Bent County Annual Meeting

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs at FFA Convention

As The Pulse noted a few weeks ago, Mike Rowe (of the hit show Dirty Jobs and MikeRoweWorks.com) headlined the kickoff session of the 2009 National FFA Convention. Mike spoke with the members about challenging the common assumptions about work, agriculture and labor. He asked them to think about what really constitutes a ‘good’ job. Among his more noteable quotations, Mike spoke about challenging the presumptions about environmentalism saying,

“If you scrape the dirt off a farmer or rancher, you find the greenest people around.”

 

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Mike also sat down with Orion Samuelson after the speech to talk about his impressions of the speech and about his new role (if somewhat unexpected by him) as an advocate and spokesman for animal and production agriculture. Mike has seen agriculture first hand and understands that the nice talk behind groups like HSUS and PETA has no basis in fact.

 

Mike Allen of Agritalk Radio also spoke with Mike about his speech and his somewhat uneasy status as the new advocate for animal agriculture.

 

Baca County Annual Meeting

Early Season Snowstorm, A Mess Out East

The Wednesday evening snowstorm moved east and dropped heavy snow on Colorado’s Eastern Plains Thursday. More than a dozen school districts were either closed or delayed, and Interstate 70 was shut down from Airport road to Burlington because of treacherous conditions.

Many locations on the Plains reported 6-8 inches of snow with a few reports of nine inches or more.

Contributing to The Pulse, Lincoln County FB President, Charles Hoffman tells us first hand about the early season storm and give us a glimpse into his day running the Limon Leader and Eastern Colorado Plainsman newspapers.

Stuck!

Wednesday morning we woke to a good bit of snow sticking to the grass.  Wednesday is the day we deliver our newspapers, so no sleeping in for us on account of the snow.

I begin Wednesdays with a trip down Highway 24 to Simla to pick up the newspapers and return to Limon so we can prepare them for delivery.  The dirt roads from Home were muddy under 2” of wet heavy slushy snow, so I was relieved to make it to Paved Roads! The paved roads in and around Limon were wet but safe.  Highway 24 to Simla…completely different story!  There was an inch of pack topped with 3 – 4 inches of snow .  The blessing was that NOBODY was mistaking these roads for good, and everyone was keeping speeds to a minimum.

My Wednesdays consist of a 172 mile trip from Limon to Simla on Highway 24 and back, 40-287 to Hugo, State Road 109 to Genoa then I-70 to Arriba and then back to Limon.  The weather in Genoa was bad enough that when I got into Limon at around 3PM we decided to take the children out of school early and head home while it was still light and safe.

The weather was NOT nice to I-70 while I was in Limon.  We took both vehicles home from town, as I was sure that the roads were just wet as they had been all day. Boy was I wrong. The temperature had dropped and the snow had picked up enough to make it a nice wide sheet of ice.  We made it home, but we cannot say the same for the driver of the Land Rover that was between Jessica and I on the interstate.  He did 3 complete circles in the road before sliding into the ditch.

Once we made it home and filled the pellet stove, it was time to tend to the cows while we still could.  Evening chores went well and the cows were all doing fine tucked in behind the outbuildings.  The stock tank hadn’t frozen over and the calves are all big enough to really enjoy tromping through the drifts.

Thursday morning chores didn’t so as well.

School was cancelled for the kids, and the pickup had a nice 3 foot drift right up to the tailgate so I gave it a few hours for the sun to come up so I could see what we were up against.  Once I got the pickup out, I made the ½ mile trip up the drive way to the maintained county road.  I was happy to see that the county crews had been down that road and I decided to go check cows.

I did not fair the drift in the lane quite as well as the one in the driveway and got the pickup stuck.  I walked to the hydrabed and tried to use it to get the pickup out.  FAIL!

Not being one to be defeated by a bit of snow, I decided to use the 4 wheeler to check cows.  It started right up, but swiftly got stuck right beside the pickup.

I guess from now on I’ll walk out and check the cows the old fashioned way!

Cowboy Cited When Horse Walks Away from Bar

WORLAND, Wyo. (AP) — A northwestern Wyoming man received a citation for letting his horse wander in Worland, but not before he complained to town law enforcement officials about the absence of a hitching post in front of the local saloon.

William Schellinger was cited by Washakie County law enforcement officers for allowing his horse to run at large in this city along the Big Horn River.

Schellinger was apparently in a bar early Sunday when his horse wandered away, prompting police to follow it to make sure it didn’t cause an accident with a car.

