I recently returned to my old job after being gone for 10 1/2 years. My, how things had changed. I'm slowly getting back into the routine at the veterinary clinic, which is taking longer since I'm just working part-time. The most common question from clients and sales representatives is what have I been up to for the last 10+ years. My immediate response: milking cows. Some people can appreciate that as a condensed answer, while others just don't quite get the full meaning.
There isn't an easy way to explain the things that a farmer does on a daily basis. Running a dairy farm is a little more complicated than just milking cows twice a day. A farm, dairy or not, is a business as well as our home. We have many different jobs that may or may not need done every day. Sure, we do the milking and care for the animals every day, but other chores can change daily, weekly, or even seasonally. Some days you might be the plumber, electrician, mechanic, doctor, errand person (me mostly), nutritionist, and the list could go on and on.
My favorite thing to "shock" people with is social media. Most people don't associate farmers with social media, but we're out here. There's an ever growing community of agriculture folks that hit the social media world by storm every day. Most of us just want to help educate others about where their food, shelter and fiber comes from. How many people can say they've "attended" a Twitter party while milking cows? I did tonight (although it wasn't something I'd recommend on a regular basis). You can find us blogging, tweeting and on facebook (and some do play Farmville) every day. So the next time you picture a farmer, try to look beyond the stereo type (overalls & straw hat) and remember that we're not "just" farmers.
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