Not long ago as I sipped my morning coffee, I heard cows bellowing just outside the house. I thought the herd had come home to water, and they were bawling for their calves. I was wrong. My daughter Lauren looked out the window and noticed most of the cows and their calves walking across the farm yard, where they were not supposed to be. The cows were out.

That is the last thing you want to experience over the breakfast table. We flew out the door and realized right away that my daughter Taylor's 4-H cow had pushed a gate aside and helped herself to what she thought was greener grass on the other side. The rest of the bunch followed her lead.

WIFE TO THE RESCUE: Donna, my wife, has had ample experience helping fix fence and chasing rogue cows back into the pasture over the years. She is the most important member of our family farm team.

I ran to the other side of the pen to open an electric fence where I thought they might go back into the pasture. But I couldn’t chase them in by myself. They were not going to cooperate, and if we didn’t round them up, it was likely they would help themselves to the cornfield nearby. So, I called for reinforcements.

My wife, Donna, and oldest daughter, Lauren, came running out of the house and chased the cows in my direction while I forced them back into the open gate. It worked perfectly, and except for the obligatory rogue cow that always gets away, and did, we rounded everyone back into their rightful place on the farm.

Without my wife and daughter on duty, things could have been very bad. That’s the way it is on the farm. Lots of jobs, particularly things we don’t plan for, need a little extra man or woman power. With all of our technology and innovations, there are still tasks that need boots on the ground to accomplish. My wife is probably the most astute at meeting these challenges. She has been my partner on more creek fence-fixing excursions, baby calf bottle feedings and wild cow roundups than she cares to recall.

Although we don’t farm full time anymore, my wife still pitches in around the farmstead all the time: painting, mowing, landscaping, rounding up kids and keeping everyone on schedule, including me. These are key jobs in the overall operation of our family. Without her around, things have a tendency to completely fall apart.

So, I would suggest you truly appreciate your family farming team members. They are loyal and trusted, and you know they will be there when you need them. You can’t ask for more than that.