After being confronted by officers, Schellinger contended the city didn’t have any hitching posts and told them they should spend their time arresting real criminals, not bothering cowboys with wayward horses.

Colorado YF&R Member on Biodiesel

CFB YF&R Member Grant Allen sits down and talks to NPA Reporter Adam Burke about switching to Sunflowers on his Dove Creek Colorado farm. YF&R members visited the bio-diesel plant during their State Leadership Conference in Cortez last year.

EU Dairy Farmers Protest Milk Prices

Boy, while this would be fun to do to say, Michel Pollan, The Pulse is glad we don’t do it that way here in the States.

According to the NY Times,

After months of complaints by European dairy farmers angry over low prices, protesters in Brussels on Monday poured milk onto the streets, hurled eggs and other missiles, and started fires that filled the air with black smoke.

Its Rocktober!!

Congratulations to the Colorado Rockies!!

The March of the Holsteins

Witness the beauty… witness the majesty… witness the wonder that is: The March of the Holsteins.

Will Gilmer again delivers not only funny, but informative information about agriculture via social media and internet technology. Thanks Will.

The Wheat Farmer’s Wife

Fall is finally here and at our place, that means there’s no rest for the wicked. Not even for the non-wicked. Even the dogs are tired.

The past days and weeks have been a dust-filled blur of feed cutting, drilling, baling, chicken butchering and hog synchronization for us as they have been for many producers around the state. This time of year, especially when I’m coughing and choking on bitter wheat dust, reminds me of the irony of my situation.

I married a wheat farmer and wheat seems to run deep through my family in all of its forms. My husband grows it, my step dad sells it in the form of flour to bakeries and eateries, and my sister’s family serves it up as a steaming hot plate of pasta at their Italian restaurant. I have Celiac disease so I avoid it like the plague. Ah, irony.

Celiac disease is an allergy to gluten, the protein in wheat that allows baked goods to not crumble into a pile or weigh twice what they should. It’s being more widely diagnosed these days but it’s still annoying and makes eating out a rather tricky and socially awkward ordeal.

They always say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but in our case, it was the other way around. When we were dating, my husband gathered a variety of gluten free baking mixes and flours and over the course of a few weekends, learned how to bake a variety of foods that didn’t have the taste and consistency to double as wrecking balls. He had me at the big, salty baked pretzels.

I know the poor UPS man thinks it strange when he passes the wheat fields on his way to our house, drives past the wheat trucks and the bins of seed wheat to bring over 100 pounds of gluten free flours to our door. I like to keep him on his toes. He’s bringing hog semen to us Friday but we won’t tell him what’s in the little styrofoam cooler.

Headliners Announced for Annual Meeting ’09

CFB is pleased to announce that Financial Expert Robert Cosgrove and Singer/Songwriter Jon Chandler have confirmed their participation at the 2009 CFB Annual Meeting in November.

For the past eight years, Robert Cosgrove has been teaching thousands of people his debt reduction and budgeting strategies with his “hands on” financial seminars. His seminars are highly recommended for business owners and have become an icon nationwide. He has presented his seminars at several other state Farm Bureaus and comes highly recommended.

Singer/Songwriter and novelist, Jon Chandler is a seventh generation Coloradan and a true icon in the western music industry. His list of awards and accomplishments include the 2008 Best Song award from the Western Folklife Center and the 2009 Best Living Western Musician from True West Magazine. He also has a long history with Farm Bureau having performed for several state Bureaus over the years. He also produced a charity album called “Keepers of the Flame: A Tribute to America’s Farmers and Ranchers” along with AFBF and other national Ag groups. He and his band, The Whichitones will provide the entertainment during this year’s Annual Banquet.

CFB is pleased to announce that Financial Expert Robert Cosgrove and Singer/Songwriter Jon Chandler have confirmed their participation at the 2009 CFB Annual Meeting in November.

Robert Cosgrove

For the past eight years, Robert Cosgrove has been teaching thousands of people his debt reduction and budgeting strategies with his “hands on” financial seminars. His seminars are highly recommended for business owners and have become an icon nationwide. He has presented his seminars at several other state Farm Bureaus and comes highly recommended.

Jon Chandler

Singer/Songwriter and novelist, Jon Chandler is a seventh generation Coloradan and a true icon in the western music industry. His list of awards and accomplishments include the 2008 Best Song award from the Western Folklife Center and the 2009 Best Living Western Musician from True West Magazine. He also has a long history with Farm Bureau having performed for several state Bureaus over the years. He also produced a charity album called “Keepers of the Flame: A Tribute to America’s Farmers and Ranchers” along with AFBF and other national Ag groups. He and his band, The Whichitones will provide the entertainment during this year’s Annual Banquet.

