A final farewell

I have been sharing my life story with the readers of Dairy Star for many years. I remember when Mark Klaphake, the general manager, asked me to write and share my stories with farmers at World Dairy Expo. I was walking around with my family and stopped by the Dairy Star booth to mention how much we really enjoyed reading the Dairy Star. My daughter, Anna, was with us and Mark asked her too if she would write about what it is like being a young farmer wanting to continue working in agriculture. It really took some serious thinking to commit to writing. It takes time and often I don’t have enough to do the best I can.

Hosting dairy farm tours for over 27 years now has given me many ideas for stories. Writing about topics that I really have passion for is easy. But many times, it is just like everyone else in farming, and who cares to read about the same old thing. I try to spice it up a bit, with silly farm tour things, like the crazy things that children say and even when parents acknowledge that they had weird and wacko thoughts about what they thought farming was about. Those stories are easy to write about.

Opening my barn doors for visitors is one thing, but to share with readers and keep it going can be challenging. So, I wrote about my fear of going to the dentist. I had many readers email to sympathize with this fear. They laughed with me about the panic sweats that they too get just by opening the office door and smelling the dentist office smell.

I also told about my experience going to the doctor’s office to only have the doctor not realize that when a farmer comes in to see them something is really wrong. We farmers don’t waste our time going in for a cold or flu. Whatever we go to the doctor for, it has to be bleeding profusely or cause severe pain. I didn’t have time to chit chat about a reality TV show about a farmer because that isn’t real. I didn’t need sympathy for being a farmer, I wanted to have my issue addressed. The feedback from this column was very similar. We farmers don’t have time to waste. We want to get fixed so we can get back to farming.

I wrote about my relationship with my mom. She was never a loving kind of mother. I really wished she could have been a better grandmother to my children. She could not meet my expectations for wanting her to help with my twins when they were newborns or at any time while she was alive.

This topic really helped me to write about my feelings, almost like a counseling session, to force me to look at why I wasn’t sad when she died. But it is OK, because I am a better mother because she showed me what not to do. I am confident my mothering and grandmothering skills have soared far beyond anything she could have achieved. This topic hit many other readers too. It is hard to say I don’t like or even love my mother. Confiding in a common topic makes it easier to realize that it isn’t our fault our mothers were not good mothers.

I have written about what it takes to make Wisconsin America’s Dairyland. Along with the beautiful family farms, cows and amazing dairy products, we have to be thankful for our employees who help milk cows, feed calves, scrape and clean pens, and do the fieldwork that we could not possibly do ourselves. Many of these employees are not the high school or college students that we were able to hire in the past. They are the people that have traveled far to work for us. Some have brought their family in tow, escaping fear, hunger or unbearable conditions to work alongside us to help us be the dairy farmers that make up Wisconsin’s Dairyland. They also work in the factories making cheese and other dairy products. Our meat processing would not be complete without their help. They were the essential employees that showed up during the coronavirus pandemic. They are our workforce. They help us in every imaginable area where there aren’t enough employees.

As we headed into this election this month, I was open and honest with my feelings about where I stand on many things. I even stepped out and participated in helping candidates by doing a television video to show our support. I believe that helped others realize that we are not red or blue. As farmers, we should be purple. Different things affect our families in different ways. Some things are good for our family and others are not. Advocating for a person who has always been for Wisconsin and all farmers throughout the U.S. was my main intention. Both Farm Bureau and National Farmers Union members supported the candidate. I am thrilled to be able to help with that outcome.

The other commercial that I did was about making sure everyone has the healthcare we need to continue farming. The Affordable Care Act is a big deal to hundreds of thousands of people who would not otherwise be able to get healthcare with a pre-existing condition. I had phone calls, emails and visitors come from far and wide to thank me for doing this advertisement. I ended up putting myself as the target for others to embrace or to criticize about the candidate that I was endorsing. I knew what I was doing, and I would do the same thing all over again. I am hopeful with all the others with pre-existing conditions that the ACA is going to be a choice for us in the future.

As I finish this last column to the dairy farmers that I have shared my stories and my life with these many years, I hope you have a plan for the future. I hope you have enough help if your immigrant farm workers have to leave. There are not enough robots to help milk the U.S. dairy industry’s cows. I hope you have a plan for your crops if the tariffs make our commodities too expensive for other countries to purchase. I hope you have a plan for your future if the Social Security benefits are tapped into. What is the course to take regarding your family if your mother, wife, daughter or granddaughter needs medical attention and help if something terrible happens to them? I don’t know what I am going to do. Do you?

Tina Hinchley, her husband Duane and daughter Anna milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots. They also farm 2,300 acres near Cambridge, Wisconsin. The Hinchleys have been hosting farm tours for over 25 years.