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Northeast Louisiana | We just got home last night from a 9 day, 4300 mile trip to Mount Rushmore and points beyond and thought I'd share a little of what we saw. We left Louisiana and traveled through NE Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, to the Black Hills area of SD. From there we made a pretty good swing through NE Wyoming, SE Montana, SW ND, then back across SD and down through Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. The crops in parts of Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas weren't much to look at, but I suspect that is the norm for the areas we were in. Crops looked really good I thought in eastern SD, Iowa, and NW Missouri. I know those of us affected by flooding or drought tend to focus on our problems but there are a lot of awfully good looking crops out there that you don't hear much about.
The one thing that I kept thinking about on our trip is the tremendous diversity in US agriculture. The differences in the way we do things in different areas are staggering and that is something we all need to keep in mind when we exchange information on an open forum such as AgTalk. The methods we all use are a product of years of trial and error within each region and while there are a lot of things that do transfer from one region to another there are a lot more that don't. There is also a dramatic difference in the prosperity of different regions. The thing we should all keep in mind is that the guy I saw cutting wheat in SW SD on an open cab JD 45 combine may very well be just as smart and just as hard working as the guy in Iowa that had 5 new 9870's sitting at his shop.
I am more convinced than ever that agriculture is one of the few bright spots in our economy and we need to somehow continue to convey that to Washington. By that I am not referring to crop subsidies necessarily, just that we need to have a mind-set that we are going to make it easier for American farmers to do what they're capable of doing instead of looking for how many more areas of production they can hinder with excessive and burdensome regulatioins, etc.
Edited by Five Lock Boll 7/10/2011 14:03
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