Happy birthday to you

Agriculture.com guys break out the cake

We served ourselves sheet cake this week to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the launch Agriculture Online. In the fast-changing environment of digital media, we thought it worth pausing a bit to take stock of where we’ve been and where this whole A-train is headed.

One quick impression from the fifteen-year flashback: What goes around comes around.

The Internet world today feels a lot like it did in 1995—familiar in its uncertainty. Back in ’95 a lot of people were skeptical about whether many farmers would ever use the Web. We hear the same sort of questions today about farmers using new tools like social media or the iPad. We shall see.

A farmer friend told me when launched Agriculture.com that if we knew how this whole thing would pan out, we’d soon be sitting on the beach relaxing with a drink and watching the sunset.

We aren't sitting on the beach this week, but we did pause to reflect on a few things done that might be worth remembering. Our forums have helped people solve problems, like fixing a tough machinery repair or figuring out the farm bill. Folks have bought and sold millions of dollars worth of equipment in the classifieds. They’re received good advice from trusted markets and weather advisors. We’ve even helped a few marriages happen because of meetings on Agriculture.com.

Thanks to all of you for staying tuned to agriculture.com. We’ll keep working at it, and plan to be launching of number of new features soon that will kick off a new era for the website.

Oh, and for fun, here are a few of the trivia questions we posed at the staff party this week. Answers at the bottom. First one who gets them all right, well, I expect you’ll become about as rich and famous as we have. See you on the beach.

1. Who was Agriculture Online’s first marketing advisor?
a. Ray Grabanski
b. Roy Smith
c. Joe Victor
d. Mike McGinnis

2. On what browser was Agriculture Online first displayed?
a. Droid
b. Explorer
c. Netscape
d. Firefox

3. What country’s farm magazine publisher first partnered with Agriculture.com?
a. France
b. Russia
c. Mexico
d. Canada

4. What farm organization was first hosted on the Web by Agriculture Online?
a. FFA
b. National Pork Producer’s Association
c. Practical Farmers of Iowa
d. American Farm Bureau Federation

5. Who was Agriculture Online's first weather provider
a. AOL
b. DTN
c. Freese-Notis
d. Accu-Weather



Answers: 1, b. 2, c. 3, d. 4. a, 5. c

The magician of farm machinery

Dave Mowitz (right) on video location at AG CONNECT Expo

Dave Mowitz has pulled another rabbit out of the hat. Yesterday, I got to preview his latest masterwork, a special television program on antique farm machinery, or Ageless Iron, as Dave calls the relics of farming's glorious past.

Dave has originated a treasure trove of new ideas for Successful Farming magazine over the years, including Edisons of Agriculture (about farmer inventors), Top Shops (tours of the country's best farm shops), and All-American Farm Team (awards program for farm-raised athletes and academics), and many more.

Ageless Iron is one of the most fun and popular projects he's ever created, and the fun new TV special on that topic reflects Dave's joy in working with the material. He takes viewers on a tour a big antique farm equipment show in Pennsylvania Dutch country, interviews the "professor of paint" on how to make your restoration project shine, takes a ride on a souped-up riding lawn mower, and escorts us into the historic tractor museum at the University of Nebraska. The show debuts on RFD-TV on May 27. (See the Agriculture.com Machinery Show section for more details on the program. And check out the listings for the regular airing of the show on Thursdays, Friday and Sunday every week. )

As a tribute to Dave's wizardry with all things Ageless Iron, I give you a top ten list detailing some of the hallmark machines he's encountered in his distinguished career. And no list about Dave would be complete without some of his own inimitable commentary:

1. First tractor driven: John Deere B

2. Favorite all-time tractor: Wow, there are so many tractors I am partial to. I always appreciated the John Deere 4430 and its Sound-Gard cab,which liberated me from having to suffer in the heat and suck in dust while riding in the old “coffin” cabs of the past. Then, too, I’ve always admired Case IH’s original Magnum series, as well as Caterpillar’s original Challenger line.

