"Don't Talk About Farming"
success vs. failure, and some other things || May/June newsletter
Sometimes, out of the blue, an idea will come to mind, a story I want to share here. Other times, I sit down, sharp pencil in hand, hovering over the blank page, willing myself to come up with a story to tell you. And usually, one of the thoughts that races through my mind is, “Don’t talk about farming. Don’t talk about farming. Can’t you think of something to write about that isn’t related to farming?”
For those of you not in agriculture, there’s a stereotype about farmers and ranchers. Wherever they go, whether it’s a wedding, a party, or a school event, they usually want to talk about farming or ranching. There are many times I’ve sat at a dinner, the conversation about the weather, harvest, or calving, and silently thought to myself, “Don’t we have anything else to talk about?”
So when I sat down to write this very late May or early June newsletter, I told myself, “Talk about something other than farming.”
I looked back at my notes from a few weeks ago when I started to work on this newsletter. I wrote how June is my favorite month. Everything is green—from the grass in our yard to the fields surrounding us—and full of life. The days aren’t too hot yet, and the evenings are cool.
Fast-forward a few weeks. The green is fading, and we need rain. The early shine of June is wearing off.
I think that’s why I kept putting off writing a newsletter.1 The month started hopeful, the crops full of potential. The work the crew put in last fall and this spring looked like it was all coming to fruition. Earlier this month, Rich kept his positive mantra of “We just need one good rain in June to finish the crops.”
Now, we’re over halfway through the month, and we still haven’t had rain. And there’s nothing we can do about it. All we can do is hope and pray for rain—a rain that may not come.
I didn’t want to send out a whiny post because our story is one of many. Countless other farmers are praying for rain. On the other side of the country, farmers wish it would stop raining. We can control many aspects of farming—like what crops to plant, when to plant, and when to spray (among countless other decisions). But like Rich said the other day, “It’s frustrating when success and failure are completely out of my hands.”
Like any good writer, I nodded and then quickly ran to my notebook to write that line down.
It’s true for many aspects of our lives. We can put in the hours and do the work, and sometimes we fail. Other times, we put in the same effort, and we succeed. I’ve felt this in many parts of my life, undoubtedly as a writer.
Sometimes, it’s all about timing; other times, success is subjective.
A couple of weeks ago, we flew to St. Louis and then drove across the Mississippi River and into Illinois. We spent three days in meetings with Uncommon Farms, an organization we recently partnered with, and we were there for orientation. Other than weddings, it was the first time all six of us (Rich and I, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law) were off the farm at the same time and in the same place.
We spent long days in meetings, discussing our operation's long-term and short-term goals. We wrote down our values and core focus and created a Mission Statement for our farm and ranch.
In the evenings, we went to dinner with Uncommon Farms employees. And you guessed it, we talked about farming over steaks and street tacos.
We’re still tweaking our Mission Statement, but this is the core focus we came up with as a group (okay, I won’t be modest; I wrote it—based on everyone’s feedback and the things we discussed).2
“Stewarding the land to leave a legacy.”™️
Our decisions and goals regarding the farm and ranch should be based on our core focus and Mission Statement. Does each decision we make support our focus on stewarding the land to leave a legacy?
If the answer is yes, we can proceed with that decision. If not, we might need to examine the situation more closely and consider a different approach.
Stewardship is defined as “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.”3
Stewardship doesn’t mention anything about success.
Of course, we can’t catastrophically fail every year and expect our operation not to fold.4 I would argue, though, that if we are making decisions that we believe are in line with our focus of stewarding the land to leave a legacy, we will be successful. Each year, the definition of success will look different, and we hope that in some years, we will be more successful than others. But we know that many factors are out of our control.
In a perfect world, every year would be a bumper crop, no calves would die, the rain would be timely, and the price of commodities would be excellent. But that’s not realistic.
At the end of the day, if we can look back and know that we did our best and that our decisions were made with our values in mind—we can call that a success.5
Farm Happenings
We’re haying! We only get one cutting of hay, so this will be it for us for the year. The crew is working long hours cutting the fields, baling, and wrapping the round bales. Most of the bales will be used to feed our cattle over the winter months, but if there are any extra, we will sell them to other ranchers.
