On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other hazard
Joyce Bupp
Looks like a record year in the
making.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we
broke the record for chilliness
around our area when the tem
perature dropped down into the
two-blanket level one mid-July
night. A two-blanket night two
blankets being needed to sleep
with any level of comfortable
warmth is way more common
about late September.
It brought to mind those rare
instances, I recall reading about
when snow has fluttered at isolat
ed spots in the state during mid
summer.
Less than two weeks later, we
either tied or set a record for heat
depending on whose thermo
meter one was reading that day
when the mercury inched up to
the other extreme. Though we
rarely set up a fan, an old one
was hauled up from storage in
the basement, just to get some air
moving. Which, in reality, is far
more typical for this season than
two-blanket nights.
Also, while it may not be re
cord dry, the lingering mois
tureless-skies continue to drag us
in that direction. After a relative
ly dry winter, following by a rela
tively dry spring, would we really
expect anything else? So, day
after day, as the com leaves curl
tighter under the midday heat.
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The Farmer haunts The Weather
Channel. His frustration deepens
with each eastward creeping
front which slides away up along
the front edge of the Appalachi
ans, or scoots out to sea across
Eastern Shore leaving us high
and dry. High temperatures, high
humidity, dry skies.
If folks could “will” it to rain
just by concentrating on it, I’d be
packing to move into an ark,
with all the moisture-wishful
thinking energy The Farmer has
been directing at the TV remote.
We rejoiced when a gentle, if
sparse, shower last weekend at
least slightly rinsed off the dust
plagued com stalks and crinkly
dry, third-cutting alfalfa stubble.
A week of ’em would be more
than welcome.
And, if temperature and mois
ture records weren’t enough to
set, along came this string of re
cord-setting calf happenings.
In late March, we established
what might be a new farm calv
ing record when the 40 heifers
that freshened out over about six
weeks gave us an uncommonly
high percentage of bouncing,
baby girls. For weeks, the calf
pens practically ran over with
bawling little heifer babies loudly
begging for bottles twice each
day. By the time they had been
weaned, our calving had swung a
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complete 180-degree turnaround
and gone into calf nursery
drought period. Three babies to
feed is a record low that I can re
member.
It didn’t last long.
“Boy, you have a bunch of
calves again,” chuckled a visitor
recently.
“And a bunch less than could
be there,” I had to add. But not
for lack of our girls trying to fill
up those pens.
Indeed, the barn crew
struggled one morning last week
with a heifer stretched on her
side, laboring to calve. When it
was determined just how tangled
the legs and heads of the two yep,
two babies were, they knew a
different approach was needed.
The Farmer managed to get her
up and on her feet, which took
some of her “push” pressure
away and allowed the calves to
recede a bit. That enabled him to
disentangle the calves limbs just
enough to deliver them. Dead. A
pair of bull calves.
Just a few hours later, our
daughter spotted a laboring cow
in distress in the meadow. She
was quickly brought into the barn
calving pens and again after
some assistance from all of us
anxiously waiting, delivered a
calf. Heifer. In an unwanted
summer rerun, yet another dead
heifer calf followed.
But, our luck was changing.
Sort of.
Less than 24 hours later, yet
another cow calved. With anoth
er pair of twins. Alive and
healthy, it was a bull-heifer set.
As all veteran cattlemen are
aware, a heifer calf born twinned
to a bull, in about 98 percent of
all cases, lacks her major repro
duction organs. No sensible ex
planation, just Mother Nature’s
quirk with cattle twins. So, our
twins, for all practical breeding
herd purposes, were a bull and...a
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Seeds Needed
TRUMANSBURG, N.Y.
Soon local stores will be discard
ing vegetable and flower seeds. If
that is the case in your area, the
Holmes could use them for their
mission work in Albania.
George and Julie Holmes have
been short term missionaries in
Albania for eight years. This time
of the year, local stores throw
good seeds in dumpsters or bum
them. Help the Holmes out and
ask store managers to donate
those seeds to Albania.
In January, the Holmes along
steer.
But, it was a record for us.
Three sets of twins in three con
secutive births. And not a single
one out of six available for grow
ing on as milking herd replace
ments.
Enough already. Can we just
skip all this record-setting stuff
and just go back to “normal?”
Whatever that is.
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SAUSAGE STUFFER, LARD & FRUIT PRESS
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 11, 2001-B3
For Albania
with other farmers, helped to put
together 3,446 family seed pack
ets of 10 vegetable and two flow
er seed and the “History of
Jesus.” Those family seed pack
ets went to 48 villages in Albania
this year. Holmes got to see re
sults of last year’s seeds and the
people were so thankful to re
ceive them. The seeds are a gift
from Americans to help the Al
banians grow more nutritious
food for their families.
If you would like to contact
the Holmes with questions or do
nations of seeds, phone (607)
387-6538 or write 3220 Jackson
ville Road, Trumansburg, NY
14886.
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