By Chandler Bowers

As I am top dressing wheat with fertilizer and herbicide, I am reminded of the sacrifices that we all must make to keep the world revolving for generations to come.

There are lots of sacrifices made by farm families in order to keep their businesses profitable. Long hours, seasonal vacations, the unpredictability of Mother Nature—these are just a few of the challenges that we face. And that’s just the beginning of the “lessons learned at the end of a dirt road.”

So, if these lessons are so great, why would young people come back to farm and ranch?

By Mike Barnett

When I drive out in the country this time of year I think of Vegas, where the high rollers gamble their stake for a winning bet.

No bright lights, rustling crowds and the whir of slot machines in Central Texas. Instead, I see red and green tractors and a variety of farm equipment. It’s a different kind of gambling and farmers have anted up all winter, developing their game plan, preparing the land and laying down fertilizer. Now it’s time to go all-in and the rumble of high-powered machinery could be heard this weekend as farmers dropped seed into the ground.

By Gene Hall

My co-writer of this blog, Mike Barnett, penned this week an entertaining piece about how telephones for farmers and others have changed, historically speaking.  I’d like to move that thought one step further.

Farm organizations, like Texas Farm Bureau, grew quickly in the 20^th Century because farmers felt isolated and alone in rural America.  Always near the end of the line when services made American life easier, rural Texans often could not speak for themselves.  They managed it by adopting policy positions and empowering Farm Bureau to speak for them.

By Suzie Wilde

I kiss a family farmer.

Some of the land he farms has been in his family for almost 100 years. He does all the work himself at this point in his farming career, except for harvest time when two or three other folks have to help. Often those are even all family members, including his town-dwelling wife, at times. (I can pack a pretty tight module, if I do say so myself.) But lately I have come to realize that many of those out there who are critics of farming think that the farmer I kiss should not be allowed to be called a family farmer. They think that he has too much land, too many tractors, a barn that is too big… They contend that he is “big ag” or “corporate farming.”

By Gene Hall

Some believe the answer to future food needs is for many people to grow their own food.  As a nation, as a species, we once did that—nearly all of us at first. Now, more than 97 percent depend on those who work the land.

Could it be that way again?  Sure.  Growing up on the farm in the late ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s was an experience I would not trade for anything, but I left it willingly.  Since World War II, most of America has done the same.