Allen and Barren Counties
“I did not realize where my meat came from, where the milk came from, where the vegetables came from. Just ignorance. You know you didn't need to know that. You just went and bought it. We did have a garden growing up, you know but the eggs. You know, I literally did not even think of where or how any of that happened until I started farming.”
“I think the biggest thing that a non-farmer doesn't understand is how hard a farmer works and how little they get paid for it. When my husband started milking, he got paid the same for his milk as we get paid today, almost thirty years later. Milk, the prices haven’t increased. And they fluctuate so much, a few years ago, they were ten dollars a hundred. You can’t make a living that way.”
"Flexibility would almost have to be my middle name, just the constant learning… Farmers have to be some of the most intelligent people because they have so many responsibilities and have to have knowledge about so many different things. And then they have to keep learning because farmers we have to keep evolving with the technology because new technology is coming out every day. And if we don't move with it, we will get left behind.”
"Farmers are eternal optimists. If we weren't, we couldn't do what we do. We always have hope of rain or sunshine or a better calf next year or a better crop yield. There is always hope, I think. Until hope is gone."
" What are some things you enjoy about farming?"
"Just watching a crop grow and respond to things you do to it. Trying to figure out the best way to grow something to get the most yield, and at the same time, conserve your soil and take care of what you have. I just enjoy doing that."
“Farming is not just working hard in these days, you got to work smart. And there was a time I think when farmers could just work hard and make it. But in this day, you got to work smart, you got to work hard, but you got to work smart.”
“You know, you think about when you produce something, especially like farming, and then you sell it. You've got your input costs, you got what's your sale price is, and you got your margin in between. And that's what you live on, that's what you go to the bank, that's what you buy your next piece of property with or whatever.”
“They don't have the concept of what goes into producing that product and all the things of that you deal with as far as the market, the weather, the insects, disease, you know, just so many things that I don't think.”
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