New Holland Revives the Ford 8N

New Holland is building a new version of an old classic, the Ford 8N tractor.  They call it the Boomer 8N and they had one on display at Husker Harvest Days in Nebraska. New Holland has put together a great website for the new model, check it out! The model really captures the nostalgia and heritage surrounding the original Ford 8N, complete with the traditional “red belly” color scheme.

The model is rated at 50hp, with 40 pto hp and has a continuously variable transmission.

09 State Fair Comes to a Close, Numbers Up

Attendance at the just-concluded 2009 Colorado State Fair in Pueblo was up 2 percent from last year, despite the economic downturn, fair officials said Tuesday.

The fair counted 496,651 attendees over its 11-day run, 9,992 more than a year ago, 11,613 more than 2007 and 44,637 more than 2006. This years 2% increase in attendance follows last years increase of 7%.

“The Colorado State Fair strives to provide a family friendly event at an affordable price while staying true to our goal of supporting youth and agriculture; I believe our increased attendance figures are a reflection of that effort,” fair General Manager Chris Wiseman said in a statement.

Also this year, the Touchstone Energy Junior Livestock Sale drew in approximately $350,500 for Colorado’s 4-H and FFA youth, slightly down from last years total of $393,000

Kit Carson County Cannon

No Annual Meeting in Kit Carson County would be complete without the firing of Lester Hasart’s cannon.

Twitter Users Develop Pro-Ag T-Shirt

Andy Kleinschmidt, an Ohio State University Extension Agriculture Educator and Assistant Professor in Agronomy, and Jim Chen, dean of University of Louisville School of Law, recently collaborated on Twitter to develop a T-shirt that promotes the unmistakable benefits that agricultural production has for the environment. Buy one today!

Andy describes the genisis of the shirt on his blog, Agriculture in Van Wert County, Ohio

The idea for this shirt came from Jim Chen, Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Louisville during a live Twitter discussion.  Dean Chen’s (known as @chenx064 on Twitter) original quote was “I try to describe agriculture as applied environmental protection, just as agricultural economics is now applied economics.”  I’ve known that agricultural economics is described as applied economics and also applied agricultural economics, so that was not new to me. BUT I had never heard agriculture referred to as ‘applied environmental protection.’  Brilliant! I thought the saying should be made in to a shirt, and with Dean Chen’s blessing I made the shirt via Zazzle.

Colorado Farm Bureau is a regular contributor to Twitter and converses regulary with Prof. Kleinschmidt. You can find Mr. Kleinschmidt on Twitter at @akleinschmidt and Dean Chen at @chenx064

Rachel the Showpig

Whew. The county fair season has concluded for us. The ribbons are home, the animals are sold and kids are beginning to look ahead to the start of school.

I tend to keep a mighty close eye on the hog show regardless, but this year there was one little girl and her pig I was keeping really close tabs on.

One of Jason’s littlest livestock judging kids is little Mikaela. This year, all of her show pigs were given names beginning with the letter R and her Duroc, the redhead, was named after another redhead in her life…me.

Rachel the Showpig has had my attention for several months because, afterall, it’s not every day you get a pig named after you, especially one that shares your hair color.

Miss Mikaela did a great job showing at the fair and was racking up the awards. When the dust cleared, she won Reserve Champion Goat, Champion Junior Master Showman, Champion Junior Goat Showman, Grand Champion Market Hog and Reserve Champion Market Hog. Did I mention that this is her first year in 4-H?

Rachel the Showpig won Reserve Champion honors and her red hair looks great in pictures. Congratulations to all of the 4-H and FFA showmen around the state
and good luck for a great school year.

New Cell Phone Made From Corn

The Samsung 'Reclaim' is made from corn bioplastic.

Sprint and Samsung have teamed up to create the first phone made with corn bio-plastic the ‘Reclaim’

The phone also has a 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, can accept microSD cards (we assume) up to 32GB, and has Sprint Navigation onboard. The packaging will be eco-friendly as well, as it’s constructed from 70 percent recycled materials and printed with soy-based ink. The carrier will be selling the Reclaim in “Earth Green” or “Ocean Blue” come August 16th for $50 (after a $30 instant rebate and $50 mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract.

Mike Rowe Works!

