Uptown Girl
Christian. BoyMom. Farmer's Wife. Marathon Runner. Ag Professional. Bourbon Lover.
Advocate for all things agriculture and rural.
Advocate for all things agriculture and rural.
Tunis Sheep Hampshires heed
Its growing day 30 and we have been blessed with timely rainfalls for #My60Acres! The soybeans are doing well and starting to become more visible among the cover crop and last year’s corn stubble.
As I have had the opportunity to talk about my soybean crop, I’ve realized people have some of the same questions I did about soybeans. Is it really illegal for farmers to keep their own seed? Does the government force us to grow GMO crops? I think these are important questions and with all the misinformation available, I wanted to tackle them head on. Is it really illegal for me to keep soybean seed from #My60acres to plant next year? The short answer is – yes, it is! When we decide to purchase certain seeds, we sign a contract that we will not keep seed to replant. But why the heck would farmers be OK with that? The seed we chose to plant #My60Acres with wasn’t selected hastily. We have to consider dozens of different risk factors. What type of soil is on the farm, how do they drain? What are our normal weather patterns, what’s expected for this year? How early or late is it in the planting season? What pests, weeds, and disease do we normally deal with? Are there new ones we may have to fight this year? Researchers and scientists from multiple companies spend their careers looking at each of those risk factors that farm families like ours deal with. Each year, new seed traits are being developed to help us navigate through those risks. That research and development takes a lot of money. And I mean A LOT! On their website, Monsanto reports they spend $2.6 million dollars PER DAY on research. DuPont reported an even higher budget for research and development of $1.6 billion for 2016. After the research is complete, companies have enormous expense in testing and obtaining approvals for the new seeds. To allow companies to profit after all that time and expense, and more importantly to continue to encourage innovation for farm families, they use the same system that every other industry does to protect intellectual property – the patent system. Nearly all seeds we choose to plant on our farm are protected by a US patent. For an easy analogy – think of your favorite Disney movie. You can buy the DVD for $19.99 on Amazon and watch the movie as often as you’d like. But that does not give you the right to make a thousand copies of the DVD and sell them. That would also be illegal! Disney still owns the intellectual property – even though you bought the DVD! Eventually those patents will expire (the original round up ready patent already has), but by that time most farmers will be moved on to newer technologies. There are public soybean varieties available to use if farmers choose to. They can keep their own seed from these. There are however other management factors to consider with keeping seed – it needs to be carefully stored through the winter and professionally cleaned. It also needs to be sorted for size and quality. Once planted, there is no protection in place from a company if the seed fails to come up. For some farmers, saving their own seed is a very practical way to farm each year and there are options for them to be able to do just that. For our farm, and many others, paying the premium for patented seed with added risk protection is well worth the additional cost and giving up our right to keep seed for the next growing season. Does the government force us to grow GMO crops or subsidize us to? The answer to both is no. To date, I am unsure of how the GMO subsidy rumor started, but we are unaware of any available government program to support or supplement growing GMO crops. We do however have people frequently ask us about it. The government also does not force us to plant GMO – or any other type of seed. We have a choice on what companies we do business with and what products we purchase. It's also important to point out that numerous companies develop GMO traits, and even more companies sell them to farmers. But like almost anything in agriculture, the choice is really less about what company we do business with and more about what person we do business with. Example – our “seed guy” now is the same seed guy my father-in-law has done business with for almost 40 years. He has changed companies a few times – from smaller companies, to larger ones, back to smaller ones - but Steve always stuck with him. And now Matt sticks with him. Because we know him, we trust him. We consider him family. More so than any other industry, agriculture is a relationship industry. We work with, and spend money with, people we like. People we trust. People we often times consider part of our family. Sometimes those people work for “Big Ag”. Sometimes they don’t. But farmers don’t do business with corporations or small companies. Farmers do business with people.
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It's growing day 10 already and I am just now telling the story of planting #My60Acres! Many of you will remember from last year that my farmer husband gave me full access to take over one, 60 acre field on our home farm.
