Chewing The Cud

The phone rang as I sat at my desk in my small apartment at South Dakota State University. Glad to take a break from my Spanish studies, I answered the call with a casual, “Hola.” The other end of the line exploded.

“Mandy, Mandy! This is Buddy Bear,” said my eleven year old sister, Kaley, excitedly trying to catch her breath, “I sold my first bull. It’s Nelly’s baby, but he’s big now. Some man came to buy him today, and Daddy and I sold him! I bet you don’t have all your bulls sold do you?”

No, I don’t. Could use that cash for college, too. Nelly was Kaley’s first show heifer, and if you couldn’t tell, Kaley was pretty darn excited to share the news of the sale with me.

My Dad stole the phone at that point, and filled me in on all the details of yet, another bull sale. Last week, I wrote about the first bull sale I made when I was seven years old, and call me nostalgic, but there is nothing more exciting than to see a 47-year old man as excited about being in the agriculture industry as an eleven year old little girl.

A love for agriculture runs in the veins. It’s something that lies within, and something I’m so proud to share with my family. When I’m at school studying hard, I know it’s for a good reason: someday my hard work will lead me back to the farm I love.

I guess that is why my friends are a lot like me. They are hard workers, they are dreamers, they are planners, and they are goal setters. They never settle for less than their best, and they push me to continue to pursue a career in agriculture.

That’s where my friend Lauren comes in. Like me, she is a Limousin breeder working to graduate from college, earn a good job, and continue to raise the cattle that she loves. Sometimes I’ll visit her apartment and find her asleep on the keyboard of her computer. With her cattle genetic printouts scattered on the floor, a genetics text book open at her side, and her check book opened and balanced, her goals and her passions clearly coincide.

Lauren works at a local feed lot to earn money for college and to learn more about production practices. She is an animal science major and hopes to sell feed upon graduation. Most importantly, she has begun to purchase her family’s farm and hopes to continue the tradition of agriculture that has been in her family for generations.

It’s in those moments, where exhaustion seems to pull at your soul and you feel too tired to continue the hard work it takes to reach your goals, when I have to think of Kaley. The youth and passion emanates from within. She doesn’t see the challenges and struggles it takes to continue the farm and ranch tradition. She doesn’t see the bills and the heartaches. She doesn’t see the ups and downs.

Then I look at my dad. He’s seen it all. He has felt the joys and pains of being a cattle rancher, and he still loves it. It’s in that realization that no matter how difficult and challenging production agriculture may seem, if it’s in your blood and if it’s truly a passion, there is nothing else in the world a person should do. With calving season just around the corner, I look forward to a renewed passion for the agriculture industry that I love. I hope you will look at yourself and find that same love for agriculture that lies within you. After all, there is nothing better than a good hard days work doing the one thing you love: agriculture.