I used to drive a Ford 6000 in my teens, which had a Select-O-Speed tranny that actually worked. And when the Select-O-Speed worked it was a wondrous thing (it was the first true power shift transmission in agriculture). I can tell you a favorite tractor I would like to own some day. That would be an Allis-Chalmers G. It is a weird-looking little tractor designed for truck garden and tobacco farming.

3. Tractor with greatest historic significance: Certainly the Ferguson Type A, although the Fordson comes in a very, very close second.

4. Last tractor you restored: Cockshutt 20 Deluxe, although a friend of mine, Jeff Gravert from Central City, Nebraska, is working on painting my Grandfather’s John Deere B. Actually, Jeff has done all the restoration work on that tractor so I can’t really take credit for “restoring” the machine. I did, however, write the checks to get the tractor restored.

5. Favorite tractor you've written about: Well, now that is another tough nut as I’ve had a chance to write about so many great tractors, both old and new. But I’ll take a stab as narrowing it now to one . . .wait a minute, to two favorite tractors--one new, one old.

My favorite new tractor would have to be the Fendt 8000 series with the Vario CVT transmission. This German-built tractor (now owned by AGCO) was a wonder not only for its revolutionary transmission but also its numerous German refinements, including one of the best sound systems I’ve ever heard in a tractor. My favorite old tractor would have to be the Moline Universal. It is an ungainly anachronism, almost ugly in appearance. But the Universal was truly a technological marvel for its time (the late 1910s), introducing numerous engineering advances that would not be put to use until 30 to 40 years after its inception.

6. What equipment you would collect besides tractors: Well, I’ve got some hog oilers, some horse-drawn implements, an odds-and-ends assortment of old wrenches, several cast-iron planter box lids, some kerosene lanterns, some manually-operated corn planters, some...well, I got a lot of “some” old stuff. Oh, I also have an old-fashion wire-styled chicken catcher. I spent a great deal of time plying one of those devices in my youth.

7. Final four of "greatest tractors of all time”: Certainly the Ferguson Type A and the Fordson would top the list of my final four. Of those two, the Ferguson Type A would place number one as it introduced agriculture to hydraulically operated three-point technology and also birthed one of the most popular tractor series of all time which is the N-Series Fords (9N, 2N, 8N and NAA), as well as the hugely popular early Ferguson line of tractors.

The Fordson, on the other hand, was by no means technologically advanced, although it was one of the first production-line tractors to utilized “unit frame” construction. The Fordson gets tabbed as number two, as more of these tractors were built (nearly 850,000) than any other model in the world.

Now as for numbers three and four...hmmmm, that’s a tough one. For three, I would have to go with the IHC Farmall Regular, which earned the distinction for being first all-purpose tractor and father of the hugely popular Farmall line of tractors. And the fourth spot would be the John Deere D, which was the foundation of the Deere hugely popular two-cylinder line. It also earned the distinction of being the tractor model in production the longest (30 years).

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention other top contending tractors like the Allis-Chalmers WC, Best 60, Caterpillar Sixty Diesel, Cletrac W12-20, IHC Farmall H, J.I. Case CC, John Deere 4010, Minneapolis-Moline R, Moline Universal, Oliver 70...oh, and also The Ivel. I recently discovered that this later English-built tractor in 1906 was light years ahead of its time in technological advances.

8. Most interesting new technology: Telematic control of machinery. Similar to OnStar systems in cars but far more advanced in its capabilities, telematic technology will be utilized in farm machinery to not only provide remote monitoring on equipment in the field and wireless transfer of data (such as yield maps) but will also allow farmers to remotely control major functions on tractors, planters, combines, etc. Telematic control is now in widespread use on center pivot sprinklers.

9. Name of a hog oiler you own: Don’t have the exact name for it, but it is the oiler which looks like a watermelon (I believe hog oiler collectors even call it a “watermelon type”) and which also rotates horizontally to dip up oil to coat pigs' sides and underbellies.

