08/13/2026
My five year old said something to me today that hit me like a ton of bricks.
We dairy farm. We milk around 80 head of cows and raise all of our heifers. We don’t have any hired help so our kids tag along with us for milking, chores, crops, and everything in between.
This past week I have had some sort of stomach bug run through my calves. Normally I don’t have to treat calves, and it has been a couple years since I have lost one. They normally stay healthy from the time they are born till weaning at 3 months old. We are diligent with our milk quality and be sure to get the right amount of colostrum feedings into them. This last week though, a handful of my newborns got scours. Nothing crazy but I was still being proactive and treating them as soon as I noticed they weren’t feeling good and making sure all bottles and buckets were cleaned with a detergent.
Last night I noticed a two month old heifer, Shelby, had some loose manure. I switched out the milk she would normally get for some electrolytes and probiotic. She was jumping around her pen after she finished her feeding and seemed like her normal self.
This morning when I went to feed her she looked like a different calf. Shelby was normally bright eyed and playful, this morning she seemed depressed. A clear sign something more was wrong. Her somewhat loose manure had turned to full blown scours. I tried to feed her electrolytes and she turned up her nose at them. Shelby was off all feed and refusing her electrolytes.
My five year old was playing on his bike while I was doing some closer investigating of Shelby. I started walking to grab what I needed to treat her. My five year old right on my heels. I was frustrated with having another calf to treat and even more frustrated that it was an older calf. He asked me why I was upset. I told him I’m just sick of treating calves. We rarely have problems like this.
And then he said, without skipping a beat, “Well Mom, that’s just part of farming.”
It’s a phrase he has heard me say time and time again.
When the rain doesn’t come, when a cow needs to be sold, when milk prices fluctuate, when a cow needs help calving, when feed needs to be pushed, when we are late to yet another event, when the fence needs fixing, when equipment breaks down.
“Well Bud, that’s just part of farming.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. A reminder that treating another calf was just part of farming. A part that seems so frustrating now, but will pay off in the long run.
And a gentle reminder that the five year old who talks my ear off all day, follows his dad and I around the farm on our daily tasks, is watching us, and learning from us. Learning how we handle the frustrating parts of farming, and is watching our reactions to having hard days.
He told me exactly what I needed to hear in a frustrating situation.
“Well Mom, that’s just part of farming.”
