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Get Your Head out of the Manure
Dale Helwig
April, 2009
Dale Helwig is the 3rd
district representative for Kansas Farm Bureau's Young
Farmers and Ranchers
In today’s world we tend to maximize
every waking moment of our lives. We get up, eat
breakfast if there is time or just grab something to eat
in the truck, and head off to work. While at work we
try to get the necessities done and at the same time
have that crazy cellphone glued to our ear trying to
conduct other business or answer someone’s pressing
question. After work its head home, grab the kids and
try to make it to whatever they have going on this
time. Finally you get home, maybe you have had dinner,
maybe not, and its get the kids to bed and possibly have
five minutes of quiet so you can answer an e-mail or
check the markets online before you crash and start it
all over again tomorrow. We seem to go all out all day
long and sometimes never accomplish anything but
survival.
My Dad is a man of few words, but when he
talks you tend to listen. I remember a time when we
were vaccinating a group of hogs and I was saying there
was a meeting I would like to attend, but we were going
to be so busy how could I possibly even think about
going. Dad paused just a moment from working and said
something that has stuck with me for years. “Sometimes
you have to get your head out of the manure.” What Dad
meant is that sometimes we need to look around and see
what else is out there. The world does not revolve
around our operation. We get so wrapped up in our world
that we tend to get tunnel vision. As individuals we
are just a small piece of what is going on in
agricultural today. There is so much more out there in
agriculture and our world than the small amount of our
planet that we work on everyday. Sometimes we need to
get our head out of the manure and see what is beyond
the pasture fence. You can see if your neighbor may
have a different idea and possibly a better way of doing
things, or just look at the bigger picture and see what
else is going on. In agriculture, like in life, we are
all in this together. We need to be aware of our
neighbor’s needs and how what is happening to them could
affect us in the future. We need to actually
communicate with each other to be able to assist one
another with our problems and difficulties.
This is where Farm Bureau can help. It
is the glue that helps hold all of us together. Farm
Bureau provides those opportunities to look past our own
operation and see what is beyond the pasture fence.
Farm Bureau not only keeps us abreast of the political
climate, but also provides ways to bring information
back to the farm that would benefit our operation. One
of the greatest examples I know of is the Young Farmer
and Rancher state conference usually held in Wichita.
It gives you a break from the everyday and allows for a
breather so that you can think about your operation in
the big picture. What are your plans for the next five
or ten years? Is there a better way of raising my
commodity? What about marketing, is there another
system? How is what’s happening politically going to
affect me? Is there anything that I can do about it?
YF&R provides these opportunities through workshops,
speakers, and just networking through the different
people you will meet across the state.
Our state is night and day from east and
west. Eastern Kansas worries about too much rain most
of the time, the other side wonders if it really does
rain. Eastern Kansas double crops a field and hope both
crops will make it, in the west the hope is something
will make it once. We face different issues from water
rights, mineral rights, animal rights groups, and
urbanization to name a few. But the fact of the matter
is that in reality, or “the big picture,” it affects us
all. I was amazed when my wife Jodi and I were given
the opportunity to go to the national YF&R conference in
Baltimore Maryland. We were able to talk to several
farmers and ranchers from the east coast. The amazing
thing was how differently we look at things and what
issues really mattered to us individually. Most
probably didn’t have more than 160 acres unless they
were dairy farmers. I met one young man in particular
who was as proud of his 30 acres as anyone could have
been of 1000 acres. Here in Kansas we mow yards bigger
than that. But our difference was our perspective. In
Kansas we market quantity a lot of times. Those on the
east coast are worried about quality and specialty
markets. We call them niche markets back here.
Urbanization is their main problem, not so much in
western Kansas. But in talking to those farmers and
ranchers back east, I discovered we all had one thing in
common. PRIDE. We love what we do and are
passionate about it. Our goal is produce a high quality
product not just for the public, but ourselves as well.
Provide for our families and pass the values we have
learned down to our children.
We are in this together. We are a part
of one of the greatest professions on earth, providing a
safe, high quality food and fiber source to our fellow
residents here on earth. We are no longer local, we are
global. We need to get our head out of the manure and
realize that. We need to start communicating with our
urban neighbors, but not just them. We need to start
communicating and working together with our fellow
farmers and ranchers. Farm Bureau and the YF&R program
provide a great way to start doing this. I hope to see
you at the next event.
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