HEART OF STEELE

The very first story I wrote about a dairy farm involved triplet calves. At the time, I knew very little about any kind of farming, but I leapt at the chance to photograph three adorable babies.

The slip-on flats and dressy slacks I wore that day ended up in a trash bag, but the sacrifice was well worth it. Farmers love talking about their land and their animals and their crops. You can’t help but get caught up in the passion they feel for their work.

When our publisher Rick Bussler sent me out on Oct. 16 to cover a last-minute assignment at the Balzer dairy farm in Medford, I thought I knew what I was getting into. To start with, I wore an old pair of blue jeans and shoes I was ready to toss anyway.

At the farm, I learned Rick Balzer had agreed to step in last-minute when a neighbor was unable to host a group of Danish farmers who were learning about agriculture in the U.S. That’s actually kind of an understatement; they appear to be covering the depth and breadth of our country’s ag industry. Before landing at the Balzers’, they’d toured an ethanol plant. After, they were headed to a John Deere factory in Iowa, on their way south to Mississippi.

They peppered Rick with questions as we walked around the barns and silos, and he happily shared the farm’s history and growth over the years. He talked about the crops he grows, the feed he uses, how often the cows are milked (using a robotic system I got to watch in action, and it’s fascinating), how much milk his farm produces each year.

Rick spoke English, the visitors spoke Danish, but communication wasn’t a problem – everyone spoke the language of farming. It was so interesting to watch the interactions and to learn a little about farming in Denmark, too.

After a week of watching so many disturbing images emerge from the Middle East and the war dragging on in Ukraine, seeing people from different parts of the world interacting and learning from each other did my heart some good.

And I just washed off the soles of my shoes, they’re fine.