Last year #My60Acres was planted to corn (you can read that story here). I delayed planting a few days (because I didn't want to take time off from my day job) and it cost me in yield at harvest time because I hit some wet, cold weather right after planting. I was determined not to make the same mistake this year so when I was super swamped with other obligations on the day my husband said it was time to plant, I did what had to be done. I delegated! (That's leadership potential FYI). Matt started planting the morning of Memorial Day while I was making a mad dash to Sam's Club and washing sheep to get ready for a show the next weekend. I was able to join him for the last half of planting, and he welcomed me up and hopped right over into the buddy seat to let me take the wheel. We planted Pfister 39R29 soybeans, to a population of 170,000 plants per acre. You can visit that link to see the unique features of this particular seed and get an idea what we look at when selecting which seed we will use. Soybeans themselves were initially grown as a forage crop until they gained popularity as a row crop in the 1940's. Missouri now ranks number 8 for total soybean production but soybean's are Missouri's number one crop! You can understand why by visiting the Missouri Soybean Association online! Once I took the wheel, I needed a refresher on how to run the tractor because it had been a year since I planted. Our auto-steer GPS unit will "lock in" the wheel for super straight rows once we set it, but I still had to pick up my marker, pick the planter up, and actually turn the tractor at the end of each row. Once turned around, I would use a visual of the field and computer monitor (as well as the clear and stern audio of my husband's voice) to line everything back up and set the auto-steer. This year was so exciting for me because I am a nut about cover crops. Cover crops, which I discuss here, are crops we plant in between our cash crops to keep the ground covered. This minimizes erosion and run-off and helps us build the health of our soil and the environment surrounding our fields. Last year before harvest we had had an airplane apply triticale, rye, forage turnips and buckwheat. This year we planted soybeans right into the growing cover crop, mostly triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid) at this point. The corn stalks we left in the field continue to provide nutrients for all the bugs in our soils through the winter. The growing triticale helped to minimize weed growth on the field. The triticale roots shoot down, breaking up the soil even better than a plow and accessing nutrients down deep, pulling them up to where the soybeans will be able to use them. That cover also meant when those winds were blowing and rains pounding down our soil wasn't blowing or washing- that triticale held it right in place! The cover crops were sprayed to be terminated the day after planting but will stay in the field. They will break down throughout the growing season, returning valuable nutrients to the soil- just as my beans need them to grow! Stay in touch with me on Facebook and the blog for updates on #My60Acreas and this year's soybean crop! “I hope we can keep you all here.”
We had just wrapped up a team presentation to our Board of Directors. The comment came across as a compliment, so I smiled and politely responded that I love my work here. On the drive home, and numerous times since that day, I found myself thinking about his comment. I’ve never worked anywhere else. Or at least a real “grown-up job” anywhere else. Since I sat down at my first Farm Credit desk as a 21 year old intern, I’ve never left. The offers have been there. But I could list on a single hand the hours I’ve actually contemplated leaving. Now I’ve moved around. Office to office, upstairs then downstairs, then back up again. I’ve transitioned roles and job titles, and my responsibilities and daily work today don’t resemble anything close to what they were years ago. But I’ve never left. And my story isn’t unique. I used to think it was something special about my own Farm Credit cooperative. As an intern, I traveled the state, working alongside people who had been with the cooperative for 20, 30, and even 40 years. The man I replaced two years ago, when I moved into my current role, had been with the system for 41 years before retiring. FORTY-ONE YEARS! It was his only grown up job too. I am lucky to have several mentors here, all of whom have been with the system their entire adult lives. But there’s another kind of employee here too. There’s the “born again” Farm Credit employees. These are the people who had other jobs, maybe for a few years, sometimes for half a career. But the first time they put on that Biostar– a symbol recognized country-wide for a source of reliable ag credit and devoted ag professionals- they never want to take it off. As I’ve had the opportunity to travel and engage with other Farm Credit cooperatives around the county, I realized that this trend isn’t special to my own cooperative. Just like that biostar, it’s a recognizable Farm Credit “thing” country-wide! For some reason, people come here. And they stay. For a long, long time. But why? I think there are two reasons – agriculture and cooperatives. There is no better story in American history than the story of agriculture. Our farmers, and the industry that supports them, have taken a task that used to involve every man, woman and child, and created a system where less than 2% of the population feeds 100%. On top of that, they do it more efficiently, more sustainably, more affordably and safer than anywhere else in the world, and any other time in history. Farmers work relentlessly so the rest of us can do other things. Other important, vital things like protecting, teaching, healing, serving, inventing, exploring. You might think that people running these million dollar businesses we call farms, that often work 80 or more hours every week, skipping vacations and holidays to keep on working, would be difficult to serve – arrogant and demanding. But mostly, they are the exact opposite. There is nothing in the world like a farmer. The