What do find enjoyable and rewarding about farming?

Question

What do find enjoyable and rewarding about farming?

Answer 1

I grew up on a farm and that is the lifestyle I choose to instill in my family.  As a child I had 200 acres as a playground.  I raised beef and dairy cattle, hogs, various grain crops, a garden and on top of that managed to show steers, sheep, and crops in the county fair.  I was active in school activities and community as well.   I loved it.  

I have never felt more rewarded than planting a field with my father in the spring and watching it grow through the summer and then harvesting it in the fall.  I ate the vegetables from the garden, the apples from our orchard and the meat from our animals.  Sure there were hard times.  Drought, cold, too much rain; these were all learning tools.  You learn so many life lessons.  The most important lessons which I think are missed so much in society are respect for vegetation, animals, and life itself.  

As a child I could not Wait to get away from New Vienna, Ohio.  Now, I can not wait to get home and I never want to leave...

Answer 2

c-dizzel said it all

Answer 3

Knowing where your food came from and knowing my grandbabies and neighbor children can eat my food right off the vine.  All organic!

Answer 4

Without question growing up on a farm is the greatest thing in the world. You can explore everything. and learn nature at it's best. Life, death, you see it all.

But honestly unless your careful. You can regret the day you were born if you don't live your life to the fullest. A farm can also be a trap. You can get so wrapped up in work, that time slips by. And then what? You must leave and see the world too. I may be about to do this. Farms, especially family farms, rely heavily on a generational shift. Father to son to son to son, or father to daughter and son in law. If you see a pattern in the fields, remember there is also a pattern to life. Without that the farm dies. It's a pity, but it happens. Yes, farming can be good. If you do things in a timely manner. And nature holds sway over it all.

Answer 5

I'm a small farmer.  My husband and I live/work on a permaculture farm.  

We raise meat goats, meat rabbits, alfalfa, and rapeseed for our own biofuel, as well as our big garden.  

When I was a very little girl, I wanted to be two things.  A farmer doing things the natural way, and a National Geographic reporter.  

Well, I've had some pretty serrious health issues all of my life, so that left being a globe trotting National Geographic reporter out.  

However living on a farm, in harmony with nature, wildlife, the livestock, our crops, and the seasons was something I was able to attain, and I love every moment of it.  Best of all, I was able to make National Geographic come to ME!

Since I sell meat goats, I sell only to ethnic customers.   Your "average white American" simply does not eat goat, so they are not my customers.  Instead my customers are from all over the world.  

I live in Idaho, high mountain desert, in the very heart of potato country.  I've had people from Jamaica, Trinidad, Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Germany, Yemen,  almost all central African nations, Nepal & a few other countries coming directly to my farm, to butcher goats and rabbits here.  They bring their religion, native dress, and traditions right here to my farm.

I am so very fortunate to live in a state where it is legal for people to do on-farm slaughtering of the animals they purchase.

I have met the most amazing people...people I would never in a million years be able to meet.  

Most people are lucky if they get to take one vacation in their lifetime to an exotic location and meet the native people and enjoy their customs and culture.  

I have this overwhelming amount of customs, culture, ethnic people, and religions coming to my farm!

I bet you never in a million years expected to see an answer like mine!

So besides our commitment to being as self sufficient as possible, and our ongoing commitment to living as earth friendly a lifestyle as possible, that this lifestyle allows us, we are blessed to be meeting wonderful people from all over the world!

On top of all of that....holding a newborn baby goat...well there's just about no more charming and adorable newborn creature on the face of the earth.  Heartwarming to cuddle a newborn baby goat!

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 6

i live in Morgan, UT and moved here about five years ago from LA,CA.  Major farming community, so it was hard to adjust to this lifestyle.  but i noticed that all the "hicks" and farmers really enjoyed being out in their fields and gardens.  i observed that they resonated a sense of peace, self-satisfactioin, and reverence while out and about doing their various work. I think that it gives them some sense of pleasure and satisfaction to think that they raised x amount of life on the earth that they can call their own and are dependant on them.  They experience it every year.  They love being close to nature and having a visual aid that they can track their progress with.

Answer 7

I'm a recent farmer ( 1.5 years.) I raise catifsh, cattle, and pecans on my farm.  There's really several facets that I find enjoyable and rewardable about this lifestyle:. Probably the first and formost is helping to steward life. Watching a crop grow and knowing that you are responsible for it's success is a very fullfilling task.

Being out in the open air helps a great deal too.  A field and the cab of an f-250 are great offices to have.

I also feel that I get a better sense of self and perspective on how the world works. There are things I can control, there are things that I can't control. Some things are important, some things are not. What I do today mean success of failure 9 months from now.  There is life, there is death, it is all part of the great circle

It really is hard to fully describe, but I feel more at peace now that I'm farming.  I left a very successful high paying devleopment job to take on this challege.  Its not nearly as cut-throat and I am not at the mercy of as many economic factors. It is more physically demanding, but its a good feeling kind of tired at the end of a day.

On a humorous note, there are only a very few people now that I HAVE to be nice: to, the processers who buy my fish, and my wife.  Everyone else is fair game.

Answer 8

i get to grow my own food. also i can learn a new skill. i would enjoy the money that i make selling my crops. now give me my 10 points.

Answer 9

I am not old enough to own and operate my own farm, but I really like being in 4-H and working with my calves that I feed up to market weight and then show them.  Even if I don't get top in my class, it is still rewarding knowing that the calf and I have been good friends, plus all the work pays off.  It is extremely hard selling them, I spend all there life with them until I sell them (market weight).  I also like moving bales, round or small square bales.  Tomorrow I get to move round bales with our John Deere 4030, it is a nice tractor-I like it anyways.  Farming is really great, you learn to get really good work ethics, and all the hard work usually pays off in the long-run.  I hope you can enjoy these same experiences as I can.

Answer 10

I find the smell of hay and cows in a warm barn one of the most enjoyable ends to my day.  There is nothing like coming in out of cold rain or snow to those peaceful, warm cows.  

I love standing on the hill that overlooks my pastures on a summer day, watching the grasses move like waves on the ocean as the breezes whisper past them.

I love that my four children are nowhere near a road, and can play in the fields, woods, and stream all day, only coming home for meals, and I don't have to worry about them.

I love cooking a meal for family and friends and looking around and thinking "I grew all of this".

I like knowing that I do not support agribusiness, factory farms, or fast food chains.

I like to sneak time to just lean on the gate and watch the animals.  Today my 23 sheep were lined up across the field, munching their way across.  They looked like "beaters" for a grouse hunt.  My horse likes to round up the cows and drive them back and forth when he thinks I am not watching.  The chickens do have a "pecking" order.  

It is always a long, hard day, and there is always another chore on the list for tomorrow, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.