Last Wednesday, I spent the better part of the day driving home from Kansas City, where I'd gone for a board meeting of the American Ag Editors Association. I sat with friends over breakfast chai that morning and we discussed the weather that was moving through, and I casually joked that I was probably going to wind up driving along with the front all the way home. As it turns out, that wasn't so funny when it actually happened. I drove with my wipers on high for a solid two…

Continue Reading

So. It was a little crazy around here last week. A quick re-cap: 1.  I flew to Washington, D.C. on Monday to cover the National Ag Day festivities for Farm Progress, which mostly took place on Tuesday, March 19. (See here and here.) 2.  It was great fun. Lots of good people. Lots of work crammed into a reasonably short span of time. (See photo below.) 3.  My friend, Kenna Rathai, and I found ourselves with a narrow two-hour window of time on Tuesday. We wanted to…

Continue Reading

Oh, college. How I loved it. Therefore and thus, when the opportunity arrived to visit campus with a couple young friends last week, I was on it. Ag open house? Champaign on a lovely day? Lots of fun ag friends? Old acquaintances? Good times. And so it was that my niece, Kaity, and our young friend, Ashley, and I loaded up and headed to the University of Illinois College of ACES open house in Champaign-Urbana. It was a road trip, complete with plenty of refreshments, laughs and pit…

Continue Reading

Unless you've been under a rock, you've likely seen - or at the very least, heard about - the Dodge Ram advertisement heralding farmers during Sunday night's Super Bowl. It featured a powerful and nostalgic reading of the poem, "So God Made a Farmer," as delivered by Paul Harvey to the 1978 FFA Convention. Set to the backdrop of Harvey's familiar voice were a series of beautiful photographs, many by National Geographic Photographers, many of which were so…

Continue Reading

Every once in awhile, I get fired up about something and write about it. It goes to print and before I know it, we start getting letters. Or technically, emails. Even the occasional in-person comment. And it turns out other people are fired up about it, too. Honestly, that's exciting. And that's what happened following our January issue, when I wrote about the recent inclination of some farmers who have begun cultivating an "online presence" to tell their story in a…

Continue Reading

It's been a busy year here at Prairie Farmer. An historic drought. No farm bill. More regulations. Pink slime. Continued pushback by HSUS against livestock. Palmer amaranth. More regulations. Wait. Did I mention that already? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at what you all read most this year. And I'm beyond grateful that you do read it. Our web team has scoured the data (scoured, not scours) and here, we present you with the top 10 My Generation…

Continue Reading

So Monday, I found myself walking down the actual Magnificent Mile in Chicago, carrying my coat. On December 3. In fact, though I packed gloves and a terribly cute scarf, I never used them. Ever. What the what? For sure, it's the first time in the 15 or so years we've been attending the Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting in Chicago that we haven't needed arctic-level bundling. Seriously, there have been years we've underpacked, frozen, and ducked into a Macy's…

Continue Reading

When you grow up spending your summer at county fairs, there's little that warms your heart more than watching your kids enjoy their first fair. Like really. A lot. I spent my summers showing Shorthorns at one southern Illinois county fair after another. I made friends I'll have forever, and have memories ingrained that I'll never forget. (for better or worse!) I did my time in the water tank, kicked the dirt while sitting on the showbox and slept in freshly bedded stalls at…

Continue Reading

About this time last year, the farm community learned of the Labor Department's intention to regulate child labor on the farm. In response, we figuratively smacked ourselves on the forehead and said a cumulative, "What are they thinking?" And then we set about commenting formally and grousing informally. By spring, the effort received so much backlash that the Department backed down, vowing to go back to the drawing board. Certainly, the regulations had, at one point in…

Continue Reading

Two weeks from today is November 1. That means two weeks from today is the start of 30 Days here at My Generation! Oh yes, it's that crazy time of year where I blog every single day of November, all in a series. Just like in 2010 and 2011. And I have just one question: are you in with me? Maybe you're a long-time agriculture or farm blogger. Maybe you're just getting started. Maybe you've been skeptically thinking about this blogging thing for awhile now. Either and any way, joining in…

Continue Reading