Women in Agriculture, Part 4

This was originally going to be one extremely long blog post.  I have shortened it to 4 shorter posts.

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about what it is really like to be a female farmer.  In an attempt to order my thoughts and (maybe) avoid ranting, I have organized this discussion into 4 basic topics.

You can read about the first topic relating to being a female farmer here:

1. Dealing With People's Perceptions
2. Female Farmer Support Groups
3. The Daily Realities of Life

4.  Thinking About the Future

I am 25 years old.  I have my whole life ahead of me (well, aside from the 25 years and 16 days that are behind me).  Naturally, I spend some of my time thinking about my future.  I also just took over the farm, so naturally I spend a huge quantity of time thinking about the future of the farm.  Of course, those two futures are closely related.

Thinking about the future of the farm is fairly simple.  It's as simple as writing a business plan.  All I have to think about is marketing strategies, crop rotations, beef sales, herd management and expansion, land acquisitions, financing options, and that sort of thing.  It's a lot to think about, but it's simple.  I can map out the future in spreadsheets and base my planning on science and statistics.

Thinking about my personal future is significantly more complex.  I have no spreadsheet or formula to tell me what it's going to look like.  I can't predict what types of disease might invade my body the way I can predict what types of disease I need to vaccinate my herd against.  I can't know what my emotional and mental health will be like a few years from now.  Maybe I won't be able to continue farming.  Maybe I will have to sell the farm for my own well-being.  That part would be simple, but figuring out what to do with the rest of my life would be daunting.  I really can't imagine doing anything other than farming for a career.  

The one thing that consumes the most mental energy when I think about my personal future intersecting with farm life is the possibility that I might get married one day (every relative who has taken the time to diligently read through this blog series in case I mentioned romance just scooted closer to the computer screen in anticipation).  Yes, I would like very much to get married and have a family one day.  Now, if I was a man, I could go find a nice girl, marry her, bring her home to the farm, and carry on being a farmer while she takes care of the house, helps out on the farm, and raises the kids.  I am not a man, though.  

Even if I do eventually find a nice young man to settle down with, who can guarantee that he would be willing to leave his home and move to the farm?  I don't want to marry someone who has no interest in the farm, but I also don't want to limit my options and set a piece of land and a career above any person.  What if I find a man who is willing to come live on the farm and help out occasionally, but has his own career in town?  What happens when we have a family?  I'd have to hire a farm hand to do a bunch of the work while I take care of the children.  I'd also have to hire help for the entire nine months prior to each child being born.  Splitting my time unequally between the farm and my children is not my idea of being a good farmer or a good mother.  And if I did manage to marry the ideal farmer-without-a-farm-of-his-own, would I suddenly feel as if I had to give up control of the farm I worked so hard to grow?  What if I never get married and become that crazy lady with all the animals that the neighbours have to help when I get old because I won't leave the farm because it's all I have to show for my life?  I know that some of these questions might be ridiculous and I will never know the answers until that part of my is over with, but they still plague me sometimes.  Somehow, I don't think men have quite the same problems when they think of the future of their farms.

Women in Agriculture, Part 3

This was originally going to be one extremely long blog post.  I have shortened it to 4 shorter posts.

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about what it is really like to be a female farmer.  In an attempt to order my thoughts and (maybe) avoid ranting, I have organized this discussion into 4 basic topics.

You can read about the first 2 topics relating to being a female farmer here:

1. Dealing With People's Perceptions
2. Female Farmer Support Groups

3. The Daily Realities of Life

Reality 1:  Men are Everywhere

Because I work in agriculture, I cannot avoid men.  They are everywhere.  They are mostly old, but there are also some near my age.  Most of the time I am terrified of talking to men (especially if they are strangers), but I have to do it.  It's like climbing the grain bin.  I don't want to do it.  I'm afraid of heights.  I still have to do it.  When it's all over, I feel pretty good about myself for not being a wimp and avoiding my responsibilities.

Reality 2:  Men are Pretty Great 

I discovered this at college.  Being in the agricultural program, I was always surrounded by young men.  There were also a lot of young women, some of whom became my good friends.  However, the men were unavoidable.  Eventually I befriended a few of them.  Actually, that's not true.  They befriended me because I was too scared to talk to them.  They also dug my car out of a snow bank.  And teased me mercilessly.  And talked to me about farming as if it was a totally normal thing to do.  I could go on.  

