Many Americans have certain qualities they lack making for a gray, sickly society. However, there is still a place you can go where the smiles are true and the grass is greener. It’s back on some old country roads where big buildings are non existent and the air smells more of clean air rather than smog and pollution. It’s called the country and it’s a magical place where these people live called farmers. Farmers are these people who have learned three things that make it so their skies stay blue and hearts stay pure. Below are the three things that farming teaches you, straight from a farmer's daughter herself.
1. Responsibility:
From a very young age, farming teaches you a sense of responsibility. Every little task is important and because of that you learn how to be responsible. If something doesn’t get done properly and completely it can be detrimental to the business. If you don’t plant at the right time, some crop can go bad. If you don’t get the vet, cows can get sick, leading to bad products and sad cows. Even the small things such as picking up sticks is important because you don’t want broken machinery. That sense of responsibility you learn on the farm then carries over into everyday life. You can always depend on a farmer.
2. Hospitality:
A core requirement to fitting into the farmer's world is kindness. When supper is on the table and someone we know shows up it is never a problem to add a place setting. Everyone is welcome at every bonfire, cookout, and country hollar back in the woods, if you can find it. Farmers know how to shake hands, make friends, and keep them. We know how much kind words are needed and we are here to be kind to you, provide good products for you, and help you if you need it.
3. The true value of a dollar:
Wasting anything is frowned upon in the farming community. The same goes for the dollars in our pockets. A perfect season is never guaranteed and a rarity, because of that it’s important to use what money you need and not a cent more. I remember times my dad would have me on the little garden tractor with a little sprayer behind it spraying the field of grass. I would think, why don’t we get a big sprayer, it would be way easier and faster, but we didn’t need it so we didn’t get one. What we are given is looked upon as blessings that we are grateful for and not wasteful of. We are careful of not over indulging ourselves in luxurious things that we don’t need because things are just things (something the richest one percent of America could learn).
All of the above are qualities, traits and principles that farmers are raised on. They are a core foundation to the way a true farmer is made. The next time you ask what someone's profession is and they tell you farmer, you can rest assured they are reliable, hospitable and economical.
