Contacts

I’ve been thinking lately about how important it is to have good contacts in the farming industry.  Come to think about it, it’s important to have good contacts in any industry.  While I’m not exactly a social butterfly, I have been starting to connect with more and more people in the agriculture industry, and in related industries, and I find myself wanting to connect with more people.  Earlier this year I was mainly just aiming to make friends.  That worked out really well. 

I now have way more friends than I quite know what to do with, and a lot of them have turned out to be valuable contacts.  In fact, the other day I was in a discussion with a few of my friends about celebrating Pi Day.  I hadn’t had pie that day.  I was cooped up in my apartment doing homework.  One of my friends said that he had a whole pie to himself and he was looking for people to share it with, but “everyone was out of town.”  A few of us quickly made sure to tell him that we were, in fact, in town and would have loved to share his pie.  One thing led to another and soon I was jokingly acting offended and threatening to “unfriend” him.  I had meant in the literal sense of the word, but one of our other friends made a comment about the unfriending becoming “Facebook official.”  I didn’t say so, but I immediately thought, “oh no, I wouldn’t unfriend him on Facebook even if I did unfriend him in real life.  He’s much too valuable of a contact for that.”

That sounds a little harsh and I admit I surprised myself with that.  To be clear, I am not about to toss aside any friendships anytime soon.  The point I’m trying to make is that it’s really great to have made friends who know more about farming than I do (not that I know much).  Any time I get stuck or confused about a concept in class, all I have to do is track down one of my friends and ask about it.  It seems that there are certain subjects that I'm weak in, particularly on the livestock side of farming.  Fortunately, I have plenty of friends and classmate who are always willing to teach me what I don't know.  It good to be able to ask them for help when I need it.

I want to be able to do that even once I leave school, to track down people who know more than I do and to learn from them.  I want to keep getting to know mechanics, vets, agricultural lenders, and other farmers.  I’m starting to figure out that farming is not a solitary adventure.  It’s a community achievement.  Sometimes friends and neighbours help me with a problem and sometimes I can help them.  My wish is to be a contributing member of the community, to help and be helped, and to make the community stronger.