According to a recent story on MSN,
farming and ranching is the 10th most dangerous job in America these days! With 21 deaths per 100,000 workers in the past year, it is considerably less than #1: Loggers at 128 fatalities per 100,000 workers.
It was interesting clicking through the top 10 most dangerous jobs and frankly, none surprised me. I
was surprised to see that according to their statistics, farmers and ranchers are the best paid--earning $33.32 per hour. Wonder if they used a 40-hour week for that calculation. I'm not complaining, but the last time I had a 40-hour work week, I commuted to an office to work! Farming and ranching is a 365 day, 7 days a week, 24 hour job. So if you do it, you better love it! We don't do it for the pay!!
As I scrolled through the rest of the list, I also realized that few of those jobs allow us to include our families in our work. You see, farming is a full time job. It isn't just a job, it is a life...a lifestyle...and a way of life. We LIVE farming. Our kids are with us constantly. When my kids were little they spent many hours with me in a pickup truck checking cows, or in a tractor cutting hay. They grew up working on the land and caring for the animals. But to reference back to the original article and intent, farming and ranching is dangerous. Awhile back, the Department of Labor wanted to limit the jobs that kids under a certain age can do on a farm. But let me offer the flip side...if a kid isn't brought up learning the love of the land, as well as the long hours of working the land, they won't choose farming as a career. If they don't learn by working beside their parents and grandparents, they won't get the importance and value of multigenerational business. If they don't learn from their ancestors, the knowledge won't be passed down.
Don't get me wrong, there are many schools offering classes on farming and ranching. There are also dedicated schools for future agriculturists. But the knowledge that the current farmers and ranchers have will be lost. I'm not saying we put our kids in dangerous situations with no training, or at too young of an age. But we do need their help in our daily jobs on the farm.
I'm proud that my five kids have been raised helping with farming, building fence, welding panels and working with cattle of all ages. I'm also proud that we have calm cattle that we work hard to train them to trust us and therefore they are less dangerous. But accidents do happen. We have to protect our kids, while giving them the love of the lifestyle that is farming and ranching.
This article was very well written! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic! I'm a mother of two very young boys and my dream is to allow them to be a part of our farm just like I was a part of my father's! I couldn't imagine living any other way and certainly wouldn't want to raise kids any other way! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kaylyn. I really love farming and ranching, too. We have to be careful, but realistically you can get hurt driving down the street!!!
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