10. Favorite color of tractor (yeah, right): I am devoutly non-denominational when it comes to tractor colors. Truly, I appreciate all colors, although I am partial to the brilliant red used by International Harvester in the 1950s and 1960s.

How to sell your stuff

Successful Farming's marketing team lines up in Kansas City

While attending the annual meeting of agri-marketing professionals in Kansas City last week, I ran into a fellow, let’s say his name was Gordon, whom I thought I’d never see again. I knew Gordon in another life, back when he was a successful sales executive, but also knew him as someone who’d been fired a couple times and bounced around a bit in his profession.

My first thought upon shaking Gordon’s hand, was that, wow, how can he keep up that smile and firm handshake? And, he actually seems genuinely interested in talking with me. If he were selling me something, I might be buying.

Marketers must have something special to stay in a tough game, it dawned on me. So I started asking some of the marketing pros at this meeting, “What does it take to be a good marketer?”

After all, don’t most farmers have something to sell besides the commodities they produce? Maybe you sell seed, club calves, or custom field work. Or perhaps you’re selling yourself to landowners.

In about a half dozen interviews, here’s what I learned, mostly pretty basic stuff, but perhaps something to keep in mind next time you’re pitching your customers, banker, neighbor, or landlord.

Understand your customers. “This means listening, and asking why should they care,” said one marketer. I get this. One’s first impulse is what’s in this for me, rather than for the customer.

Be willing to change. “It’s easy to be offended if people don’t like your product or idea,” an advertising agency executive said. “You have to be adaptable.”

Be social and outgoing. Unless you’re a guy like Gordon for whom this comes naturally, you may have to really work at this one. But, unless you put yourself out there, how are you going get your message across? You wouldn’t believe how much networking goes on at an agri-marketing conference.

Be a quick communicator. Kristi Moss, Paulsen Marketing, gave me this thought: “You need to make your message clear and succinct.” Nobody wants a long, boring story about your product or service. Marketers have taught me you should be able to give your message in an “elevator speech”—something you can boil down and tell someone in the time it takes to go from one floor to another.

Use your intuition. Some people have an innate ability to figure out what’s really needed by their customers. “You need to link what is being sold with what is being sought,” said Paulsen’s Greg Guse. To me, this means trusting your basic instincts—what do you know best about machinery, livestock, land, and other farm matters?

I doubt Gordon thinks about all these things when he’s talking with a prospective customer. He listens to you, remembers your name, and tells a good story. He has that innate ability; selling comes naturally to him. Most of us have to work at it.

Mailing it in

Photo courtesy of U.S. Postal Service

What’s your snail mail like these days? Yesterday, I received four items that went something like this:

• My university alumni association is offering some sort of financial analysis for retirement. There was a small fee, I believe, and a bank involved.
• A cell phone data service is presenting an invoice for commodity marketing services that were initially offered for free. It’s entirely unclear whether I’m being billed for future or past services. The confusion seems intentional.
• A magazine is automatically renewing my subscription, which doesn’t expire until July. Unless I go to the effort of contacting the publisher, I will keep paying.
• A legal firm is offering to enroll me in a class action suit against several manufacturers of lawnmowers. The suit claims that the defendants overstated the power of the engine on the machine I bought last summer.

Is there not a common thread in all of these mailings?

The university is getting into a business outside of its mission. The data service is trying to confuse me as to whether I owe them or not. The magazine is making it inconvenient for me to end my subscription (even though that’s not my aim). And the class action group is trying to involve me in a frivolous legal action that could net me $35 some day.

I remember when waiting for the mail was pleasant part of the day's drama. But, that was back when everyone wrote cards and letters instead of e-mail.

A trip to the mailbox used to be one of the great joys of daily life. At the farm, a quarter-mile stroll to the main road was filled with anticipation, and gratification coming back, as we sorted through our new magazines and letters from family and friends. Even the junk mail seemed entertaining.

