Forty-Six Years of Pretty Straight Going: The Life of a Family Dairy Farm (review)

Oral history’s greatest strength is that it allows for life stories to be heard that would not otherwise be. When people eat, little do they realize what it takes to get that vegetable, slice of meat, or glass of milk onto the dinner table. The consumer seldom recognizes the farmer’s hard work. A book based on oral history interviews that offers a rewarding glimpse into the daily lives of farmers is therefore refreshing. George Bellerose’s Forty-Six Years of Pretty Straight Going is a superb book that captures the grit and beauty of the American farmer.

George Bellerose shadowed the Wyman Farm in Weybridge, Vermont, during 2004 and 2005. He documented the daily work through photography and the farmers’ field notes. Then, he returned in 2006 after the Wymans had retired and conducted oral history interviews to capture the broader themes of agriculture and rural life. Throughout the book, Bellerose intersperses quotes from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century farming literature to show how agriculture has evolved and has stayed the same. Using this approach effectively opens the window on Vermont’s dairying culture and rural living.

Bellerose organizes the monograph by the seasonal work. He arranges the 2006 interviews by seasonal topics, such as field work or calfing. This approach, which enriched Bellerose’s field experience, allows the reader to understand the implications of the dairymen’s decisions related to their farm by allowing them moments of reflection on their sense of place. This type of reflection might not have been collected if Bellerose had conducted the interviews when the Wymans were fully engaged with their farming.

Spring 2004 was the first season that Bellerose documented. One of his strengths is the way he describes the intricacies of how the farm operates. An example is his discussions of manure. He notes that one dairy cow can produce twelve to eighteen tons of manure annually, most of which will be tilled into the soil to replenish nutrients. He writes, “Grayson began the spring’s manure spreading on April 2. Over the next three weeks, Grayson and a contract manure spreader would be busy bees, traveling from manure pit to field and back” (40). As Larry Wyman further notes, “Manure is like having money in the bank. It’s cheaper than fertilizer” (92).

Animal feed is the largest expense for the farmer. Summer work is dedicated to creating a supply large enough to feed the herd through the year and, if lucky, to sell the surplus for additional cash. Bellerose highlights the need for a right balance in feed types to produce optimal milk production. Grayson Wyman states, “Once we got into a cycle where we were producing quality silage to feed cows in the 365 days a year our milk production began to take off” (70). This investment often meant looking at various seed catalogs for seeds that would be durable enough to survive Vermont’s temperate summers.

To produce bountiful crops, farmers rely on their machinery. Although farm implements have evolved considerably since 1900, the Wymans did not buy the latest tractor models but rather maintained the tractors they already owned. Today’s tractors can cost in the six figures with computer and GPS systems, typically with air-conditioned cabs and stereo systems. Grayson Wyman points out, “Tractors are a major investment and unless you have hit the mother lode, you have to finance them through the dealer, manufacturer, or farm credit” (80).

Bellerose gives rapt attention to the dairy cow, the prized possession on any dairy farm. The Wymans methodically studied their hundred head of cows and daily monitored each cow’s milk production and health. They “closed bred,” which means a cow was never brought into the herd. They selected bull semen for reproduction based on family histories. Larry Wyman raises...