In an 80's Time Warp

I think I have hit a time warp and been transported back in time. How do I know? Well, the Royals look like one of the best teams in baseball and are playing baseball well into October. That alone should be enough proof but there is more evidence. Corn and gas are both below $3.00. Maybe all those shows on TV Land are not reruns. Excuse me for a minute while I go check to see if I still have my high school diploma.

I don’t know if being transported back into the 80s would be all bad either. Think about it. None of us would have our smart phones. We might actually communicate face to face. No more firing off an e-mail or even worse a text. If you want to tell someone something, you would have to either physically travel to where they are or at least pick up a land line telephone and call them. I bet it would cut down on the number of angry outbursts and misunderstanding.

No cell phones would mean less distracted driving and better planning. No more worrying about having reception because there is none. I have often wondered if being in constant contact with everyone is a good thing. No more interruptions during meetings or people answering their phones during a movie. The world would be a much more courteous place.

Going back in time would also not have the internet and I am almost positive that would be a good thing. Sure I would miss not having all that information at my fingertips. However, it would also be much harder to spread misinformation.  Before the internet we didn’t seem to have so many “experts” and we worried about our business instead of getting involved in everyone else’s.  Thanks to the internet we can find any supposed fact or research to promote any idea we can think of, regardless of the truth.

That also harkens back to a time with no social media. How did we communicate or keep up on old friends? Oh yeah, we actually visited them or at least called them on the phone. OK, so keeping up with old acquaintances via social media is not so bad but there are plenty of other things that aren’t so good. It would also be much harder to spread gossip, lies and rumors. Campaigns would require more thought and be much less anonymous. Maybe candidates would run on their stands on issues and not who can smear who with the most dirt, maybe we would actually try to be more informed on the issues as voters too.

Wow, do I sound like Archie Bunker as I sit here in my easy chair and pontificate about how good the old days were. Maybe I have reached the point of being an old codger. I do miss the days of less instant communication, more face to face interaction and a lot less connectivity. I am sure the world was not a better place back then; we just thought it was because we didn’t know any better.

Much like the genie we can’t put it back into the box. This is the world we live in and it is only going to get smaller in the future. We must learn how to live in it because disappearing into the wilderness and becoming a hermit really isn’t an option for most of us. I am not sure how we promote less reliance on electronics and more interaction with fellow humans.  We need to feel more comfortable with community and relationships than anonymity and invisibility.

I have heard that our addiction to technology and specifically our smart phones is akin to substance addictions and I have no doubt (based on personal experience) that to be an accurate assessment. I know it will be painful but we need to shut down the electronic devices look someone in the eye and start an actual conversation. Then we will regain the enjoyment of human, face-to-face interaction.

So pardon me while I turn off my computer, put down my smart phone, and turn off the TV. I will fire up the old am radio, listen to Denny Mathew and the static call a Royals playoff game and pretend that it is the early 80s again. I just hope I didn’t forget to do any homework.

Typical Year, Average Farm??????

I have often heard other farmers and ranchers say one of the things they like about being involved in production agriculture is that no two days are ever the same. For the most part I have to say I agree with that, the challenge of the unknown is often what makes our job interesting. However, the unknown can also be quite maddening.

I have often said that there is no such thing as an average temperature, average rainfall, average snowfall, well, you get the idea. I am not sure I ever remember a year that was average. Average is the middle between the two extremes and I am quite certain we spend a good portion of our lives closer to the extremes than the average. To be honest it is kind of refreshing in a world where we try to control just about everything to know that the weather is still out of our grasp.

Harvest this year has been frustrating, to say the least. Crops have been slow to dry down and we have had to hit the pause button a couple of times. I like harvest the best when we can start and keep running without any pauses. One of the hardest things I have had to learn in agriculture is that nature has its own schedule and there is nothing you can do about it.

Often I am asked by non-farm people to give them an idea of what the typical farm year looks like. I often laugh and then give very vague answers. Yes, the typical farm year or the typical farm calendar is much like the average rainfall. Everything happens in its own time, especially fall harvest. I have explained that harvest can start in August, but that is often a bad sign. Usually that means drought and bad crops. We have also seen harvest last until November and that is usually a good sign, but it is also much more stressful.

I am not sure that anyone not associated with agriculture truly understands how much we are at the mercy of the weather. I have often heard that farmers are the only business people who don’t know how much they are going to produce or how much they will get paid for what they do produce before the business cycle starts. It takes the faith of a farmer to dive into the deep end of production agriculture.

So what good does it do us to explain all of this uncertainty to our non-ag brethren?  First, it helps to make them understand just a little better how fragile our way of life is. We have no idea when we will be faced with catastrophic weather events and we often are faced with a couple each year. Hopefully, it will help them to understand just how difficult it is to bring them the full shelves they enjoy at their local grocery store.

We also need to explain that the highs and lows in production have been greatly off set by our new technologies. Rarely do we ever see a complete crop failure but we all know it could still happen. However, thanks to technology like gmo crops we usually produce something. That alone is amazing given the unknowns we face.

The Farm Bill and most specifically crop insurance is the best reason for us to help the general public understand the uncertainty we face each year. The promise of crop insurance helps ease the fear of the unknown. Without it I suspect many of my Western Kansas friends would not have made it through their extended drought. Many would have gone out of business and then where would we be? I am not sure but it is something I do not want to think about. Food security is the cornerstone of all great societies and I like to think we are one of them and therefore protecting our food supply should be of paramount importance to us. Crop insurance and the support of it in the Farm Bill is the key to that.

They say change is the spice of life and nothing changes more than the weather. If that is the case, then I guess all of us in agriculture like our lives spicy. Although judging by the heartburn I feel each time I look at the forecast maybe bland wouldn’t be so bad. Who am I kidding? That would make things just a little too boring and boring is not what I signed up for.

Random Thoughts From a Paused Harvest

We are smack dab in the middle of harvest. Actually, we have hit the pause button on harvest because the corn we have left to pick is too green and the beans are not ready yet. There is nothing like gearing up for harvest, getting into the groove and then shutting down. It is especially aggravating when the weather is nice and bad weather is predicted in the near future. However, this again goes back to something Dad tells me over and over. There is nothing you can do about the weather (despite what Sir Paul McCartney and Al Gore think), so why worry about it.

I truly enjoy harvest (when everything goes right mechanically) for many reasons, it means the culmination of the crop year, it is exciting, and I have plenty of time to mull over the really tough questions of life. Yes, next time you see me driving down the road in one of our trucks just know that I am doing more than driving, I am solving all of the world’s problems. That ought to make you feel safer on the road.

Questions like: when God flooded the world and had Noah save pairs of animals on the Ark why did he save mosquitoes, fleas and ticks? Did he knowingly save them or were they castaways on the Ark. If so why didn’t Noah or one of his family members swat just one of them? Maybe they serve some sort of purpose, but for the life of me I cannot think of what that might be. Another on my long list of questions I am going to ask when I get to heaven.

How does the extra value meal I bought this year go up significantly in price while the corn I am hauling is only worth about half as much as it was last year? It just doesn’t seem right. Oh I know beef prices are still sky high and trending higher. I just made the mistake of figuring out that this year’s quarter pounder extra value meal for Dad and I cost about three to four dollars more and the load of grain is worth about……. oh never mind it is too depressing. Don’t get me wrong, I am counting my blessings that we have grain to haul in, no matter how cheap it is.

Our trucks only go so fast, especially loaded. It is amazing how much more you notice and appreciate things you see along the road when hauling grain to town. I wonder how much more we would enjoy life and how much happier we would be if we just took life a little slower. What if we slowed down driving from here to there, what if we took our time walking from place to place, I bet we would have a deeper appreciation for all that is around us. On a side note, each of you who have had to slow down and follow me into town, I was just doing you a favor and helping you get more out of life.

Why can’t we call a time out in real life? When things are coming at you too fast or when nothing seems to be going right, wouldn’t it be nice to call a time out to settle down and think things out. On a related note why do small children fight nap time? I would give anything for someone to order me to put down my carpet square and take a nap each afternoon. Youth truly is wasted on the young.

