes most kids, but not my kids.

Sure we took pity on them and let them go back to bed (it was 5:30) and sleep for another hour. Actually it was not the kids that we were taking pity on but the animals. Normally we all go out at 5:30 check and feed the animals in the barnyard. However, this cold snowy morning Jennifer and I decided on a quiet, stealthy check of the barn trying not to disturb anything. The ewes and lambs would be much better off and warmer undisturbed in the fresh bed of straw we had put out the night before.

Wake up calls were served and plans were made over breakfast on how to attack the chores. Extra care was needed to make sure that all of the new lambs were healthy and relatively warm. The decision was made to feed outside and then shut the ewes back in the barn and that meant water needed to be moved into the barn. Hay was thrown, feed put out and water was moved. I guess that is our idea of playing in the snow.

When everything was fed and bedded in the barnyard it was time to go out and check cows. Remember that bull that wouldn’t stay home last spring(I am happy to say that he is coming to a McDonalds near you, but that is another story for another day), it seems those rendezvous moved my calving up about a month. With three calves already on the ground, thorough morning checks of the cows are now part of my morning routine.

We plowed through the drifts to get to the pasture and a quick check revealed a new surprise conceived last April. Fortunately both cow and heifer calf did not seem fazed by the near arctic conditions. The cow was an older one and she had picked a good spot out of the wind. With the extra help the calf was quickly checked, tagged and released back to mama. We made our way back to the house re-opening the drifts that had filled back in during our jaunt to the pasture.

We were back into the house at a little after 8:30 am and the morning’s events were discussed over coffee and hot chocolate. I am sure that many of my kid’s classmates were still in bed. I am sure of this because that fact was mentioned a couple of times. The wood stove was stoked and the process of thawing out, for the first time, was initiated. I say for the first time because nearly hourly checks will be made of the lambs and ewes during the day. Each one of these excursions will also necessitate thawing out by the wood stove.

I am sure my tale of my kid’s snow day is not any different than any other farm kid in the neighboring two or three counties. Inclement weather provides many challenges, especially when newborn animals are thrown into the mix, those challenges require that all hand need to be on deck. Keeping the chores done and animals care for is definitely a family activity.

Days like this are what makes farming and ranching such a unique way of life. At an early age farm kids quickly learn that there are no days off or days when work is cancelled due to inclement weather. They also realize that family activities and farm work have a way of morphing into each other. So while other kids may have been snuggled in their warm beds enjoying their snow day, my kids were bundled in their coats and overalls enjoying their snow day just as much.