Monsanto - an accidental conversation

I have been following the anti-Monsanto discussions from a distance.  I would not consider myself well educated on the subject. Earlier this week I stumbled upon some twitter followers who are anti-Monsanto on behalf of farmers.  I thought what better way to get educated then from an opposing side of any subject matter.

From the conversation I have gathered they are blaming Monsanto for stealing farms from farmers, farmer suicides, killing land,water and bees. These people are clearly upset.  I ended with saying I would like to have a conversation with a farmer who used Monsanto products and has deemed them as evil. They said they hoped I would be open to hearing from them, if I ever did meet someone from that view point.  And I am!

While I don't think Monsanto is trying to kill anyone or anything, I do have some unfavorable feelings about their business.  One just stems from jealousy, that a group of people can develop such a tremendous seed of science and then get a patent.  For a company to develop a system enabling farmers to keep their own seed they grow and produce to replant for another crop.  But, it is the law and if you break it you will be punished, most likely in  a very expensive way. The other BEEF I have with Monsanto comes from the day when the company merged and sent a letter to my Dad to tell him after over 30 years of selling seed for them they no longer needed his services.  My Dad had sold seed corn for them since before I was born.  He sold to mostly smaller farmers.  He sold to a large group of smaller farmers, creating a community, held a customer appreciation day, and planted a test plot.  I understand businesses grow and agronomists seemed to be a good choice for selling their product. However taking away a small dealership from a man who has sold seed for a company for so long seems a little unjust.  They don't know it but they kind of lost, many of Dad's customers just started planting someone else's seed.

A few days after the above mentioned twitter conversation I received an email from a former Organic farmer who is now testifying on behalf of farmers for the Farm Bill.  Through her email I believe she is holding us (farmers) all together.  She is giving us all the opportunity to continue to farm and provide choices for all Americans.  

The farmer and his quilt pattern.

I have laid out quilt tops long before I could sew.  Grandma Poorman would let us lay out simple block patterns and she would sew them together.  I now believe it was because she would rather sew than to crawl around on the floor moving block patterns and colors around.  However my Grandpa, Dad and Uncle John would often stop by to inspect our patterns.  They would look it over and say things like "oh you have two blues together".  I always found this behavior so annoying.

I am laying out my fourth quilt tonight in two weeks.  I am starting to feel like Grandma, I just want to sew.  Jaelin was laying out a quilt with some extra block on one side of the living room while I was laying out the pink John Deere quilt on the other side.  Guess who shows up?  Jake!  "That pattern is not correct", he started. "Oh, really," I reply as I was having flashbacks to my childhood.  He began to explain how he would do it and how the pattern should flow.  Finally I said, that sound like a great idea.  He is now designing the quilt.

What farmers do for fun.

My brother who farms full time with my dad and uncle, bought a boat this summer.  This weekend he brought his boat and his girlfriend Erin to Seneca Lake for boating, swimming, tubing and skiing.  It was a wonderful summer afternoon.

Jake on the tube.

Let the record reflect she never was actually pulled on the tube.

Boating makes you sleepy.

two girls - one chair

Just a conversation, an Agricultural Civil War . . .

Or is it a distraction from the enemy.  

The next light bulb moment I had from the two day AgriPOWER conference was changing the conversation.  I will no longer discuss in detail with the non-agriculture community my opinion of different Agriculture Practices.  I am going to make an effort to explain the choices they have and in clarity and the difference between them.  The conversation about the practices need to provide clarity about things that matter to the consumer and that is that ALL FOOD IS SAFE and farmers and ranchers provide choices.

I believe that as agriculturalists we confuse everyone by discussing and debating practices. There is enough room in the market for every farmer/rancher.  It really isn't fair to the mom who just wants to purchase safe food for her family, for us to debate practice as if one of them is safer than the another.

My new message: All food is safe!  What do you want to know about your choices?

Are you sustainable?

I was given an opportunity to be a part of AgriPOWER that is designed and managed by Ohio Farm Bureau under the direction of Sandy Kuhn. I can't say enough good things about Sandy, she does a remarkable job, she is awesome, she changes peoples lives, she loves farmers, and she has dedicated her life to Agriculture.  She invited me to sit in on social media/media/conversation training for two days.  I feel like I robbed her, since I have learned so much.  I have been through all of these training before and similar conferences, but with different presenters.  But, sometimes things just come together for you and boy did they for me.  I am going to share just one of things that came together for me at the two day event.