Mike Rowe, of the hit show Dirty Jobs has made it no secret that he is tired of our country looking down on good old fashioned hard work. As he made clear in a speech (the video of which was posted earlier on this site) to a group of IT professionals, our country has forsaken skilled labor and the traditional work ethic not because blue collar jobs are unimportant, but because they are not celebrated. As he writes in a letter to President Obama

“Community Colleges are routinely described as ‘alternatives’ to ‘proper’ education. Madison Avenue bombards us with messages that equate happiness with leisure. Hollywood portrayals of hard work usually embody an element of drudgery or some silly stereotype, and jobs once considered vital to our society are now simply overlooked.”

According to Mike, we have declared war on Work! We should no longer look down upon “good hard work” and our country needs to be reinvigorated in its perception of Work. Mike made it clear that he wants to celebrate skilled labor and hard work, and the contributions its practitioners make to this great country.

Mike is a guy who puts his money where his mouth is. He has launched Mike Rowe Works.com The website is a public awareness campaign designed to hold up the contributions of skilled labor and reinvigorate the value of hard work.

Go and take a look at the site. It’s a great resource for news and information about the business of hard work. There is a forum section for anyone who is involved in the trades, or who just wants to voice their opinion or talk about work.

Trent Loos, the founder of the agriculture advocacy group, Faces of Agriculture thinks Mike Rowe is the best man to stand up for agriculture and for good hard work. Trent explains himself below.

There is also a specific forum for people based in the agriculture industry, which mike has covered extensively on his show. Stop by the site and make a few comments about the contributions that agriculture makes to our country.

You can also follow Mike on Twitter

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak-peek at the cover of the upcoming edition of Colorado Way of Life magazine!

Of course I’m serious…

My husband is readying his derby car for the County Fair next week. That means I’m spending long hours in the shop with him but please don’t make the mistake in assuming that I’m doing anything constructive. I can typically locate tools, nuts and bolts that are randomly scattered about the shop and that’s about where my mechanical skills end.

I am pretty good at making parts runs though I must admit that those poor guys at Witt Boys in Limon see me coming and must hope and pray that I have the necessary part names jotted down. Otherwise, I’m asking for the “yellow deal that goes on the thing with the valve that hooks on the gun whatchamacallit.” Bless those poor guys. They know I’m asking for a hose for the air compressor. They’re good.

We just returned home from a long evening in the shop working on the 1964 Mercury derby car. It’s green and yellow. That’s about all I know about it.

Our conversation consisted of phrases like, “Rachel, my darling bride…might you please hold the light a tad to my left?,” and “Rachel, fair, sweet, Rachel…it appears that the gas line is leaking. Might you be able to locate the drip?,” and “Shucky darn, Rach…might you be able to sidle up to the bench and fetch the electrical tape?”

All of these phrases were nearly sung to me in the sweetest of tones. The wiring never smoked, no wires were tightened into nuts, the fuel pump worked the first time, the headers bolted right to the engine and the manifold weren’t bent. A tear came to my eye when it was time to leave though I’m sure I’ll skip to the shop again tomorrow. Whee!

C is for Cookie

Thanks to Cookies in Bloom for sending us some Farm Bureau cookies last week .  Cookies In Bloom was started in Dallas, Texas in 1988, the Colorado store was opened in 1996.  Owner of the Colorado store, Jay Brandt is a Farm Bureau member who gets his insurance through CFBI Agent Lee Lownsberry. To contact Cookies In Bloom about their delicious treats phone # 303-730-3131, Fax # 303-730-6313 or e-mail  cib1den@yahoo.com

National Ag Day Celebration a Success!

The celebration of National Ag Day in Colorado was deemed a huge success by many people attending the celebration at the state capitol. In honor of the contributions that agriculture makes to our national economy, our national identity, and to our world, Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien, Speaker of the House Terrance Caroll, and other legislators took part in an antique “Tractorcade” at the Capitol last Wednesday.

 The Tractorcade began at Cheeseman Park and made its way down 14^th Ave. to the Capitol with the help of DPD parade escorts. The bipartisan group of honorary drivers included, Lt. Gov. O’Brien, Speaker Terrance Carroll, Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, Rep. Wes McKinley, Sen. Jim Isgar, Rep. Randy Baumgardner, Sen. Chris Romer, and Sen. Greg Brophy. After taking a short ride around the Capitol parking lot, the drivers parked their tractors and attended a press conference to honor the day.  View pictures from the event on the CFB Flickr Page.