Category: Lessons

Life Lesson from Corn

As I continue down the path of being the next in my family to take over our farming operation, it seems like responsibilities continue to pile on. Usually I’m getting a handle on one thing, when something new comes up and seems to overwhelm me again and the cycle continues. I’m not complaining about this cycle, I know that I have a lot to learn about this whole farming thing, and I love that I’m always learning and growing. So did you know…corn roots grow over six feet down into the ground?!! By stressing the plants, farmers are able to persuade corn roots to grow further into the ground to get nutrients. In other words by stressing the corn, you get a great root system that helps keep the plant strong and growing throughout the season.

I think of this in relation to my life, growing up and now living back there and trying to grow as a woman, farmer, and business person. As my responsibilities become larger and larger, I’m finding that stress is coming right along with all of that. It’s stress that I know will subside as I get better at my new jobs in our operation, but recently it’s been really getting to me. We recently got a new linear irrigation system, one that I’m in charge of learning how to run, running, and taking care of. Well ever since the darn thing started running I’ve been getting up 2 or 3 times a night in a panic, having a dream that the linear was walking out across the prairie with nothing stopping it! Although in reality it would hit many many trees if it did start to walk away; it doesn’t matter, it’s 3am and I’m in a panic! I also have been known to sleep walk and talk, so I’m just waiting for the night that I wake up walking out my door, screaming for the linear to stop, and headed out across the prairie!!

So when I heard this little corn fact the other day; that farmers actually stress corn to make their roots grow deep and strong so that they can produce more corn and more food per plant, I had to smile. I think that’s exactly what I’m going through right now! Although I’m not having a ball waking up in the middle of the night worrying about what is going on out in the field, I know that my roots are growing deeper as I become more and more responsible for things on the farm. This is what I want, and someday the linear won’t be what keeps me up at night, it will be something else that I probably can’t even imagine up right now. The linear…”Ha” I’ll scoff, “piece of cake!”

A Well Deserved Rememberance…

For this Memorial Day holiday I wanted to say thank you to all of those who have served and given up so much for our country.  Keep your heads high, because we appreciate all that you have done for us.  You’re so unselfish and have been called to do something so incredible for everyone else, you should be so proud!

(From the Lens of a Farm Girl)

There is a good reason why rural Americans feel such a connection to the military and all of their service…just look at the picture above and those statistics.  I think this says a lot for our hardworking mindset out here.  Nothing is really handed to you, you have to work for it, sacrifice for it and then pass it on to another.  This is how good things come to us in a country that is filled with such fortunate people (and I don’t mean the rich…I mean all of us everyday normal folks!)  So thank you again for all the military, their families and friends.  The sacrifice goes on and on, and it’s all our freedom!!

My sister and I with a few people that I will be remembering this weekend. 
Grandpa & Grandma Kirsch.

Memorial Day is also about remember those that you have lost, maybe not to a war or fighting, but maybe it was just their time to go.  My Grandpa & Grandma Kirsch will be a few that I think about on this weekend.  I think of them often actually, and how much of an influence they still have on my life.  My grandpa’s love of farming, clearly, has been passed down and my Grandma’s cooking is still always on my mind!  So to you and yours on this holiday weekend, I hope you enjoy an extra day off of work, but also take time to thank those who have made your life better!!  Happy Memorial Day!!

With Adversity comes Diversity on our Operation

Just a few days ago we received some tough news from one of the company’s that we grow for. They were no longer going to be doing business and handling the crop that we contracted to grow with them. At first I was very upset, it’s most frustrating because we had already planted half of that certain crop, the other half of the acres was still bare ground. There was an article in the paper saying that the farmers were not effected too much because we had lots of options for crops to still plant. Unfortunately that is not the whole truth, and as of Tuesday it was looking more like summer fallowing our land was our only option.

But this isn’t a blog about our hard times, and it isn’t about the company and what they did wrong. Honestly I truly feel like they did their best and treated us very fairly, this is just one of those things that happens, that’s terrible and hurts not only us as farmers, but our industry as a whole. This blog is more about how in the past two days I have learned about what to do when everything seems to be going well, and all the sudden someone shows up at your farm and the whole scenario changes.

I know for a fact that we aren’t the only ones hurt by this substantial shift. There is an entire industry here in the Willamette Valley that will struggle through this challenge. Also there are many people who were employed because of this company who are going to be hurting. It’s a tough deal, but it’s also life. I just hope that we can all keep moving on, working hard, and being thankful for our blessings we have now.

I have learned that you can’t just give up and take a trip to Hawaii, although that crossed my mind many times! You have to dig in, start calling, start working hard, and figuring out what you need to change to make this work for your operation. For us we have chosen to grow a new crop that we have never grown before. I’m looking forward to learn something new, and also excited to see if this can be something that will work into our operation for years to come. The future is yet to be seen, and I don’t know for sure that everything will all work out in the end. But I did learn that even when the rug is pulled out from under you, you can get upset and moan and complain, or you pick up and move forward. I’ve always been told that farming is a gamble, but until this week I never really understood the stress of what that can mean.  I’m hoping that we can look back at this adversity and be thankful because in the end it led our farm down a healthy path of more diversity.