Truckin' on the Western Branch

Farming with the Lilleys

Rufus Lilley

Jimmy Lilley. Image by Sheally

With a degree in school psychology, I worked in the Hanover School for boys as a counselor and coached JV sports, but I missed farming, being outdoors, and being independent. Farming is a positive contribution to society. My father and grandfather were the most honorable men I’ve ever known, but they worried that farming was a dying career.

Most of the clichés about farming are true. There’s nothing more satisfying than harvesting a good crop, nothing more depressing than harvesting a bad crop.

Now farmers get text messages several times a day—like how the grain market is doing—while my grandfather farmed with mules.

When we were young, we had four to six hired hands and several tractors. Now we don’t have the manpower, but the machinery is more sophisticated. With the price of farm equipment,

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