Today's feature is from a farming family in Missouri. The Hasekamp's are proud to be involved in agriculture and teach their childern hard work and responsiblity down on the farm.
I live in sunny downtown Tulip, Missouri. At face value that doesn’t sound like the beginning of a rural farm story. And my personal story doesn’t begin as a rural farm story either. I grew up in a small town in the middle of Missouri, population less than 1,000. I fell in love with a farm boy from a neighboring town. We verbally got engaged sitting on a FFA trailer exhibit at the Missouri State Fair and 22 years later are raising our kids to be agricultural leaders of the future.
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| Heading to the Coliseum - MO State Fair 2007. |
My name is Kathy Hasekamp and my husband and I, along with his sister and her husband together farm several acres of grain crops, corn, soybeans and wheat. We raise Angus cattle, we sell seed corn, have a custom hay business and are ABS dealers. Like most farmers of this century, we don’t ‘just farm’. We are proud to support our local 4-H and FFA chapter, we try to ‘agvocate’ farming in all that we do from serving on FSA (USDA Farm Service Agency) boards, fair boards, fair exhibition, hosting school farm tours, taking animals to farm petting zoos and using social media to share our story and promote our way of life.
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| Sam posing with our display - MO State Fair 2008. |
A typical day at H&K Farms starts with feeding, there’s always something to feed. Depending on the time of year this is a quick job of just minutes or hours long job including scooping snow out the feed bunks on a snowy morning or moving cows to green pastures on a dry summer day. We might have a string of show calves to feed, a bottle calf, or bulls in their ‘off time’ in the barn behind the house.
Maintenance is a constant job, whether it's fixing fence, changing oil in a tractor, or nailing down a piece of tin from the barn roof after a windy storm - my husband is certainly a jack of all trades. He and my brother-in-law put in the crops and harvest them primarily by themselves. Busy kids and wives help when we can. We are certainly thankful for modern farm equipment that allows them to cover many acres quickly. Our cattle - both cows and feeder calves - eat corn silage, so we fill two silos every year, which is one of the times they call on myself, my sister-in-law or one of our older sons to help.
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| Harvest 2005 - Dad always has an extra helper (or 2) riding in the combine. |
Our family works hard and plays hard, at least occasionally. One thing we all enjoy every year is many local fairs. We show steers and heifers at many shows throughout the summer, culminating with the Missouri State Fair in August. Three of our four kids show cattle already and our youngest can join 4-H this fall, they are growing up in the same club that their dad and aunt were members of. My nephew and niece are much younger, which means that this will be our summer family activity for many years to come and for that I am also very grateful.
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| Chopping Silage - 2009 |
Raising kids who are responsible for animals and farm chores to me is probably the one thing that I find most important as a farm wife and mother. My kids understand the cycle of life, from the ‘birds and bees’ to end of life. They know where their food comes from, they appreciate the hard work that went into putting it on their plate. They are proud to be a part of that and anyone who questions it is likely to get an education, good and bad!
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| Dad & Aunt Beth help lead calves to an evening show. |
I wish that more people had the opportunity to witness first hand just how the food we eat in this country is produced. I think that we take for granted the health, safety, abundance and moderate price that we enjoy in America. I am so sorry that animal rights groups have made people question our intentions. I wish those people would see my husband go to great lengths to save the life of a baby calf, to encourage its momma to claim it and take care of it. I wish that they were there to see the tears in my daughters eyes last year at her first State Fair when she realized it was the last time she would be caring for her summer love, her steer. I wish they were there when we haul hay into the wee morning hours attempting to get the job done before a rain. Or were waiting in my living room on Christmas morning for us to get back inside from feeding the cows so we could enjoy ‘gifts from Santa.’
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| Jenna in her first year showing - with heifer Lucky - the most pampered cow in the county! |
Farming is certainly not a job. It’s a way of life. It’s one that I am proud to be a part of.
To learn more about our family operation please visit my
personal blog and
Facebook page. We were also featured in Farm & Ranch living in 2009 - you can view the link
here.
Thanks Kathy for the great feature! Please take a moment to visit her blog page and facebook page to keep up with this farming family!
Is your family involved in FFA or 4-H? Do you take pride in your farm and way of life? If so...YOU could be the next feature! Check out our contact page or comment below! We want to hear your story!
