Sowing Our Oats

   A friend from town asked what we were doing on the farm this week and I said we were spreading oats that day. I realized as soon as I said that that an explanation was in order. We were not 'sowing our wild oats', we were actually planting domesticated oats.

   This is what oat seed looks like before it is steel cut and cooked as oatmeal. For you literary buffs there is a funny definition of oats. Samuel Johnson is credited with writing the first dictionary of the English language. As an Englishman he was not terribly fond of the Scots. In his dictionary Johnson defines oats as, "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people."
Now before my Scottish friends and family members get worked up, I am a big fans of oats. I especially love my oatmeal, with brown sugar, on the cold mornings we have this time of year.
   Back to the farm- we planted twenty acres of oats to help build up the soil. We are waiting for trees from the nursery. But, there is so much demand for almond trees right now, we will have to wait until this time next year to plant. So this year we have the oats.

   It has been a little frustrating on the farm this week. I have not used district irrigation water since last August. The day we start water to pre-irrigate a cotton field the district shuts the line down for emergency repairs. Arrgh. I know they are doing their best and I appreciate it. But, the irony was killing me. If they had made the repairs nearly any time in the last four months I wouldn't have noticed. The good new is that we are back up and running.

   Speaking of irony, two of my recent radio pieces highlight ironies in agriculture.

Isn't It Ironic?

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2013

                Isn't it ironic? Everyone says they support family farms, but environmental and government policy are squeezing out family farmers.

            I make my living producing food and fiber, not going to meetings or filling out forms. But, thanks to government agencies and our environmental friends I get to spend time doing both when I should be out in the field or the shop.

            Large farms can afford to hire environmental compliance officers. I have a friend that does that for a large operation south of here. It works pretty well for them. He takes care of the environmental paperwork, and it is a full time job. But, he works for the same kind of large farming operation everyone says we want to avoid.  

            I am not saying that these things are bad. What I am trying to say is that some of our government regulations and some of our environmental friends are making it harder and harder for family farms to survive. Just keeping the farm going can take everything you've got. Adding new stuff to make paper pushers happy can push smaller farmers over the edge. The land will still be farmed- but now it will be by larger operations. Isn't that ironic?

You can find the audio for my radio bits at the link below.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P