By Chelsey Erdmann
What makes a farmer?
Honestly, operating equipment is the easy part.
It’s the decisions.
It’s standing on the headland of a field deciding how deep to chase the moisture with the planter.
It’s evaluating each cow on her worth now as a part of the herd versus her worth through a sale tomorrow.
It’s watching the markets and reading the reports then having to decide when to sell.
It’s narrowing down the replacement heifer pen to a set that will further the herd in the direction planned.
It’s crunching the numbers on numerous what-if scenarios to choose crop rotations while factoring in harder to calculate indirect costs.
It’s being suck in a wet weather spell and having to make the call on when to lay the hay down.
It’s the weight of our family’s 128-year legacy we carry. It’s the daily reminder that other families are supported by this farm.
Being a farmer or a rancher comes down to being the one to pull the trigger on making hard decisions, often many in the same day.
It’s not the hours we work, the acres we farm, the number of cows we run, or the commodities we market that make us farmers.
It’s the decisions.
Decisions we make with limited information.
Decisions with many factors out of our control.
Decisions with lasting impacts.
This post first appeared on the "Oh That's Chelsey" blog and is reprinted with permission. Chelsey is the District 5 representative on the NDFB Promotion and Education Committee.