Columns

One devil’s advocate thoughts

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Alan Guebert

If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, idle thoughts are, what, the product of a devil’s advocate?
Maybe, but one election result from early November leaves plenty of room for thought, idle or otherwise.
On Nov. 3, Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 2, a statehouse-directed ballot initiative to create a “Livestock Care Standards Board.”
The […]

Critical responses to mandatory national service

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Scott Shalaway

Last week I suggested that mandatory national service in one of many different fields would be a good way to bridge the gap between high school and the real world.
Furthermore, I suggested that FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) be resurrected as a form of national service. My perspective was to provide a work force […]

Life puts us where we are supposed to be

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Judith Sutherland

“The bright sun filtered through the clouds, warming the fields of alfalfa that my father was mowing. Within a day or two it would be put into bales of hay, gathered from the field, stored in the hay loft and used to feed our livestock. I stood at the fence line with the lunch my […]

School trip is growing experience — for me

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

Our sixth-grade son, Wonderboy, has gone to camp. Camp being yet another thing the school district cooked up specifically to test me.
Much like the whole “Fifth graders totally belong in middle school with big giant huge children who look like they eat fifth graders for mid-morning snack!”
They have helpfully decided that in sixth grade, […]

Where do these people come from?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Susan Crowell

I’m not a Scrooge, really, I’m not. So I can’t blame it on the upcoming holiday season. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting old(er). Or maybe I just need more chocolate. But for whatever the reason, I seem to be getting less tolerant of some of the news that crosses my desk.
For example, there is […]

Crop harvest drags into Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by Marlin Clark

USDA released the Sunday night Crop Progress Report Monday after the close, and it was not pretty. Harvest still drags on, and rain coming into the Midwest this week will not help.
Thanksgiving will come and go with corn, and even soybeans, still in the fields.
One of the biggest traditions of my youth was […]

Put more black ink on your bottom line

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Miranda Reiman

If Walmart were in the cattle business, it would probably serve as an operating definition of “least-cost producer.” People might refer to its cowherd enterprise as the model for slashing expenses.
That’s the way to make more money in this margin business, isn’t it? The simple economic equation is income minus expenses equals profit, so […]

Did you blink? It is indeed all gone

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Janie Jenkins

Somebody — was it you? — really, really blinked from the time you were warned that if you did it would all be gone! — because since I issued that warning just two weeks ago it is indeed totally all gone!
And now that daylight saving time has also gone, the amount of light diffused by […]

HSUS trash talk? Bring it on!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Susan Crowell

We need to get ready for the coming HSUS battle. Their war chest is deep and their p.r. machine is slick. Issue 2 was a cake walk compared to what’s coming.

FSA Andy for Nov. 12, 2009

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by FSA Andy

Hello Again!
I know you have been working hard to finish harvesting, but now is the time to plan ahead concerning your 2010 crops. At your local FSA office, you can buy an insurance policy on any of your perennial crops that are not insurable by Federal Crop Insurance. This program is called the Noninsured Assistance […]