I’m not sure whether I should talk weather or not today, but since most farmers can talk weather with the best of them, I’ll go ahead. This Spring has been crazy. Everyone agrees. Last Spring was just as crazy, but in the other direction. If you average the two extremes together, you get “normal.” For the Great Plains, this is situation normal. On Sunday morning, we awoke to about 28 degrees and heavy frost on the pickup windshield. Today, forecasters are…

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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 noticed the new schedule for University of Nebraska Extension Tractor Safety and Hazardous Occupations courses for youth coming up this summer. The two-day courses, set up for 14- and 15-year-olds, will be coming to Kearney (May 23-24), Concord (May 29-30), Gering (June 3-4), Valentine (June 6-7), Osceola (June 10-11), North Platte (June 13-14) and Grand Island (June 17-18). Here is the complete registration information. I can recall my first experience driving a tractor. When I was…

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Curt’s Comments:   It had to be tough for Elgin rancher, Garrett Dwyer, when he returned home after serving with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. It is quite a transition, going from an active war zone to the peaceful Sandhills pastures west of Elgin. Dwyer, like so many of his fellow war veterans, were searching to make their place in society when they returned home after bravely serving their country. And, as Dwyer noted when I visited with him at the family ranch last spring…

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I know. I know. Corn and soybeans are the way of the future. You don’t want to read about anything else. But, this time of year, I have to mention one of my favorite crops – oats. Yes, you read it correctly. Decades ago where I live, if corn was King, oats came in a close second. Sure, it doesn’t have the traditional significance of wheat. Never considered a major crop, it has wallowed in the large shadows of staple row crops. But, long before soybeans were grown in…

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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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I had the honor of accompanying my wife’s 8th grade class at St. Rose School to Lincoln on a citizenship field trip. Students were treated to a planetarium show at Morrill Hall, and tours of Memorial Stadium, the Capitol and the Governor’s Mansion, along with a quick, but necessary stop at the East Campus Dairy Store. They thoroughly enjoyed all of these activities. At our school, 8th graders have been traveling to Lincoln for 44 years for this kind of trip. With…

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Last summer, my wife and I were forced to sell off most of our cowherd. Granted, our herd wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t very large by most Sandhills ranch standards. However, we had spent much of our married lives working to improve our genetics, disposition standards and health of the cows and their potential offspring. It was a labor of love, and many of those cows were very important to us personally, and financially. Because of my attachment to the herd, and because…

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Curt’s Comments:   Hog farms are not popular these days, especially for neighbors. Folks fight the construction of new pork facilities. Neighbors worry about odor and manure from the pig farms. But these folks haven’t been around Danny and Josie Kluthe’s hog farm near Dodge, Neb. When I first interviewed Danny several years ago, as I visited with him outside his swine barns, my nose didn’t know we were standing on a hog farm. As someone who grew up around…

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I attended a weed resistance workshop in Norfolk last week, moderated by University of Nebraska Extension integrated weed management specialist, Stevan Knezevic. During the course of the meeting, UNL researchers painted the true picture of weed resistance issues that are going to plague farmers down the road, and they discussed ways to mitigate the speed with which these problems will occur, as well as strategies for beating up on the toughest of the resistant weeds. Everyone in the room…

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