Lessons Learned on a Dairy Farm from a Non-Farm Kid
One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to go to the barn with my cousins. Both sets of my grandparents had dairy farms - my Aunts and Uncles partnered on those farms and also started their own. I didn’t realize it at the time, but there were so many lessons at the farm - respect for animals, an appreciation for hard work, and the importance of having the freedom to play in a special place. My daughter and her cousin are catching on to this now too at Meadowbrook Acres and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
Grandma bringing granddaughter, Juniper, to the barn.
Here are some lessons this non-farm kid learned on a farm:
The meaning of hard work - I only visited my cousins at their farms for holidays, birthdays and special occasions. They lived there and did their farm chores every day. My cousins used to call my siblings and I “city kids” because we didn’t grow up on a farm, even though we lived in a rural, small town 45 minutes away. When my brother, sister or I would go with them to do things like toss hay in a wagon (really tough work by the way), I realized they worked harder than I ever had and I respected that.
Kids need to find their own fun - it wasn’t our parents job to entertain or constantly supervise us. My cousins made a rope swing that they tied to the beam of the hay barn with a grain bag attached to the end of it that we would sit on. We swung like Tarzan across the barn on the rope swing and crashed into the soft hay below. We got lost for hours in hay bale forts we built. The independence and freedom we had was awesome, and also a feeling that many kids today don’t get to experience.
Respect for animals- I remember being in awe of the milking parlor and how my Uncle would bellow out signals to the cows that they clearly recognized because at his call they would swiftly enter the milking parlor from the barn. While I trembled at the size of the cows, he walked among them like they were his pals. He would call them out as they passed through to be milked like he knew each one personally, and he does.
These are only a few reasons why my brother Eric wanted to become a dairy farmer by the time he could talk and tell us that was what he was going to do. When he was 12 he started working at Meadowbrook Acres, which was only a few miles down the road from the house where we grew up. And now, 20 years later he is the one calling out the cows by name in the barn. He is totally committed to taking the best care of the cows, the land and to keeping the farm a special place to raise his family. He and his wife Erin are teaching their daughter all about farm life, and even at one she’s pretty pumped.
Eric with his daughter at the heifer barn.
Our mom joined the farm too when she married Donnie, the farm owner. She takes care of the bookkeeping and general organization. I’m so glad that my kids will get to learn a thing or two from my brother and the rest of my family in this special place.
Visiting the barn with Grandma
Love shows up in mysterious places!
Eric’s daughter feeding a young cow.