Since coming home, I have continued to find instances of men being superb human beings while interacting with them in agricultural settings.  Allow me to expound on one such experience.  A few weeks ago, I had a birthday.  To celebrate I went to town to do business instead of taking care of work at home.  One of my business stops was in the next town over, where I met with a salesman to talk about a particular piece of equipment that I would very much like to buy if I can ever afford it.  It's on my wish list.  Anyways, I called ahead to make sure the salesman would be in when I got there because I was not going to drive 45 minutes for nothing.  He said he'd be around and sounded keen to talk to me.  When I arrived, I had to wait for quite some time while the salesman finished up with another customer.  Finally it was my turn.  I timidly ambled into the sales office and was rather surprised to see a young man about my age sitting behind the desk.  He welcomed me and immediately got down to business talking about the piece of equipment I had mentioned in the phone call.  I don't know if it was because he was really excited about that particular brand, or if he was used to dealing with women, but he never batted an eye at my age or gender.  He just gave me the information I needed, answered my questions, and gave me suggestions of other resources I could check for more information.  When I got home my mom asked if the salesman had treated me differently because I am a woman.  I was pleased to be able to honestly say that it felt like I had been having a conversation with one of my male friends from college.  We just had a conversation about farming.  There is prejudice in the agriculture industry, but I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how little of that prejudice comes from the men with whom I interact.

Reality 3:  I am Weaker than the Average Man
I am 5'2" when I stand up as straight as I possibly can.  I can win an arm wrestling competition with some of my female friends, but my male friends can beat me without even trying.  I struggle to close gates that my dad can close with barely any effort.  It would be a lie for me to say that farming is just as hard for the men as it is for me.  I do have a harder time doing some things, partly because I'm weaker than the men, and partly because farm equipment is just not made for short folks.  I just have to find different ways of doing some things, and that's okay.

Reality 4:  I Cry Sometimes

I hate crying.  When I was a child I cried a lot and sometimes got in trouble when teachers and parents just couldn't deal with my emotions anymore.  Eventually I taught myself not to cry and to just bottle up my emotions.  That's certainly not healthy, but it is how I deal with emotions.  Even so, I do cry sometimes at work.  The annoying part is that I don't cry when I'm sad; I cry when I'm frustrated or angry.  Any woman can tell you that it is incredibly annoying to start crying when you just want to be angry for a moment.  I cannot tell you how many times I cried over not being able to open a tight gate, or back up properly, or get the cows to go where I need them to go.  I don't cry over these things because they discourage me.  I get frustrated, like any farmer, and then I start crying with absolutely no control over the tear tap and then I get more frustrated and it's a vicious cycle.  Men don't seem to have this crying-when-they're-frustrated/angry problem.  It feels terribly unfair sometimes.  

Reality 5:  People are Annoying
People are annoying when they try to do things for me because they think I can't do it myself.  People are annoying when they say I shouldn't farm because it's a man's job.  People are annoying when they say they support me, even though there is no practical way for them to actually do so.  People are annoying when they demand that their food be hormone-free, antibiotic-free, vegetarian, organic, environmental, sustainable, etc., etc.  People are annoying, but I have to work with them, and when I do, I find myself learning more, making an impact, and gaining just a little more wisdom.

You can read about the last topic relating to being a female farmer here:

4. Thinking About the Future

Women in Agriculture, Part 2

This was originally going to be one extremely long blog post.  I have shortened it to 4 shorter posts.

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about what it is really like to be a female farmer.  In an attempt to order my thoughts and (maybe) avoid ranting, I have organized this discussion into 4 basic topics.

You can read about the first topic relating to being a female farmer here:

1. Dealing With People's Perceptions

2. Female Farmer Support Groups

Due to the occasional rude remark from someone who does happen to think that farming is a man's field, there has been a rise of female farmer support groups as more and more women re-enter the agricultural work force.  I have joined and/or followed a couple of these groups on social media, but I am increasingly finding myself far more annoyed by these groups than I am edified or encouraged.  The women in these groups often take on a victim mentality, banding together to bravely combat the ignorance and rudeness of men who tell them that women shouldn't be farmers, or of professionals who (heaven forbid!) make an honest mistake and ask to speak to the farmer, assuming that is the woman's husband.  Can we all just calm down?  Look, the reality is that the large majority of farmers are men.  Agricultural salesmen, lenders, etc. aren't necessarily used to dealing with women.  Get over it!  I have no problem with a salesman being a bit surprised to see me walk into his office and ask about a piece of equipment.  As long as he's willing to still try to make a sale, we'll along just fine.  

