Farming, Weather & Weekends

There's no doubt that farmers work in every type of weather imaginable. We milk cows every day, twice a day no matter what it's like outside.

When I was young, I never quite understood grown-ups obsession with watching the weather every evening. As I got older, I began to appreciate the importance of what it meant. Sudden changes in temperatures might mean we need to make preparations for the cattle. A big snow would mean it's time to make sure we have enough feed on hand for a few extra days. A few years ago we experienced one of the worst ice storms in history that left us without power for a week...not something we want to go through again anytime soon.

The one weather factor that almost every farmer obsesses about is rain. Here in Missouri, the old timers will tell you that we're a day away from a flood and a week away from a drought. We've seen rain soak one farm and not a drop will fall across the road on the next. Not enough (or too much) can determine the amount &/or quality of hay or crops we rely on to feed our cows. Right now our Northern part of the state is saturated, while the Southern part wouldn't mind a good soaking.

We watched the rain roll in across the hills and tree-lines this afternoon and were awfully proud to see it coming, weekend or not. As for the folks headed to the lakes and kids playing ball, they were probably a little less enthused than we were.