May is officially over and that means a lot of things have come to an end. One thing that really sticks out for me is school! School is out for summer! All the senior students have graduated and that leads us to graduation parties. Over the last few weeks we have celebrated all the hard work these senior students have put into their past four years of high school. However, after going to quite a few grad parties lately, I have realized it also makes for a great place for farmers to catch up and talk to other farmers. More this year than others, due to all the rain we have had because now farmers aren’t in the field and can actually attend all the parties in the neighborhood with their families. If there's one thing I have learned it’s that almost every conversation is structured pretty much the exact same way every time. The only thing that really differs is the length the conversation goes on for. When you get a specific group of farmers together, they can “farm talk” for hours. Trust me, I have had to sit through these many many times, often while enjoying an extra piece of graduation cake while my dad is still farm talking.
First, these conversations start off with a simple question that may lead to a lengthy answer. For example, with a basic question of, “Are you in the field, yet?” It should end with a simple yes or no answer. There are no simple answers with a farmer. You can either answer with a quick yes which can lead you down the path of talking about what you're doing such as beans, corn, no-till or work ground, if it’s working well, followed up with a funny story about something that isn’t working correctly, as it always somehow reverts back to talking about the weather. Now, if you were to answer that first question with a no. It also leads you down a very similar path with answers of “we probably should be in the field” or how something broke or isn’t working properly, followed up with a funny story about getting parts, and it still ends up back at the topic of the weather not cooperating. With either answer of yes or no, somehow your conversation is still going to lead you down the path to talking about the weather. They will start by asking what the other thinks the forecast is going to be this week because meteorologists have “no idea”. However this is actually a trick question for the farmer asking knows exactly when it is predicted to start raining, how long it will last, and the exact places it will hit because they track the Ember Days or the Farmer’s Almanac which either can usually accurately predict the weather better than the weatherman.
Hopefully, one of those recent high school graduates will go on to be a meteorology major to teach us all a thing or two about predicting the next rain or major storm in our forecast. Until then I’m going to enjoy our last few graduation parties for my friends while my dad continues to farm talk with all the neighbors and I wonder how farmers can have an occupation that is always at the mercy of the weather. Weather is always one of the biggest challenges the farmer faces. Hopefully, the start of my summer vacation will bring some much-needed summer-like sunshine! ~ Kesley Holdgrafer
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