Happy New Year! I don’t know about y’all, but it seems like 2023 just flew by.
Looking back, 2023 was much like 2022. It was dry, cattle prices were up and down, and input costs continued to climb.
Many experts say 2024 will be more of the same. It’s expected there will be reduction in most agriculture prices, a “mixed picture” in exports and production, and a decline in farm income. There are, however, projections of lower fertilizer costs, reduced interest rates and a slight decline in the price of farmland. It’s really too early to tell what will happen, but we can always hope for better days ahead.
Will Rogers once said, “The farmer has to be an optimist, or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.”
To be an optimist, we can’t dwell on what goes wrong. We need to put more emphasis on what has gone right.
Keep an optimistic outlook, because a whole lot of people you have never met are depending on you.
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As you may have read, Jerry Crownover is retiring. Jerry has blessed the pages of Ozarks Farm & Neighbor since the beginning; he will be missed.
For those who don’t personally know Jerry, he is the same in person as he is in his writings; always ready with a joke and a story.
A few years ago, I asked Jerry to speak at a fundraiser for my FFA Alumni chapter. We were on a limited budget, but we thought we could swing his speaking fee. When I ask if he wanted payment before or after the event, Jerry refused to take a cent. Folks in the ag community of my hometown were a buzz Jerry was coming to town. The evening was a great success, and I do believe it was at least in part due to Jerry being our keynote speaker. He drove more than 200 miles round trip for a taco dinner, a feed bucket with a few small items inside, and a big thank you. That’s the kind of person Jerry is.
When Jerry told me he was retiring, I knew we had some big shoes to fill. After some thinking, I reached out to someone else I have been reading for years.
For decades, Jim Hamilton was the editor of my hometown newspaper. He has also written for Ozarks Farm & Neighbor.
When I spoke to Jim about joining OFN as a columnist, he said he isn’t a farmer anymore and he is no Jerry Crownover. I told him he didn’t have to be a farmer or Jerry, he just needed to be himself. After some nudging, he agreed to work with us.
Some of you might be familiar with Jim and his work. His Ozarks RFD columns have appeared in many newspapers over the years, and he has published a couple of collections of his past writings.
The first thing I ever submitted anywhere for publication was to Jim. It was likely a hand-written report of the happenings of my FFA Chapter; I took my role as reporter very seriously.
Jim set the bar high when it came to the coverage of agriculture. He was at every Farm Bureau meeting and Cattlemen’s event. He’s been roped and wrangled onto a board or two as well.
At the county fair, Jim took hundreds of pictures. Every champion in the barns, in the youth or home ec divisions got their picture in the paper. Every kid who got a ribbon, be it for first or last place, was named.
When I went to my first newspaper job, which as in Lafayette County, Mo., I was shocked the county fair was not covered. I thought every newspaper did a special publication for the fair.
I take pictures at two fairs for two local newspapers because Jim taught me every kid deserves to have their picture in the paper.
Jim knows the Ozarks, the people who call it home and the importance of agriculture in our communities, so please help me welcome in to OFN.
Julie Turner-Crawford is a native of Dallas County, Mo., where she grew up on her family’s farm. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Julie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
