It's sort of in your blood. You don't think about the long hours or the money. You do it because you love it. - Ross Haberfield
I can not tell you how many times I hear the question, "What do you want to do with your life?' As a junior in college, I still don't quite know the answer to this question. I always have the same response, though, I see myself going back into production agriculture. The response is always the same. People are baffled why I would ever want to go back to the farm. Why would I want to return to a place where you have to work twice as hard to make a profit? I have even found myself asking the same question.
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When I was a kid my favorite thing to do was ride around with my dad in the feed truck. We had a system all worked out. He would feed the cattle and then we would turn around and I would count calves while he counted cows. A lot of Saturday mornings were spent in that white chevy.
My passion for agriculture started early. For as long as I can remember my home has always been on the farm, surrounded by family, wheat, and cattle. I would not change this for the world. When thinking about future careers I cannot thing of one more fulfilling than farming.
As a farmer, you are given the responsibility to look over a crop or a living animal and nurture them to their full potential. With a crop you nuture that plant from the time you put it into the ground to the time of harvest to make sure it has the best chance to survive and prosper. With livestock you are the source of care and survival for a living breathing animal. Your job is to give that animal the best feed and care so it can be utilized for the human population.
Not many people can say that they have watched a kernel of wheat become a loaf of bread to feed a hungry family, or watched a small calf grow into a 1200 pound animal that will in return provide nutrients for a hungry and growing population.
Yes the work is not easy and the hours are basically 24/7 but this is not just a career, its a lifestyle. Many business professionals will tell you to leave work at the office and separate your professional and personal life. That's not the case with farming. I cannot begin to count how many times our dinner table was a board meeting about when to wean calves, what cows to keep and what cows to sell, what variety of wheat we were planting this year or an update on how everything was growing. This is why agriculture is such a special industry. It's not just a career, its a lifestyle.
Call me crazy, but I cannot wait to return home to the family farm and continue on the legacy that was started. To give my kids a chance to grow up how I did and an opportunity to be apart of feeding a growing world. To me, that's better than any office job I could ever imagine.
