Františka Bachanová

“Hostýnek and these gents came along again, asking what we would do about it then? Either I was to sign, or they’d confiscate the farm. Dad said: ‘No, I won’t sign. I said I wouldn’t sign into the UAC, I won’t be the first. I won’t sign.’ They were ready for that, of course. They had cars there. They took the horses into enclosure - that was Mila with her foal. They led her on foot. But they loaded the cows into a single cehivle, and they had another vehicle waiting already. That took away the pigs and the swine, and off they went. Then I got married, and because that meant we had over two hectares of land, they immediately wanted us to deliver such quotas of everything, pork, beef... My parents gave us a heifer, they’d raised her, she was two years old. We didn’t even have what to make [the deliveries - ed.] from, we didn’t work the field, but they demanded the quotas from it anyway. Then I really didn’t know what to do. ‘We aren’t tending it. How are we supposed to fulfil the quotas?’ It was a year from when Dad had died, so I remembered him and I thought: ‘Oh God, they paid so dearly, and here I am signing into the UAC.’ But there was no other way.”

“Oh, I milked for forty years. We were there at half past three in the morning. When it was summer, it was fine. But in the winter! We came there, the pipes were frozen, we had to warm everything up, a disaster. Oh, but you get used to anything if you have to. When we had calves, we had to come three times a day. We bustled up at half past three, so as to be home again at half past seven, when the children went to school, so I helped them get ready. Then we had to go back for the midday, that was another two hours. And a third time at half past three again. It was practically the whole day. Then they got rid of the dairy, and they wanted us to have a day off. You can want that, but that’s not something you can just plan out like that. Because the one whose supposed to take turns with you goes to other cows each day, and they [the cows - trans.] are used to your hands and the way you milk them. So it usually ended up with mastitis. Say, because the cow had just calved and didn’t start up. Then they had to treat both the cows and the calves. The milk had to go. It was big trouble. When we used to go every day, we did. But as soon as we had the one day off... ‘Back to work tomorrow!’ It’s best when you don’t have any respite.”