I'm hosting a podcast through the Michigan Ag Council and talking to interesting farmers around our state. The first one we're featuring is Jed Welder, Army Ranger turned farmer. You can listen to the podcast here!
Also this month ... we finished the fourth and final cutting of alfalfa this past week ... just in time to start chopping corn tomorrow! Kris is very busy organizing all of the million things that have to go right to make this happen. It's an exciting time of year and we're all happy and satisfied when the harvest is done. Hopefully that will be this week, if the weather cooperates. Every single farmer here is saying the same thing, every single year.
This month, for U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, I spoke at the Leadership At Its Best training conference in Raleigh, NC! This is a leadership development program sponsored by Syngenta for the American Soybean Association and National Corn Growers Association. It was a great group of people.
As for the industry, there was big news that a dairy processing plant is going to be built right in our town. Good news for all. We went to the Ogemaw County Fair for the first time, as well as the Clinton County 4-H Fair for the perhaps 25th time.
Our little calves that were born this year have now moved into group pens, because cattle are social. They also enjoy watching kids ride on scooters, which is a little-known farm fact.
Aside from our farm, we've really been enjoying our neighbors' farms on Dewitt Road (Chants and Smiths). Not only do they have sugar beets, which you don't see around here all the time ....
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| Can you believe how great these end up tasting?! |
but they also planted a beautiful field of sunflowers!
I love driving by them every day. This is the first year I've had sunflowers in my garden too (thanks to my friend Ashley, who gave them to me), and I never knew how much I liked them.
Happy harvest to all the farmers, and happy end-of-summer to everyone! School starts tomorrow ... but the boys are still helping with calf chores. Calves like to eat no matter when school is happening. And that's a pretty well-known farm fact.
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