by Carie Moore
This week I attended the Lake Region Extension Roundup like I do every year. As I reflect on the sessions I went to, including soil health, trade and tariffs, market outlooks, and cover crops (and try and get PowerPoints from ones I missed), I can’t help but think about the variety of people who were there.
There are farmers, ranchers, radio and written media, sponsors, chemical-seed-equipment salesmen, presenters, various conservation/natural resources staff, and so many more. Each one tied to agriculture in their own unique way. Agriculture doesn’t just encompass putting a seed in the ground in spring and harvesting in fall. It works all year round. Many livestock producers will even begin calving next month with round-the-clock care of cows.
I know there is concern about food and what is consumed by the general non-farming public. Here’s the deal: these men and women come to events like this one, to learn (and yes, collect some free stuff). They are there to be better agriculturists, some to teach others what they know, some to learn by just talking to a lot of different people, some to tell others what’s going on in agriculture, and some to volunteer their time back to thanking these people for what they do.
Chances are this isn’t the only seminar they will attend. There will be the Corn and Soybean Expo, the ND Ag Expo, the Soil Health coffee talks, the county Ag Days, the NDFB YF&R Farm and Ranch Conference, county workshops, Precision Planting Day, Ag PhD workshops, the NDFMGA & Local Food Conference. I could go on, but the point is the learning is endless and as much as you have time for. The connections you can make at these events usually last a lifetime or have already been in place and you get to reconnect.
The people who attend, CARE. For whatever personal reason they have, they care. To take the time, to drive there, to sit, to engage in conversation, they are all there because they care about agriculture in some form or another.
I personally think the tag line for this site is top notch and love incorporating it. “Where Truth Meets Food.” I see that when I walk into any ag event. That is where truth of all kinds, is meeting your food production on every level and every scale. Truth about the land, the equipment, the people, the products, the animals, the markets, the weather, taxes, transition, energy, research, personal experiences, all that truth coming together in one central location for a few hours or days as it relates to our food supply.