Off the beaten path outside of town just past the hollow road, cattle graze in serene pastures surrounded by mountains, flocks of Canadian geese right beside them. The wild cry of peacocks as they strut across the filed and an occasional mooing of a cow is the only sound that breaks the morning silence.
On one side of the road is a Quonset-type building where huge, round hay bales weighing 1,500 pounds each are stored up for winter feed. And to a former city girl on a morning walk, who knows nothing about cattle farming, this looks like the perfect life for all involved. The cattle are in the field, the hays in the barn so what else is there?
Well, just as Jay Day, Four-D Ranch in Craig County and his son Nathan, 12, who started following his dad around the farm as soon as he was old enough to walk.
“Raising cattle is a year-round job,” said Day who raises polled Herefords.
Nathan takes it all in stride.
“He always loved going out with me even when he was 4 years old. He liked to talk to the cows even back then.”
Today Nathan owns about eight cows of his own and has ribbons from showing them in the 4-H Club. He learned early on how to feed, groom and train the heifers he shows.
“I love to go to cow sales because I like to pick out my own cows,” said Nathan, who has a knack for evaluating both cows and bulls. He was quick to add that he also pays for them himself.
“Nathan has been at this so long that people at cattle sales will talk to hm before they talk to me,” said his dad, with a smile. “He’s comfortable in that world. You learn what you live.”
And so, indeed, has Day whose grandfather raised cattle.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything from working in construction to teaching computers.” But he says he likes raising cattle best even if it did take him awhile to adjust after moving from city life in Maryland to country living in the Virginia’s mountains. In fact, while living in Springfield he met his wife, Patty, who never thought she would be living in the country. She was in the process of climbing the corporate ladder when they met.
While she has all the same chores every mother has, in addition she home-schools her children, and keeps up with the unseen tasks of raising cattle such as bookkeeping and being tender of the telephone.
When Nathan needed a preschool to attend and there wasn’t one in New Castle, she started one, and when daughter Caitlyn decided she wanted to establish a library in Craig County, the only county in the State of Virginia without one, Patty rose to the occasion. She along with her entire family, including Courtney,15; Stephanie,5, and of course Jay and Anthan, have played a major role in making that come true.
“We are very family oriented and try and support each other’s projects whenever we can,” she said.
It goes without saying that wherever you see cows and huge bales of hay, there almost has to be tractors, balers, huge rakes and all the other equipment it takes to get the job done. All that means hard work and lots of it.
“Nathan can operate all of the farm equipment as well as I can,” said his dad. “By age 10 he could drive a dump truck. He’s my right arm.”
On any given day during hay season, you can always find the duo in a field somewhere cutting, raking, tethering or baling.
Many of these days you will find the Day girls in the field as well. While they cannot operate all the equipment, they are pretty handy with a tractor. It is no small job and some years it is harder than others to get a good crop that hasn’t lost too many of its nutrients because of inclement weather.
Last year’s hay was not a bounty crop due to too much moisture over the winter and unusual amounts of rain in the spring.
“It was hard to get the hay dry enough to cut or bale,” said Nathan. “We would have to cut it between rains and hope it would dry enough to bale before the next rains came. “
And as most farmers in Southwest Virginia will recall days with out rain were few and far between. AS rare as days without rain were second cuttings because of such a late start. When asked what he thinks about this year’s hay crop Nathan responded, “It’s looking pretty good so far. We’re hoping it will be close to normal. “
Life is not all work for the family though because Day manages to lend the country living and cattle raising with trips to big cities and far away places.
“We partner bulls all over the country. At one time I has as many as 300 cows and some of them came from as far away as St. Croix.
The Days say one reason they decided to home school their children was the fact that they traveled around a lot and the children have gotten to see so many different things.
“The business trips we’ve taken have been extremely educational for the children.”
And Nathan is quick to add that traveling is one of the things he likes best about it all. From seeing the Twin Towers in New York and the sun come up behind the Statue of Liberty to Amish farms in the heart of Pennsylvania Duch country, they’ve done it all. ‘I’ve taken my cow trailer right down in front of the White House,” said Day who obviously has no fear of traffic and one-way streets whatsoever.
One of Nathan’s favorite trips was to a ranch in Fort Payne where his day bought cattle from none other than Randy Owens, the lead singer of Alabama. “He has a huge ranch,” said Nathan, “but you know something, he walks around in cut-off jeans just like everybody else. He acts just like an ordinary guy.”
They have also done business with the lead of the musical group Sawyer Brown. But one of Nathan’s fondest memories is that of eating catfish at a farm at an annual sale down in North Carolina where two brothers serve as the chief executive officers for Harris Teeter, a large supermarket chain.
“The people there took a liking to Nathan even as a youngster because they could talk to him just like a grown up,” Day said.
When asked if he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and continue to run the family business, Nathan said, “Yep, I want to be just like him.”
-Prepared by Shelly Koon