Nothing simple about farming, despite the clichés
COMMENT
There is a scene in Rogue One: A Star Wars Stor y where Mads Mikkelsen’s character Galen Erso is criticized for having too brilliant a mind for farming.
It’s not an especially erudite example of an existing, deprecating attitude toward farmers, but it is an important one, as its appearance in pop culture is so ubiquitous and tacitly accepted that it can uncontroversially and unceremoniously appear in a film that will be seen by hundreds of millions of people. It’s damaging: There is nothing simple about farming.
Farmers and country dwellers are notorious for saying they appreciate the simple things in life. But this is misleading. Planting a seed and watching it grow may seem simple, but I trust we all know that what it takes to make it look simple is anything but.
Every discipline has its lexicon, and the basket of terms farmers are expected to understand is daunting. What do I know about pH levels in my soil? Nothing, no less what a reading of sev- en means. But I know that I need to find out.
For many, July is the doldrums. Farmers have done what they can, short of commanding the weather, to ensure a healthy crop. Which makes it the perfect time for agricultural outfits across the country to put on events, lunches and/or field tours. These serve as important learning opportunities in an industry that is never stagnant and one in which no two growing seasons are the same.
At a recent event at the Canada- Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre in Portage la Prairie, Man., we were split into four groups and loaded onto trailers.
The first session was on soil types and dealing with soil compaction.
This conversation i nvolved a multitude of soil terms, such as “loam” and “cl ay,” and many more, i ncluding terms specific to tillage. After a few eas- ily understood and introductory remarks, the talk cannonballed into science and terminology not everyone would be able to follow. I struggled, at times.
The plant science tent used terms such as ‘ rhizobium’ and ‘ unifoliate’ and ‘ nodules’ and many others. Then, the variety evaluation talk featured ‘ Iron Deficiency Chlorosis ( IDC)’ rating, ‘ maturity zone’ and ‘ relative days to maturity’ ( DTM). Then, research and statistical analysis, where agronomists chatted about the significance of where they have their crop test plots across Manitoba, mentioning notable differences between them and the production recommendations some of them have yielded. Then, lunch.
Then, learning about how to better adjust your combine in order to mitigate crop loss at harvest time.
I’m five years into farming. I am baffled at how much I don’t know. I’m baffled at the sheer breadth of knowledge required to farm. The manual would be a tome that, once printed, would immediately be out of date.
Learning all the terms will take time. Many of them have seeped into my sentences and, I imagine, after five more years a few more will appear.
I’ ll start with figuring out what a pH reading of seven means.