It’s kind of a bummer night for me. I just talked to my parents because I knew there was a lot of flooding going on where they live in Southern Idaho. The news they had to share was not positive. Besides major roads being under water, and homes and schools being threatened, so is a lot of farm ground, pasture and corrals where people need to calve their cows, feed their cows and prepare for spring farming in just a couple of short months.
My folks and their friends and neighbors are losing cows and calves to the snow and cold, the slick ice and drowning in all of the excess water that has no place to go because the ground is still frozen. They can’t access corrals or calving sheds because they are all under water and feeding the cattle is becoming a nightmare because of deep mud in the few places that have thawed a bit or aren’t under ice or water. When you have to take a tractor out to feed and you would normally take your pickup, you know you’ve got problems.
No one said farming and ranching were easy jobs but sometimes I think the deck is stacked against them. No matter where a farmer or rancher turns, there’s either a flood or drought, sickness in the cattle herd, crops that won’t grow, weather that won’t cooperate, on and on the list goes. It almost makes you think someone would have to be crazy to go into the agriculture business. As my dad always says, the only thing crazier than a cow, is the guy who owns it!
So tonight, I’m saying a little prayer for my family and friends in my tiny town who are struggling right now with Mother Nature and for all of the farmers and ranchers all across this country who may be in similar situations.