Remembering 9/11

This past Sept. 11 was the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Do you remember where you were when that happened? Were you even alive at that moment? None of my grandchildren were born at that time.

I was breeding cows and giving attention to the sick ones that morning. I heard a news flash on the radio in the pickup as I drove to our special-needs parlor. It was a clear, sunny day, much like the ones we are having this week. I just sat there for a few minutes, listening. The newspeople were trying to make sense out of something no one had ever expected.

I drove to the house and turned on the TV to get a picture of what was happening. Our country was being attacked. Who? What? Why? Those were very scary moments. When all the air traffic was grounded, the country seemed to be put into a daze. How was this going to affect a small dairy farmer in the hills of Wisconsin? A lot of questions and only a few answers were available. The images of people jumping out of the big buildings to escape the fires were not easily erased from memory.

However, our cows still needed our attention. We did what we do best: Take care of them and hope for the best. Those attacks truly changed our world, our country and many of us personally.

My youngest son, Tony, eventually joined the Marines after high school. I was able to attend his graduation from Boot Camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. It was a very moving experience to witness: all those clean cut, young soldiers in uniforms and so physically fit. Tony was a platoon leader for many weeks. He was in charge of the men on guard duty each night. If they fell asleep, Tony got his butt chewed. He was the last man to eat every day at every meal. If the platoon performed well, he was benevolent. If the platoon was slacking, he was the disciplinarian. I asked, “What did you do in that situation?”

“Mealtime was shortened,” he said.

“How did you do that?”

He responded that he could eat a plate of spaghetti with a spoon in 90 seconds. If he did that, then everyone was done eating and back to training.

Tony eventually did two tours of duty in Afghanistan. He had many fellow soldiers who were injured or killed in combat. I believe that having a dairy farm to come back to helped Tony manage his transition from the military to civilian life. By keeping him busy, it may have helped a little to keep him moving forward. Today, he is happily married with two children and works as a plumber when not fixing things on the farm.

I have a strong admiration for the training, work and experiences that our men and women in uniform have given to safeguard our freedoms. I personally wish all young people had to complete some type of public service, like the Army or Marines or Peace Corps, or even work on a dairy farm. Perhaps more of our young people would gain a sense of what they wanted to be if they had some military training just after high school.

That brings me back to my farm work today. I arrived at 6 a.m., and Dustin and I went over the sick list on Cow Manager. I went to check on 6061, who was having a backward calf according to the cow pusher. Dustin went to mark cows we need to pregnancy check before drying them off. I set up the gates to move 6061 into a stall that is easily accessible for a calving problem. As I went back to the calving pens, I found a calf on the straw. I thought, “Well, that was an easy job.” Then, I helped Dustin catch those cows that needed pregnancy checking. After examining those 20 cows, we went back to check on the fresh cows.

Whoops; 6061 was bred to an Angus bull, but the calf in the pen with her was a Holstein. Then, we noticed the tail in her vulva. The backwards calf was small, fortunately, so it wasn’t too hard to get the feet to come out before the tail.

“Always check for another calf” is one of my sayings I farm by. Guess what? There was another. 6061 gave us two frisky female Angus-cross babies — a $2,000 value. It’s hard to beat that.

This was the start of a hectic but normal corn silage harvesting day. Our custom harvester has been with us for 20 years and knows we take care of cows in the early morning hours, so he chops close fields until all the other drivers show up.

We also had an underground boring team arrive to place another two-inch water line from the wells to the parlor. Tony took care of those fellows. We wanted a backup water supply if it was needed. This is another step in our PPPPPP plan. PPPPPP is a saying that came from one of my veterinary colleagues: Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.