Blizzards Don’t Stop Farm Work

During that wicked cold spell earlier this month – the one with wind, subzero temperatures and snow – many people didn’t set foot out of the house for days.

If you are reading this anywhere in the Midwest, you know the storm I mean. It cast its icy blanket over a vast stretch of the middle of the country, and it took its time about moving on. As somebody commented, “we didn’t even go out in the garage, and that’s attached to the house.” Of course, they didn’t go out. They’re not a farmer!

Some famers were worrying about frozen pipes and power outages, too. But they didn’t have the luxury of hunkering down inside for days at a time while the storm howled around their houses. They had to be out in the storm, at least some of the time. Livestock need hay and water. Cows need to be milked. Chickens need to be fed.

It would be nice if those things could be done from the living room through some computer app. They can’t. Farms stay open, one way or the other.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

As someone who grew up on a dairy farm in Southern Michigan, I can guarantee you that it was a 365-day job. No matter the weather, or how you were feeling, those cows needed to be milked. If the power was out , we milked them all by hand (what a treat). A frozen water line was especially troublesome. The point is, farmers/ranchers, especially if they have livestock, don’t get a “snow day”. That’s why they rely on your parts and service departments to help them have that dependable vehicle, the one they can count on even when Mother Nature is at her worst. As the article title says – Blizzards don’t stop farm work!