Questions on Being the Farm Wife

A post from Kelli–

One of the last posts I wrote was about being the farmer’s wife and what that all entails.  Many people had questions in regards to the process of cutting and chopping hay and such, so I figured I’d answer them–as best I can!

A question from Lisa–You can tell Jason that I find the farm stuff very interesting. Do you raise animals, crops or both?

We do both!  Jason and his brother farm together, along with his parents.  They have one hired hand that helps with milking cows and is amazing!  They also have a few high school kids that help haul loads, pour cement, or other random little things.  They currently milk about 240 cows twice a day.  They also have about 350 or so steers at our house and then 400 or so at his brother’s house.  They also farm about 1000 acres between a couple different farms.  They plant and harvest corn, beans, and alfalfa.

Many people wondered about baling or why the boys chop their alfalfa rather than bale it.  When baling, especially small round bales, it takes a lot more people to get the task done–1 to run the baler, 1 to stack on the wagon, 1 or 2 to haul loads, 1 to 2 to unload off of the wagons and throw it on the elevator to put it in the barn, and 1 to 2 to stack it in the barn, so a total of 8 or so.  With chopping, they just need someone to run the chopper, 1 to 2 to haul loads and someone to run the packer which drives on top of the bunk, so just 4.  Sometimes farmers might chop first and third crop and bale second, but it just depends on if you can find enough people to work and what the weather ends up looking like.  If baling big bales, they can often times sit out and so there’s not as much worry about getting them to where they will be stored immediately.

I also really appreciated the encouragement and support I got from you all!  Sometimes being the farm wife isn’t fun and sometimes it really makes me mad, but I know that Jason is worth it.  I am glad that I married such a hard worker, I just wish sometimes that he’d try to learn a bit about relaxing and coming in the house!