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Is your entire identity a hard working farmer?
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Sidneyfarmer
Posted 3/18/2024 10:06 (#10669847 - in reply to #10669537)
Subject: RE: Is your entire identity a hard working farmer?


Sheridan Mi
ronm - 3/18/2024 06:32

Sidneyfarmer - 3/17/2024 15:12

I hope not. I try to be diverse and do a lot of different things. Trouble is, for somebody just driving by, all they see is the farm. The problem too is, some people think that this is still 1950 and if you farm, you work hard. You don't know hard work until you milk too many cows all alone. My hard work ended and my life started the day they went on trailers.


A friend & customer of mine who was a 3rd generation dairy farmer said he felt like he had been let out of prison the day the last load of cows went down the road...he farmed for about 10 more years & died of a massive heart attack.


I likened it to being on kidney dialysis. The labor might not be the hardest work ever, but what it does to you mentally is something else. Having to be there twice a day, seven days a week, not being able to go anywhere and being on a rigid schedule is more load than anybody should have to endure. I could see the change in my boys when they quit. I know beyond a doubt that I'm a whole different person than I was when I had all of that stress and anxiety. I had PTSD from it for a long time. I still have to be careful not to trigger my anxiety. I know too, that I had some kind of a breakdown from it. I had a bunch of fresh heifers all at once and had to break them. I lost all ability to feel anything. All of my emotions were gone. They broke me.

I'll never forget an auction sale bill that I saw one time. At the top it said "After twenty years of milking cows, we have decided to return to a normal life".
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