Driving through the rural back roads of our community recently, I took a few minutes to stop by the field of one of our local dairy farmers and watch the bumper crop of corn being cut, mulched and loaded off to the barn.
A good crop of corn means the farmer might get through the year without having to buy extra feed for the milk cows and that’s always good for the bottom line in a struggling industry.
Over in the next field, where the corn has been cut, a large tractor hauls a manure spreader across the open expanse, readying the farm land for the next crop. The farmer will tell you how important this phase of his operation is. The manure will promote growth, ensure sustainability and produce results that provide a healthy future for the farm. His neighbours however just say it stinks.
Many years ago, I worked in the truck and tractor tire business. Once in a while, we would get a call to attend a farm and repair a flat tire on a “honey wagon.” We would draw straws to see who would go, because there is no clean place to put a jack on a manure spreader and you were covered in growth promoting material by the time you got back to the shop and spent an hour cleaning tools.
It was never fun and the farmer was usually right behind you asking how long it was going to take to fix. I have learned that normally laid-back farmers get very impatient when cutting hay or spreading manure. They are racing the rain and the daylight and often get too much of one and not enough of the other.
Coincidentally, we are soon going to be entering our municipal election period. Many others in the community running for office will also be “spreading it pretty thick” across the land. Like the farmer, they will be telling us that what they are shovelling out will promote growth, ensure sustainability and produce results that will provide a healthy future for our community.
Unlike the farmer, unfortunately, many of these folks won’t have the knowledge or the experience to make such prognostications. When the farmer stands on his hill in November and lays out his plan for the next year he bases it on the history of the farm, the capability of his farm to produce and the assets and tools he has at his disposal to back up his predictions. He knows exactly how hard he will have to work to bring that to fruition in the coming years.
That’s where we, the voters, come in. We have to listen and read and determine if someone is laying down something that will sustain us, or does it just plain stink. Are they standing up on the hill expounding promises based on the history of the community? Do they know what assets and tools they will have at their disposal? Do they realize just how hard they are going to have to work to make their promises come true? Some days they might not smell so good.
Then of course there are the voters standing behind them like the impatient farmer, watching the rain clouds, constantly asking them when they are going to deliver on their promises.
Pay attention to what’s being spread on your front lawn. It might make a big difference in years to come. At least that’s what McGregor says.