Of course, e-mail can be awful for its miasma of dirty deals, false advertising, and confounding wordiness. But, you better watch out for the U.S. mail.

The Masters as pasture

Will Augusta National look as lovely as our Nebraska pasture?

My dad and I are getting set to pay a visit to the Masters golf tournament this week, an event that seems almost as well known for its setting as for the championship golf itself. For dad, who turns 85 this summer, this is a "bucket list" deal; we're looking forward to the drama of seeing the world's greatest golfers compete for the green jacket.

Of course, the Masters spotlight this year is shining on Tiger Woods. But, I'm as much interested in seeing what the ethereal grounds of Augusta National look like close up.

How can a place engineered to be so beautiful for golf and television be created from the same stuff as any old pasture—soil, water and grass?

The thousands of fans trampling the turf and golfers punching out divots must put the same sort of pressure on the resource as does a tightly packed beef herd mob grazing through paddocks, no?

I’ve had the same kind of question about how tennis at Wimbledon can be played on grass for two weeks steady, or how football games can be grinded out on on frozen turf in late autumn. And how do they keep those perfect patterns mowed on outfield grass in major league ball parks through the dog days of summer?

Augusta National is in a class of its own, though: The carefully tended dogwood, the azaleas, and pines frame perfectly coiffed fairways, shining white sand traps, vibrant greens and magical flows of water. Adding to the atmosphere are the legendary names of the natural features--the Eisenhower Tree, Rae's Creek, and Amen Corner....

Dad and I won’t be providing a lot of on-site coverage. Augusta’s environment is tightly controlled. Cameras and cell phones aren't allowed. You stay behind the ropes. There’s no running allowed.

A media contact in the golf course management trade press tells me that “everyone at Augusta is contractually prohibited from discussing anything connected with course maintenance or preparation of the course.” Steve Ethun, director of communications for the Masters, said this morning that "it's a tough week to line up an interview with the agronomics team." Understand. If Augusta were a farm, this would be harvest season with a winter storm rolling in.

So we don't expect to learn the secret formula of Augusta this week. But, Dad and I’ll be there taking in the sights Thursday and Friday, joining the crowd rambling around the ol' Georgia pasture. If you’re watching on TV, look for the two guys wearing Successful Farming caps.

Women in Ag get social

Farm women met first on the Web

The idea of "Tweetups," the face-to-face meetings of Twitter users, has gotten a lot of media attention in this new era of social networking.

What I realized this week, though, is that farm women probably can be credited with the original social meet-ups based on Internet relationships.

About a decade ago, a couple dozen farm women from all over the country, all of whom met on the Women in Ag discussion group, decided to get together. Successful Farming and Agriculture.com hosted the event at Living History Farms in West Des Moines.

I remember what a good feeling everybody seemed to get from matching faces with Web site usernames and spending a good part of the day together. The face-to-face meeting seemed to confirm for people that they had a lot in common, maybe even more than with their next-door neighbors. Their new neighbors lived in the next state or another time zone.

Last weekend, a few members of the same forum gathered at a restaurant, the Iowa Machine Shed, in Davenport, Iowa. The meet-up must have grown out of that same basic impulse to put a face to a name.

The idea cropped up on the forum back in January, says Sue Bertelsen, an Illinois farmer. There was not a lot of structure proposed for the session--just a time to talk.

“We simply talked about our husbands, kids, our jobs. We brought pictures of our families, pets, farms and houses,” Sue said.

“Sundae,” who drove 5 1/2 hours to attend, writes:

round trip...670 miles
gas & lunch... $95
meeting my friends face to face...priceless!"

We shouldn’t be surprised that farm women are social media innovators, says Rachel Happe, a Boston-based social media consultant. “Farming communities were the original social networks, as everyone needed each other,” she says. “My grandmother was one of the hubs.”

The Machine Shed type meet-up won't be the last, Women in Ag members say. Looks like there are plans for another gathering this spring or summer.

