Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was rather scathing about farmers and farming a few years ago. This video clip surfaced recently as he ramped up his presidential campaign.
A sheep farmer from northern Texas has replied.
Dear Mr Bloomberg,
I am not an anybody … a middle of the country farm girl with no college education … but your comments about farming not taking as much “gray matter” as what you do made me want to address this serious misconception you and many in our society seem to have.
Farming is not simply planting a seed or feeding an animal and poof, you’re done.
It takes record keeping. I have spreadsheet after spreadsheet of expenses, profits, losses. We track weights of lambs and pounds of lambs weaned per ewe.
It takes math. Measuring feed, milk replacer, medications. A mis-measurement anywhere can be devastating.
It takes observation. Spotting an animal that’s acting “off” before it’s so sick it may not live.
It takes planning … when to plant, when to breed, when weather’s coming in and hay will need to be put out.
It takes long days in the cold and the heat. We can’t “work from the house” when it’s Snowy out … water troughs need to be busted open, animals need to be fed, to checked on. When it’s 100 degrees a broken fence won’t wait.
It takes flexibility. It never fails you’ll be headed out to a nice dinner and you’ll find a sick ewe or a ewe in labor. Your night will be spent in the barn … sometimes in 20 degree weather, helping that ewe.
It takes a huge heart. Our home has heard the rat a tat tat of bottle lambs running thru the house. The sound is music to my ears, after seeing a newborn rejected or hurt to bouncing and happy.
It takes mental toughness … emergencies happen and it takes a calm cool collected mindset to make it thru.
It takes tears. I’ve worked on a ewe in distress for an hour only to deliver a dead lamb … and then to lose the ewe.
It takes love. I love with my whole heart farming and raising sheep. I love helping to feed this country and I love this job no matter what anyone who has never set foot on a farm has to say.
It takes being an eternal optimist. That the rain will fall, the sun will shine, that next years crop will be better.
Mr Bloomberg, your comments echo the general problem with many in this nation that have lost touch with their agricultural roots and what it means to this country. I invite you to spend a day at an actual working farm to see what our lives entail.
Sincerely,
Sarah Towery
American Shepherdess & Patriot
Well said, ma’am! Next time my wife and I buy lamb (which we both enjoy), we’ll be sure to remember your BC Sheep Company, and give you a call.
Peter
I'm sure that Mr. Bloomberg's love for farmers will be reciprocated if he makes it as far as the general election.
That clip left out his comments on industrial production, and how simple a trade machining is. He even insults the students in the room. Why would people want anything to do with him in any way, shape or form?
If anything, the author understated the complexity of farming. They
repair a lot of their own equipment, and a farmer who cannot analyze
the agricultural markets is at a disadvantage. If too many farms are
planting the same crop, they can say goodbye to their profits or
even face losses. Let's ask Nanny Doomberg to jump into a combine
and see if he can operate it and read the fighter jet-like displays.
Then he can try his hand at welding broken machine parts. Modern
farming is as much science as it is an art.
Most family farmers send their kids to agricultural colleges and many
return with advanced degrees. They test their soil to determine what
type and quantity of fertilizer is right for a given crop. They do
the same with water. Too little or too much equals dead crops. I
could go on for pages!
Mr. Bloomberg is only a notch above the big city dwellers who ask why farmers and ranchers need to raise food because they only need to go down to the grocery store and buy it.
If Bloomberg gets the Democrat nomination he will probably attract some independents and RINOs. I have seen some of Bloomberg's TV advertisements. They talk to big city dwellers and are full of misrepresentations of the truth.
Bloomboob has shown himself for what and who he is; an ignorant buffoon. Anyone who says what he did has NEVER tried to grow ANYTHING! Even an subsistence gardener/chicken keeper can say that! Also; I'm sure that, on his way up the corporate ladder, machining was never a rung he had to grasp.
Funny; Bloomboob seems to think that insulting the very people who voted for Trump will win him the election… Good luck, Little Mike…
I invariably find it amusing when anyone seems to think that a rational argument has any merit with a communist. It seems that there are many people who think that if they only present the correct facts that the communist will rock back and respond, "Oh yes, now I see my errors".
This is, and will forever be, a fight to the death. The hammer and sickle are not held in withdrawal, they are always poised for the next blow.