Real Farmwives: The Cycle of Life

 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

---Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Not only are those words true in life, but perhaps no where are they more true than on the farm. Today, my friends the Real Farmwives of American are sharing what happens during the year, season-by-season in our farming operations.

Since spring had sprung, or at least it's trying to, I wanted to start with springtime on our farm. By springtime, most of our lamb crop is one the ground, although there are always a few "late bloomers" still waiting to pop. This year, we have 2 yearling ewes left to lamb and our oldest ewe is holding out on us, too. We'll see how long those mama's take to pop!

But as soon as the weather warms, we "move in" to the barn at my mom's house for the summer. We get all the saddles, tack, brushes and gear situated for the horses so we can start riding. Now I've heard that some folks (well, actually, I know) there are some folks who are fair-weather riders. That's great it you're just riding for the joy of it. But my kids are competitors...competitors who love the thrill of doing their best and taking home the ribbons and buckles.

So we ride every night it's not raining...or that they are not at dance class or basketball. And usually it's a divide and conquer kind of thing with the Old Man. I keep protesting that I would happily make them ride rain or shine if only someone would build me an indoor arena. Any volunteers? This year we're starting harder earlier because Sissy and Sparkplug are gearing up for a 3-day barrel racing clinic next month, and it takes a lot of work and practice for them both to be in fighting shape for this 3-day workout.

The rodeo mares have their colts on the ground, the baby calves are practicing their bucking skills as they romp across the pastures, the lambs are playing "king of the mountain" on the round bales of hay,  and all the stock is growing fat and sassy on the new green grass. The early lambs are growing like crazy and the weathers (castrated males) will be sold for the Easter lamb market. Soon, the ewes and the rams will get shorn and ready for warm summer days.

And the Old Man gets busy. He works year-round as a dairy nutrition consultant, but he also works for a local cooperative doing GPS work for their customers' equipment and machinery, soil testing, etc. And he does some more independent consulting for some other farmers setting up their GPS equipment, programming their  planting rate prescriptions, soil testing, determining the application rates for their fertilizers, and a whole lot more that is more detailed and complicated than I want to know. What it means for me and our family is that we will have a lot of late nights and lonely weekends without him until the crops are all happily settled and growing in the ground.

But summer is just around the corner, and things don't slow down. We kick up our riding level to the next notch because youth rodeos will start in June and our family's rodeo stock contracting company will start putting on rodeos and bull ridings in May. That means we're heading out on the road at least 3-4 weekends a month all summer long through September or sometimes into October. Summer vacation? Think again! We're lucky to get the kids scheduled into church camp for a few days...and that's only because it doesn't happen on the weekend.

The Old Man may have his "busy" season over as far as his GPS work in getting the crops into the fields, but there are still crops to be scouted, weeds to be identified and mapped and more prescriptions to write for fertilizers and pesticides. All that work ensures that farmers are using the least amount of inputs possible for the highest yield results. Variable rate technology ensures that chemicals and fertilizers can only be applied where they are needed (thus the "variable rate") throughout specific fields. That just makes good economic sense. Would you fill your car's gas tank and let gallons and gallons of "extra" gas flow out onto the ground at the gas station just to make sure your tank was filled? Especially at today's prices? Of course not! Farmers are no different. Crop inputs are expensive, and they certainly don't want to over-apply more than is needed...that's no different than "over-applying" gas to your gas tank. It just makes sense. Utilizing new technologies like this is one of the reasons we as Americans enjoy the safest, most affordable food supply in the world...bar none.

We'll also be making hay, fixing fences and building new fences throughout the summer.

As the end of summer approaches, it's time to start thinking about next year's lamb crop. This year, we have a new Daddy at our house: Skywalker.

We'll probably breed him back to the same ewes we used him on this year ('cuz we are really liking his lambs) and breed the new ewe lambs to Rex:

Everyone will be busy preparing for the rodeo finals...both the kids...

And the bucking horses and bulls. Did you know the horses and bulls compete for awards, too? Yep! Only their don't get to wear their own buckles.

The rodeo finals will wind down as winter begins. But it doesn't matter how cold it is or how early it gets dark...the stock still needs fed, watered and checked every night. Rain or shine, sleet or snow. They depend on us to do their grocery shopping and delivery.

In January, we should start to see some of the early lambs on the ground and start booking rodeos for the 2012 season. And then the whole cycle will begin again. Like I said, there's a time for everything.