What #FarmOn Means to This Missouri Rancher
On cattle ranches, the work never stops. There are always cattle to feed, chores to be done and paperwork to complete. As AgriTalk host Chip Flory puts it in the audio clip below, “There’s never a break from the #FarmOn movement for livestock owners.”
It’s true, says Bob Birdsell, owner and operator of a cow-calf operation and corn and soybean farmer in Northwest Missouri.
“It's always there. It keeps you out of trouble and gives you something to do whenever the weather's nasty and you want to be farming and can't be farming,” he says. “You've got a stress reliever that way at times.”
But this year has looked significantly different, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Flory notes. But the #FarmOn movement gives the public a glimpse into how agriculture presses on.
“#FarmOn gives the people that are interested a chance to kind of see what we're doing. Ag Twitter is fun. But if you don't understand agriculture, Ag Twitter goes down some very deep rabbit holes,” Birdsell says. “Some of them are educational, some of them are just good fun, and some just get nasty. So, [#FarmOn] keeps people in places where they can kind of understand what's going on with the pictures and just short statements.”
Man mom that sure is a great supper. #FarmON pic.twitter.com/dVICJ7vf4d — Bob Birdsell (@farmerbobnwmo) April 26, 2020
For Birdsell, not a lot has changed this spring, a majority of the people he interacts with are in essential jobs, so aside from restaurants, many people in his community have continued to work. In fact, Birdsell’s wife works in a hospital and continues to care for patients, and his daughter works at the ranch.
“Not a lot has changed, other than social distancing. You know, you walk in the door and trying to stay away, and the hardest part is not shaking hands with people. When you were brought up that that's what you do when you meet somebody, so it's hard not to. A lot of us still do and say, ‘Whoops we weren’t supposed to do that! Oh, well go on,” he says.
“I haven’t worried too much about the whole thing. I think part of it is being around livestock and machinery all your life, you're just one misstep away from getting killed anyway. You know, you can't worry about dying because you're not going to get anything done if you're sitting there always worrying about something happening and you dying,” Birdsell concludes.
Share how you #FarmON by texting FarmON to 31313 to submit your photos or video. Be sure to include “farmON” with your images. See more from all segments of agriculture at AgWeb.com/FarmOn.
