Think About it -- Lessons From the Farm (Number 4)

Think About It Think About it -- Lessons From the Farm (Number 4)
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Carl Chinn

Carl Chinn

Oct 25, 2025

For years, my cousin has leased our farm to run his cow/calf operation. He does all the branding, transporting, doctoring, selling, and (most critically) buying. I call him when something’s wrong or I don’t get a full count on cows or calves. I keep the fences and gates up and make sure they have water, mineral, and good grass (often moving them to new fields).

This August, a cow came up missing. That’s a big deal. It’s not uncommon for old cows to die, but this was no old cow. Usually, when a cow (or calf) dies, birds and coyotes reveal the location of the body. We got nothing. After several days of not finding her, I concluded she was dead, with no trace. I called my cousin to report 2H9 missing. He came out and looked himself and finally resigned to the fact she was dead.

This past week, I saw something in the distance on a neighbor’s place that was bigger than a deer. Binoculars confirmed it was a cow, but I knew that neighbor (who lives in Colorado) had no cattle in that pasture.

It's a big rough pasture with high cliffs, arroyos, badlands, and lots of trees. I exchanged my pickup for the UTV back at the house and headed into the neighbor’s pasture.

When I made it to her, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was 2H9.

Think About it

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” [i]

There aren’t many sheep in this country, and I couldn’t hoist that mama cow up on my shoulders, but I could finally relate to the joy talked of in that scripture when I got her back in the pasture with her own herd. When she saw them, she bucked and threw her head around like a playful calf as she ran to them.

It illustrated what makes church security different from any other security. To win one over is so much better than winning over them.

[i] Luke 15: 3-6 (NIV)

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3

Lessons From the Farm (No. 1)

Having moved back to farm country (from where I continue to manage the Faith Based Security Network), there is also the reality of needed work to be done on the farm. Fortunately, there is not (yet) any cropland; the daily duties are centered around making sure the small cow herd is healthy and accounted for. It is rare that I can’t think of the applicability of some farm action to the realm of effective security operations. Such was the case this week when a neighbor called to see if I could help him out. Helping is just part of common rural hospitality. It’s called “neighboring.” When someone’s ox is in the ditch, you go help them. He owns no oxen, but he did have a few hundred acres of corn to get harvested in a narrow window of time. He needed to keep 3 semis continuously filled as drivers ran the harvested corn to the granaries. He had a 12-row combine working nonstop cutting the corn. The missing link was a man on a tractor to catch the freshly harvested corn out of the combine into a 750 bushel mobile grain cart, then transport that corn to the waiting semis. The inset picture shows the operation and equipment well. He set aside an hour to have one of his workers train me on the tractor and the mobile grain cart. After that I was all alone in a John Deere 8400, 4-wheel drive row-crop tractor. This wasn’t like driving Dad’s old 2-cylinder John Deeres 50 years ago. This $300,000 monster had a computerized cab more like a cockpit. At 30,000 pounds and 225 horsepower, it was bigger, more powerful and more expensive than any machine I’d ever operated. One hour of training. Think About it The great late Jeff Cooper said, “Owning a handgun doesn't make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician” (another version quoted him as, “Owning a pistol doesn't make you a pistoleer any more than owning a piano makes you a pianist”). A few hours operating powerful machinery doesn’t make one a farmer either. Is your training commensurate with the tools and the needed actions? How much is a life worth? If you think an hour might be a little light for training on a monster tractor, how much is too light for your tools of protecting life?