young ones are ambitious and driven, and not by dollars and cents, but by something that runs deep inside them, a desire to turn dirt, care for stock and feed people. The old ones are calm and humbled by decades of dealing with the bad that inevitably comes along with the good. These are faithful, driven, hardworking people. And a lot of them come with an odd sense of humor that probably develops after so many hours alone in the cab of a tractor. Now they all expect hard-work, and follow through. And honesty is a given. They expect it, because it’s how they operate themselves. So it isn’t always easy working in agriculture, but anything worth doing usually isn’t. Serving agricultural may act as the spark for the passion of Farm Credit team members, but the fuel to that passion is serving agriculture as a cooperative. As defined by Merriam-Webster, a cooperative is, “an organization owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services.” In short, our customers are our owners. And when that reality pervades our culture, it takes our job beyond a career, all the way to a purpose. As a mentor often reminds me, “It’s a wonderful thing to not have to choose between doing what’s best for our stock holders and doing what’s best for our customers. We can always do what’s best for both – because they are the same people.” That idea isn’t just something that’s written in a brochure, or typed on a website. That idea has been intentionally crafted into the Farm Credit culture so that it permeates through this place from the top down and the bottom up. It’s a culture of serving – serving our customers and serving our fellow employees. It’s a culture where we cry with our members who are struggling and we celebrate with members who are succeeding. It’s a culture where we talk in teams and leaders instead of coworkers and bosses. It’s a culture where we are invested in each other. In our customers. And in agriculture. So what I should have told that Director, is that it won’t be hard to keep us here. As long as we continue to do what we do, to serve agriculture in good times and in bad, to remember our purpose as a cooperative, I will proudly put on that biostar. And l'm betting my teammates will as well. When I say goodbye to Farm Credit, I have a feeling it will be in a similar fashion as my predecessor - after a forty year career of serving one of the greatest industries in this country. 4/21/2017 2 Comments Earth Day isn't relevant here.The last few days social media has been blowing up with Earth Day celebrations. Earth Day was born in 1970 by protestors in response to "the deterioration of the environment," according to EarthDay.org. This morning on our farm, we will get up and go to work like we always do. We will check cows that are grazing our crop fields, currently seeded with turnips, radishes, and cereal rye. We refer to that mixture as cover crops, which we've been using on the farm for the last eight years or so, and they provide immeasurable environmental benefit. They reduce our chemical usage, runoff and erosion while increasing our soil organic matter and soil microbes. That means healthier fields and healthier environment surrounding our fields. The cows grazing those cover crops leave behind their own manure. That means that many of the nutrients and organic matter they ate will be dropped back on the ground our corn and soybeans will be planted in. That reduces our need for synthetic fertilizers - which are safe and effective - but an added expense. While the cows are grazing, Matt and Steve will be planting. Our corn planters will be running across last year's bean fields that haven't been tilled (or plowed). Tillage has historically been used to control weeds and break up soil prior to planting. No-till farming means fewer trips with big tractors across our fields which means we shrink our carbon footprint. No-till farming, just like cover crops, also reduces our runoff and soil loss from erosion. No-till farming is healthier for our dirt and therefore keeps our soil bugs happier and more abundant. Notice I also said they are planting corn on to a field that grew soybeans last year. On our farm, like most crop farms, crop rotations are vital. Rotating the crops each year is better for us and better for the environment surrounding our farm. Other things across the farms like terracing, tiling, and grass strips are some of the tools modern farms like ours use to protect our environment. Our farm also has areas of CRP. Also know as the Conservation Reserve Program, this program allows farmers to take eligible fields out of crop production and grow native grasses for wildlife. Fencing is a less recognized environmental protection on many farms. We use fence to keep the cows out of certain areas - like ponds or areas highly susceptible to erosion- to protect the environment.
We also use fence to create multiple paddocks across all of our grazing farms. This allows us to rotate our cows from pasture to pasture (rotationally graze) which actually uses less land and resource per cow! You see, it is not that we don't like Earth Day. Like most farmers, we are actually thrilled that people around the world take a day away from their routines to focus on better protecting our environment. But Earth Day isn't relevant here. We cannot simply set aside one day out of the year to think about our Earth. Here on our farm we have to talk about, think about, and take action each and every day to protect our environment. This is our livelihood and our legacy, which means we have to be constantly focused on our little piece of the Earth and how we can continue to improve our surroundings, not deteriorate them. Like my 5 year old learned at school, around here, "Everyday is Earth Day!" Happy Earth Day! Corn planting started yesterday which means this past week the sprayer had been running hard to get ready. The sprayer will cover all of our corn acres prior to planting to terminate any cover crops, weeds or grass. It will also provide a brief window of protection from new weeds popping up, so that the baby corn get a chance to break through the ground and get going before being overtaken.