It’s interesting to see that these new farming communities can be based on a digital connection and still ring so true. “It's great to visit with true friends who know your life style and your problems and still be comfortable with it,” said Linda/IL.

Skin cancer: better under the light than the knife

I’ve just been instructed to stay inside the house for the next 48 hours to avoid any sunlight whatsoever. It seems only fitting, because it’s sunlight that's put me in this predicament. I’ve just come from a visit to a dermatologist, where I underwent my most recent form of treatment for skin cancer, actually in this case for potentially precancerous actinic keratoses.

The procedure, called photodynamic therapy, involved smearing my barnacle-encrusted head with an acid, then zapping it with a special blue light for 17 minutes. The process burned a little and made me a bit claustrophobic, but otherwise it was just another way to spend St. Paddy's Day. Side effects are skin redness, swelling and scaling, and can last up to four weeks.

During my time under the bright light this morning, the second of two treatments, I recalled the times I ran about the world uncovered by a hat or sunscreen. As kids, we used to think sunburn was some sort of red badge of honor. We swam, played ball, and rode horses with buzz cuts and bare chests. I just looked up a Successful Farming story on skin cancer and discovered that one blistering sunburn in childhood doubles your risk of contracting melanoma, the most lethal of skin cancers.

This isn’t the first time I’ve paid the price for having had too much sun in my history. I’ve had cancers, both basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, scraped, burned, excised and radiated from my head, arm, and shoulder.

One time, as I watched a scalpel slice out a lesion along my temple, I was surprised to hear the surgeon mutter something like “it’s a serious treatment for a serious problem.”

This latest deal, the photodynamic therapy, is a way one might avoid the serious stuff again. Better, though, that I had learned earlier in life the recommended protections against skin cancer: protective clothing, sunglasses, and sunscreen. Seeing a dermatologist when you spot something suspicious is critical, too, of course.

As you might expect, farmers are at increased risk for skin cancer. Some research suggests that while farmers are well aware of the risk of skin cancer in their work, they tend not to use preventative measures—for the variety of reasons you can imagine. However, farmers are more likely to take health advice, including about skin cancer prevention and treatment, if it comes from people they trust, this same research shows.

So if you have someone's ear, then skin cancer is something you should talk about. It's a serious subject.

More information:

Farmer says it isn't smart to take skin cancer lightly
Mayo Clinic Skin cancer information
Levulan® Photodynamic Therapy (Levulan PDT)

A 'death march' stop in Des Moines

Brent Olson

Brent and Robin Olson stopped by my office this morning to say hi, and I think I about talked their heads off.

I guess I got carried away because it’s a pretty exciting thing to chat with someone you admire as much as I do Brent, and now Robin, too—having had a chance to meet her finally.

I did stop talking long enough to interview him about what’s been keeping his mind occupied these days. The video below captures some of that, I hope.

For more than a decade, Brent has been posting his Independently Speaking columns on Agriculture.com. I look forward to them every week, as do a whole bunch of farmers, and have been proud that we feature his stories of the lives and times of rural folks from his vantage point of a southern Minnesota farm.

Brent’s been staying busy—having just published a new book, Papa: Figuring out What Matters, and now working on a new one, The Hands of God in which he follows the route of local aid to Haiti and Liberia, tracing the effects donations have made on the misfortunate in those countries.

Brent’s stop in Des Moines today is part of what he calls a “death march of shameless self-promotion.” He’ll be reading from Papa and signing books at the Beaverdale Books this evening (7 p.m.), and I’m going. This time to listen.

'Classic farmers' are in high tech gear

As the 2010 Commodity Classic gets underway in Anaheim, California, this week, one of the issues farmers fire up to talk about is the adoption of new technology—and in hearing them talk you wonder if we’re all strapped in tight enough for the changes occurring out on the land these days.

In discussions with about a dozen farmers from seven states and Ontario, Canada, you get the impression that the pace of change has about two gears these days—fast and faster.

