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Why I Farm|A Planting Prayer for Farmers
Farmers are truly some of the most dedicated, hardworking, and passionate people I’ve ever met. As they go out to plant their crops this spring, their families will be praying for them to return home safe and sound, just like this sweet little girl.
This video is the latest in the Why I Farm series to honor farmers. I hope you’ll join me in sharing this video as a way to honor farmers everywhere and thank them for working tirelessly to provide for all of us.
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Blogging, the Struggle is Real.
Six months. It has almost been six months since I posted my last blog on BoilermakerAg! How did that happen?
As a blogger, I am ashamed that I’ve been quiet for this long. “One blog a month isn’t hard,” I tell myself. But then somehow time just slips by.
On the flip side of that, I’ve had a ridiculous amount of things going on lately. I’ve been working a lot more hours than normal, traveling a lot for work and family, my sister got married, other friends have gotten married and numerous other events like 4-H fairs, birthday parties, and baptisms. So when I get free time from everything, I just feel like I need a break, ya know?
But then I go back to…”all of your other blogger friends are just as busy as you, if not more, and they somehow still find time to blog. Get yourself together, Chels.”
Sometimes it gets to that point where I have so many ideas for blog posts, but can’t decide where to start. I debate back and forth and then end up wasting the time I had to start one.
Or I get good old fashioned writer’s block and can’t start one at all.
THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.
Does anyone else get like this?
As I was listening to a radio program the other night, someone said, “you have to make writing a discipline.”
And it hit me like a ton of bricks…I have failed to do that lately. I’ve only been blogging when I get inspired and have time. (Which isn’t very often on the time part.) Or when a deadline is due at work.
So I decided this morning that I would just start writing. Even if the writing is just about my struggle to write. It’s at least something.
As this year continues, I want to be able to blog more, but I also don’t want to end up more stressed trying to make it happen as I’m dealing with enough at the moment. But I do want to continue to share the message of agriculture, great recipes, and other topics with you.
Maybe this is a bunch of rambling you don’t care to read, but you all have been loyal to read my posts and I don’t want to leave you in the dark or let you down.
So I’m going to try a little experiment. Here are several things that I’ve been doing this summer, and I’m going to let you vote on which ones I write about. Will you help me do that? Having a little direction might help me get back in the swing of things.
1. Food
Ranch Chicken Bake
Parsley Pasta Alfredo
Pickled Cucumber Tomato Salad
Cannoli Dip
Chicken Salad
2. Planning my sister’s bridal shower!
3. 4-H Judging
4. Anniversary Trip to Gatlinburg, TN
5. Year of the Farmer at the Indiana State Fair
6. Spreading the word of agriculture through Why I Farm and The Henningsens
See my struggle with where to start? There’s so much to choose from!
Help me out by sharing your vote in the comments. Or if you have any other topics you’d like me to cover, feel free to leave your ideas.
I look forward to your votes!
– Chelsea
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Boilermakers Continue to Celebrate Agriculture with Purdue Ag Week
Hello everyone! I hope you’re having a great week so far! Have you had a chance to catch any of my other posts about Purdue Ag Week? If so, what did you think? Have you learned anything new about agriculture? If not, you can read about them here, here, here and here. (Then return to the question above and let me know if you learned anything new.) 🙂
Learning new things about agriculture is one of the main goals of Purdue Ag Week, and the ag students are doing a great job of educating their peers about all areas of agriculture. One way they are doing this is by daily agriculture quizzes. Each day members of the Ag Week Task Force have been giving away prizes when students take a quiz about agriculture. This year, they are having students take the quiz (which features different questions each day) on their phones so they can better record the scores. Once students are done with the quiz, a Task Force member will hand them an answer sheet and go over the answers with them, along with a fun prize!
Want to test out your knowledge of agriculture? Give the quizzes a try for yourself! Here is the link to Thursday’s quiz. Answers to the questions will be posted on the Purdue Ag Week Facebook page so check back at the end of the day to see how you did! (I’ll also add the link on here after they have been released.)
In addition to the daily ag quizzes there have been some awesome events so far, with even more in store for Thursday and Friday.
Thursday is the ever-popular “Pet A (Goat) Kid” event, along with a diversity in agriculture session from the MANNRS Club, a “Truth or Myth” Ice Cream session from the Food Science Club, mini tractor pulls and various other club events throughout Memorial Mall.
Thursday Instagram Challenge: Take a selfie with a farm animal featured during Ag Week events. Then, post it to your Instagram account along with the hashtags #mAGnifyPurdue and #mAGnifyChallenge and you’ll be entered to win a prize!
