Seventeen years ago, I was introduced to a tiny Holstein spring calf that taught me more about life than any person I’d ever met. She wasn’t even my own calf. She belonged to my sister, who had just turned 8 and joined 4-H. I was only 6 and anxiously awaiting my birthday in two years so I could have a calf of my own.

My mom laughed at me on my way out the door this morning. I was late for work. I had on my boots, arms loaded down with the usual cup of coffee, keys, hat, sunglasses and purse on my shoulder. “You don’t have enough clothes on!” she yelled as I flew out the door. “I’ll be fine!” I snapped back at her. Turns out she was right; I dashed back into the house and grabbed an extra jacket.

It almost seems impossible that I have been managing Cedar Pine Farm for five years now. I remember walking onto the farm on that chilly November day. We were milking around 300 cows and feeding 30 calves. These days we are quickly approaching 500 milking and 100 calves.

If there were one word I could use to describe managing a farm with no communication, it would be “nightmare.” I've lived it, and it's like a terrible dream you can't wake up from. Employees don't understand what's expected of them and are too afraid to ask. A co-worker is doing something wrong, but they are not told, so they continue to do the job wrong.

It was a rough week, to say the least. The battles just seemed to stack up, and I couldn’t win any of them. It was hard to come to the farm every day to find myself in another mess it was going to take me all day to get out of.

Feeding calves is a serious business to me. It takes up a huge chunk of my day to get them fed, but the end results are worth the effort. When a healthy calf leaves her hutch to join her mates in the barn, I am satisfied with my work. In my eyes for our operation, if our calves haven't more than doubled their weight by weaning, I did something wrong.

Picture this: A cow is calving on a cold January night. After a few hours, a beautiful heifer calf is born. The calf has one job: to stay healthy. I have one job: to keep her that way.

It is almost Christmas again. I’m sure throughout the past weeks your mailboxes have been full of Christmas cards.