Pretty much all these farmers are using auto-steer, for example. And almost everybody is planning to take some new tool to the field this spring.

In a recent poll here, more than two thirds of farmers said they were expanding their precision ag capabilities in 2010. Leading the way were autosteer and individual row or boom shutoff.

The new technology is not pegged to higher crop yields at this point. The payoff is coming mainly through increased efficiency, lower input costs, and in reduced fatigue. Several farmers here commented on the reduced stress of farming brought about by auto-steer. “At the end of the day, you feel like spending time with your family,” said one farmer.

Farmers on the vanguard of new technologies say it’s simply what they must do to compete. “I look at it as just a cost of doing business,” said Doug Martin, an Illinois grower.

If there’s a worm at the core of new technology on the precision ag front, it’s the perceived complexity of operating some of the new tools. With crop genetic traits, it’s the cost, and some deep-seated resentment in some cases, toward certain suppliers.

“User friendliness of precision ag technology is an issue,” said Mike Shuter, an Indiana farmer and leader in the corn industry. “But, I don’t see us backing off either.”

Shuter, for one, sees precision ag helping him manage the increasingly expensive inputs he must buy to compete. “We’re experimenting with cutting soybean seeding rates,” he said. “With this expensive seed, you have to make every seed count.”

What's your bidding style?

The only thing I ever bought at auction was done over the phone and pretty much blind. I was bidding on a pivot irrigation unit that was sitting on our farm in Nebraska. (Long story.) I thought I knew what I wanted to pay for it, but the bidding shot by that ceiling pretty fast, and all of a sudden I felt like I was free falling with butterflies in my stomach. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I really didn't have enough information to make an intelligent decision.

Auctions can do that to you, I guess, if you're not prepared. Reading comments in an Agriculture Online discussion, What's your bidding style? makes me think that people tend to develop their own little techniques for coping with the experience. They look the auctioneer in the eye, they stand by big people, they bid quick, or they bid just before the gavel's about to fall.

One fellow may have hit it on the head, though: "The way I know I'm not overpaying is knowing what it's worth is before going to the auction...."

"Knowing what it's worth" is the mantra of Machinery Pete, Greg Peterson, who's built a business around the importance of knowing the real value of used machinery. In Greg's regular writings on Agriculture.com and Successful Farming, he provides detailed auction prices on all kinds of used machinery. And he gleans from those details the trends in equipment pricing.

His new book, Machinery Pete's 2010 Auction Price Guide is fresh off the press. It lists more than 18,000 sale prices from 2008-2009.

As Dave Mowitz, Successful Farming magazine machinery editor, says, "Take this book to auctions and bid with confidence. Take it to your banker to prove your net worth. This is the book you need if you own farm machinery."

Wish I'd had a copy of Pete's book the day I bought that pivot.

Here's where to get yours: Machinery Pete's 2010 Auction Price Guide.

Farming small plots: opportunities or obstacles?

As I've driven down the back roads over the years, one thing that always seems to catch my eye is the sight of some big rig pulled into a tiny field. Might be a combine in a little corner of cropland stuck between some woods and a pond or a planter on a piece of ground between railroad tracks and a river.

Sometimes, the quality of the land appears to be pretty decent; other times, well, it looks hard scrabble, not worth farming at all. In any case, the equipment seems mismatched, and you just wonder what the economics are of taking on a patch of land like that.

But, these cropland fragments, a challenge to some, can be an opportunity for beginning farmers. A young farmer recently wrote in Farm Business Talk that he has a chance to rent a number of small plots of ten acres or less.

“I know a lot of guys don't like to mess with them, but to me they are a good opportunity to try out new technologies. Also,I feel that this is a way for me to get my foot in the door for bigger and better things.”