Celebration of Agriculture: 8 – 10 p.m. (Memorial Mall)
Thursday night will be a Celebration of Agriculture, a social event for the entire Purdue student body, where students can join together in community to continue conversations about agriculture. They will have free pork burgers along with other food, games and music. The goal for this event is to create an opportunity to build a sense of community within the College of Ag and with students from other colleges, too!
To wrap up the week, there will be three club events on Friday from the Cattleman’s Club, Ag Business Club and IAAE. As well as another daily ag quiz and Instagram challenge!
Friday Daily Ag Quiz: See just how much you know about agriculture with the final daily quiz. To give it a try, click here. Then head over to the Purdue Ag Week Facebook page to find out how you did. (As mentioned above, I will post the link to these answers as well after they are released.)
Friday Instagram Challenge: “Favorite Photo Friday” – Post a picture of your favorite Ag Week memory and make sure to include the hashtags #mAGnifyPurdue or #mAGnifyChallenge.
Continuing the Conversation After Ag Week:
Purdue Ag Week will be coming to a close after Friday, but it is my hope that the conversation about agriculture will continue throughout the year. Agriculture, and the farmers and ranchers who dedicate their lives to growing our food, are so incredibly important to all of us and we shouldn’t take them for granted. I encourage you to join me in thanking farmers and appreciating our country’s advances in agriculture by following some of these agriculture causes:
- US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance: Food Dialogues
- Farms Matter
- Why I Farm
- Illinois Farm Families
- Indiana Family of Farmers
- Common Ground
- Ag Chat Foundation
- American Farm Bureau
Congrats to all of my fellow Boilermakers on a successful Ag Week!
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Caring for the Caretakers – Celebrating Farmers on National Ag Day
Farmers are caretakers. They care for their crops, to ensure they’re the highest quality products for consumers; their animals, to help them grow healthy and protect them from the elements; their equipment, to ensure that it runs correctly to get the job done; their family, to provide for them, love them, and help guide them in their lives; and also for the land, to ensure that it is around for many generations to come.
I was reading a blog where the author was talking about her husband, a dairy farmer, who when his alarm goes off at 4 a.m. each morning, doesn’t hit snooze like the majority of people (myself included some mornings), but instead, “jumps up, splashes water on his face, gets dressed, laces up his work boots, and heads out the door to the barn.”
Imagine doing that, every day of the year. No sleeping in, no sick days, no weather delays…4 a.m. sharp. His cows depend on him, and as a farmer, there’s no option of quitting or letting them down.
If you’re asking yourself why someone would want to do that, she answers it in her very next line. “It’s simple—dairy farmers like Scott work relentlessly hard 365 days a year. Deep within their hearts and souls, they genuinely care for their land, for their cattle and for their family.”
And she is exactly right. Her husband doesn’t think about himself, or how tired be may be…his cows, and his farm, are his first priority. They don’t need us to care for them, they don’t ask for recognition… but I think they deserve it!
What they’re doing is so vital to our society, but there have been many times where they don’t always get the recognition and “care” that they deserve in return. The agriculture community cares about farmers, but we want others to join us too!
This week we are celebrating National Ag Week, with Tuesday, March 25, being National Ag Day. Sponsored by the Agriculture Council for America, it’s a day to recognize and celebrate agriculture and the farmers who keep the industry going.
In our country, we are so blessed to have abundant, quality, accessible and affordable food, yet it isn’t always appreciated. Being 3-4 generations removed from the farm, consumers aren’t as informed about where their food comes from and all of the work and “care” that goes into it from farmers all across America.
This isn’t because farmers try to hide things from the public, or don’t want people to know about their food. It’s exactly the opposite! If you talk to a farmer, sharing their knowledge with others is something they actually enjoy doing.
Unfortunately though, in the last couple of years, all that’s been heard, or at least publicized about agriculture on the internet and news publications, are the “issues”. Most of the time, what reaches the public is misinformation, and overly emotionalized exaggerations from anti-ag groups with large marketing budgets, not from the true source, the farmer.
But in the last year, which was actually named the Year of the Farmer, the agriculture community and farmers have made great strides in trying to better connect with consumers to tell their stories and educate people about where their food comes from. As a member of the agriculture community and having grown up around farming, I am so thrilled to see agriculture be highlighted and honored on the national level.
Here are just a few examples:
“So God Made a Farmer” was the name given to a speech given by the radio broadcaster Paul Harvey at a 1978 FFA convention. The speech was used in a commercial by Dodge Ram during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVII in honor of farmers. Also, in support of farming, Dodge agreed to donated money for each view of the video, totaling $1,000,000, to the FFA Foundation. This goal was reached in less than five days.
