Friday, August 20, 2021 | Country Acres • Page 7
Getting farmed out Visiting with Larry and Mary Larson I would love to see an influx of kids learning a few weeks ago was an enjoyable expeto work hard and taking pride in their work. rience. If you have already read the frontAnd, I know, all this is much easier said than page story, you will know these two are done. Kids have busy schedules that often very busy people, yet they gladly shared collide with the hours when they are needed their time with me on Friday morning. most on the farm. Equipment is big, expenThey also shared some fantastic vegetasive and not conducive to being operated by bles. the inexperienced young. Farming is dangerThis Willmar couple has quite the ous. The list goes on. story to tell, and honestly, what you read I think the reason this is all on my mind was basically a summary with a lot of it Random Reflections is that I see the dilemma parents have with by Diane Leukam omitted due to a lack of space. I guess their kids, especially those who are in that that’s OK too. You could probably say the 12- to 14-year-old range. They need consame thing for many of our stories because country structive work to keep them busy, but throwing them people do lead very interesting lives. into the workforce has its problems too. However, it When Larry was talking about having local kids can be done. living with their family throughout the summers, it While working at the ice cream building at the reminded me of when I was growing up on the farm. Stearns County Fair one evening, I spoke with one Even though we had eight kids in our family, our town of the dairy princesses who appeared to be waning cousins would often come out for extended stays. This around 9:30 p.m. She had been going strong since happened primarily when I was younger, so I am not 4:30 a.m. when she worked her shift milking cows 100% sure if they were there to visit, to get out of the at a local dairy. She made it clear she loved her work. house or to work. It was probably a combination of This dairy princess is in college now, but she has all the above. been working on the farm for several years. She startTown families sometimes had the problem of not ed out feeding calves and started milking cows this having enough for their kids to do, so the farm was an summer. She loves the camaraderie with her co-workobvious solution for helping them learn how to work. ers and can hold her own in any conversation. There was always plenty to be done on the farm and I Here is some lighthearted banter that might have think they called this process “being farmed out” back been overheard by her employer. The guy she was in the day. milking cows with said to her, “I thought you were I know one of my cousins was actually there to going to fill my soap bucket,” and she replied, “I’m work as a hired hand. I was quite young, and what I not your mother, why would I do that for you?” remember most about him was that he would always The employer commented, “You two sound like dazzle us younger kids with his impression of Donald siblings!” Duck. The only time I really see him these days is at It turns out, this girl has multiple jobs and is rewakes and funerals for members of our large family, portedly always smiling and cheerful doing any one but like the kids who stayed out at the Larsons over of them. It also turns out, her younger sister started at the years, it is clear he still cherishes his time spent on this same dairy feeding calves at the age of 14, before the farm. He can still do Donald Duck, too. she could drive. She is still there as well. Of course, There are still many kids in town without enough some kids are much more willing to work than others, to do, and there are many family farms out there with a but where there is a will to work, there are options. need for workers. Times have changed, to be sure, but Clearly, a good option for some is getting farmed out.
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“They just don’t have cattle jockeys anymore like my Great Uncle Ole,” the Big Bearded Guy stated as we drank coffee in the Dew Drop Café. “Are you feeling nostalgic?” I asked. “What was so great about Uncle Ole and his jockey business?” He said, “He had a homing cow. Like a homing pigeon, only a homing cow. He would sell the cow at the sales barn, and the cow would break out and come back to Ole’s place. The new owner would sell the cow back to Ole cheap and Ole would sell the cow again the next week. Soon, all the ranchers in the area had their brand on her, so whenever the cow was sold, the sales barn took a magic marker and circled the brand of the new owner. That saved a lot of time. Rather than haul the cow home, some farmers just paid Ole at the sales barn.” “Selling a homing cow sure sounds profitable,” I agreed. “Whatever happened to her?” “No one knows for sure,” the Big Bearded Guy continued. “The rumor was that the cow fell in love with a Hereford bull with a long pedigree and moved to Montana with him. Someone saw her on a cattle truck with the bull heading west. My uncle retired from the cattle jockey business shortly afterward and became a stock broker in New York.”
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