porkpal said:Some dairy farmers are crazier than others. My uncle retired from dairy farming but kept a handful of favorite cows around for years.
Both of my grandparents had dairy cattle but one only had chicken besides the cows but the other who only had one good arm and one good hand the last ten years he dairy farmed also had pigs and chickens; after he quit dairy cows he still raised beef cattle for years before selling the farm.
When I was a boy, I can remember watching heft the milk can into the cooling tank with one hand and one arm.
I asked if he wanted help and he said they were too heavy for me.
They finally moved the stockyard, which was across the highway from him, a few mile outside of town about ten years ago.
He sold the farm because he was almost seventy and he was literally surrounded by the town.
I helped him put loose hay in the barn the last year he raised beef cattle. He had converted his horse drawn machinery to work behind his 9N Ford tractor.
My dad hated it when he was on the farm and they still had horses. My dad hated farming anyway but loved to go to farm shows. He told me that made no sense.
My other grandfather , except for the chickens for a few years really quit, renting out the land before he finally sold the farm and moved to town.
He did not want to move but my Aunt who lived with Grandma and Grandpa her entire life wanted to move to town.
He finally got a snow blower, and riding lawnmower, when he was in his seventies; before than he shoveled the entire driveway with a scoop shovel and it was several hundred feet long.
When it was too deep the neighbor would come over with the tractor.