First I should thank everyone who participated in the conference and the 2012 - 2013 AgriPOWER family for adopting me for a couple days.

The first thing that came together for me was vocabulary. There is just so much vocabulary thrown around as it relates to Agriculture.  There are words and phrases the Ag. Folks use that have not been defined so that the general public understands.  Then there are media vocabulary words made for headlines that have no clear definition.  I have been asked a number of times if I believe Jake and I are sustainable in Agriculture, through our feed yard and our cow/calf operation. I usually avoid the question, because I have never heard or read a clear definition of sustainable.  

Finally Matt Sutton-Vermeulen showed this model called Triple Bottom Line that was developed by Freer Spreckley.  This diagram was explained that to be sustainable we have to be pleasing socially, take care of the environment and be making a profit doing it.  

We can have a healthy debate about if we are socially pleasing.  But, really for the first time the American farmer/rancher has enemies.  We have people like HSUS, which I am really sure does not want Jake and I to be operating a feed yard or owning cows.  They also have a significant following.  I feel that there are too many people upset with Agriculture at this time. I would say strike one!

The next conversation is about the planet and we can go on and on about what farmers/ranchers do for the planet.  We build wildlife habitats, spend billions protecting water sources, redesign equipment and machinery to protect our soil and use less fuel.  However we are still using our natural resources to produce crops and livestock. Socially people have a problem with many of our practices and we take blame for harming the environment.  I don't believe we are using the environment more than it's intended use.  However socially it is a strike two.

The profit side of things is interesting and I hope I will someday get to have a healthy conversation with agriculturalist of all types and non-agriculturalists about the profit side of the diagram.  With the drought, insurance and instability of the Farm Bill profit seems to be a gray area in many ways this year. It should also be noted the above animal rights organizations and environmentalist extremists do not want to hear farmers/ranchers are making a profit.  Strike three socially!

The bottom line for me is that with the rules constantly changing and society having so many unanswered questions I am going to say I am not sure we are sustainable.  There I said it.  Not the popular response I know, but it the honest response for the diagram above.  What are your thoughts on sustainable Agriculture? Are you sustainable?

Friday Fix

Picture was taken from Fox News

Tonight's Friday Fix is an inspirational story.  My friend Micah sent me a text with this story today.  Fox news reported that this man from Missouri who is a 6th generation family farmer, is hauling water to an estimated 350 year old oak tree.  Farmers Care! Fox News - Farmer attempts to save tree from drought. This makes me smile and I hope it does you too. 

Quilting and History channel for the day, oh my!

I've been sewing this quilt top all week.  It is finally finished.  After taking it apart and putting it back together.  There was not supposed to be a pattern, and that sometimes is hard to do.  Jake pointed out a string of reds together.  I ignored him.  But then Jaelin, my darling kindergartner pointed out the same pattern.

Jaelin: "oh, what happened here?"
Me: "Mommy messed up!"
Jaelin: "that's okay, it still looks good."

So I ripped that out and tried to fit the rest of the pattern together yesterday.  As I was designing and sewing, I decided to watch/listen to the History Channel.  The shows that were on were called Decoded.  The stories investigate conspiracy theories.  The one show interviewed people and discussed if there was indeed gold in Fort Knox.  History Channel - Decoded The show goes on to discuss what would happen to the world and the economy if there was indeed no gold there any longer.  At the end of the show they made a reference to the Wizard of Oz.  I don't know if I have been living under a rock and why I haven't seen this before.  I am not sure if I buy into all this, however with the references to Agriculture I thought it was worth the share for interest anyway. The real story of the Wizard of Oz

Farm kids and farm toys

How did you play when you were growing up?  How important is play time? I personally think independent play time to build imagination and personal creativeness is very important for our girls and for their mother.

The girls have recently dug out some of their old farm toys and their dad's old farm toys. Then they added some Barbie cars and Polly Pockets and voila!

I grew up with one brother and one sister so we played a lot like this, dolls and tractors together at the same time.  It was a compromise, even though we didn't know it at the time.  I was constantly putting dolls on his tractors.  They usually had green paint though.

First Day of School

It has finally happened both of my girls are going to school all day, everyday.  I had an emotional morning, dropping the girls off for their first day.  

It was a Foggy morning.

The girls had a short day, but a good day.  They met up with some old classmates and were introduced to some new ones. It was exciting day with many good thing ahead for them. It is sure to be an exciting year in 2nd grade and Kindergarten.  

Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart.

Lounging this evening, as Jake and I watch CMT's - the Kenny Chesney story.  It is so inspiring for someone to tell their story with honesty.  He is telling about not reaching his goals in the timetable he wanted. He talks about working hard and the success that didn't come.  I have a friend that was very successful through her 4-H career and many people were jealous of her awards.  As her and I sat one evening at the end of our showing careers talking about this, she said that just because she was featured on the front page of the local paper with her winning projects, doesn't mean she had succeeded at everything she had set out to do.  She said "they didn't picture my one nutted ram with a red ribbon at the county fair, in the paper".  So true!

Jake and I were talking about how much this applies to everyone's life. Musicians, athletes, farmers, ranchers, car salesmen, students, lawyers and teachers.
Then we were talking about this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJzPj-yWDU4

We began our ongoing conversation about our goals and where we are going and what we want to accomplish.  The dream/goals we have for operating a successful feed yard, is similar to Kenny's story.
Kenny laughed as he talked about being booked to sing in a club for $750.00 and when they arrived no one showed up. I told Jake that is like having an empty pen at feed yard.

His story inspires me to dream.  It always feels to me September is like my January 1st.  In January "they" always try to get you to set goals and resolutions, but with teacher blood running through my veins I feel September feels more appropriate.  Does anyone else feel this way?  If so what are you dreaming about?

Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart!

Moooving Cows

We move cows around a lot.  We move them closer to the barn, if we need to work them, breed them or sort them.  Many times we are just moving them to better grass.  I really enjoy getting the inside work done, like homework, supper and dishes and then go out just before sunset to move cows.  Jake usually takes the 4-wheeler and keeps them out of the brush and going in the right direction in the front.  The girls and I in the buggy just keep them moving from behind and hangout with the followers, slow pokes and injured (if there is one).  I sometimes wonder what a real cattle drive would've been like on horse back.  Of course when you think about it, it was really slow waiting on calves to catch up and water breaks.  I wonder how many miles could be covered in a day? Our cattle drives are short, in pleasant weather (usually) and best of all there are no Indians.

These photos were taken by Jaelin.

Friday Fix

Today's Friday Fix is: how to answer the questions of young minds?  As we were moving cows last evening the girls were buckled into the one seat next to me in the buggy.  I am aware we were breaking at least 3 of the 70 safety stickers found on the ATV.  As a mother I felt we were all safe.

The girls not knowing I was listening were talking to each other about many things.  I was pretending not to listen and only answer questions directly asked to me.  I have no idea where they come up with some of this stuff and if I do know where it comes from, I have no idea how to answer them with the limited knowledge they have about agriculture and science.  You have to have a BS in Agriculture to understand some of these things.  I find God is a good answer to some of the questions.

1. Like much of the US we were experiencing drought like conditions in our pastures.  However in the last several weeks, spring has arrived for the second time, making the grass grow green and fast.  This prompted this question from Jaelin.  Where does grass come from?  I am thinking where do you go with this, do you explain the growth of a plant, the life cycle of grass, photosynthesis.  I know she (who will start kindergarten next week) will have no idea what I am talking about.  The answer is God gave us rain, that he didn't give to many people in other parts of the country and that helped the grass grow.  The answer is God.

2. Jacie leans over to Jaelin and says see that is a bull.  Prompting this question, How do you know that's a bull?  Jacie says, because you see that, well that, well you know Jaelin.  They didn't ask and I am not answering that one.  I can't even play the God card.

3. It was an hour or two into moving these cows who were moving along really well when Jaelin asks Jacie, How do cows get married? What? Where does she get this stuff?

4. Jacie wants to learn to drive the buggy, mostly because my brother Jason watched the girls last weekend and he taught her to drive his golf cart.  She then asks, Who taught you to drive, Mom?  I told her Uncle Jason taught me to drive.  She said really because you are a better driver than him. Hilarious!

So what questions do the young minds in your lives ask and how do you answer?

The answer to the last Friday Fix:

The remains from the previous bridge found in central Nebraska was built at ground level.  At times the locals say it was impassable do to high water.  The new bridge was engineered well above the water.

A Problem For America . . .

Tonight Jake ran in to grab a couple gallons of milk at the local grocery store.  As he put it up on the counter, the grocery store clerk made conversation with him by saying, "I've heard milk could be $4.00 a gallon by next year". Jake said, "That doesn't bother me, the dairy farmers sure could use the extra money". She proceeded to say, "It may be cheaper to have your own dairy cow and chicken". She then continued to explain that she didn't want a messy rooster around, so she would have to take her chicken some place to be bread.

My new business idea from this conversation is:
1. One hour chicken breeding.  You drop off your chicken and pick it up in an hour bred.

The funny:  Chickens do not have to be bred to lay an egg.  The egg is laid everyday.  If you want the eggs to hatch into a chick, then they must be bred by a rooster.

This is just another reason America needs Agriculture Education curriculum in high school.

Jake's Photos

Jake just got back from traveling the west.  He sent me a few pictures along the way of things HE found interesting. I hope you enjoy them.

The murder investigation of 2 cows

This is a follow up to Sunday's post on Facebook about the murder investigation of three dead cows.

The girls stayed with their grandparents/aunt and uncle, leaving Jake and I on our own this past Saturday.  Jake and I went out alone that morning to check cows.  We only took one 4wheeler for what should have been a quiet and uneventful check of the cows.  We found one cow in the shrubs alone looking kind of sick, but left her and thought we would check on her later.

Crime Scene - no other pictures taken.

As we were leaving the pasture I told Jake that there was another cow alone under a group of trees near the road.  He drove down closer and there was a smell of death.  I had smelled this earlier, but tried to convince myself that it was stagnant water.  But, we all know that there is no smell that can be compared to the smell of death.  Jake and I walked up to this cow, where she was struggling to breathe.  It is very difficult to see a living being of any kind struggling for breath.  Jake said she smells like death.  I said, no that is the one behind you.  There we were next to the road with one dead cow, one struggling to take it's last breath and one on up the hill looking unhealthy.  What do you do?

They have had problems with cows being shot along these roads before.  This started to outrage Jake and I.  A mother of a calf and a new calf growing in her uterus and now she is dead.  Jake called the veterinarian, however we would have to wait until he could get his work done at the stock yard.

A few hours later the veterinarian showed up and Jake wanted a necropsy (animal autopsy) to rule out a gun shot and to see if we would need to some how protect the rest of the herd.  The necropsy ruled out the gun shot.  It is difficult to see a bullet hole from a 22 in the hide of the animal. Although my aggression toward this unknown shooter I had stereotyped in my head, had subsided, I was thinking I wish they had just been shot.  Strange I know, but if they were shot then we would know the rest of the herd would be safe. (the likely hood of someone out on a joy ride shooting cows coming back is slim)  Now the veterinarian took blood, urine, liver and lung samples.  Everything looked normal except the lungs.  They looked like they had been blown up with air.  The preliminary without any test results is that these cows had fog fever.
http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinfo/213/fog-fever

Seems like a different kind of drought problem.  We were very dry and then got some really great rain, bringing the pastures back to a green and growing stage.

Friday Fix

A picture of a previous problem that has been fixed in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Can you tell what they fixed?

for the love of the game

Jake and I went to the Clippers game on Saturday night, to celebrate Ohio Beef Producers support of Striking Out Hunger. Ohio Beef Producers have worked together with Kroger to give 2 pounds of lean beef to the Mid Ohio Food Bank for every strike out recorded by the Clippers Pitching Staff. It made me really proud to be a small part of something so big.

It rained right before the game started and then of course there was a beautiful rainbow.

The back of our awesome shirts.

My date to for the love of the game, just one night of for the love of beef.

I am sharing more about the Striking Out Hunger program through the new Ohio Cattlemen's Blog.
http://www.ohiobeefpromotions.org/_blog/Beef_Bytes/post/Striking_Out_Hunger_with_Lean_Beef/#.UCrw-J1mRRE

oh for the love of beef

Being a member of an organization, committee, or group is a humbling experience.  Today I sat in a meeting as a Director for the Ohio Cattlemen’s Board.   They ask a lot about if we are following issues and politics that affect the beef industry.  I’ll be honest that is not something I look up on the internet, nor is it something that runs on the Disney channel that my television is tuned into when it is on.  Therefore no, I am embarrassed to say I don’t have a clue and I should.  I am passing two important issues that you may have interest in not only as a beef producer or beef consumer but as an American.

There will be an issue on the ballot (too early to tell what number) to add to the Ohio Constitution that a group is appointed to handle redistricting.  We all know and have learned to hate the redistricting process in Ohio.  We all would love to see a simple and reasonable solution to the problem.  But this is not it!  They will advertise that it is wonderful and simple and will solve all of the redistricting problems.  However they will probably leave out:

1.     The rules for the group that can be appointed will not allow about 75% of Ohio residents to be considered for the board. 

2.     The board once appointed would set their own salary. Who would ever think this is a good idea?

3.     That once you are on the board you cannot be removed by anyone.  The only way to get off the board is to quit.  For example, not that this would happen, but if one of these members would do something to get them self, put in jail (not that a politician would ever do that).  They would still be on the board.

I think it will be in our best interest to vote no and have them go back to the drawing board to find someone to help us redistrict. 

The OCA party then moved to a hotel for dinner and meeting the people attending the Young Cattlemen’s Conference.  Daren Williams flew in to help us better understand who is helping us and who is hurting us in the media with our Beef Message.  The bottom line is we don’t have a lot of friends – media like viewers so they like drama.  Apparently the drama of running a farm or ranch is not enough.  The drought seems to be a big story.  Daren said they are reporting how much beef prices are going to go up.  The answer is they aren’t going up this weekend so feel free to stock up on beef.  The sad story is generally speaking people can’t tell you what they paid for hamburger last week, but they heard on the news that it was going up.  So, this week they bypass the beef and buy chicken.  Thank you – media. 

In other news ABC who has not run a positive beef story in years – if ever, is beginning a series of entertainment pieces called “What If”.  They are “investigating” what if we all became vegetarians.  We know that only 4% of the population is vegetarian now, so “What If”.  I think back to my Agriculture Education teaching days and think my students could rise to the challenge and answer this for ABC. This is why a basic Agriculture course is important for every high school student. But, back to ABC’s question:

• 1.     We raise cattle, sheep, goats and other animals that are great sources of proteins in places that are not suitable for crops that would be nutritious enough for human consumption.  In other words if you do not have four compartments in your stomach, then you are not a ruminant and cannot eat what cattle, sheep and goats eat.
• 2.     If we were to raise enough plants for all of these people with no meat to be served we would have to till ground that should not be tilled and increase our pesticide use.
• 3.     We would have to destroy wildlife habitats, because cattle can cohabitate with rabbits and deer, but vegetable plants can’t.
• 4.     We would have a severe labor issue in this country. The vegetable industry has a shortage of capable, quality legal labor now.  If we were to increase the plant supply it most certainly increases their problems. We can move thousands of pounds of beef with a couple of people.  Unfortunately we cannot move thousands of pounds of vegetables with a couple of people.

5.     We already have numerous people that are protein deprived and we have choices now.

6.     Deleting the livestock revenue from our budget surely would not be beneficial to the economy.

What else might happen if we all chose the vegetarian lifestyle?

On another note I would probably die, because I do not enough of any other food group to stay alive.

Stayed tuned to ABC’s – “What If” series.

ABC – My “What If” is what would happen if we actually spent our time as Americans solving real problems like feeding the hungry or stopping brutal crimes instead of thinking about what if we all decided not to eat meat.  I think America has bigger fish to fry.  Bahahaha I couldn’t resist.

Friday Fix

A picture of a previous problem that has been fixed in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Can you tell what they fixed?

Joshua

Joshua is a good source of information, considering it is an election year.  However you soon realize several things:

1. Joshua is not running for any political office on any ballot.

Other things that I have found interesting throughout Joshua:

1. In Joshua he gave the descendants of  Joseph that were all daughters his land.  At this time women were not allowed to own land. However they thought it right and just in this case.  I bet there were some women who would've liked to know that this was in Joshua.

2. These people finally made it to the Holy Land, and with God's help were able to take on large armies that were bigger and better armed and gain control of the ground that God, through Moses and now Joshua gave them to inherit and live.  But, just a short time afterward turned away from God and began going about life without him.  Interesting!

3. It also states that prosperity and success comes from 1) being strong and courageous because the task ahead will not be easy, 2) obey God's law, and 3) constantly read and study the Book of the Law - God's word.

The next press question for the Presidential candidates should be - How many times have you read the Bible?

A view from the corn in Nebraska

Feed your Dreams and Starve your Fears

I awoke at 3AM yesterday in order to make it to the airport alone to board a plane and make it to Washington DC to talk with the United States Personal Chef Association http://www.uspca.com/.  This was a first time for me to drive to the airport and fly alone. I was able to starve another fear and feed another dream. I have lived to tell about it.

I do not do many activities outside of the agriculture circle. When asked if I would be the farmer/rancher/feed yard owner representative to talk with the personal chefs about the beef industry with Daren Williams from NCBA, of course I said yes. We had an insightful discussion about how beef is raised, the nutritional value of beef, and how the beef industry is helping the environment. It was so wonderful to meet these members of the beef community.  As I was preparing for this conference I began to realize the close ties beef producers have with chefs. I hadn't really thought of the close links between the two groups.  We share the same consumers, that have the same questions and concerns about our product. I feel proud to have this group of people out there that take a product that we have so much pride in as producers and use their talents to prepare a piece of beef that people enjoy eating with their friends and family.  I feel like I should send a thank you to a chef.

As we were preparing to go to lunch for burgers.  We had the opportunity to meet a famous chef from the Food Network, Mary Beth Albright. http://www.marybethalbright.com/

  

The flight home on US Airways was a little challenging.  I starved the fear of flying independently as the flight was delayed three times.  They finally loaded us at around 6PM, even though we were supposed to leave at 4:20PM.

They then realized we were missing one of our 50 passengers.  They went looking for her and retrieved the 90 year old woman from a plane going to Tallahassee.  When they loaded her she was confused and sweaty, but found her seat quickly. I was thinking great it is now 6:30, lets fly.

I was thinking if Jake was with me he would say this truck is awesome, we need one for the feed yard.

The pilot then gets on the sound system to report we were over our weight limit and would need to off load some fuel.  I laughed out loud, followed by laughter from the other passengers.  But he wasn't joking.

We finally left around 7:30PM. I then got lost leaving the airport and was fortunate to circle through the airport twice looking for 576 west, because I live west of Pittsburgh. I now know you have to take 576 east and I still don't know why - but that's okay.  I feel accomplished because I faced another fear of traveling alone and have a funny story to tell.  Even better I was able to share a story of raising beef for beef lovers. It was a terrific adventure to Washington DC and a privilege to meet all of the personal chefs. Thank you for the opportunity!!

Friday Fix

Someone who will remain nameless (non farm related) drove through the electric fence and did not report it. You can understand how this might happen. Both of these pictures contain the view of the electric fence that you can barely see.

 

The cows then got out into another field, where they did not have permission to be. Jake had to replace the gate handle.  This then gives a way for the you to open the fence without being shocked.

Answer to last weeks Friday Fix:


The cow is "trying" to breed the bull.  It just doesn't work this way.

a quiet summer night - moving cows

Tonight after supper we loaded up and moved some cows back into a pasture, where they had left without permission.  You can catch that story on tomorrow's Friday Fix.  

This activity went very smoothly. I was only in the way once with my camera.  Ooops!

The girls ride in the buggy with me, although they would rather ride with their Dad on the 4wheeler.

  

Surviving the drought in Nebraska

While visiting in North Platte, Gail Martin helped me get some pictures to share of the North Platte river and the South Platte river.  The North Platte, which is like the main artery of life for Nebraska remains full with water released from Lake McConaughy the main water source for Nebraska that is located in western Nebraska.  These two river merge east of North Platte and then becomes the Platte River. This water moves through the Platte River and through smaller tributaries until it reaches the crops it gives life to.

The South Platte River at Hershey

The South Platte River at North Platte.  I assume these numbers are to measure water and not  weeds.

The North Platte River at North Platte

Although Jake and I only have about 30 acres of corn, it is all located in central Nebraska and that is a good thing this year.  It is doing well and being watered frequently by this water source.  Although it did get a drink last night of 2 inches, thanks to God.

The girls and I checked the corn one afternoon while we were working at the feed yard last week. The crop seems to be doing better than last year with each ear having 16 rows around instead of 14 as it did last year.  We will see how it yields as a total field. Did you know all ears of corn are made with an even number of rows around the cob?  When I was little my grandpa said he would give us 100 dollars if we found an ear with an odd number of rows.  Of course we looked for some genetic malfunction, but never found one.


Today Gail sent me this picture of the Platte River which is east of us 80 miles at Grand Island.