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The ‘joys’ of farming

3 min read

Sometimes, farming is like you see in the movies. The rolling green hills speckled with cows and sheep as a tractor putters by, clouds lazily rolling past the sun as the wash hangs to dry on the line and maybe a handful of happy children playing in a white-picket-fenced yard. You know, in all ways idyllic and calm.

When people tell us they aspire to farm someday, I wonder if they have ever seen farming on a bad week.

We had that week last week.

It started when my husband told me he thought the truck’s clutch was bad. It was grinding and becoming more difficult to push in, but he needed to try to get our full wagons home before taking it to the garage. Unfortunately, as he went into a hayfield, the clutch stopped working, and his truck was officially down.

A day or two later, hubby was baling and thought the hay must be awfully dusty because he could barely see behind the round baler. As he began around the top of the hill, he could see it wasn’t dust causing the lack of visibility – it was smoke – and the baler was actually on fire.

Fortunately, a fire extinguisher is mounted inside each cab, and he was able to put it out before the baler was a total loss. The bale of hay he was making at the time, however, didn’t survive. A bad bearing was the cause of the fire, and some rubber components will need replaced.

Switching gears to square baling again, he pulled the wagons out of the barn (with the skid loader – the truck was still in the shop) to begin the process of unloading them. He knew he would need them so he could continue making hay while the round baler was down.

Unfortunately, only two wagons in, a loud noise came from the hay elevator and we watched as the big chain flew apart. Broken in two places, the chain fell to the floor in a knotted heap.

Nearly driven mad by frustration, still he remained calm. He took the wagons to the other barn where the elevator wasn’t yet needed and continued unloading. Then, he borrowed a truck and hauled the empty wagon back to the hayfield so he could bale them full again.

As he backed the tractor up to the baler it died. It wouldn’t start, and there was fuel dripping out from underneath it. Completely disheartened – the tractor is only 8 months old – he called the service department for troubleshooting help. A fuel line had fallen off and probably was never tightened at the factory, he was told. Not confidence-inspiring about the manufacturer, but at least he could plug on.

We know we are incredibly fortunate, even in the midst of this week. (The warranty on the tractor paid for the service call, the baler is repairable, if not beautiful, we had some money set aside that will cover the truck repair, and the elevator may be fixed, as well.)

We don’t want to scare anyone away from farming – we need new blood in the industry – but idyllic? Certainly not. It has its highs and lows, the same as any other business. But the way my husband handled last week was as close to ideal as I could ever expect.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.

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