I can easily recall some of my best memories of growing up on a family farm with my late father. From playing a game of pickup in the front yard before doing cattle work to racing my father back to the dairy after irrigating pastures, the memories are plentiful. I always smile when thinking of my father.
My dad’s health declined after he suffered a massive stroke in 2008. He was later diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia and while his memory began slipping, us kids never forgot. Dad not only gave us a lifetime of memories on the family farm, but he also instilled hard work, commitment and kindness deep into each one of his children. Some of the last conversations I had with my Dad was him talking to me about triticale, he thought it was a good crop to grow. Every time I smell a freshly chopped field of triticale, my eyes swell up. I certainly miss my father.
A father plays a pivotal role in shaping kids’ lives. I recently asked the Dairy Mom group on Facebook what some of their best memories of their farm dads were. This is what a few of them had to say.
Ohio dairy farm mom, Mary Herr says when she was a kid, she and her siblings used to get in the hopper wagons and kick down ears of corn for their father.
“Dad would always surprise us and grab our feet when we weren’t expecting it,” she says. “We would also help shuck corn the first round around the field.”
Wisconsin dairy farm mom, Janet Kappers, remembers that her father told her and her siblings to clear out the center of the hay mow first so that they could play basketball.
“The hoop is probably still there,” she recalls.
Liz Stein, another Wisconsin dairy farm mom, says her father used to tell jokes and her favorite one was, “What did the one fish say to the other fish swimming in the tank,” she shared. “How do you drive this thing?”
Minnesota dairy farm mom, Ana Zach, shared her favorite dad joke that many of the other moms laughed at.
“Why don’t they color the urea instead of leaving it white,” she says. “Then it would be dye-urea.”
Rebekah Headings from Ohio shared that her father did not grow up on a dairy farm.
“He was a math teacher,” she says. “Once when my mom was out of town, she called him to tell him we needed to clip our cows. He asked what all needed clipped and she said everything, even the bellies. I will never forget my 6’4 father crawling on the ground under my cow to lay there and clip her belly.”
Paul Harvey salutes farmers the best. “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town. So God made a farmer.”
We thank God for the farmers in our lives, especially the farm dad’s who not only provide food for a growing world, but also provide a lifetime of memories and teach life lessons to their families.
