This month’s issue is all about hay – big and small hay – growing, baling, drying, and shipping hay. Well, at least on the surface it is. But I was struck by an underlying thread in all of February’s stories: the theme of relationships.  And how fitting for this month, the month of the February blahs, the month of Valentine’s Day.
I had been asking around about rural love stories for this issue and heard a few good ones: widowers meeting through the obituary column, or my neighbour, who was set up on a blind date with a lovely divorcee by his doctor and medical team. In the end, I wrote about John and Betty Stafford meeting at a barn dance when they were 15 years old, at the end of World War II, and how they kept their connection alive over the years with letters back and forth. 
Relationships are good for us. They provide emotional support and help us develop throughout our lives, learning empathy, humour, and effective communication. Research shows that strong relationships also improve our mental and our physical health, reducing stress and improving immunity, longevity, etc.
And, as I learned from this month’s articles, relationships are also good for business! At least in the hay business. Both Mark Horst and Chris Martin began exporting hay to connections that they had in Pennsylvania and grew from there. I was impressed with the level of customer service that the Wikkerinks provide for their Hay Day premium pet hay, and Mark Horst’s commitment to integrity and good relationships with customers, from the time he was a broker and now, with the Marcrest brand. 
Building relationships and trust with farmers in the Middle East to grow a market where there was none before, that is impressive. Over several trade missions, Ray Robertson, Fritz Trauttmansdorff and others have built connections across a cultural divide and then delivered a quality hay product. 
But the icing on the cake, for me, is the Ontario Hay and Forage Co-operative. That a group of hay farmers decided the mission to Middle East was too big for any one of them and so they decided to do it together. Of course, I imagine this comes with a whole new set of challenges, because relationships are also tricky. The more often we rub shoulders with people, the more opportunities for friction. Just like personal relationships, business relationships require us to learn and practice skills in listening, empathy and communication. Like polishing diamonds in the rough, this friction will make us into incredible people. (Well, some of us, that is!) 
For John and Betty, it seemed the secret to their happy relationship, besides their incredible sense of humour, was a shared love of travel and adventure. They were always looking ahead and planning their next trip together. For the Co-op, they are also planning a trip of sorts. They are a group of farmer-pioneers that would typically see themselves in competition with each other but instead see their competition as other regions and countries around the world. They will need a critical mass of excellent quality hay to secure markets in the Middle East and so they must share their knowledge and technology for growing great hay. To succeed as individuals, they also need their fellow Co-op members to succeed. That is a really powerful thing for us to learn in relationships. 
There is an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.” The Co-op is 10 years old and slowly building both the connections and investing in the hay technology to take Ontario’s hay market to the next frontier. I’m grateful for their work and for the time that all the incredible people in this February  issue took to share their perspectives. ◊