The question, though, is how much rent should he pay for these small parcels?
Experienced growers give a range of responses, including:

• Consider a crop share arrangement. “That way, the landowner would realize the lower yield from fields with excessive headlands and unfarmable corners.”
• Small fields take a lot of time and have lower yields. One grower says he offers only half the going rate. "Take it or leave it." Another says his rule of thumb is three-quarters the usual rent.
• A South Dakota farmer says that in his neighborhood the discounts are based on the features of the land: “Rule of thumb in my area is 5 acres or less with no trees or ponds to go around $50 per acre tops, 6 to 10 acres, $75 per acre. If there is a pond within 100' nobody will farm it.”
• Make sure you plan to do all the farming yourself, says one farmer. “If you are serious about farming those small patches of ground, you really need to do them yourself and not have custom spraying or combining done,” he says. “More than likely the custom applicators will charge more to do the work than they would for doing the same work in larger sections of ground.”

Craig Dobbins, a Purdue ag economist, says that the case of smaller, irregular-shaped fields is one of many factors that should be considered in figuring an appropriate rental rate. But it happens to be number sixteen, and last, on his list, which includes land quality, fertility, drainage, and facilities at the top.

What’s been your experience with farming smaller plots? Join the discussion in Farm Business Talk.

Mowing grass: The gender divide

Men have a slim hold on this farm chore

Some versions of retirement, or even the afterlife, in agriculture might involve riding a nice new lawnmower over a gleaming yard of bluegrass stretching forever amid a well-tended farmstead.

On working farms, you would think that mowing grass would be seen as counterproductive. Clipping grass isn’t producing any grain or forage. And doesn’t it seem like drudgery to drive back and forth on three acres without harvesting anything?

But, after driving up and down country roads all these years I’ve gotten the impression that some folks’ idea of fun and relaxation is mounting the mower and going for a long ride.

And it’s the men who are having most of the fun, though it’s something of a competitive sport. In a recent Agriculture.com poll, 53% percent of respondents said that it was the male on the farm who mows the grass most of the time. Women are doing the mowing 34% of the time, and the job gets farmed out to the kids in 13% of cases.

A friend of mine, who grew up on a farm and owns one now, is a little surprised by the results, “The men in my family never touch a lawnmower,” she said.

That’s the case in another neck of the woods. “Around here it's the adult women that mow the grass and they know how to go FAST!,” one poll respondent commented.

For some women, mowing apparently is a welcomed escape. “It’s that time I put my iPod in my ears and forget everything,” said one farm woman. “I guess it sounds crazy, but mowing for me is like going to the spa. I love it.”

For others, tending this chore pivots on the quality of the machine. “I refuse to mow the lawn because I hate the mower that much,” one woman complained. (She’s lobbying for a certain popular brand and model.)

The lawn of the future, though, may be one that needs no one to mow, said an Indiana farmer in response to the poll.

“[Our] lawn is native grasses, forbs, clover, and timothy. No mower, no mower gas, no mower maintenance, no fertilizer, no herbicides, and no time spent cutting grass!”

Unending harvest: 'Double or nothing'

What happens to a corn crop when you have some of the worst harvest weather in history? Instead of starting to set up their planters, a lot of farmers are still tweaking their combines to run in snow.

And the impact on the markets may still not be fully absorbed, and won’t be until the spring acreage battle is over, one analyst, Al Kluis, Kluis Commodities, says.

October ’09 did turn out to rank as the wettest, and third coldest, ever for the nation, going back 115 years, says Harvey Freese, Freese-Notis Weather.

After better November weather, December turned treacherous. “December was eleventh wettest such month on record for the nation,” Freese says. “Precipitation was among the ten wettest ever for South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, as well as several states in the Southeast.”

How much corn will be in the field come spring? Farmers report seeing a lot of it still standing this winter.

In an Agriculture Online poll, taken in mid-January, nearly two thirds of respondents reported seeing “a little” corn in the field in their areas. Nearly 20% said “a lot.”

A little and a lot adds up to a lot. Kluis says there will be some 500 million bushels in the field this spring, maybe more. "And, there will be twenty to thirty percent field loss," he says.

