by Kelli Bowen
In my “real life” I work for a seed company. We provide seed dealers with the product they deliver to the end-user, the farmer. I hear people ask all of the time, “Are you relaxing before the ramp up?”, “Are you getting ready to get busy?” “Are you getting excited to get started?” In my job, I’m busy prior to what people think of as the “busy season.” I get it. People see tractors in the field in May and they think that’s when farming happens: May and September. The truth is, we are busy from harvest to spring and repeat. In between the fall colors and spring planting, there’s all kinds of activity. We just celebrated Easter. Let’s compare spring planting to Easter dinner…there are a lot of similarities.
For Easter dinner, we have a lot of preparation: making a list, how much will we need, who’s coming, then there’s growing or shopping for the food, cooking, cleaning, polishing, dig out the recipes, invite the guests, and pull it all together. For sprint planting, we have a lot of preparation: make a list of what seed is going to be needed, how much will we need, who needs it, checking the seed in the field, through harvest, and then bringing it in for cleaning, packaging, quality testing, storing, and getting it delivered to the dealer.
All of this effort goes to the main event: planting. Smelling the earth, watching the equipment roll as the seed drops one by one into the earth and knowing that with proper care, work, a little luck, and some cooperation from Mother Nature, a productive crop can be expected.
Just like that pretty dinner on the table with the hours, if not weeks, of prep, the seed that shows up for a farmer in a tender, box, tote or bag has had a lot of thought, effort and care put into getting that final seed product to the correct field, at least that’s the truth where I spend the hours of my “real life.”
So whether it’s planting seed, a holiday meal, or any other kind of event, enjoy being the moment, but don’t forget to acknowledge all of the effort that led up to it. Then enjoy a much-deserved nap…mine should be coming in June.
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (8 and 5) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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