On these cold, wet, dark, five o’clock start mornings on the farm, many farmers wonder could there be a more pleasing job than this?
After trudging through the mud on a cold rainy morning on the way to milk the cows at 5 a.m. farmers are happily greeted by a barn full of cows waiting for the lights to go on.
Lights in the barn mean that the aroma of fresh feed will soon fill the barn and the sound of the milker pump starting means—to a cow—that the farmer will soon be there with the milker to get the pressure off her udder.
Cutting corn, plowing the soil, spreading manure and most other fall farm chores are not very pleasant on wet, muddy days. In the fall, days get shorter and colder and fall work has to get done regardless of how nice a day it is.
Animals have to be looked after on cold wet days even better than on nice dry days. They need more feed to keep warm and to keep from getting sick while out in a wet, rainy or snowy day.
An old farmer once told me, “It takes a few bad days to make us appreciate a good day.” Maybe that’s why “gu-day” is the first word we say when we meet?
Farmers work hard in often less than perfect conditions, but enjoy a good party and take pleasure from often simple anecdotes.
Before the days of Wal-Mart and other large chain stores, milk was delivered to your door by the milk man, fresh bread and other baked goods by the bread man and farm fresh eggs came several times a week by the egg farmer. Some egg men stopped off at local garages and other small town service businesses.
One day the egg man made his regular stop at a town garage and left his regular order for the workers. Some local pranksters, who worked in the garage, took the bookkeeper’s eggs and hard boiled six in a pot of water, using the blow torch for heat. They then put the six hard-boiled eggs back in the egg carton with the other six fresh eggs. When Harry got home and tried to crack one of the hard-boiled eggs, he thought that the farmer was selling old eggs and called to complain. It took a couple days to get that one straightened out.
Some of our old cattle drovers not only bought animals, but sold some beef and pork “on the side” and took orders from farmers who they visited. One fall, a drover asked my grandfather if he needed some pork. Grandpa got grandma involved before he ordered a whole hog, cut and wrapped. Within a week, boxes of frozen pork arrived and grandma eagerly cooked up a roast of pork. It was quite fat and the next day we had pork chops and they were quite fat too. After that meal, grandma told grandpa, “the next time Sam wants to sell you a nice little piggy say no!”
One fall, after much bickering another local cattle buyer bought a steer from Emery. The deal was that after the steer was marketed, if it sold well, Emery was supposed to get $20 more. About two weeks after the steer was shipped, Emery met the cattle buyer at the feed mill. He asked the drover, “How did you make out on that steer?” The cattle buyer replied “Emery, you made more on that steer than I did.” Emery replied to the drover, “I would hope so! You only had the steer for three days and I fed him for three years!”
Before large machinery was used on a farm, farmers planted some small and very hilly fields. Horse-drawn equipment could maneuver in these small, hilly fields quite successfully.
One year a neighbour planted a small field in corn that was even too steep for the horse drawn corn binder. It was only an acre, so the neighbors decided to cut the corn by hand with corn hooks. The field was on such a side hill that while hooking corn, Joe cut the bowl off his tobacco pipe. That was the first and last time that that field was planted in corn.
Seventy years ago, our little town of Shawville had five barbers but only Fred did house calls. One spring cropping was late because of too much rain, so my dad called Fred to see if he had enough time to cut his hair. Fred said that after dinner was quiet and it was a nice sunny day and as my dad was sowing oats in a field right in town, he’d be up about 2 p.m.. Fred walked up with his clippers, scissors, skunk oil and a white sheet in a feed bag. He walked down in the grain field to meet my dad sowing oats with a horse-drawn seed drill. Dad just sat on the seed box on the drill and Fred stood on the tongue and after putting the white sheet around Dad’s shoulders, proceeded to cut dad’s hair. Our next door neighbour Hilliard was tilling the field beside where dad was but about five acres away. Hilliard’s eyesight wasn’t very good and he stopped his horses and sat and watched the entire procedure. After Fred finished, packed up and left, Hilliard walked down to ask my dad, “by dammed, what was going on down here anyways?”
Don’t forget to put your clocks back an hour this weekend. It’ll take a week to gradually get the milk cows switched back to standard time. They don’t understand why we change our clocks twice a year and animals don’t like change. Sometimes I wonder too.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