Yes, I have had my moments of frustration.  These have often taken place at agricultural trade fairs, or other places with big crowds (not my favourite setting at the best of times), in which the salesmen simply look straight past me because (a) I'm a woman and (b) I'm young.  I am not their target customer and I will do my best to not be frustrated when an already busy salesman doesn't feel like taking the time to explain something to me when I am at my shyest and barely want to even ask my questions.

My other problem with the female farmer support groups is that they separate women into one group, and men into another.  This is not helpful!  Stop it!  We work in a field dominated by men.  Most farmers are men.  Most agricultural salesmen are men.  Many agricultural lenders are men.  Many agricultural scientists, economists, auctioneers, etc. are men.  We have to work with men!  There is no getting around that fact, and keeping all of the women together online or at conferences is not going to help us in real life when we need to communicate effectively with men.

You can read about the last 2 topics relating to being a female farmer here:

3. The Daily Realities of Life

4. Thinking About the Future

Women in Agriculture, Part 1

This was originally going to be one extremely long blog post.  I have shortened it to 4 shorter posts.

Being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, I've heard just about every reaction possible to my chosen career path:

• "Oh...a farmer?" from my disappointed former teachers.
• "It's just such a hard life" from my mom and other relatives.
• "That's amazing!  I completely support you!" from people who are overly excited by the fact that I, a woman, am "breaking into a man's field".
• "Some people are saying that you shouldn't be doing this, because it's a man's job" from someone who completely supports me.
• Medical professionals usually launch into a long list of questions relating to farm life (exposure to mold, exposure to different animals, air quality, etc.) to get to the bottom of my health problems.
• City folks usually launch into a conversation full of questions about the safety of their food, and eventually ask if it's unusual for a woman to be a farmer.

My two favourite are these:

• "You'll be a wonderful farmer" (no gushing, no admonitions, just simplicity) from a long-time friend.
• No reaction at all.  Just plain farming talk from other farmers and agriculture professionals.

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about what it is really like to be a female farmer, beyond my standard monosyllabic replies to the typical reactions listed above.  In an attempt to order my thoughts and (maybe) avoid ranting, I have organized this discussion into 4 basic topics.

1. Dealing with People's Perceptions

I tire very easily of dealing with the perceptions behind many of the reactions to my chosen career, hence my use of monosyllabic answers.  I'm going to give you, my readers, a once-in-a-lifetime look into what goes on in my mind when I see and hear such reactions.

My disappointed teachers are really thinking that I'm far too smart to be a farmer and am wasting the academic talent they spent so many years cultivating.  I wish they knew how mentally taxing farming really is and that this is a career path that challenges me physically and mentally every day.  In addition to that, this is a field full of innovation (pun intended), so why shouldn't farmers be "smart"?

The people who tell me that it's a hard life are the ones who care most about me.  They want me to have a better life than they had, with more opportunities, and less trouble.  I get it.  I grew up in this life and I know how hard it is.  It does scare me to think of the financial risks, the physical dangers, and the emotional toll this life will have for me.  It's my choice, though.  Yes, it is a hard life, but it is also a good life.

The super supportive people are, quite possibly, the most annoying.  Really, you want to support me?  How exactly are you going to do that (unless, of course, we go into business together or I use you as an educated sounding board to bounce crazy ideas off of)?  If you mean that you'll argue my side when others argue that I shouldn't be doing a man's job, please don't do that.  You haven't spent hours agonizing, searching, thinking, and praying about whether this is right or not.  I have.  If someone wants to question my role in society to my face, I will answer them as respectfully as I can, bringing all of those hours of working things out between me and God with me to the discussion.

The people who say I shouldn't be doing a man's job have an incredibly stunted view of society and history.  Unfortunately, these people almost never actually say this to my face, so I never get to show them that I'm not some subversive who wants men and women to be exactly the same in this world.  I believe that men and women should have different roles in society.  Yes, we should have equal rights, but we have different roles and different things to bring to the table, as a group, and as individuals.  However, I have searched and searched and have failed to find any example of men and women having different roles in agriculture.  I studied history in university before heading to an agricultural college.  To the great chagrin of my professors, I always chose to study some aspect of agriculture whenever the class was given free rein to choose a topic for a term paper.  In completing my research for these papers, I discovered that before the Industrial Revolution, women and men had virtually the same roles in agriculture.  Women have been farming for millennia!  With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, agriculture was given the gift of machinery to make the work easier and more efficient.  Unfortunately, the machinery was too heavy for the average woman to be able to use.  Now that technology has advanced to where machinery, etc. is more easily handled, women are able to re-enter the field of agriculture.  Agriculture, as far as I can see, was never meant to be primarily a man's domain.  And yes, I checked the Bible.  If you want to argue this point on theological grounds, please check out Proverbs 31:16-17.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

