Oh man, just when you thought it was safe to be reading a farm newspaper again, along comes this guy talking about Hart Attacks…
To ease your mind, this column has nothing to do with cardiovascular health (or lack thereof). It is just the ramblings of an old farm boy and a long time, somewhat, most-days retired agricultural writer who apparently thinks he should ride this computer keyboard into the sunset.
Hart Attacks and my name might be new to some of you while others are saying “oh, that guy again.” The fact is, I have been writing a Hart Attacks column for most of the past 50 years. And if over the past three decades you flipped through Country Guide or Grainews, you might have seen my name and this column heading on those hallowed pages.
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Yes my retirement from Grainews in 2022 was widely noted. But you know that feeling you get deep in your gut that says you still have something important to contribute to life? Well, me neither. But when Glacier FarmMedia said they’d pay me a few bucks for a column, I was all over that idea. So here we go.
I’m not sure what this Hart Attacks column will be about. I thought I might focus on politics and religion — Danielle and company, Carney and company, Trump and stupid move of the day — but I figured there’s a high probability of running out of material. Are they doing anything worth talking about?
I was born and raised on a dairy farm in eastern Ontario back in the day when a 25 head milking herd was a pretty typical sized dairy operation. My dad had a new dairy barn built in 1963, and as I recall, it had 30 stanchions, which as I look back was a pretty big herd for our road in Williamsburg Township of Dundas County. The Gallingers about half mile away also had a new barn and might have been milking between 30 and 40 head and that was really big.
No, there was no fun in my childhood — milk cows, feed the pigs, bale hay, kill a chicken for supper, sleep and then get up and do it all over again. It was like a work camp!
No, but seriously, there was lots of fun and good times for me growing up. You can’t beat life on a farm; that’s why I chose a career in journalism.
I started out as a writer and editor for newspapers, and then discovered and was drawn to the glamorous, high paying life of an agricultural writer and that’s where I spent more than 35 years writing about Canadian agriculture. I’m still waiting for my ship to come in, however. So far all I’ve seen is a 12-foot rowboat with one oar.
I often think about the changes in agriculture since I was a boy on the farm, and I compare it to the difference between riding in a stagecoach and a SpaceX launch (now don’t get me started on Elon Musk — it might not be kind). But the technology has changed dramatically. There might have been a week or so over my career where I thought I could keep pace with changes in ag technology, but I realize I was just kidding myself. (Is Hoescht still out there? What about UGG?)
A couple weeks ago I was at Olds College in Alberta, learning about something called “agrivoltaics.” That’s a relatively new term, for me anyway, but if you’re interested in grazing sheep or cattle or even cropping under a few hundred or few thousand acres of a solar panel array stay tuned for reports on that.
With this column I say hello and I expect to be back in this space in future editions of the Manitoba Co-operator.
