Superbowl Commercials Celebrate Farmers

I've seen three Superbowl commercials to date (no I don't watch football, I'm a farmer and who has time!), and all three have some element of farming, which was kind of heartening.

 The Dodge Ram truck one with Paul Harvey talking about what it means to be a farmer was wonderful - and so very true.  It is often very hard physical work, most especially if you raise animals of any kind. They take so much time and care and energy. But they also give us so much joy.

 Having raised goats I can tell you the goat commercial is not too far off the mark.  How perfect for the would be buyer; he eats Doritos and the goat also eats Doritos.  If he'd been paying attention he would have noticed the seller is wearing a neck brace! 

Goats can be very single minded and regardless of their small size, tend to believe they are king of the animal world.  They can wreak a large amount of havoc in a very short amount of time. Mine were great at lifting gates off their hinges and escaping to munch all my favorite garden plants.

But by far the best of the commercials was the one about the Clydesdale.  I watched it yesterday morning on line and cried and cried.  I never sell one of my bulls or cows without feeling sad. You spend so much time and effort producing the animal that you can't help but get attached.  When you have to let them go, no matter how good the sale may be,  its heart wrenching. 

After I'd had a good cry, remembering the four girls I'm missing that I just sold to a very nice man in Indiana, I suddenly realized that the young man in the commercial had reached one of the heights of Clydesdale breeding; he had sold a horse to Budweiser for the Budweiser Clydesdale team.! That is a huge accomplishment as the Budweiser Clydesdale team is a Superbowl level team and not just any Clydesdale makes the cut.

I had a neighbor years ago who raised Clydesdales. They trained them to jump and have fancy show steps, but they were never good enough for Budweiser. Even though I thought those horses were just plain huge, they were not big enough; Budweiser was always looking for an exceptionally large, well muscled animal with specific proportions. So, dry your eyes and remember that young man had the comfort of reaching the Superbowl of horse breeding.