The Great American Wheat Harvest
The Great American Wheat Harvest is a documentary film that will tell the story of hard-working custom harvesters who travel from the heart of Texas to the Canadian border harvesting the wheat that feeds our Great Country and the World. This film is being produced by award-winning Director and Producer, Conrad Weaver. It shares the challenges that are now threatening that way of life passed on from generation from generation. Much has changed and from a historical perspective. It is important to document the lifestyle and heritage before it is lost. The Great American Wheat Harvest Movie is the behind-the-scenes look and tribute to those working daily to produce our food and those gathering the harvest.
Farmland the Movie -I get to attend a screening of this movie on Thursday and I’m can’t wait!
Through this film from award-winning director, James Moll, you’ll step inside the world of farming for a first-hand glimpse into the lives of young farmers and ranchers. You’ll learn about their high risk jobs and the passion for a way of life that’s been passed down from generation to generation.
This year, in honor of all farmers, Beck’s Hybrids has started a movement. A movement that tells the story of the American farmer. The “Why I Farm” movement pays tribute to farmers for their hard work, dedication, and passion to a job that they do selflessly, seven days a week. Through video, 16 Midwest farmers have shared their farming stories and the emotion and passion they have for what they do is inspiring. The video above is one of my favorites from their campaign!
Each of these videos highlight different aspects of farming and agriculture, but they have one common theme, they show that farmers really do CARE about what they do and CARE about the quality of their products.
During Ag Week, I want to encourage you to make more of an effort to learn and understand how food and fiber products are produced. But don’t just rely on searching Google! Get out there and talk to farmers, your local Farm Bureau, and agriculture organizations in your area. And join in on your local Ag Day celebrations!
For starters, if you’re in the downtown Indy area, stop by the state house and join Indiana’s Family of Farmers in their Ag Day Celebration! 
From watching and learning from my grandpa and family on the dairy farm, to interviewing and talking with farmers on a daily basis, I have witnessed that farmers truly are caretakers.
Please join me in expressing care for farmers and thanking them…not only on National Ag Day, but every day throughout the year, as they do for us.
For more on National Ag Week, National Ag Day Agriculture and Farmers, check out the links below:
- Indiana Family of Farmers – http://www.indianafamilyoffarmers.com/
- Illinois Farm Families – http://www.watchusgrow.org/
- Old Blue Silo – http://www.oldbluesilo.com/2014/03/national-ag-week-2014-farmsmatter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OldBlueSilo+%28old+blue+silo%29
- Rural Housewives of America – http://ruralhousewives.com/2014/03/24/national-ag-day-and-a-movie-about-wheaties/
- Indiana Ag Day 2014 – http://www.queenoffree.net/2014/03/indiana-ag-day-2014/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+QueenOfFree+%28Queen+of+Free%29
- From Fields to Food Trucks: IN Ag Day 2014 – http://chaosisbliss.com/indiana-ag-day-march-25-2014-from-fields-to-food-trucks/
- Farming America – http://farmingamerica.org/category/national-ag-day/
- Ag Day at the Statehouse – http://basilmomma.com/2014/03/agday14-indiana-statehouse-indiana-family-farmers-farmsmatter.html
- U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance: The Food Dialogues – http://www.fooddialogues.com/
- Agriculture Proud on CNN’s Eatocracy – http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/03/19/celebrate-national-agriculture-day-and-talk-to-a-farmer/
- Sarah Sums It Up – http://sarahsumsitup.com/…/national-agriculture-day-2014/
- Why Montana is Agriculture Proud – http://mtstockgrowersblog.com/2014/03/24/why-montana-is-agriculture-proud/
- Top Ten Things I’ve Learning in Five Years of Farming – http://www.onthebanksofsquawcreek.com/2014/03/agday-2014-top-10-things-ive-learned.html
- Homestead Hill Farm – http://homesteadhillfarm.blogspot.com/2014/03/hey-there-its-national-ag-day.html
- Why You Should Know the Name Norman Borlaug – http://blogs.usda.gov/2014/03/25/why-you-should-know-the-name-norman-borlaug/
- Happy 100th Birthday Norman Borlaug on National Ag Day – http://www.cornbeanspigskids.blogspot.com/2014/03/happy-100th-birthday-norman-borlaug-on.html#sthash.8kQYYDk6.dpuf
- National FFA: 8 Ag Facts You Probably Didn’t Know – http://nationalffa.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/national-ag-day-8-agriculture-facts-you-probably-didnt-know/
- Flat Hats, Big Loops & Lipstick – http://www.flathatsnlipstick.blogspot.com/
(Header image graphic by BoilermakerAg.com – please give proper photo credits if shared and do not crop out logo. Thank you – share away! Photos for this graphic provided by Agriculture Council of America and Summerhouse Studios Photography.)
