Episode 552
National Farmers Day Tribute
Today — Oct. 12 — is National Farmers Day, so I’m yelling out to anyone who’s wrestled a tractor or basically puts a year’s work in the ground and prays the weather, markets, bugs and politics behave. I run through how farmers are simultaneously a mechanic, a vet, an accountant, a meteorologist, a logistics manager and, apparently, professional gamblers — because yeah, you plant and then hope. This time of year it’s perfect to notice them: combines are rolling, harvest is full-on, and these folks are working before sunrise and long after dark while we whine about DoorDash taking 45 minutes. I remind everyone food doesn’t start at Walmart — it starts with somebody looking at dirt and saying, “I can work with this.” Then we tip our hats and play the Paul Harvey “So God Made a Farmer” speech he gave to the FFA in 1978 — the classic homage that sums up why these people deserve a heck of a lot more thanks (and maybe coffee).
Takeaways:
- I pointed out farmers wear more hats than anyone: mechanic, vet, accountant, meteorologist, logistics manager and gambler.
- We reminded everyone National Farmers Day (Oct 12) is the perfect time to appreciate the harvest hustle and those long, tireless hours.
- I joked about DoorDash delays while farmers work before dawn to after dark producing the food DoorDash eventually delivers to our door.
- We included Paul Harvey's 1978 'So God Made a Farmer' speech as the ultimate homage to farmers' grit, humor, and stubborn kindness.
- I marveled at farmers' faith: they plant a year's work and basically gamble on weather, markets, fuel, insects, and politics.
Transcript
It's haystack.
Speaker A:And today, the 12th day of October, is National Farmers Day.
Speaker A:Farmers may have one of the few jobs other than mine, where the phrase wearing a lot of hats is underselling it.
Speaker A:Because a farmer is not just a farmer.
Speaker A:A farmer is a mechanic.
Speaker A:When the tractor breaks, a farmer is a veterinarian.
Speaker A:When an animal gets sick, a farmer is an accountant.
Speaker A:When prices move, a farmer is a meteorologist every time the clouds show up, a farmer is a logistics manager during harvest.
Speaker A:And a farmer is apparently a gambler because at some point you put a year's worth of work into the ground and hope that weather, fuel, prices, equipment, insects, markets and politics decide to behave.
Speaker A:And that's a ridiculous amount of faith.
Speaker A:And it seems October is the perfect time to recognize them because, you know, with row crops, there's a lot of combines running, harvest underway for a lot of folks.
Speaker A:A lot of farmers are working from before sunrise until long after dark.
Speaker A:Most of us complain if it takes DoorDash 45 minutes, these people are out there producing the ingredients that doordash eventually brings to us.
Speaker A:So today is a good day to remember that food does not start at Walmart or Sam's Club or any grocery store.
Speaker A:It starts with somebody who looked at the dirt and said, yeah, I can work with this.
Speaker A: ave this speech to the FFA in: Speaker B:And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker.
Speaker B:So God made a farmer.
Speaker B:God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.
Speaker B:So God made a farmer.
Speaker B:I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild.
Speaker B:Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon and mean it.
Speaker B:So God made a farmer.
Speaker B:God said, I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, maybe next year.
Speaker B:I need somebody who can shape an axe handle from a persimmon sprout shoe, a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of hay, wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps, who planting time and harvest season will finish his 40 hour week by Tuesday.
Speaker B:Noon and then paynin from tractor back put in another 72 hours.
Speaker B:So God made a farmer.
Speaker B:God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts of the double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in midfield and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place.
Speaker B:So God made a farmer.
Speaker B:God said I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink combed bullets who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadowlark.
Speaker B:It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners.
Speaker B:Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disk and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five mile drive to church.
Speaker B:Somebody would bail a family together with a soft strong bonds of sharing who would laugh and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what dad does.
Speaker B:So God made a farmer.
