Illinois Farm Families Blog

IT finally happened this year. Our daughter, Jenna, became old enough for 4-H. Old enough to show cattle. Considering my husband and I have talked about showing cattle with children who didn’t yet exist since pretty much the day we met, it’s a fair understatement to say we were excited.

 And yet, so little in life goes as planned.

The cattle had been led and groomed, the boots bought, the bling chosen. And you know how you read those glowing stories with sun-kissed photos and reports of perseverance and hard work paying off?  Well, this isn’t one of them.

The day started off well. Seven-year-old Nathan showed his little bottle calf, Buddy. It was as adorable as you might expect a ring full of little kids and little calves to be. Judge Dick Burns told them, “You all are some of the very few kids in the entire world who get to have this kind of an experience.” Amen.

Then Jenna showed her heifer, Granite. Granite is a reasonably laid-back Simmental-Angus cross. We’ve worked with her endlessly. But for some reason that day, the Angus in her (and I say that as a die-hard Shorthorn girl who did not get her way in the heifer selection department) became fully apparent. She wasn’t exactly easy to show. Burns even said as much and complimented Jenna on doing a good job with her.

On to the steer show. Jenna took Gus into the ring. Somewhere on the first lap, he stepped square on her right boot. She wanted to cry, but didn’t.  I had my eye on the steer next to her.  He was acting ornery and was being shown by another first-timer.

Sure enough, as they pulled up after being placed, that steer tried to mount Gus. In the cluster that ensued, the steer kicked Jenna in the side as he mounted Gus, and for a fleeting but ever-lastingly long second, I thought the two steers were going to tumble on top of her. There’s a fair chance my nephew still has finger marks on his arm because he had the unfortunate luck of standing next to me during all of this.

Jenna was crying but OK, and I wound up being that mom who escorts her poor injured child out of the ring. We iced her foot and checked out the hoof-sized bruise that was already forming on her side. But through her tears, she insisted, “I still (sob) want (sob) to do (sob) showmanship!”

I’ve hardly been so proud.

And so she did. And then the heifer stepped on the same foot as the steer did. She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. She was done. And so were we. The show was over. Done.

County fair-bound
Fast-forward two more shows — to the county fair. Jenna showed like a champ. She took home a plaque for champion Simmental heifer. Her animals behaved. She was thrilled. Best of all: She won the Sunrise Showmanship contest for first-year showmen. It’s a big deal in our county; even her dad competed in it. 

Now, I’ve hardly been so proud.

Jenna worked hard. She had tough competition, and as judge Adam Dryer pointed out, these kids will be fighting it out in showmanship for the rest of their showing careers. She knew everything there was to know about her calf, and told Dryer most of it — until he finally cut her off, laughing. Most of all, she had the look of a kid who wanted to win. She had an animal to show off, and she wanted the judge to take a look. That’s what it takes to win.

There’s a certain walk to a kid who’s done well and knows it. She has a jaunty step. She holds her head up. She smiles. Big. She says “thank you” a lot, as people who’ve never spoken to her stop and offer congratulations.

She left the ring with her head held high. No tears. No disappointments, no regrets, no bruises. This was our Jenna at the county fair.

This is why we do this. 

Holly Spangler
Marietta, Illinois

Used with permission from Prairie Farmer. This story first appeared in September 2012, page 16.    To see this story, go to:     http://magissues.farmprogress.com/PRA/PF09Sep12/pra016.pdf

Our granddaughter Olivia (age 5) and her mom, our daughter Carrie, will come see us this weekend. When Olivia comes, she helps me with the calf chores -- she loves the cows!  We visit the cows in the show barn; she knows them by name! She knows what to do in the calf barn and will pick up the milk buckets, push the grain cart, feed the bottle, etc.
 
Olivia "owns" three animals; she has shown each one in the show ring for three years now. Each phone call she asks me: How is Liv? Is she still giving 50 pounds (per milking)? How is Angelina? (She is expecting her calf next March and is now on another farm, but I see her once in awhile) How is Taz? Has she moved up to the next pen? (She is now in the heifer barn; the calves move through the pens as they grow.) Olivia is our farm girl!!!

Linda Drendel
Lindale Farms
Hampshire, Illinois

Linda and her husband, Dale, will be hosting some new visitors next month when the Illinois Farm Families Field Moms venture out on their first farm tour. Field Moms from the Chicago area will have the chance to meet Liv, Angelina, and Taz, as well as have conversations with Linda and her husband, Dale, about farming in Illinois today. Come back to watchusgrow.org to see the Field Moms' experiences and read about it on this blog!

As an associate editor for Prairie Farmer magazine (which happens to be the oldest farm publication in the country, and at one time had its own building in Chicago), I travel the state looking for stories, and interviewing, photographing and writing about farmers and other assorted experts. I also blog regularly. The blog, as it turns out, is an extension of my monthly column, begun in 2001 and called My Generation. Through both venues, I try to offer up a little bit of life on a young family's farm, and our unique take on the agriculture issues of the day as young farmers. Things like the county fair, harvest, and what we're grateful for.

Our farm is nestled in the hills and hollows of western Illinois, near the Spoon River. Indeed, Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology was based upon towns just down the road from us. Here on our farm, we raise corn, soybeans, hay and cattle. We grow corn and beans on the better soil, and make use of those erosion-prone hills to grow beef cattle, instead of row crops. It's just one of many conservation practices we employ to make the best use of – and take the best care of – our God-given soils.

We are a family operation, covering about 3,500 acres. We farm with my husband's parents, and live just across the field from them…which is to say, my kids make many trips back and forth to Grandma's in the course of the day. I have come to believe, if there is any blessing at all in production agriculture, it is the ability to bring multiple generations together with a common goal, working together in community.

We have three little farm kids, ages 8, 6 and 3. Each of the older two are raising their own bottle calves. These are calves that wound up without a mother; one was rejected by the mama cow (rare, but it happens sometimes) and the other was a twin whose mama didn't have enough milk for two calves. So each day, the kids give their calves a bottle, both morning and night. They also have fun with them. I'll look out and see them snuggling with them, or putting a halter on them and running around the yard. This is the second year they've had bottle calves. In the fall, we will begin "backgrounding" the calves – feeding them gluten and other ethanol byproducts to prepare them for sale into a feeder market. That sale will take place in January. As much as the kids love their calves, they know well they are food animals. When the calves are sold, we will deduct feed expenses and the kids will add the balance to their savings accounts.

And although I grew up on a farm and know all this to be very familiar and very comfortable, I know that's not the case for everyone. I can well imagine that not knowing how my food was raised would make me uncomfortable. Sort of like having a pediatrician make a decision about my children's health without my knowledge.

So with that in mind, a group of Illinois farmers have started this blog. We hope to share more about life on our farms, and why safe, abundant and healthy food is important to us, too. There will be a variety of us posting on here in the coming weeks. I hope you'll stop back in and get to know us. Ask questions as you think of them. And please don't hesitate to contact me directly. As a farmer and as a farm writer, I'd love to hear from you.

In fact, we'd love to bring you out to our farms. If you think you'd be interested in being part of a select group of "Field Moms", chosen to tour a variety of Illinois farms, please considering applying here. We'd love to open our farms and our homes, and sit around the dinner table and have a real conversation about real food.

In the meantime, let's keep talking.

Holly Spangler
Marietta, Illinois