I would have long since succumbed to the retirement idea and quit if not for grazing. Traditional crops farming is simply too discouraging. Increasingly the community does without the expense spending or the income from the crops farms as they are today. The farms are simply too big and spread out to have any good effect on the home town or its businesses.
Grazing, on the other hand, is more year around. The cattle that are grazing in summer have also to be fed in winter. Grazing lays out considerably less cash for expense but at least its income is more available to be spent locally. And this is especially true of the farms which try to sell their products locally.
And then there is weather. Right now we celebrate the inch and half of rain we got last night and can already see the effect on the color and lushness of the grass. More is expected early next week. We badly need it, having been short on moisture for going on four seasons now. The crop fields, mostly not planted, are just muddy.
It is not just that. We started the cattle to grazing about a week ago. Even though the temperature is a bit low to encourage vigorous grass growth, there is some forage out there to get. The animals signaled their appreciation for the new situation by kicking up heels and racing about the new paddock with tails straight up in the air. It is impossible for a farmer not to be moved by that expression of joy.
Grazing has its issues, true. We do not have first rate forage plants to use because forage is always an afterthought to corn when it comes to research. But the season is longer at both ends, considerably so if the farmer has planned the stocking rate right. The work is more pleasant-who can argue with walking on grass to observe the animals? The expense, thus the worry, is a great deal less.
It seems to me that a well managed farm in the northern corn belt here needs to include annual crops such as corn plus grazing animals. The soil and the land need that kind of practice. The animals need to be managed in that way. And perhaps most of all, farmers need that regular respite from machine logic. It restores the soul.
