Editorial / Opinions

A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, teaches in the agriculture college at a major mid-western university, which shall also remain nameless. We have been close friends for more than 30 years and have the chance to visit over the phone quite often, so I was a little taken aback during our last conversation to find how frustrated he has become with the lack of basic agricultural knowledge of his students.

The Best of Frank Farmer

He was the first prairie chicken I’d ever seen, and I called him “Lonesome.”

At the beginning of the New Year, Congress announced that the 2008 farm bill will extend until September 30, 2013, a decision that was made months after the farm bill expired. The nine-month extension measure was attached to the bigger fiscal cliff bill and passed by the Senate on January 1.

It always puts a smile on my face when someone does or says something that makes so much common sense, one wonders why no one had done or said it before. When that someone is a youngster, my smile gets even bigger.