Roy Smith, a Nebraska farmer and marketing advisor, has been traveling eastern Nebraska for the last couple weeks giving presentations and has done his own windshield tour. "There are scattered fields standing everywhere I have been," Smith says. "I saw no huge acreages, but little bits add up when you put them all together. There will be substantial losses when harvested.”

You hear similar stories from farmers in other states. Conditions are such in Minnesota that standing corn won’t get touched until April or May, a grower from the southwestern part of the state told Agriculture.com.

An Illinois farmer reported in an Agriculture.com forum that several large fields of corn exist in his neighborhood and "most is mangled by the wind storms we had back in November and December.”

The situation sets up as a “double or nothing” deal on March and April weather for many farmers, says Kluis. “You can’t plant it if you can’t harvest it first,” he says.

Be careful out there

Carolyn Sheridan, AgriSafe Network Clinical Director

In that old cop show, Hill Street Blues, the gruff old sergeant wraps up his morning briefing to the squad with a gentle reminder: “Be careful out there.”

The same caution should be given to farmers. Cheryl Tevis, farm issues editor for Successful Farming magazine has well documented the health and safety challenges in agriculture, including:

* The fatality rate in ag is more than ten times greater than that for all U.S. occupations.

* Fatal injuries for all U.S. workers has declined in recent years, but almost doubled for farmers.

* Farmers are high risk for fatal and nonfatal injuries involving farm equipment and are prone to certain cancers and other occupational health risks, like hearing loss and chronic and back pain.

Carolyn Sheridan, a nurse and clinical director of the AgriSafe Network, recently visited with me to talk about her work in helping farmers address these pressing health and safety issues.

The aging farm population is part of the problem. Older farmers are twice as likely to be involved in a fatal injury than are younger ones. It's more hazardous for older farmers to twist around equipment, lift stuff, and crawl under machinery.

But young farmers, too, need to be aware of issues like hearing loss and respiratory problems, she said. AgriSafe clinics are finding surprisingly high incidences of these problems cropping up among young people.

Some of the health problems faced by farmers are brought on by stress. The late harvest last fall, for example, created health and safety issues for a lot of farmers (and their spouses), due to all the added tension, she pointed out.

Carolyn is featured in a new set of videos on Agriculture.com, in which she talks about key safety issues—eye protection, hearing protection and chemical safety. Check them out for ideas on products and practices that could save your hearing, eyesight, and indeed your life.

Be careful out there.

More information:

Agriculture.com Rural Health

Good Health And Safety Make $en$e

AgriSafe Network

Haiti help: What would Borlaug do?

Norman Borlaug in Mexico

Much of the attention in Haiti has been on the devastation in the capital of Port-au-Prince. News reports indicate that rural Haiti, and its farmers, have been no less hard hit by the earthquakes.

One thought I have had in learning about the disaster and its aftermath is “What would Norman Borlaug do?”

Borlaug’s career, of course, was devoted to helping farmers in developing nations. He certainly would have found a way to become involved.

Borlaug was known for his commitment to being on the ground at farms and research sites. For 16 years, the Iowa farm boy worked in Mexico to improve wheat production and foster the Green Revolution.

Even after his death, a program in Borlaug’s name supports agriculture in Haiti and other countries.

The Borlaug Fellowship Program provides support for people working in agricultural research. Last year, the program gave assistance to 453 participants from 56 countries.

Most of us can’t be like Norman Borlaug, but we can join in the spirit of his career by contributing to assistance programs for farmers and other rural people in Haiti.

“I really admire the people who flock to help,” said an Illinois farmer in a forum posting here. "I don't have that option, but I hope I would hope I have the compassion. All I can do is give some dollars.”

USAID’s Web site outlines ways you can contribute, through volunteering, donating goods, and by making a financial contribution, including to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund:

http://www.usaid.gov/helphaiti/

The group InterAction has developed guidelines on the most appropriate ways to help those affected by the Haiti disaster. It includes a regularly updated list of agencies responding to the crisis and accepting donations:

http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti