Thank a farmer for their 'hobby'

Most of us have a hobby — knitting sweaters, playing a musical instrument, painting a pretty picture, tinkering with electronics, etc. Few, indeed, are the hobbyists who make any money from their efforts.

Keep that fact in mind when you think about farming. It has long been a hard-work hobby.

My father, a life-long farmer, used to say that a person only farms because he or she loves working with the soil and plants. In that sense, then, it is a hobby. Most farmers farm because of love for the land, not because he can’t do anything else.

My father also said that if a farmer netted 5% over his investment in any one year, he could be very happy. How many businesses could survive on that tiny margin?

As a farmer’s daughter, I used to walk the fields with my father, looking for stray weeds — vetch, morning glory, Canadian thistle and the like. Woe be to any weeds that we occasionally found.

Each one was diligently pulled or dug up and discarded. We also trapped destructive ground squirrels — not a pleasant occupation for a little girl.

The public, which seems to enjoy wheat-flour products, needs to hear some statistics about wheat farming today. Take note:

• There are 60 pounds of wheat in each bushel.

• Each average-sized loaf of bread requires one pound of flour. A little bit of yeast and some oil are added, of course.

• A bushel of wheat makes 60 loaves of bread.

• After all expenses, the amount remaining for a farmer for one bushel is around $4.

City folk do not realize farmers have to pay for transport of their grain to the coast or elsewhere. Without the Snake River dams, the much-increased cost of transport will be added to the farmers’ expenses.

Farmers are also wondering how they will keep the pads around the purposed windmills clean of the most noxious weeds. Who will want to farm around them, also avoiding the gravel roads needed for maintenance of the atrocities?

Going back to the “hobby” aspect, consider the love of the beauty wheat country. Consider how differently wheat country will look with wind turbines.

Farmers enjoy the beauty of their properties and surrounding area as much or more than most city folks realize.

Farming may become obsolete if some safeguards are not installed. If that happens, consider the impact on bread, doughnuts, cakes and many such delicacies. They may be beyond the consumers’ monetary reach, if existent at all. Think of these things when you pick up your next loaf of bread.

Please thank a farmer the next time you meet one.

— Beverly C. Wilson is a farmer from Whitman County. Email her at [email protected].