The Bovine Bugle

Machinery on parade

The past two days my neighbor has been cropping some hayfields down the road from my house. This year he had his brother bring in his big machinery to do the job. The day they mowed the fields three different mowing rigs went by including a self-propelled windrower and a tractor pulling a disc mower that unfolds and mows three rows at a time. The next day the machinery to harvest the hay went by the house. This included a self-propelled chopper, a rig costing more than $250,000, a dump wagon, and two large dump trucks with large forage boxes on the back to haul the chopped hay somewhere miles away.

Probably I watched a half million dollars worth of equipment going by the farm over the past few days to harvest a few little meadows that once were harvested by a few men, some simple machinery, and a few horses. Technology has changed farming greatly, speeding up the how we do things on the farm, and allowing the farms to become bigger and bigger. But at what cost? My mom, who grew up on this farm and remembers when horses did everything here, has often said that maybe the old days weren't so bad. The pace of life was slower, you really knew your neighbors, and the community was closer. Have times changed for the better? I really wonder. When people ask me about our organic farming practices, I tell them I'm regressing back to the way my grandfather farmed. I like to think we are moving in the right direction.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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