Most of our cow/calf pairs were hauled by trucks to summer pastures on the Canadian border, where they will stay until October. One herd will stay at the home ranch for the summer.
Up next: more haying and then harvest. 🌾
Things I’m Loving . . .
I know I already mentioned this book, but it’s worth mentioning again. Run, don’t walk to the bookstore (or your computer to order it), and pick up It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping.6 I’m a sucker for buying books at the airport, and I randomly picked up Long Island, thinking it looked good. I started reading, then realized when I was about a quarter of the way through that it was the second book in a series. And thanks to Goodreads, I realized I had already read the first book six years ago, and didn’t remember reading it. (I have a terrible memory sometimes when it comes to books.) 🫠 I’ve had Mary Karr's The Art of Memoir on my bookshelf for a couple of years, and I finally started reading it and am enjoying it. I listened to the audiobook The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin. The story was fascinating, and the writing was great.
I pre-ordered this book, which arrives tomorrow, and I’m hoping it lives up to its summer-read hype. I’ve been eyeing this book for a while, but my library doesn’t currently have it, and I’m trying not to buy every new book I want.
Rich and I rarely watch TV together, but Clarkson’s Farm is one series we both enjoy. The third season came out in May, and we watched all of the episodes over a few-week period. It’s about farming, of course, and might seem like something only farmers should watch. But I would argue that it’s good for everyone to watch and see the ins and outs and ups and downs of agriculture. 😉 And it’s funny.7 10/10 recommend.
Our coffee pot broke a couple of weeks ago, so we splurged on this one. I did a search online for the “best coffee maker,” and this one was at the top of a list of the best drip coffee makers. It’s also from the same line as the other appliances in our kitchen. And it has a built-in grinder! So far, we are loving it!
Things I didn’t love. I watched St. Elmos’s Fire for the first time a few weeks ago. I read Demi Moore’s memoir last summer, and she mentioned this movie. It piqued my interest in watching 80s movies that I was too young to watch when they came out. I was fully looking forward to loving this movie, but I was super disappointed. Has anyone else watched it? Maybe I would have loved it more in the 80s. 😆 I still plan to watch more 80s classics, and hopefully, I’ll have better luck next time.
And in some shameless self-promotion, I’ll post a couple of my things here.
Last month, I shared that an essay of mine would be in the summer issue of Trailblazher magazine—and I finally got my copy! My kids were excited to see pictures of themselves in print but weren’t that impressed with my byline. 😒
And I wrote this short post for Father’s Day for Coffee + Crumbs.
Happy almost summer! Although it already feels like summer around here since my kids have been out of school for over three weeks.
Between our trip to Illinois and taking my oldest to football camp across the state, I haven’t been home for most of June. I’m looking forward to some quiet days at home, not doing laundry for a trip and packing/unpacking.
What are your summer plans?? I’ll be back next month! (I think.) 🫠
I also haven’t been home much in the last few weeks to sit down and work on it.
There are some redeeming qualities that I bring to the operation. They just aren’t farming or ranching qualifications. 🤪
This also applies to stewarding the hearts and minds of our children, who are entrusted to our care. 💚
Also, I’m not saying this year will be a complete failure. But it’s possible the crops won’t yield to their highest potential. My husband strives for the best and puts his whole heart into his crops, and when they miss the mark, he feels like a failure. And in terms of our livelihood, it does affect our bottom line.
Rich might disagree with me on this. But this is my newsletter. 😜
I know many writers mention that their links are affiliate links. So, for the sake of transparency, I don’t know how to do that, so all of the links are just me copying and pasting from the Internet. 🤣
I do wonder if people outside of agriculture find it funny. 🤷🏻♀️
"Stewardship doesn't mention anything about success." I love that.
Did not love St. Elmo's Fire, either. However, I'm a huge John Hughes fan. Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful are my favorites. But yeah, St. Elmo's Fire kind of creeped me out. I wonder what I would think of it if I watched it now.
Friend, in a different way, I *feel* this. But also, I like when you talk about farming, because it's a life and a story I don't know and won't ever live and I love being let in. P.s. I have tried 3 times to get "It wasn't roaring, it was weeping" from the library and they still don't have it! Might just need to go ahead and purchase!