My kids at 8 and 11 sang and flapped their “wings” to the chicken dance from their belted position in the center row of our minivan. Between them rested a box of 31 chicks, chirping loud enough to compete with their chorus.
Every February, the kids’ 4-H chickens arrive in a vented box via the postal service. On the way out the post office door, we quickly answer patron questions above chirps and offer a peek under the lid. After the 30-minute drive home, the kids immediately transfer the 3-day-old chicks to their cozy, 95-degree space under heat lamps.
Calves, seed corn and chicks say it better than a shadowless groundhog: Spring has arrived on the farm. Calves dart through greening pastures like little freight trains. Corn and soybean seeds sit in the shed, awaiting soil contact. Baby chickens delight workers at the U.S. Postal Service, America’s exclusive shipper of live chicks.
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In the field, nitrogen application starts in March. Spraying for weed control begins soon after, and planting should commence around mid-April, Mother Nature willing. With spring’s promise, we look ahead with hope for a great growing season, a healthy flock of egg-laying hens and a trouble-free calving season.
Our farm team services equipment ahead of spring planting. Planters, tractors, trucks, the seed tender, sprayer, and even lawnmowers and the garden tiller rotate through the shop for general maintenance, checks and sometimes updates. The goal: Everything works flawlessly at “go-time” to give millions of corn and soybean seeds equal opportunity to produce a better crop than the last.
We watch weather forecasts, estimate when field work may start and confer with farmer friends and agronomists on planting conditions. We tend to newborn calves while the soil warms and mellows. The first farmers to make a move get mentioned as often as rainfall totals in conversation. Word spreads just as quickly when hunters find the season’s first morel mushrooms, a wild delicacy of the woods.
Spring upstages New Year’s Day in delivering a fresh start. Life and hope rejuvenate when grandma’s first daffodils bloom, the temperature climbs, grasses green in the pasture and baby chicks arrive in the mail.
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About the Author: Joanie Stiers farms with her family in west-central Illinois, where they grow corn, soybeans, hay and cover crops and raise beef cattle, backyard chickens and farm kids.
