Let's talk about dairy

I went to my first MMPA Dairy Communicator conference today.

Part of it was an idea sharing session, where we talked about our promotion activities, and I - surprise! - showed my blog. They were receptive and it was fun.

The most interesting part to me was listening to Crystal MacKay, the executive director of the Ontario Farm Animal Council. She spoke about bridging the gap between farmers and the rest of society.

(She traveled from another country! If she came all that way, you just knew she was going to be good! I'm not kidding, even though Canada is practically in our back yard!)

She said she was from a farm and that her dad missed her high school graduation because he was helping a cow have a calf. She went on to use that point to emphasize that farming is a job and a lifestyle - farmers really care about their business and the animals.

Someone in the audience called out, "Was the calf okay?"

Crystal said, "It was fine. I'm still in therapy."

We all laughed. If you're brought up that way, you're just used to it.

For instance, my birthday is coming up. (Quick! Buy your presents now!) The day of my birth is always the same day of corn planting. My mom tells of waiting until dad came home from the field to go to the hospital. My birthday meal when I lived at home depended on when dad was going to be around. (Fast forward through all the years at school, in different states, and dating someone whose job didn't depend on the weather.)

And now, back again, I mentioned celebrating my birthday to Kris and he said, "How? By planting corn?"

Lucky for him, I like to celebrate the entire month. He can't plant corn every night.