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In case you haven’t noticed, it’s hay season around these parts. Farmers are working tirelessly around the clock to get hay put up now for barren and winter months to come, so that cattle and livestock don’t go hungry.

You’ve probably seen bales in fields, tractors on the road, and farmers on the move. They’ll be picking up parts for tractors, fuel and lube necessities, hay twine or net wrap, amongst many other things.

The past two weeks, I’ve helped cut hay at our farm. While cutting hay, I had some time on a tractor to myself to think while I cut and I realized just how fast things happen.

That’s when it hit me. Fast. Hay season will come and go before we know it. Farmers will work to get hay up quickly to preserve quality and to dodge the much-needed rain expected to come this week. While we work quickly through hay season, every day and minute can be broken down into something fast-paced happening on the farm. Fast can be scary, life-altering or it can be life-saving.

Agriculture and farming are among the top most deadly and top most dangerous industries. Spending life on a farm will teach you many things, but again one of the top things is knowing the correct speed at which to approach a situation.

You have to be a fast learner or you might lose an appendage, suffer intense injuries, get cussed out, or even lose your life. You have to know when to walk or when to run fast. (Most of the time, if you see one person running, you probably should be running too.) Decisions have to be made quickly to preserve life and to sustain a healthy business.

Cutting hay isn’t an extremely difficult task, but to me, it is also fast. You have to keep the RPM’s on the tractor running at the right speed, you have to keep the tractor moving at the right speed, you have to move your eyes fast as you maintain driving the tractor on the correct path while also scanning the path of the cutter.

I sure hate hitting an armadillo hole, but my greater fear is harming innocent wildlife. So, if driving the tractor, scanning paths with my eyes, picking the cutter up and down at the right moments, listening to the machinery to make sure everything is operating properly wasn’t enough action going on, I also was praying for rain and grace to see and avoid any fawns that may be nestled in a hay field. Manipulating the tractor and the cutter properly can save lives, but only if we have the grace and agility to think and move fast.

Seconds on a farm can make the difference in life and death for all. Making smart decisions fast with a little help from above can be the key to success on a farm.

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