When I get to talk to people about our farm, the sprayer seems to be the most notorious piece of machinery we own! During those conversations, I realize there is a lot of misinformation about spraying and chemical use on the farm. Here are a few things we wish everyone knew about spraying. 1. We do not soak our crops in chemical. Today Matt was using the smaller sprayer because the larger one was waiting on a part to come in. This sprayer has a 420 gallon tank - of which approximately 394 gallons, or 94%, is WATER! Glyphosate (RoundUp) has a typical application rate of 16-32 ounces per acre! That is "Not a Latte!" as shown by this award winning CommonGround video! Spraying is an important tool for farmers to control pests – but spraying takes time and money. We are very careful to limit the amount of chemical (and cost) to only what is needed. 2. Chemical use in farming did not start with GMOs. While my husband was driving the sprayer, I visited with my father-in-law about spraying. He talked to me about the chemicals he used long before GMO corn and soybeans became available for him to grow – some of them we still use today, many of them we do not. Many of them have been replaced by less toxic, but more effective man-made chemicals that are safer for our farms and for the farmers. It's also interesting to note that pesticide use is not limited to conventional farms - organic farms use pesticides as well! These organic farmers do a great job of discussing that here. Farmers and scientists know that today's chemicals, and how we use them, is much safer and better understood than in decades past. 3. Pesticide use on farms is actually decreasing! Thanks in huge part to technology and better farming practices that includes tools like GMO’s and cover crops, chemical use is actually decreasing on farms in the US! USDA data indicates that chemical usage on farms increased until 1981 and has since been steadily decreasing. This is true on our own farm as well, where we have seen significant reduction in chemicals in the last decade alone. The increased use of glyphosate is often cited by people trying to create fear of food and farming. Glyphosate use has indeed increased with the development of resistant crops, but it has replaced chemicals that had to be used in higher doses and more frequently. 4. Tillage is not a better alternative to spraying for our farm. My father in law was one of the first in our county to adopt no-till practices and we take a lot of pride in NOT tilling our farms. On our farms, for the type of soils and topography we have, tillage can be very damaging. Using new technology - equipment designed for no-till farming, chemistry, GMOs - we have been able to remain a no-till farm. And for us that means less soil erosion, less run-off, less compaction, more organic matter in our soils, a healthier environment for all the microorganisms in our soils. In other words, it has made our dirt healthier! 5. EVERYTHING is a chemical! Between a lack of basic science understanding and fear mongering used in marketing everything from toilet bowl cleaner to our food, people have developed an unfounded fear of the word "chemical". Chemicals are neither good or bad, and all matter is made up of chemicals. I love this post on Scientific American that explains more about chemicals. Despite popular belief, modern chemicals and spraying practices are one of the many tools that have made our farm, and other farms like ours, more sustainable! Check back soon for updates on #Plant17! I rolled over last night and you were gone. At one in the morning, your side of the bed was empty. Loving a farmer is not what I expected.
Eight years ago today my Daddy walked me down the aisle to you. I had dreams of what life on the farm was going to look like. But loving a farmer is not what I expected. That first planting season was hard. The first harvest even harder. The next few years were grueling, as the acreage grew, the herd expanded, margins shrunk. For a few years I thought I would change you. I naively thought I could change this century old, sunup to sundown schedule. But loving a farmer is not what I expected. Slowly though, something was changing. It wasn't you. And it sure as hell wasn't the demands of this lifestyle. It was me. I was getting stronger. I was getting tougher. I was no longer just watching your passion for this God given way of life, I was feeling my own fire for it. Over time, you, and this farm, were making me into the woman I had always wanted to be. I was once told love is like a fine wine. But loving a farmer is not. Loving a farmer is much more comparable to bourbon. That first drink is harsh and bitter, it burns all the way down and hits you deep in the gut. Yet, there's a hook. And then slowly, if you stick with it, your taste starts to change. The harshness is replaced with a smoothness, a warmness, a high that only bourbon can deliver. Only bourbon. Like Garth and Trisha sing, loving anyone else after you would be, "Just not the same high, but going forever, from whiskey to wine." I rolled over last night and you were gone. At one in the morning, you were in barn, tending to a new set of twins. You were in the barn because you knew I couldn't stand the thought of loosing Diamond, the 8 year old ewe named after the rock that never leaves my finger, on our anniversary. You were in the barn, so I could be in bed. Loving a farmer is not what I expected. It's so much more. I was getting eggs out for breakfast and realized I still had a few store bought eggs left from when my hens were being freeloaders.
