Friday, December 19, 2025

For nearly a decade, the Packers and Stockyards Administration, the USDA watchdog to ensure competitive, fair livestock markets, has been little more than a sleeping dog, according to a devastating, 36-page report released by USDA's Office of Inspector General Jan.

I found myself playing referee yesterday, standing in the middle of a cat and dog fight. The scrappers were not a dog and a cat, as you might suspect, but two humans with strong opinions on canine and feline superiority.

The first Girl Scout cookie was sold on Nov. 11, 1932 by a troop in Philadelphia. The girls baked cookies for day nurseries as a community service project.

This paper runs some great articles on a wide variety of topics: nature, science, human interest, history, progress, and of course farm life.

You just never know when you will be tapped for greatness. On the day the play parts were passed out by the school's music teacher - a man with nerves of steel and/or really heavy-duty ear plugs - my son came bearing that slip of paper like it was the sword pulled from the stone.

Less than a couple of months away, we'll greet spring in all its fresh (though somewhat muddy) glory.

It is no secret the population of our farm families is aging rapidly. According to 2002 U.S. Census, the average age of an Ohio farmer who is the farm's principal operator is 53.

Our January weather here in Ohio has been quite pleasant compared with the cold December we experienced.

When it comes to international bribery and illegal kickbacks, Australia's inquiry of its state-sanctioned wheat exporter's, AWB, sleazy dealings with Saddam Hussein-led Iraq is giving an all new meaning to the nation's clever Down Under nickname.

It strikes me as a bit humorous that everything old has become new again in many segments of our society.