Just not enough time

For those of you involved in agriculture you know how busy certain times of the year are, for those of you who don't know, its time to learn.  First and foremost you have everyday chores to do, feeding, checking and all the bumps along the road in the process also this year spring came a little late so it pushed back seeding.  Seeding getting pushed back also set back other things, such as sorting and hauling cattle out to pasture, and starting to get caught up on all the little things that go along with maintaining a farm.  But not just the late spring set things back so too did the several days of rain in a row that we had.  With all the moisture we've had the crops might be a little late but there should be lots of hay and grass.  Then there is all the other factors that kids have to deal with such as homework, sports, and activities.  This time of year marks the start of many sports.  Soccer, baseball, and football, too bad i'm so busy I don't even get to take part in my spring camp!  But probably the thing right now that seems to take up alot of time in young ag enthusiests lives is the preparation for 4-H achievement days.  Several clubs in the Calgary Region had their show last weekend being 4-H on Parade.  I had the honor of Being a junior conformation judge for the steer show.  It was a great learning experience and I had some fun doing it.  I have my show and sale this weekend in Red Deer any of you readers that are in the area should swing bye and check out some of my good Charolais Cattle!  But with all the things going on in everyones lives right now we just got to plug through er and wait till it slows down.  Which truth be told all of us in agriculture know that never happens, I guess we can dream.

Until next time,

Luke

4-H and its benifits for you and for agriculture

As 4-H show and sales are fast approching or just finished it makes me realize that 4-H is kinda how I roll these days, by this I mean that the economic benifit of selling your steer for much higher then market value is able to pay for alot of things.  For me it has 4 wheels, 4-h money paid for my first truck and will pay for some of my post secondary schooling.  This is most certainly not the only benifit of 4-H however. being involved in 4-H for the last 8 years I have made alot of friends, collected alot of memories, learned alot of things, had tremendous opportunities, and had alot of fun. 

Today I had the opportunity to judge showmanship and grooming at the Rocky 4-H show.  It was a great learning experience for myself and and I hope that I was able to help out some of the members that were participating.  I send congratulations to all of the members involved on a job well done. 

4-H is a great program to be involved in and I along with many others have learned alot and made several lifelong friends and memories.  If you are between the ages of 9 and 21 and interested in getting involved in agriculture it is a great place to start.  You can also check into youth programs within the breed associations.  there are all sorts of great ways to get involved in agriculture you just have to make that first step.  4-H has had a huge influence on and in my life and it can for you too.

Until next time,

Luke

The Beginning

We all start out in this world the same way, helpless, defenseless, and at the mercy of whom ever so chooses to take control of us.  For most of us that whoever becomes our parents.  Our parents help us learn to walk, talk, and pretty much everything else.  I am very grateful to have the parents that I do and to have been raised on the family farm.  Growing up on the farm teaches us many valuable lessons that would never be learned otherwise.  Not too often do you hear a kid from town getting told to suck it up when they fall and hurt themselves.  But it's not just the physical aspect of farming that sets us apart from the "city slickers" there is a very strong mental aspect of it as well.  Learning how to persevere through the good and especially the bad as we all know that there has been lots of those.  You learn about the mental endurance when it comes to having to work the long hours that it takes to successfully run a farming operation. 

When I was younger I always wished that we lived in town so that I could just go to a friends and have fun instead of having to do chores.  Then as I was getting close to being 16 I couldn't wait to get my license, I would finally be free to go to a friends and hang out or be gone all the time so that I wouldn't have to be at home doing chores.  But it wasn't until the other day that I realized that I'm gone no more now then I've ever been, and it's not like its been by choice either.  The lifestyle of farming has grown on me, even though I thought that I wanted away from it so bad I'm still at home doing those boring chores most all the time.  I guess its like they say about all good things, you can take the boy off the farm but you can't take the farm out of the boy. 

Until next time,

Luke