Dairy Farming: Dawn to Dusk They say you never know what you have until it is gone. This may sound cliché but I can relate to this one hundred and ten percent. From the time I was born, my farm was always alive. There was an enormous amount of energy and atmosphere around my house. We raised dairy cows and if you are familiar with dairy farming, you know that it gets to be quite a task. It is a year round job that requires a large investment of your time. It involved my entire family – my parents, grandparents, uncle, and my brother and I. Knowing all of that, you can imagine the feeling of emptiness I experienced when we sold our cows around the time I was ten years old. Since then, the atmosphere around our farm has changed drastically. It is hard to describe the atmosphere around a dairy farm to someone who has never been around one. Many people do not realize the excitement associated with a farming operation. In particular, when it is a family operation, you feel very close to everyone because you all have to come together and work towards a common goal, much like the feeling of being on a team. I for one am also very inclined to be outside and there is a lot of that on a dairy farm. Imagine the smell of fresh cut hay in the fields, the aroma of corn dust filling up your nose, and the sounds of cattle bellowing in the distance. These things may not seem all that appealing, but to me they remind me of home. They make me think of family and of hard work. It might sound odd, but they make me think fun. The smell of manure and of silage, the sound of the barn fan turning over, the rumbling of the corn dryer – all of these things bring me a strong sense of comfort and peace. The only way I can explain it is that they reminded me of good times. They made me feel happy. Nowadays, whenever I step foot on any farm that is alive and full of these smells, sights, and sounds, I feel this same way. It reminds me of how much I miss the days when our dairy farm was
