Sunday, May 5, 2024

Now is the time to pop corn, drink hot cocoa (or beverage of your choice), play favorite music, read a good book -- and fall asleep -- at least that's what happens here.

Yesterday was one of those gray, dreary days that make us long for sunshine and blue skies. Winter's crop, so far, has been fresh mud on top of old mud.

To start off 2012, here's the story of a tractor that was bright and shiny and new 100 years ago. The International Harvester Company introduced the International Mogul 12-25 — its first lightweight tractor — in 1912. Even though the Mogul 12-25 weighed almost 5 tons, it was a whole lot lighter than the huge, clumsy machines that IHC had been building up until then.

Before this 2012 thing gets too far down the road, let's take a sober second or two to review some of the more inventive ideas from 2011 and see if we can't make them work in the coming 12 months of political and economic stalemate.

Recently, reminiscing with the children about our own childhoods where we walked 5 miles in five foot drifts to school, uphill both ways (naturally),...

Under the heading of "unintended consequences," border fences are proving to be very effective at disrupting the movements of wildlife.

The Farm Service Agency has a loan program to assist rural youth to establish and operate income producing agriculture projects. The youth loan program is connected to participation in 4-H or FFA.

As 2011 ends and we look ahead at what might be the big issue for agriculture in 2012, I think the big issue will be on farm nutrient management.

Herds that are using herd management software should be able to print out inventories of at least the cow herd, and hopefully the replacement herd as well. The system may, or may not be able to give you a historic inventory.

This is the season of exchanging of gifts. Every Christmas many friends, relatives and neighbors exchange Christmas gifts in celebration of Christmas. About October of every year we begin to talk about our gift exchange.