What's the differences between white store eggs and the ones I pick up in my backyard? Shell color: White, brown, green, blue? It all depends on the breed of chicken! White egg layers are slightly more efficient than brown layers, hence the cheaper price at the grocery store! We picked brown layers because I like red animals - sheep, cows, chickens. And because I was 29 and had never eaten a brown egg before. Here's a cool fact from Penn State - thanks to genetics- today's layers will average 300 eggs per year! In 1947, that number was only 150. Yolk color: It's all determined by diet! Professional hens (I made that term up) eat a diet just like a professional athlete. The farmers work with nutritionist to get a diet that meets their exact needs in an efficient way. The efficient part is important - that is a huge factor in keeping eggs an affordable source of protein! This is especially important for low income families. Now my chickens - they eat chicken feed. And loads of other stuff. They eat whatever they find on the ground, our dinner scraps, "scraps" from the livestock. You name it, a chicken will eat it. Except potato peels. Someone told me those are poisonous to a chicken but I don't have a clue if that's true or not. That mixed diet is awesome for our 19 hens plus it's fun for the boys to take all sorts of scraps to the chickens (if you ever have a chance, watch a chicken eat a grape!). But a diet like that is not efficient or affordable for raising the 76.5 billion eggs the US eats each year. It can also cause problems for the chickens. My chickens are at a much greater risk for diet related issues like getting too much of something, not enough of something, or exposure to something hazardous to a chicken (like potato peels). Again, I have no idea if that is true. Nutrition/ Safety: Equal! The diets of the chicken will vary the nutritional content slightly but not in a notable way. So - should you raise your own chickens? You bet if you have the time and place to do it! Should you buy eggs from someone raising backyard chickens? Absolutely! If you don't mind paying a little premium, love that richer yolk, and don't mind washing your own eggs. Should you fear buying store bought eggs? NO WAY! Those eggs are safe, nutritious, raised by family farmers AND significantly cheaper than mine (like half the price). Just eat some eggs! (And follow the Facebook page because we are going to give away green eggs soon...) Last week after a speech, a young college student approached me. Eager to connect, she started with, "Do you ever get completely frustrated with these liberals?"
Her question was intriguing to me. Not because it was unique, the exact opposite. Because it was so common. Almost without fail, when I get the chance to talk to producers about the desperate need to tell the story of agriculture, someone asks a similar, politically loaded question. But it's a fair question, isn't it? In this politically correct era, surely a blogger can still call a spade a spade? Because isn't the reality that our enemies are easily identifiable? Isn't agriculture really just at war with liberals? No. I'll leave that single word there, by itself, plain and simple. The answer is no. I speak with non-Ag people, consumers, every single day. In person, on social media, on the phone. The people who are misinformed enough to be engaged in some type of desperate battle against modern farming come from all walks of life. They are all religions, all races, all income and education levels. They identify as liberals, conservatives, and everything else on the political spectrum. Agriculture is being attacked by misinformation. Agriculture is being attacked by ignorance. Agriculture is being attacked by science illiteracy. Agriculture is being attacked by deceitful marketing. And those things do not discriminate based on party lines. The real enemy to agriculture is misinformation, not our consumers, who are often acting based on the only story they've been told. I understand in this time, we want to group everything into an "us versus them" mentality, playing right into this partisan environment. An environment that nurtures politicians and while being toxic for the rest of us. But when we do that, when we divide people into "us and them" categories, we make two deadly mistakes. First, we assume that those in the "us" category understand and support modern agriculture. Recent voter initiatives in my own state of Missouri showed us just what a deadly mistake that can be. We concentrated grass roots efforts on urban areas, thinking "those" people do not understand us. The reality was made clear as our "Right to Farm " was just barely protected, even in the rural counties. As it turns out, there are just as many people in our own backyard- our neighbors and family members- that have uniformed opinions of modern farming. Second, we assume that those in the "them" category are beyond our reach. We dismiss their questions as ignorant, their concerns as absurd. We then attach a label to them and dismiss them as individuals. We can continue to make these deadly mistakes, continue to comfort ourselves with this notion that the problem is all because of "them". Or we can start having a conversation and answering the questions so many people have. Legitimate questions, asked by legitimate people. People who are more than a political party. We can talk, but more importantly we can listen. We can connect. And maybe that goes for more than just agriculture. 2/11/2017 1 Comment The truth about coming back to the farm - What young farmers are dying for you to know.I just wrapped up a week of being on the road, talking with young farmers throughout the Midwest. I had committed to speaking at three different events this week, all of which catered to young farmers.
