When It Is Time

by Jenny

Jenny and Jr. Hey began their life together on Sept 23, 1961. Jr. was farming with his father and they had a cow herd. I will call this phase in our life the beginning time.

This is one of Jenny and Jr.'s favorite Hereford cows.

The beginning time was full of hope and the promise of good things to come. Those things came - we had a house to live in, some cows of our own, grass and a tractor to farm with, and we thought we had the world at our feet. Mother Nature, of course, had some plans of her own and at times, hit us with everything she had. But we were like the blades of grass bending in the wind, we got knocked down and then we came right back, good as new. Jr. was in heaven he thought. He worked the long hours with gusto. I was into the all the volunteer work I could get into. Girl Scouts and Red Cross chairman kept me busy.

Then came the parenting time. We wondered to ourselves, “what did we do without these little ones?” We had two of the loveliest daughters anyone could ever have. (I imagine you have heard that expression before!) Anyway we really enjoyed raising the girls and the things they were involved in, school activities, sports, etc. The farm was doing just fine. We had a bigger cow herd and farmed more land, etc. Life was good.

Jenny and Jr. sit on the back of their pick up looking at their cows one last time.

When you work the land, live on it and grow food for the country… something inside of both of us began to grow. I think it was a sense of purpose. We felt that it was a privilege to be a part of an industry that provided food for the world. We spent a lot of time improving our cowherd to have the most efficient herd we could. Jr.became an accomplished herdsman, one of the best. When the calves came in the spring, it was a joyous time. Spring the time of renewal - what could be better? It was fascinating to watch some of the older cows kind of baby-sit the little ones while their mothers ate. Some of our favorite times were spent driving through the herd, picking out replacement heifers to breed that year and deciding which cows to cull from the herd.

Then came the reality time. This was the hardest of all times. Our age, and too many years of drought and bad markets took their toll. Our farming operation had come to the point that we had to get out to save it. All the years of hard physical labor had made it difficult to continue the operation as it was. The land we farmed and ranched had been in my family for over one hundred years. Jr.’s father had farmed in Hodgeman County over 70 years. Our goal was to save the ownership of our land to pass it on to our 2 daughters and 5 grandsons. We sold all the machinery, and cows and calves. We couldn’t believe there was not one animal we owned on our property for the first time in 40 years. The day of the sale of the machinery, we were grateful that people came; friends and neighbors helped us move into a different time by coming and bidding on the machinery.

The farm sale.

This I will call the letting go time, the sale of the machinery and the cows and calves, putting the land into CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) helped us reduce our debt. Jr. no longer farms but is intensely interested in what goes on out in the country. We rent our pastureland and farmland to others. We keep busy; we sell bedding plants out of a small greenhouse. Jr. also finds time to fish with his grandsons. We have done the letting go, and life is good.