Editorial / Opinions

Dear Editor,
I enjoyed the story about your horse. I know how much they are a part of the family. I wanted to share this with you. She was a great one and one of the family.

Missouri Farm Bureau recently celebrated Thank A Farmer Week. Many people across the state saluted farmers that week and joined Missouri Farm Bureau in collecting food for Ronald McDonald House Charities across the state. In light of Thank A Farmer Week, I just want to take a moment to thank all of the farmers who read our paper. Not only do you provide food, shelter and fuel to the world but without you Ozarks Farm & Neighbor wouldn’t exist. Farmers not only read our paper but purchase from our advertisers or even advertise with us themselves.

Do you have a busy day planned, Mr. Crownover?” asked the lady at the desk, as I prepared to leave the doctor’s office.

In today’s world so many people and organizations attack agriculture. They attack the very thing that feeds, clothes and shelters every person in the world. Why? How do we battle against this negative aggression?

Well if December set the pattern for our winter season. We may be in for some of the toughest weather we’ve had since the ‘70s. Congress held hearings back then and sent scientists off to find out why it had turned so cold. That makes me wonder what happened to the CO2 heating theory. The palm trees on Lake Michigan in Chicago we were promised to have frozen last week. This whole issue goes back to the effects of nature like heating and cooling of the oceans. This is even caused by eruptions of volcanoes way under the sea.

I used to be able to tell my wife anything about farming and she would believe me. After all, I’ve spent my entire life on a farm while she was raised in town. I earned three degrees in agriculture while she studied nursing. But now, much to my chagrin, she’s beginning to question my expertise.

In today’s world so many people and organizations attack agriculture. They attack the very thing that feeds, clothes and shelters every person in the world. Why? How do we battle against this negative aggression?

I thank my lucky stars, every day, for the opportunity to be a farmer. But, for all its benefits and advantages over other occupations, the ability to call in sick is not one of them. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with relatively good health throughout my lifetime, with my only serious affliction having been a series of back surgeries some 20 years ago. Even then, with the boys still at home, necessary day-to-day chores were completed by them and my wife during my recuperation. Cows don’t care who feeds them as long as they’re fed.

I was 11 years old when we got B.K’s Little Girl – but we just called her Johnnie. My parents may have had other horses prior to having children, but I really don’t know. All I do know is she was the first horse for me.

The early heavy snow sure shut things down and cancelled lots of events. If it is any sign of what is ahead we better all have snow tires put on our vehicles. No one can predict weather very far out. That’s because of complicated things like high and low pressure, heating of the oceans and storms on the sun. Knowing all those things makes me the skeptic of the CO2 business where the earth heating is being promoted as a true thing, when it is only an unproven, questionable theory.