There are places of comfort, with special significance, on everyone’s farms and ranches. We all have our favorite places. For me, the places I like most on our farm have nostalgic connections to the family history of our place and my memories growing up here. There is a vista, on a high hill north of our farmstead that rises about 100 feet above the home place that I really like. When I’m checking cows or fixing fence, I like to pause up there, and take a look at the old…

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When my grandfather, Arnold Bickett, served in the U.S. infantry in France in World War I, he was certainly homesick. Having been born in a log cabin in Kentucky, the young farmer had never been very far from home. He most likely had never aimed a gun at anything but game birds or squirrels. He knew country life, but had never been crammed into a tight space with hundreds of other people. All of that changed in mid-1917 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After six weeks of very…

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One of the most annoying things about Farm Bill debates is that the majority of discussions are about money, not policy. Activist groups that I like to call – anti-farm or anti-food security – make farmers out to be free-loaders, loudly spouting off about direct payments and subsidies. I venture a guess that nearly all of these folks who like to use farmers as punching bags are not hungry or homeless. They probably enjoy hearty meals each day, thanks to guess who? Our nation has…

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High school graduates around farm country will receive lots of advice from family, friends, teachers and neighbors over the next few weeks during their commencement ceremonies. Valedictorians will bid their old high schools and hometowns farewell, and offer well wishes for classmates as they begin the next chapters in their young lives. Graduates will hear hometown folks say things like, “Go out and make something of your lives.” They’ll hear advice like, “Get out…

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I’m sure someone will blame our most recent Spring snowstorm on climate change. Last year’s drought was blamed on climate change too. For most Nebraskans, it is business as usual. Crazy weather is quite normal. Tramping through the eight-plus inches of snow we received last week to feed calves, I thought back at how many of these April storms I’ve seen in my lifetime. There have been more than a few. When I was dating my wife, she was living about 75 miles away in…

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My wife is awesome. Let me get that out there. I’m not just saying that because I’m trying to sweet talk her into a new farm gadget. I don’t tell her often enough. Most husbands probably feel this way about their wives, but take for granted that the wives know how they feel. I hope they know, because on the farm, it takes a pretty strong partnership at the top – in a husband and wife team – to make it all work. And there are tons of distractions, troubles…

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Curt's Comments:   Farmers are often maligned for caring only about profits, and little about the soil. Personally, I have found the opposite to be true. Farmers today understand the soil and the importance of the soil more than ever before. That's why farmers have adopted no-till systems so readily. My case in point is the Dvorak farm. When I first visited the Dvoraks for a story that ran in our December 2011 print issue, I was impressed by the size and efficiency of their…

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Last night, I patted our two-year-old son gently on his back for a few minutes, leaning over his bed. He had been awakened around midnight by a bad dream or the creaks and cracks of our old farm home. He was frightened, so I offered him a glass of milk and put him back to bed, hoping he would fall back asleep, so I could. But, this was not to be. After several minutes of crying, I calmed him down again, and now patting his back, I was hoping he would be down for the night. I patted lighter…

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Farmers and ranchers are generous people. When a neighbor is injured or ill, folks just pitch in, without being asked. Rural folks are also generally focused on volunteering for their farm organizations, commodity groups, schools and churches. These are priorities to those of us who live and work on the farm. However, sometimes in rural communities there is a disconnected feeling between farmers and ranchers and folks who live in town. I’m not sure why this exists, but some farmers…

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No one has to convince me that Nebraska farmers are good stewards, protectors of their environment and caregivers of their livestock. I see it every day as I visit with producers around the state and travel to their farms and ranches. They have always been the first environmentalists, the first soil conservationists, the first and best at proper animal husbandry. While producers in general enjoy positive reviews by most consumers around the world, particularly those in other countries…

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