Spring and Pasture Time

When does spring really start? The TV weather people say it is March 1st. The calendar tells us it is March 21st. To the old-time livestock farmer it is around May 1, when the cattle go to pasture.

When most every farm down the road was from 80 to 120 acres and everyone had livestock, pasture time was a pretty important date. In those "Good Old Days" most farms marketed the crops they grew through the livestock they raised. The cattle and hogs were sent to market, and the milk was sold to the dairy. Of course, the eggs were taken to town every Saturday night to trade for the groceries. It was a different kind of farm economy than we know today.

Each farm, hopefully, grew enough to feed the livestock. The silo was filled with silage, the crib with corn, and the mows with hay and straw. Enough would be put away for the winter to feed everything until that wonderful day in the spring, when livestock could go to pasture and again "live off the land." Sometimes it was a close fit!

A few years ago a local farmer wrote a poem about pasture time that I would like to share with you this month.

PASTURE TIME

I can count all the bales in the haymow. The silo's down to the very last door. All the bedding there is, is the chaff that's left That lies on the straw mow floor.

The heifers are out grazing the cornstalks As the wintertime snow disappears. I wonder is the feed going to last 'Til pasture time is here?

The robins have been back for almost a month. The geese flew north ages ago. The calendar says that it's Springtime, But winter just hates to let go.

Oh, how I long for the weather to warm And to see that wonderful scene When I step out the door one morning And the pastures are emerald green.

I know that when God was making creation And wanted all the earth in rhyme, He needed a time when the earth came alive. That's when He gave us pasture time.

So when I get old and weary, When each step seems like a mountain to climb, I'll pray to my Lord, Lord please let me Just make it 'til pasture time.

(by Orville Goodenough, Guest Columnist)