You can read about the other 3 topics relating to being a female farmer here:

2. Female Farmer Support Groups

3. The Daily Realities of Life

4. Thinking About the Future

Diary of a Rookie Harvester

Barley Harvest, Day One

Approximately 1:00 pm

I have just arrived home from town and am ready to eat lunch.  I'll be cutting hay for the rest of the day.  Wait a second...Farm Pro has just informed me that today is a good day to start harvesting the barley.  Awesome!  I've never really helped with a harvest before.  Oh, sure I've run the swather a little, and I've even driven the combine a few hours, but for all of my life, school has come first.  There was no way I'd ever be allowed to forsake classes in favour of helping in the fields.  So here I am, 24 years old, poised to take over the farm in the next few year, and I can claim only a few hours of harvest experience.  I am a harvest newbie, a greenhorn, a rookie.  Today will be my first day of my first real harvest season.  Woohoo!

1:30-ish pm

Harvest is starting slowly.  We haven't even really started.  Farm Pro is trying fix the brakes on the combine.  I am handing him tools, tightening random bolts, and stepping on the brake pedals when Farm Pro asks me to.  We finally finish.  Now we can get going!  Or not...we still have fuel up and grease the swather and combine.

Some time around 4:00 pm

I have finally got the swather to the field.  Farm Pro told me to go counterclockwise around the field for the first round, stopping about 200 yards along the side that borders the hay field.  He'll pick me up and we'll go home and get the combine then.  No problem!  This is super easy!  I am going in the wrong direction.  Darn...now what do I do.  I can't turn around without driving on the crop.  I guess I'll have to go around the field clockwise.  No problem.  This is a piece of cake!  Why is it getting harder to drive forward?  Maybe I should lift the header - WHY IS THERE A FOOT OF WATER IN FRONT OF ME?!  Am I stuck?  No, I can back up.  Nope!  I'm spinning!  I stuck!  WHAT HAVE I DONE?  I guess I'd better call Farm Pro and admit my mistake.

Okay, he's coming.  There he is!  No, you can't get it out.  It's stuck, look it's just spinning.  We'll need the tractor.  Forward?  You want to drive us further into the water?  Are you seeing how deep it is?  Seriously, that worked?  WE'RE OUT!

Approximately 5:00 pm

After a short delay with the oil level in the combine, we are full-on harvesting this field!  I've had to avoid a wet spot, but I kept from getting stuck this time!  Everything is going smoothly - what's that sound?!  I've heard that before.  It's not a good sound.  I'd better check it out.  Oh, great.  A knife section AND a guard on the end of the cutter bar are mangled.  Farm Pro stops to see what the problem is.  He removes the broken knife section and tells me to finish the row, so I can get the swather out of the way.

7:00-ish pm

We've had a quick break for supper and are just finishing up with the swather.  It is now back in working order.  I am now wearing my coveralls over my regular work clothes, because I felt a wee chill in the air as I left the house after supper.

Sunset

The wee chill has intensified. My bare hands are getting numb.  I've had to go around a few more wet spots.  Those wet spots are cutting into my deep thought process.  Apparently swather thoughts don't get to be as profound as tractor thoughts.

An hour after sunset

The "wee chill" is gone.  My hands are fully numb.  The coveralls that become a personal sauna in the summer heat are just barely keeping me from shivering.  The swather keeps plugging up for no apparent reason.  Don't you raise your eyebrows at me!  I checked.  There is nothing plugging up the cutter bar.  This thing is clearly just being difficult.  Oh, here's Farm Pro.  He's telling me to go back to the end of the field, and then we'll be done for the night.  The barley is getting tough, anyway.  He'll take the combine home and I'll take the grain truck.  It'll be a quick trip home and then I can relax for the rest of the evening.  I haven't driven this truck very much.  I can't even remember the last time I did drive it.  I do know that it likes to die on me.  I get the truck on the road and shift up to second gear, then third.  I'm now approaching the intersection.  I should shift down.  Where is second gear?  It's not where it's supposed to be!  Where did it go?!  Come on, you dumb - OW!  I found second gear.  I also smashed my thumb in the process.  By now there is no time to find first gear.  I have to just stop, and I'll shift at the stop sign.  I'm not stopping!  What on earth!?  It's okay, no one's coming.  I can just roll through the stop sign and keep going.  Now I'm approaching home.  I'd better slow down.  Slow down!  What is happening - this is the truck with bad brakes!  I somehow make it around the bend into the driveway and park where Farm Pro told me to.  The truck has failed to kill me, but my thumb is still smarting from trying to find second gear.  I find the knob that turns off the lights in the truck, gather up the tools that we used to fix the swather, and roll the window up, trying to ignore the insult of having the window handle come off in my hand.  I put away the tools and feed the farms dogs, who are going wild with hunger.  Finally, I can go inside and get out of my chaff-covered, no-help-in-the-cold coveralls.  Wait a second...why are the lights on the back of the truck on?  I go back to the truck and open the door.  The light in the cab refuses to turn on.  I'm starting to think this truck is possessed.  After groping around in the dark for a while, I find a knob that moves when I push on it.  A quick check tells me that the lights are now off.