During my presentations , I shared with them the questions that consumers share with me, and tips for how they can tell their own farm story. Without fail, this presentation evokes passion and sparks conversation among farmers, but even more noticeably among young farmers. This week there were some very clear themes that emerged - realities of farming that our young farmers are dying for you to know. 1. Our family farm is getting bigger - so that I can come home. We discuss the fact that many Americans are less trusting of what they see as "big" farms and this always gets the same response, "We have to grow! How am I suppose to come back and also raise a family here if we don't find a way to generate more income?" The often misunderstood reality is that while we are getting much more efficient and can handle more animals and more acres, growth on the farm also happens to allow one, or more, of the children to farm along side mom and dad. 2. I care about all the things you care about! When I list the top concerns of our consumers - animal welfare, reducing chemical use, sustainability, food safety and nutrition, protecting the family farm- I am often met with baffled stares. And then the response is always the same, "Of course they care about those things, so do I! How can they think I don't? Why would I be doing this if I didn't care about all of that?" The problem isn't that we don't care. It's that we forget to explain WHY we farm they way we do, and we leave out how modern farming actually addresses all of those concerns better than any time in our farming history. 3. I love what I do, but this my job. I share comments left online, where people claim they cannot trust us because we "only farm for money" or are "driven by profit". The farmers always meet these comments with confusion, followed by anger. "Who out there goes to work every week without getting a paycheck? I love what I do, but we have bills to pay as well, and no one is getting rich out here." The anger comes because most of the men and women sitting in the room during these conversations either have been before, or currently are, struggling to make ends meet on reduced margins and increased operating costs. "The public wants to talk about the few years we had good profits. But they want to forget all the years we barely broke even, or the years we actually lost money." The farmers also want to point out that they, or a spouse, and often both, have to work off farm jobs in order to be able to farm. "It's not like it used to be. With land and machinery costs I can't afford to farm without having a full time job in town also." 4. It doesn't work like in a textbook. The conversation always gets passionate when they start talking about all the non-farmers who have told them how they think they should be doing it, because they've read something online. One young man summed it up well this week. "I was like that too- just like these people who have done 'google research' about farming. I came home from college ready to show Dad and Granddad how to do it. It took exactly one growing season for me to realize that real life farming doesn't work like the textbooks and college professors say it will. Turns out you've got to trust the guys who have been at it for 40+ years." Many of them share a similar frustration of someone farming on a very small scale, or even someone with a garden, trying to offer up critism for what they do. "A lot of this trendy stuff works fine small scale. But it's not realistic for the typical size farm nor can it meet the demands on agriculture." They are also quick to communicate how much their educations are contributing to the farm. As an industry, we are returning more young people to the farm with college degrees than ever before. They are getting better everyday, but you can't just throw out what early generations have learned the hard way because of a college degree. 5. We want to tell you our story. This generation of farmers is more eager than ever to share their story with you. They are popping up all over social media and stepping up within their communities. A young woman said it so well, "I know people have all these questions. I just wish they would ask us, the actual farmers. We don't just want to tell them, we want to show them!" Occasionally, the gap between consumer and farmer seems too large to bridge and I get overwhelmed. But after a week like this one, of having conversations with dozens of young men and women who are passionate about being the best farmers our country has ever seen, I have no doubt that our industry is moving in the right direction - both in terms of continued improvement in food, fuel and fiber production AND in terms of communicating with an increasingly further removed public. I have been testing 30 out for about five days and if my initial impression in accurate, I think this decade on the farm is going to trump (no pun) the last one. Don’t get me wrong – a lot of good happened in the last ten years. I graduated college; got a big kid job, got married, and our two boys were born. But it’s fairly evident the next decade is going to be much smoother sailing.
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Uptown GirlKate Lambert grew up in northern Illinois, not on a farm but active in FFA and showing livestock. Archives
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