I was fascinated by this book:

After reading a recommendation for this book on Facebook from Cindy Cunningham of the National Pork Board, I went to our local library and picked up The Children’s Blizzard.

I read it on the plane while traveling to and from Nashville for the Cattle Industry Convention.

Warning—once you start reading, it’s hard to put down.

It’s the story of the ferocious blizzard of January 12, 1888 that killed hundreds of newly arrived settlers, including more than a hundred children in the Dakotas and Nebraska as they tried to make their way home from school.

If you live on a farm or ranch—or if you grew up on one—I think you will find this to be a dramatic, heartbreaking, and haunting story. It’s also offers an interesting description of the very early days of weather forecasting in the U.S.

Can you imagine what life was like in the Midwest and Great Plains without radio, TV, newspaper or Internet to keep us informed on the weather?

After reading The Children’s BIizzard, I now have even greater respect for the brave, hardy souls that settled the American frontier.

I spent four days this week with Brownfield account executives Jill Makovec and Jeff Moore visiting agribusinesses from Grassland Dairy Products in Greenwood to the Case IH plant at Racine. In all, 15 stops and 26 interviews. The thing that always amazes me is just how big some of these operations are, for example: Grassland Dairy will handle six million pounds of milk per day making it the largest milk-intake in Wisconsin. The Case IH plant has added a second shift, 350 new employees to handle the demand for Magnum and New Holland T8000 tractors..and 40 percent of the tractors they make are exported. On Wednesday we spent a fair amount of time talking with folks at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; while these agencies are often the target of criticism, they are staffed by people who go out of their way to do whatever they can to help farmers and others. To sum it up, Wisconsin agriculture is vast, diverse and has a bright future!

-Bob Meyer

The Wisconsin Agribusiness Tour was sponsored by WIsconsin Corn Growers Association.  

(Pictured left to right: Jeff Moore, Bob Meyer and Jill Makovec)

Bob also wanted to make sure we all knew, that although he was the one doing the interviews and reporting from the road, he wasn’t the real star of the show.  

 ”Here is a picture of the message monitor when we arrived at AEM’s office yesterday. . .”

 Reports, interviews and photos from the 2012 Wisconsin Agribusiness Tour are featured on the Brownfield website.

Jonathon Bennett , Chef at Moxie the Restaurant in Cleveland was wearing it and needless to say it generated a lot of interest, especially to those of us old enough to remember Grandma cooking with lard.

-Dave

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon at the Pine Tree Elementary School in Avon, Ind. for their Ag Day. The gym had ten different learning stations for the kids to learn about Indiana agriculture. Wade Ostrander was teaching the kids about pollination process in corn.

Here are a few shot to take you through that lesson:

There were also learning stations for kids on aquaculture, watermelon, pork, soybeans, dairy, popcorn, tomatoes and even one on auctioneering.

This is the third event like this – the agriculture community has also brought farm machinery and animals to Pine Tree… All with the goal of developing a bond with the students and agriculture.

I discovered this outhouse in working condition at a 150 year old church and cemetery in Linn County, Iowa recently. Yes it still is used during funerals and when the church is locked. Pretty fancy compared to the ones I remember.

-Passer

Tom explains that the first picture was taken when he was addressing a general session at Cattle Industry Convention: 

In case the context of the first shot is elusive, I told the audience during my ‘market cast’ at the general session that my friends would never believe that I’d spoken to so many people. I pulled out my camera and this is the result.

Tom is playing with the camera again.  This one just might be my favorite:

Honestly,  I know how hard they are working because I’ve listened to the radio reports and read the stories they have posted.  You can catch some of the coverage on the Brownfield website.

There is also this picture of a rather strange looking dessert that was served. . .

And apparently he did have his journalist cap on while there, because there is a picture of Tom interviewing NACD President Gene Schmidt.

 From Vegas, Tom flew to Nashville, Tennessee for the Cattle Industry Convention (CIC) where Brownfield’s Ken Anderson was already hard at work covering the event. (Brownfield’s coverage of CIC is sponsored once again this year by Novartis Animal Health.) 

Tom, as President of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) brought greetings to the CIC from NAFB and from Brownfield. Thanks to Chuck Zimmeran with AgWired for sharing this picture of Tom at the very large and interesting microphone podium. . .

According to Bob, more than 800 people attended donkey basketball at Loyal High School Monday night. Put on by the Loyal FFA and the Granton FFA, the first game saw the Loyal FFA beat the Loyal Fire Department. The second game saw the Granton Fire Department defeat the Granton FFA. The Granton Fire Department then faced the Loyal FFA for the overall world championship…the Granton Fire Department won 10-7 and a “fast-paced” game.

Pictured, left to right: Becki Rhoades, Jennifer Shinkle, Jeff Stratman, Laurie Bonnot, Tom Steever, Anita Vanderwert, Joyce Steinman, and John Baker at Prison Brews Restaurant in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Is it just me, or do you think maybe NAFB has adopted new “team colors?”