The day is finally over.  Farm Pro has admitted that this is not the best year to be learning how to harvest, due to the many wet spots in the field.  I look forward to learning more, but me and that truck are going to have to come to some sort of understanding before I can say I'm excited for the rest of harvest.

This is as far as the diary got.  Harvest is not a convenient time to be blogging, especially if I want the blog to be coherent.  Harvest was awful this year due to unusual amounts of rain.  We managed to get our crops harvested, but many of our neighbours had to give up when it finally snowed.  

My view from the swather while Farm Pro (Dad) combines the row of barley I just swathed.

Don't Fear Your Food: An Overview of Antibiotic Use in Livestock

I have spent weeks avoiding the need to write this blog post.  Antibiotics are a hugely controversial issue amongst consumers when it comes to human medicine.  Once you start talking about using antibiotics in the production of food, people get scared.  I would like to allay some of those fears and tell my readers what I know about the use of antibiotics in livestock agriculture.  This is a bigger topic than it might first appear, though, so I will be writing a few posts on this topic.  Today's post is an overview.

Why Do Farmers Use Antibiotics?

There are three uses of antibiotics in livestock.  Farmers use antibiotics to treat and control disease, prevent disease, and promote growth.  I will discuss each of these uses in future blog posts.

What Types of Antibiotics are Used?

In Canada, there are four classifications of antibiotics.  They are classed according to their importance in human medicine.  Antibiotics that have very high or high importance in  human medicine (Class 1 and 2) are not commonly used in livestock, and require a written prescription from a veterinarian.  Antibiotics that have medium or low importance in human medicine (Class 3 and 4) are used more frequently in livestock.  Antibiotics used for growth promotion are in class 4 and are never used in human medicine.

Can the Use of Antibiotics in Livestock Contribute to Disease Resistance?

Disease resistance occurs when an antibiotic is used to treat a bacterial infection and encounters some bacteria that has naturally mutated to be resistant to that antibiotic.  The antibiotic will kill all of the other bacteria, but the resistant bacteria will live and multiply, increasing the number of resistant bacteria, which may be spread to other animals.  Because of this, farmers and veterinarians need to work together to ensure prudent use of antibiotics.  Additionally, there are several surveillance programs in Canada that monitor antibiotic resistance in the food chain.
It is highly unlikely that a human could develop an antibiotic resistant infection from eating meat.  The best way to prevent this is to properly cook all meat, which will kill any bacteria present.

Is the Use of Antibiotics a Big Topic in Producer Discussions?

Yes.  There are articles in every major livestock magazine and newspaper, there are discussions and presentations at livestock conferences, and anywhere that livestock producers get together, they talk about disease.  Discussions about disease lead to discussions about treating and preventing disease, and those almost always lead to discussions about the prudent use of antibiotics.

Are there Antibiotics in Canadian Meat?

All Canadian meat is free of antibiotics.  Every time an animal is treated with antibiotics, they must be held for a withdrawal period, that is, a prescribed amount of time in which the animal must not be slaughtered and sold for meat.  The withdrawal time allows for all antibiotic residues to fully exit the animal's system before the animal is slaughtered.  If antibiotic residues are detected, the meat is not allowed to enter the food chain.  Withdrawal times vary depending on the antibiotic used.

If you have any questions about the use of antibiotics in livestock agriculture, please let me know in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them in upcoming blog posts.

A few examples of antibiotics commonly used in a beef operation.

References and Resources:

"Learn about antibiotic use in livestock"- video from Alberta Farm Animal Care

"Antibiotic alternatives for livestock producers" - article in Canadian Cattlemen

"Are you being misled about healthy beef?" - article from Alberta Animal Health Source

"Worried about antibiotic use and resistance in cattle?" - pamphlet from Alberta Beef