Salt of the Earth

One of my favorite stops in Iowa is always Gregory Feedlots. After the stop there, I said to Grace, “You know, this is why I like my job.  I get the opportunity to work and become friends with some really fine people!” And in that group of people are folks like Jim Gregory, owner of Gregory Feedlots, and his feedlot manager, David Trowbridge.

We were just a little early, so we went out onto the yard, and saw David, horseback, sorting cattle back into their proper pen.  They were a little wild anyway, he informed us, and something spooked them. They went through the fence and into the next pen. He said, “I thought you were going to be here at 11:00!  I almost forgot you were coming.”  No worries, I said we were running about 30 minutes ahead of schedule this trip, and we have the time. David had been sorting those cattle, had more cattle to unload; gave directions to feedlot workers to tag some cattle; the vet had been there earlier in the morning to make a diagnosis, and the list goes on. Why he takes time for me to visit is sometimes a mystery to me. He’s a very busy man.  With Gregory Feedlots for 35 years, David is steeped in knowledge about the feeding, care, and marketing of cattle. Particularly good Angus cattle.  In addition to this, he has a number of beef cows of his own, is on the Iowa Cattleman’s Association board, and is on several other industry boards.

It has often occurred to me that those who are not involved with production agriculture perhaps do not fully appreciate how hard these people work. The weather is not always nice; markets are fickle; and cattle don’t always behave! The feed truck breaks down, there’s a flat on the tractor, or insects wreak havoc in a field of corn. The bulls tear down a fence during a fight; the coyotes killed a calf, and the automatic “frost free” waterer is frozen up on the coldest day of the year.The horse bucks you off riding pens, you get kicked by a cow, or you lose part of of a finger in a pinch point while running cattle through the working chute.

One might say that those folks who work in a factory often deal with hardships and machinery that doesn’t work at their particular place of employment. I’m not discounting those folks at all. What I am saying is many of these people like David, work for someone else and it’s not popular in today’s world to take care of things like they were your own. At 5:00 p.m., their day is over, and it’s time to go home. Not the case with so many, like David, in agriculture. They work long hours, they work hard, and they make sure that the job gets done right.

Not an exact comparison, because of religious meaning, but the verse in the bible that reads: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13. This comes to mind when thinking of all those who work in production agriculture, whether it is for yourself as a family farmer or rancher, or whether you’re working as the manager or as a pen rider or feed truck driver, or all of the above. We often use the phrases such as “worth their salt” or those peple who are “the salt of the earth” that lead back to that verse.

So my salute in this blog is for all those who make the agricultural world go round.  Happy trails, and adios!

~Gary

You may also like