Finally, why do we waste so much time worrying about how other people do their jobs and so little time worrying about our own? Don’t believe me; listen to any number of sports or political call in shows. Everyone has an idea of how things ought to be done and most of the callers are making those calls from their job. Often I think I am very fortunate to only have one of the three trucks with a working radio (the lone exception being Saturdays when K-State is playing). We need to do our job, enjoy sports as entertainment and practice our right to vote.

Those are just a few of the very random thoughts that go through my little beanie brain during harvest. I rather enjoy the quiet time to contemplate the problems around me and reflect upon the answers. Well, I do that in between driving defensively, watching the gauges, listening for funny noises and watching the road. So pardon me if I forget to wave, there is a lot going on in the cab of that truck.

Is It Warm in Here Paul?

This past week the topic of climate change has been in the news quite a bit. The U.N. hosted a one day summit on climate change in New York drawing large crowds of protestors.  An estimated” 400,000 people represented labor unions, church groups and schools. Our President spoke to the U.N. on the subject. It seems everyone has climate change on their minds, or at least that is what the media would have you believe.

Right smack dab in the middle of all of this chatter about climate change was Sir Paul McCartney. It seems this former Beatle is promoting “Meat Free Mondays” as a way to lower green house emissions, curb climate change and eventually save the world. Now I never was much of a Beatles fan so it is easy for me to view this as just another miss-guided celebrity trying to garner as much publicity using the cause of the day.

Sure Paul has recruited the likes of Twiggy and Woody Harrelson. Now I don’t know about you but a cause that features an aging member of a boy band, a super model and a convicted drug user, who rose to fame playing one of the dumbest characters ever, just screams legitimacy. Unless I am confused I do not see any of this band of characters with any scientific background or special knowledge in the area of climate change or livestock production. Let alone any of them having expertise in both areas.

It is scary to think about how many people will go to Mr. McCartney’s U-Tube page and watch this slick video that is very much propaganda and take it as the truth. It proclaims that too many livestock are warming up the earth and melting the polar ice caps. It happily proclaims Meat Free Monday as a Fun Day, all the while mixing in happy little, smiling cartoon livestock. It is a catchy little tune without much substance and devoid of any truth.

So what, who listens to celebrities and who watches U-Tube videos? Apparently the Dripping Springs School District in Houston has implemented Meat Free Mondays in three of its elementary schools. Students can still have meat for lunches on Monday, but only if they bring their lunch from home. School officials said the program will promote healthy eating and environmental conscientious thinking. The official also said that benefits of growing vegetables over raising livestock include less greenhouse gases.

The idea behind Meat Free Monday is that livestock contribute large amounts greenhouse gases and if we lower our consumption of meat we will therefore put less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and lessen climate change. All of this is based on very flawed research that has been taken out of context to prove the activists point of view. But it is not all about climate change or environmental awareness either.

The animal rights groups are at work here also. They are working behind the scenes to scare people into becoming vegetarians with the threat of climate change. Groups like HSUS and PETA are quick to jump on the environmental awareness bandwagon to promote their own causes. Worst of all, campaigns like McCartney’s and the Dripping Springs school district are slick and aimed at unsuspecting children and young adults.

What can we do as livestock producers? We need to take every opportunity to tell the story of agriculture. We need to let all consumers know that the meat we raise is the best way to utilize our precious environmental resources. America’s farmers and ranchers are the original environmentalists and we would never do anything to jeopardize the water, air or soil around us. We need to tell this to anyone who will listen utilizing any method available. I truly believe that most consumers trust farmers and ranchers more than celebrities.

Then and only then, we will start to neutralize the sensationalized, glamorized, hyped up propaganda pushed by special interest groups using celebrities to push their agendas. I don’t know about you but I must say I heartily disagree with Sir Paul McCartney; a Meat Free Monday is not a fun day. However, when it comes to rising global temperatures I do have a good idea where all the hot air is coming from.