Living out in the country, I fully expect to see bugs and spiders in our house. I’m forever turning a corner and finding a spider crawling somewhere – that said, I should just keep a Kleenex in my hand at all times for just the occasion! I wasn’t even surprised the day I found a small garter snake on the …

There are so many things I love about this time of year: the cool, fall days (in a normal year), the changing of the colors of leaves, hay rides, bonfires, football and combine rides. I seem to have a lot of fond memories associated with autumn. One of the sights that triggers a good memory is a combine in a …

It seems like things disappear on the farm and no one knows where they go. Grandma’s flowers were eaten overnight, and it wasn’t until she caught the rabbit red-pawed that we knew for sure who the culprit was. But that’s nature at work so I can’t be upset. Tools in our shop seem to grow legs. I am disheartened when …

When I was younger, my mom would send me out to the garage where our deep-freeze was to get meat to thaw for dinner that night. She’d tell me exactly what she wanted, exactly how it was packaged, and almost exactly where it was in the freezer but for some reason, I could never find it. And I think that’s …

I proudly work for the beef industry and up until I was in high school, my dad had a small feedlot. He has since rented the pens out to a neighbor to use for feeding, but the bunks are still there. I remember my dad loading up steers in the late evening hours and making the trip to the Omaha …

I’ve never been one to wish for snow, at least not while I’m lucid, but this summer I find myself dreaming of big sweatshirts, scarfs and my fur-lined boots. August teased us with some 70-degree days but now it’s been back near 100. I also wonder if winter will come in October since the seasons have been accelerated by at …

A passionate and powerful group of agvocates are doing their best to shut down the wifi connection at the Kansas City Crowne Plaza Hotel! It’s Agvocacy 2.0 Conference time. I just joined the conference this afternoon and have some photos in the process of uploading now. Jamie Johansen is also attending the conference and between us we’ll collect a lot …

Being the mother of a little farm boy, I fully expect to find leaves in his jeans pockets, worm “dirt” under his fingernails and an assortment of other wigglers and crawlers under the seat of his big wheel. In fact, the day he came toting his first fish into the house on the stringer, dripping on the wood floor the …

Despite the fact that the House Agriculture Committee has a new farm bill ready to go to the floor for a vote, leadership decided late on Friday to instead vote this week on a one-year extension of the current legislation, coupled with an extension of disaster aid for livestock producers. The reason is the drought, according to House Agriculture Committee …

The Chairman of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board is Wesley Grau, Cow/calf and seedstock producer from Grady, N.M. He joined NCBA President J.D. Alexander on stage at the first general session to welcome about 700 cattle farmers from around the country to the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. After the general session most attendees moved to the Joint CBB Business Session & …