Blogs

The recent unpleasantness and uncertainty in the dairy industry has caused me to reflect a good bit in the past few weeks. My family was fortunate to know the pleasure of dairy farming in a more hospitable time. Markets were stable and prices allowed for personal growth and enjoyment; it really was “the good old days.”

A man is talking to the family doctor.

“Doc,” he says, “I think my wife’s going deaf.”

One of my best friends shared with me that his wife cannot understand his need to explore junkyards. His idea of a nice afternoon, and mine too, is having a couple of hours to explore a new junkyard. His own, he calls his “boneyard.”

The 1970s turned out to be the end of an era in farm machinery manufacturing with White Motor Company taking over the Oliver Corporation, Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt, forming White Farm Equipment.

I was enjoying a dandy start to the new year. January was like a heavenly dream. We’d had some snow and a couple of cold stretches in late December, but the first few weeks of the year felt more like April than January.

I was having a discussion with Audrey the other day. I consider her kind of a kindred spirit, since she’s a farm girl turned journalist/editor who, like my wife, hails from a small-town dairy farm.