Dairy farming is dying. After 40 years, I'm done.

[berni_mccoy]

36. I grew up working on neighboring dairy farms as a kid.

From the time I was 10 until the time I graduated high school, I bailed hay, chopped wood, shovelled shit and did all the other unpleasant stuff that is required on a farm. But it was fun too. My best friend growing up was a kid on a dairy farm. And we had many adventures together. Most of the farms, including his parent’s, paid minimum wage, which at the time was around $3 / hr.

We climbed trees, teased the bull (and got treed by it once for many many hours) and during long summer nights stayed up way too long playing D&D and other role playing games with his brother and neighboring farm kids. During the winter, we had the best view of the night sky. It inspired us (along with Carl Sagan’s Cosmos) to go into the fields we are in today.

I was fit and strong because of it. And because I was physically spent, it allowed my friend and I to be intellectually sharp. We both graduated as valedictorians of our class.

Farming, as a way of life, is important to our society. To see this type of change happening is heart breaking.