June holds the place between the rebirth of spring and the long, hot days of July and August. The days creep slowly longer until the summer solstice. The earth warms and grows the corn, canola and alfalfa fields. The sun ripens winter wheat and begins to turn the fields of green to golden. June is one of those very busy months on a farm – fieldwork, hay harvest and new life all around. As summer unfolds, we are reminded that changes happen with ease and progress has its purpose.
A word that comes to mind this season is fortitude. It’s actually surprising how many people feel fortitude is not a trait they possess. People see this as a description reserved for those who have seen and persevered in a hard-won battle.
But can’t fortitude be forged in moments that are more common? The determination to get a live calf out of a difficult birth. The resolve to get the hay baled before the rain arrives or the haylage chopped before it dries too much. Fortitude could describe the day-to-day activities on the farm – such as milking, feeding, cleaning, feed push-up, getting cattle to the parlour and treating illness. Everyday jobs display a certain tenacity that requires fortitude.
Fortitude isn’t earned in a day or a week or even in months. It is like a field of alfalfa that starts as a seed, grows into a plant, is harvested and grows again. We may not see it until we need it.
More than once, there have been days on the farm when I thought that my task was just too much to complete – another load of hay to unload, a barn full of really hot cows to milk in really humid weather, a month-old calf that I thought was too sick to save. And yet, the fortitude that I didn’t know I had brought me through to the other end of the day with success.
As we move into the sometimes seemingly endless day of summer on the farm, we can’t gloss over the struggles inherent in the fortitude required to keep going for another late-night hour of crop work, which is followed by a few hours of sleep and a new dawn. But we can frame the excessive work of summer as the grit that nourishes the cattle, produces the milk and, ultimately, feeds the world.
As World Milk Day is recognized on June 1, may you take stock of where your dairy story began, how far you’ve come and what it truly means to celebrate this life we call dairy farming. With your friends and family, you can look back on your accomplishments with gratitude and know that because of your perseverance, you can go forward, steady and strong. At Progressive Dairy, we raise a glass of milk in a toast to your fortitude.
