Yes, this is an unusual thing to be blogging about. In recent months, I've gone to funerals of two farm friends, and came away from both thought-filled and inspired. That's as it should be. Like most of you, I'm not fond of funerals. I don't even want to attend my own! But a funeral or wake can be a wake-up call with redeeming value. That's why I'm writing this. I was reminded of a few things, none of which the preachers preached. The "few things"…

Continue Reading

I'm betting that you don't munch down Corn Flakes or Post Toasties for breakfast as much as you used to. So you or your family's chief food shopper may just might be a 'cereal killer". As a farm kid, I grew up in the Corn Flakes era. And in my first Animal Science class at college, my animal nutrition professor said: "Breakfast is your most important meal. That's true for animals, too." Too many of today's generation (farm and non farm…

Continue Reading

No. the change in the air has nothing to do with spring, although it's almost here, too. It has certainly nothing to do with President Obama's recycled campaign theme. The fresh whiff of prosperity is drawing more and more young, energized wanna-bes back into farming. In the past year, I've seen exciting signs that Northeast agriculture is being revitalized by enterprising young men and women. Record grain and forage prices no doubt bolster ag attractiveness. New ag…

Continue Reading

While major retailers would have us skip over Thanksgiving, it would be a huge mistake to do so. Taking time to reflect on what we have and don’t have makes every single one of us more complete. It’s a necessary life balancer that, if nothing else, keeps us humble and appreciative. And that impacts everyone and every creature we care for – even the dogs and cats. Remembering the things that happened so far this year are relatively easy. But sit down and make a list…

Continue Reading

Success in any business requires the ability to forward think – perceive what you want to accomplish, then develop the game plan for getting there. Agriculture and your farm are no different in that sense. Where farming differs is that your family is an integral part of it. That can be very good – or not. But it places a lot more pressure on farm families to succeed. It’s 5:15 a.m., as I begin to write this. I woke up thinking a somewhat stupid thought: I think I can . . . I…

Continue Reading

As the song goes, “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain . . ..” Even if you’re like me (can’t carry a tune in a bucket), we need to stop our labors once in a while to revel in where we are in God’s creation. Thanks to you, our readers, my farm business trips allow me to do just that. On Sunday morning, our class was singing “America, the beautiful.” And I was thinking back about my farm business trips during the last two…

Continue Reading

As the song goes, “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain . . ..” Even if you’re like me (can’t carry a tune in a bucket), we need to stop our labors once in a while to revel in where we are in God’s creation. Thanks to you, our readers, my farm business trips allow me to do just that. On Sunday morning, our class was singing “America, the beautiful.” And I was thinking back about my farm business trips during the last two weeks…

Continue Reading

This morning, my wife looked up from her pile of weekend newspapers saying: “I’m so tired of reading ‘Father’s Day’ articles. Not one of them tackled core fatherhood issues that threaten the downfall of our country.” And I replied: “That’s because very few readers – particularly men – want to face their failures.” Unfortunately, America is paying a high price for downplaying the father’s critical role in raising up…

Continue Reading

Will we learn enough from the Great Recession to avoid repeating them for at least one generation? I’m hoping this blog rates as a “foot-in-mouth” award winner. But we humans have never been very good learners of history – even recent history! Each generation somehow grows into believing that the old fogies of the previous generation made stupid mistakes that today’s enlightened generation wouldn’t dream of making. And so goes the tripping over…

Continue Reading

About 1:30 this morning, this revelation sprang to mind. Forego resolution-making. Instead, make a promise to yourself, in writing and big letters. Then hang it where you can see it every morning as a reminder. A promise has far greater force than a resolution. Since you only get one run on this earth, carefully pick what you promise. If you mess it up, you don’t come back again for a do-over. There’s one partial exception to that rule, though. Most men are better grandfathers…

Continue Reading