Page 42 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine 2020 Spring - Online Magazine
P. 42
HONORING SENIORS
HOW
FARMING HAS
CHANGED IN
60 years
by Gilda V. Bryant
during hot summers. In winter, I Thanks to his encouragement and
helped feed cattle and break ice in turnrow tutorials from the men
the water trough. I also gathered who farmed our property, I have
cattle for spring branding and surprised my critics.
vaccinating. Occasionally, when the
playas filled with rainwater, I took a I quickly learned that harvest
dip or played with frogs. requires many employees and
tractors. When the cotton stripper
My parents began farming in 1951. compartment fills, the driver stops
Tractors pulling four-row equipment to dump a load of lint into a waiting
had a metal seat, and an umbrella buggy pulled by another tractor.
provided shade for the driver. How The employee then drives to a
times have changed! Now, tractors, turnrow to unload cotton into the
combines, and cotton stripper module builder, which is 7.5’ wide,
cabs have padded seats, radios, 32’ long at the base, 12’ high, and
and air conditioning. More and powered by a tractor.
brighter lights aid in safer nighttime
uring the past six decades, harvesting, and a shotgun seat is A worker operates a hydraulic
compactor, compressing fibers into a
I've seen folks who are available for a child, spouse, or
Dinvolved in agriculture to landowner. These machines tackle dense rectangle, containing 10 to 12
bales of unprocessed cotton. When
embrace change, resulting in more eight rows and the newest spray the packed fibers reach 11’ high, an
efficient irrigation, machinery, and rigs cover 32 rows of cotton, grain operator pulls the module builder
harvesting. I grew up on a Lubbock sorghum (milo), or young corn, forward with a tractor, leaving a
County farm that included a cow- saving time and fuel. boxy white cotton module behind,
calf operation. Although I live in When my mother died in 1988, and the process begins again.
Amarillo, I'm still a country girl several people informed me that I
at heart. Up to four workers cover the
could never successfully take over
All farm kids have chores, and I the family farm. My husband, cotton module with a plastic
"hairnet," tying it down to protect
"chopped" weeds in cotton fields Robert, and I firmly believed I could.
42 Amarillo Senior Link
