Is Farming Hard?
Ian, is farming hard? I often get asked this question by my city friends and from people interested in starting their own small farm like mine.
So I thought I'd attempt to answer this question.
Mt dad always said; "if you love your job you never go to work". What he means is if you love what you are doing then it doesn't seem like a chore to do. That is true for me, after some 36 years in the city finishing school and working my way up through corporations pushing a pen around on paper and playing with buttons on a keyboard, I love the physical side of farm work now. It's outdoors, it's bloody hot where I live, you sweat endlessly, you get injured and at the end of the day your exhausted but it's fantastic. Everyday there is something new to be done, a new problem to be solved, an opportunity to be inventive, an unexpected crisis to avert and it never seems routine. I would think if your not reasonably fit, if you didn't have good endurance and were not a practical problem solver you would struggle. A farmer, even a hobby farmer is a jack-of-all-trades, they have to be good at a lot of different tasks, a builder, a vet, a butcher, a fencer, an animal trainer, a plumber, a mechanic and the list goes on. You learn very quickly if you cant do a lot of things for yourself and keep calling in tradespeople and experts then your farming adventure will become very expensive.
But what about the animals? I think there is an inference, even an acceptance that farmers are somewhat unemotionally about their animals, that the animals are just a commodity which they buy and sell, butcher and eat, and are unaffected by that process. That is very far from the truth for the vast majority of farmers. I have just a small farm with chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, cattle, horses and alpacas and I have a connection with every one of them. Some I just don't like at all on any given day, others are like children but I know the life story of every one of them. I know their parents, which ones have been sick, who was attended by the vet, when there are due for their next inoculation and when they are able to breed safely. I say to my city friends, "Your lucky you only have one pet to loose, I have 43 and I'm pretty sure I'll see them all die before I do". So far I only butcher the fowl for food (myself) but there will come a time soon when the larger animals must also be butchered. That's why I started this journey, each one gone will be just like loosing a close pet.
Health benefits, well it's out in the fresh air, most food you eat is fresh and unprocessed and your continually physically active. I've lost 5kg over 4 years off a frame that was only carrying 86kgs in the first place but I'm physically much stronger and feel fitter even though I was a cyclist in the city and weekend sports warrior. Farming certainly presents you with some different injury options than the city, I've torn my stomach lining chasing a bull and ended up getting myself to hospital (see photo), I've had RSI in both elbows from hours of clearing bushland with a machete and axe plus I've had a couple of trips to the doctors to have paralysis ticks cut out of places I couldn't reach. I also feel I have much less chance being in a road accident, getting stabbed or bashed by a drunk revealer or being shot and run over in a mass killing by someone trying to make a point that doesn't involve me or the nation I live in.
Time? Move to the country and relax - yerrrrr right. As a Director of Marketing in a large corporate, up near the top of the tree, I thought I worked long hours. Up in there morning when it was still dark, off to the airport, meetings all day, more meetings over dinner, hotel, repeat, back on a plane and home in the dark to do some more emails. If I wasn't travelling then it was an hour in the traffic to get to the office, then an hour of madness getting home to spend time with the family before dark. Office life was pretty good, I had 4 weeks leave a year and long service leave and didn't work most weekends. Farming, well here is the truth, up at dawn, to bed well after dark, 7 days a week with no holidays, no sick leave, and no accumulating long service leave. It is what it is.
So is it hard? is farming that hard? Not for me, I feel I was born to do this. I've talked to farmers living around me and they have mixed views, somedays it's all they know how to do, some say it's a slog, it's tough, it's like having an anchor on you freedom then I've had the same conversations with people living in the city.
So my view is that its just different, not harder or easier than doing other things just different. To be a success at anything you have to be self motivated, passionate and dedicated - farming is at the top end of each go those and if you haven't got those traits, it will be a slog just like sitting in the peak hour traffic wondering why your wasting your life.
So I thought I'd attempt to answer this question.
Mt dad always said; "if you love your job you never go to work". What he means is if you love what you are doing then it doesn't seem like a chore to do. That is true for me, after some 36 years in the city finishing school and working my way up through corporations pushing a pen around on paper and playing with buttons on a keyboard, I love the physical side of farm work now. It's outdoors, it's bloody hot where I live, you sweat endlessly, you get injured and at the end of the day your exhausted but it's fantastic. Everyday there is something new to be done, a new problem to be solved, an opportunity to be inventive, an unexpected crisis to avert and it never seems routine. I would think if your not reasonably fit, if you didn't have good endurance and were not a practical problem solver you would struggle. A farmer, even a hobby farmer is a jack-of-all-trades, they have to be good at a lot of different tasks, a builder, a vet, a butcher, a fencer, an animal trainer, a plumber, a mechanic and the list goes on. You learn very quickly if you cant do a lot of things for yourself and keep calling in tradespeople and experts then your farming adventure will become very expensive.
But what about the animals? I think there is an inference, even an acceptance that farmers are somewhat unemotionally about their animals, that the animals are just a commodity which they buy and sell, butcher and eat, and are unaffected by that process. That is very far from the truth for the vast majority of farmers. I have just a small farm with chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, cattle, horses and alpacas and I have a connection with every one of them. Some I just don't like at all on any given day, others are like children but I know the life story of every one of them. I know their parents, which ones have been sick, who was attended by the vet, when there are due for their next inoculation and when they are able to breed safely. I say to my city friends, "Your lucky you only have one pet to loose, I have 43 and I'm pretty sure I'll see them all die before I do". So far I only butcher the fowl for food (myself) but there will come a time soon when the larger animals must also be butchered. That's why I started this journey, each one gone will be just like loosing a close pet. 
Health benefits, well it's out in the fresh air, most food you eat is fresh and unprocessed and your continually physically active. I've lost 5kg over 4 years off a frame that was only carrying 86kgs in the first place but I'm physically much stronger and feel fitter even though I was a cyclist in the city and weekend sports warrior. Farming certainly presents you with some different injury options than the city, I've torn my stomach lining chasing a bull and ended up getting myself to hospital (see photo), I've had RSI in both elbows from hours of clearing bushland with a machete and axe plus I've had a couple of trips to the doctors to have paralysis ticks cut out of places I couldn't reach. I also feel I have much less chance being in a road accident, getting stabbed or bashed by a drunk revealer or being shot and run over in a mass killing by someone trying to make a point that doesn't involve me or the nation I live in.
Time? Move to the country and relax - yerrrrr right. As a Director of Marketing in a large corporate, up near the top of the tree, I thought I worked long hours. Up in there morning when it was still dark, off to the airport, meetings all day, more meetings over dinner, hotel, repeat, back on a plane and home in the dark to do some more emails. If I wasn't travelling then it was an hour in the traffic to get to the office, then an hour of madness getting home to spend time with the family before dark. Office life was pretty good, I had 4 weeks leave a year and long service leave and didn't work most weekends. Farming, well here is the truth, up at dawn, to bed well after dark, 7 days a week with no holidays, no sick leave, and no accumulating long service leave. It is what it is.
So is it hard? is farming that hard? Not for me, I feel I was born to do this. I've talked to farmers living around me and they have mixed views, somedays it's all they know how to do, some say it's a slog, it's tough, it's like having an anchor on you freedom then I've had the same conversations with people living in the city.
So my view is that its just different, not harder or easier than doing other things just different. To be a success at anything you have to be self motivated, passionate and dedicated - farming is at the top end of each go those and if you haven't got those traits, it will be a slog just like sitting in the peak hour traffic wondering why your wasting your life.
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