Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest Read Online Free PDF Page A

on-farm for use as livestock feed, or may be hauled to a commercial grain elevator for storage or sale.
LIVESTOCK
    Common breeds of cattle in midwestern dairy farming are Holstein (large, black and white), Guernsey (grayish brown and white), and Jersey (small, yellowish brown). Angus is a common breed of beef cattle. Among cattle, a bull is an adult, uncastrated male; a steer is a male that has been castrated before sexual maturity, for beef production. A cow is an adult female; a heifer is a young cow that has not yet had her first calf. Many farmers use artificial insemination for breeding cattle. Semen is collected by a breeding service and frozen for later use, allowing farmers to do selective breeding without direct use of bulls. Breeding over many generations within a single breed produces purebred cattle, which may be registered with a breed association. Registered purebred dairy cattle have value as breeding stock in addition to their milk production value.
    Milk from dairy herds is either grade A, for use as fluid milk, or grade B, for making cheese, butter, ice cream, and other dairy products. Health and sanitation standards are higher for grade A herds. On grade A farms, bacterial growth is inhibited in various ways, including spreading pulverized limestone (barn lime) on the floor of the dairy barn, and by periodically whitewashing the barn’s walls and ceiling with an application of lime solution.
    On some dairy farms, cows are milked while stanchioned in rows. The stanchion is a device that fits loosely around a cow’s neck, restricting her movement in the stall. Behind the row of cows is a gutter to collect their excrement. Milking is more automated on some farms; cows walk through a dairy parlor for milking, and their milk is piped from the milking machine to a refrigerated bulk tank in the milk house. A milkman who works for a dairy cooperative or milk processing plant collects milk from bulk tanks on a number of farms. Earlier in this century, cow’s milk was often put through a cream separator on the farm—a machine that instantly separated the cream or butterfat portion of whole milk from the nonfat portion. The cream was then put in jars and sold.
    Among hogs, a boar is an adult, uncastrated male; a barrow is a male that has been castrated before sexual maturity, for pork production. A sow is an adult female; a gilt is a young sow that has not yet had her first litter of pigs. It is common for the hog farmer to have a farrowing barn in which sows give birth to and nurse their litters in individual pens. Feeder pigs are weaned pigs that eat corn and other feed until they reach market size.
    Among draft animals, a stallion is an adult, uncastrated male horse. A mare is an adult female horse. A mule is a hybrid between a female horse (mare) and a male ass (jackass).

Farm Boys

    Iowa Farm, by Jeff Kopseng, based on a photo courtesy of Jim Cross

Introduction
    I HAVE VIEWEDthis work of inquiry as “research” only in the broadest sense of the word. I have not sought to quantify anything, nor to prove or disprove anything. My aim has been simply to collaborate with gay men in telling about their lives, and to assist the reader in understanding what these men have to say. This chapter describes midwestern farming and farm culture, and offers some generalizations about the experiences and perspectives represented in this collection of life stories. It is not intended as a summary of definitive conclusions, but simply as a background against which to regard the individual narratives.
FARMING
    Midwestern farming has changed greatly during the twentieth century. In the early 1900s, farms were smaller, more numerous, and more diversified in their production. The typical midwestern farm of that era had a variety of livestock and crops, including work horses or mules, dairy and beef cattle, hogs, chickens, corn, hay, wheat, fruits, and garden vegetables. These farms provided most of their own subsistence needs in