Farm Philosophers: Dutch Hollow Farms

I have never slept in in my own bed at five o'clock I'm up and I'm headed out the door we are a family farm we're on operating dairy farm milking approximately 800 cows three times a day with 1400 head of cattle altogether with young stock all of our milk is Niche marketed we Farm 2 000 Acres where we grow all of our forage needs corn for silage Alfalfa to feed the cows grass hay for dry hay we milk Jersey cows each and every one of them is a character we always joke the black and white cows are generic that's 90 percent of the the population in the United States Jersey cows tend to be more Curious more mischievous they will wander off with your gloves they can unhook Gates you can usually walk through these cows and your apt to get licked to death every cow has a name every cow's mother has a name there's midnight caress secret passion Jewel diamond ruby Hostess a baby book and a wine bottle can create a lot of crazy things so yeah we get connected to them there's certain cows that will not get on the beef truck they will die here and we'll bury them out back [Music] the way it works around here everybody has a responsibility I tend to be the crops guy I'm maintaining repairing making decisions on equipment to replace as well as you know keeping the records of of different fertilizations and crops and crop rotations so I'm handling everything on the crop and Machinery end in in providing the feed and I feel I've done okay I can go home after a 12-hour day I've earned the right to go home in a lot of ways you know you're working 70 hours a week there's there's not money enough to pay us for the hours we work so it has to be a labor of love you know it has to be a legacy this isn't easy a pessimistic person is not going to survive in this agricultural industry if Doom and Gloom is what you're looking for you can find plenty of it we've been given a pretty wild ride in in the markets in the uh the last 10 years and it's not just hard work and sometimes frustration when you leave the house at in the dark at five o'clock in the morning and it's Harvest Time and you work till 10 or 10 30 at night it puts a tremendous burden on the loved ones and your significant others you know if they're not here on a daily basis joining you [Music] this summer has been challenged like none other [Music] give me a minute there [Music] three young men that work here and a fourth one it used to you know the fourth one he took his own life [Music] and he said the happiest place he was was here at the farm and uh that was the worst tragedy that has ever happened watching the rest of my staff these young men support each other check on each other not just on a daily basis it was truly a spectacle to see the following week you know I had a machine catch on fire and it burned up three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to replace it I was in the middle of the field empty the fire extinguisher on it my dog rides with me she's with me 24 7. I got my dog out and we walked away and watched it burn wasn't upset really wasn't discouraged I kind of numb but you know there wasn't a curse word uttered because you know what it just happened and put it in perspective we've been suffering a drought and we got ready to harvest halage and it rained and put us behind a week but that's what the corn needed so there's always a silver lining in everything you know what we got tomorrow can be a better day yeah you know it goes along with that optimism what did I mess up today that I can fix tomorrow and and that carries over it doesn't just carry over and planting a crop or breeding a cow or producing milk but if it spills over into parenting being a good neighbor being part of a community you always got to have a rainstorm in order to have a rainbow And if every day was a beautiful day how would you ever know the difference between a beautiful day and a not so beautiful day I guess at this point in my life a lot of people are scared of being replaced and to me I find the greatest reward ing this next generation take hold [Music] and start making those decisions and taking responsibility the first time I came home and nothing went wrong I was a little bit of a loss because I wasn't needed and then I realized that I did the right things along the way that I wasn't needed that I became replaceable and I guess I did my job as a parent as a leader as a manager correctly good foreign

Channel: Scenic Hudson

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Id: prRJw8Raz5o

Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023