Are you a slave to your farmyard? On the surface, this may not seem like a weighty issue, but it can have a big impact on a farm’s financial viability and even its future.
Cutting grass and taking care of trees is part of the normal work routine around most farms, but many farmyards are especially high maintenance. Beautiful yards take a lot of work.
It’s a matter of scale. People in towns and cities often have wonderful yards, but the area involved is typically a fraction of a typical farmyard. You can make your farmyard and garden a full-time job, but it doesn’t pay very well.
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If you get satisfaction from the task and if you can afford the time and energy involved, that’s just great. Sometimes, though, people become trapped. Or they use it as an excuse not to do other kinds of work or learn some other skill such as accounting with computer software.
This may sound sexist, but much of the farmyard beautification typically falls to the female member or members of the farming team. This applies to the garden as well. Everyone enjoys garden tomatoes and fresh peas, but a big garden is a great deal of work.
While very few families keep their own laying hens and a milk cow as in times past, many still tend to have a big garden. Does the money you save on the grocery bill add up to a significant wage per hour? Have you ever done this calculation?
Some women try to do it all. In addition to playing a lead role in farmyard tasks, they participate in field work, are the primary care providers for the kids and may hold down a part or full-time job to boot.
If the yard didn’t require as much effort, maybe there would be more recreational time with the family during our woefully short summers. Maybe there would be less stress. Maybe there would be an opportunity to contribute more substantially to the farm’s bottom line.
From a purely economic point of view, what has more economic value –more time spent on “the books” or more time spent weeding the tomatoes?
Yard work is often one of the first jobs or chores for farm kids. It builds responsibility and work skills. But taken too far it can become a ball and chain. When the kids leave home, that’s often when dad buys a rock picker and mom gets a bigger grass mower.
If you’ve always had an impressive yard and/or garden, it’s hard to let it go. What will your friends and neighbours think? Since they aren’t doing the work, that shouldn’t matter.
As you drive through the countryside, you’ll see all sorts of vacant yards where families used to live. There are still grain bins and maybe even an old house. The grass is mowed around the bins once or twice a year and there are still lots of trees, but yard beautification is a thing of the past.
That might be your yard in 10 or 20 years. Yard work doesn’t build a lasting legacy. It takes continual effort. If you want to retire on your farmyard, will maintenance become a problem in your senior years?
If you’re a new family establishing a yard or taking over an existing one, think about your priorities. Do you want to create your own park-like setting or do you want a yard that’s lower maintenance, allowing you to get away to a park now and then?
Kevin Hursh is an agricultural journalist, consultant and farmer. He can be reached by e-mail at kevin@hursh.ca.