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Farmers Share Their Stories With #WhyIFarm
Happy Friday Everyone!
Ok, so…I have to admit. Lately I have been a failure at blogging. With moving into a new house, traveling with work, and planning this whole wedding thing, blogging had to take a back burner for a little bit. I feel like I’ve said this before, but a girl needs some rest every now and then. So thank you for sticking with me!
Things still are busy, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share this with you! A couple weeks ago I posted about the Why I Farm Movement to honor farmers. If you haven’t heard of it yet, be sure to read my last post and check it out!
But my reason for writing today is because they just posted their new video! Why I Farm has been highlighting Midwest farmers and sharing their stories about why they love to farm. As an advocate for agriculture, (Agvocate as we like to say) I absolutely LOVE this! I have seen so many people take for granted how cheap and accessible our food system is that they don’t always appreciate how much hard work goes into producing it.
The videos from Why I Farm do an incredible job of showing just how much passion and emotion these farmers have for what they do. Get your Kleenex ready.. because if your from a farm family, or grew up around farming… some of these may bring tears to your eyes (At least they did for me).
The new video highlights a young farmer from Warrensburg, IL named Nathan Wentworth. He shares his family’s farming history and what it means to him to be able to carry on that tradition. But this video is so much more than that.
My favorite part is that he also shares that there’s more to farming than just driving a tractor. It’s knowing about how to care for the crops, the land and … wait, why am I explaining this? I’ll just let Nathan tell you for himself…
“To put it simply, I love farming. I love figuring out problems. I love watching life grow, transform and develop. I love being a biologist, a botanist, a chemist, an engineer, a marketer and all the professions involved with farming. I love all of it, but nothing can hold a candle to farming with my family. To carry on the traditions, and values that the generations before me developed…and then pass those on to the generation’s to come. That is something God has blessed our family with and it is something we will not take for granted. That’s why I farm.” – Nathan Wentworth
What did you think? Powerful stuff, right? I may be the only one, but it sure makes me proud to be from a farming background and to be working in agriculture! Thank you Nathan, and all farmers, for all that you do!
Also, with harvest season in full swing and farmers out on the roads, please use this video as a remember to respect them on the roads and slow down! I know we’re all busy (myself included) but this graphic from Kelly at the Old Blue Silo is perfect to put it in to perspective.
Courtesy of Kelly at http://www.oldbluesilo.com/.
Well said, Kelly. Well said!
So now that it’s the weekend, join me in unplugging from the digital world for a while and have some relaxation time! But before I go I wanted to share that I have joined the movement to honor farmers, and I hope that’ll you’ll join me too! Visit whyifarm.com to learn how you can help honor farmers.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Honoring Farmers with #WhyIFarm
Being an Ag blogger, I’ve written about farmers and agriculture several times, but I just can’t say it enough – farmers are some of the most hardworking, passionate and dedicated people I know. They truly do want to provide a quality product for consumers and are proud to be a part of feeding families everywhere.
Growing up in agriculture, and by interviewing farmers throughout the Midwest, I have seen a lot of these qualities firsthand. I always come out of these interviews feeling so proud to be a part of this industry and thankful for getting the chance to meet not only great farmers, but all-around great people. People that always remember your name, take time to actually get to know you, and would drop whatever they’re doing to help you…just like you’re a part of their own family.
That’s why this quote from farmer, Bryon Coffman, really hits home for me.
“You’re not just a part of your family farm, you’re a part of agriculture. And that’s a much larger family. That’s Why I Farm.” – Bryon Coffman, Moweaqua, IL.
This quote came from the new “Why I Farm” movement started by Beck’s Hybrids. Being a family owned company, and farmers themselves, they know what it takes to farm. So with the Why I Farm movement, their goal is simple – to honor farmers and give them the recognition they deserve.
To kick off this effort, they interviewed eight Midwest farmers and through video, brought their farming stories to life. And guys, these seriously are incredible! I seriously almost tear up the first time I watch these videos. They really are that powerful! They captured the true emotions from these farmers and you can really see their true passion and love for what they do.
Check out the rest of Bryon Coffman’s video below:
Why I Farm: Bryon Coffman from Becks Hybrids on Vimeo.
You can view the rest of these videos at www.whyifarm.com.
I don’t know about you, but I think farmers DO deserve to be honored for all that they do – so let’s help to spread the word about Why I Farm! To join the movement, like Why I Farm on Facebook, follow @WhyIFarm on Twitter, and use #WhyIFarm to share the videos and your farming stories!
So what do you say, will you join me in the “Why I Farm” movement? Let’s help honor farmers!
Disclaimer – This is not a sponsored post. I am an employee of Beck’s Hybrids but was not compensated in any way to write this post. All thoughts are my own.
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