Home For A Day

Our whirlwind tour of Maryland, Delaware and North Dakota went off without a hitch last week. The view from 30,000 feet appears to show that most people in the northern part of the United States are dealing with more winter than usual. In fact Bismarck is running out of room to pile the white stuff.

Dover, Delaware was the site of the Regional Women in Ag conference that we spoke at on Thursday and Friday. They had a great crowd in attendance. Delaware is one of those great places in this country that can support a large variety of agriculture. The women there were excited about agriculture and are doing a fantastic job promoting it.

We left there and flew straight to Bismarck, ND. Even in North Dakota they are getting tired of winter. While it was cold outside, things were cooking inside at the Young Farmer and Rancher Leadership Conference. There were over 100 in attendance. The state's YF&R committee did a fantastic job hosting the event. The enthusiasm for agriculture was fantastic and they were eager to hear the message we shared with them.

Congratulations to both of these groups for their commitment to agriculture and feeding the world. It was our privilege to be there with you and keep up the good work.

On The Road

Stacy and I have a very busy schedule for the next couple of weeks. We will be speaking in several states including Delaware, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Arizona. That is if the weather and the airlines cooperate.

We leave tomorrow to attend the Regional Women in Agriculture Conference in Dover, Delaware. They are expecting a great crowd and we can't wait to share our thoughts with them. From there we fly to Bismarck to attend the ND Farm Bureau's Young Farmer and Rancher conference. They have a very strong program in North Dakota and we are excited to speak to them. After being home for a day, we fly out to Phoenix. We were asked to attend a meeting being hosted by the Academy of Veterinary Consultants to share with them what we have been doing to promote agriculture. They are having several speakers there to discuss the challenges facing animal agriculture and to look at the best ways to communicate the truth about our industry.

Returning home after only a day and a half down there, we will jump off the plane and into our outfit to head to Minnesota. Their Farm Bureau Promotion and Education team are having a meeting in conjunction with the Young Farmer and Rancher conference. We have the privilege to visit with both of them while we are there. We have some great friends back there and are looking forward to meeting new ones.

Finally, we will be headed to Sacramento, CA for the American Farm Bureau Federations Young Farmer and Rancher Leadership Conference. Stacy and I serve on that committee and can't wait to see our Farm Bureau friends from all over the country.

With all of the traveling ahead of us, I may not be able to post on this blog everyday. But please keep checking back. I will do my best to keep the information flowing for you.

I have really enjoyed keeping this blog and enjoy hearing from those of you regularly read it. Keep the comments coming and let me know if you hear of an issue that you think I should post.

Your Friend in Ag,

Troy

National Women in Agriculture Conference

We've just returned from speaking at the National Women in Agriculture Conference in Oklahoma City. It was a tremendous event and we were fortunate to visit with people from all over the United States. Here is a picture from the conference of Stacy and I presenting.

More and more people are realizing how important our message of telling the story of agriculture is. Many states are dealing with a variety of issues involving animal agriculture, and there is no doubt that California is the front line this year.

All of us involved in production agriculture must get out and start talking to consumers and explaining who we are and what we do. There are more people involved with organizations that would like to see animal agriculture eliminated in this country than there are people involved directly with food production.

Animal welfare is a priority for producers because our human welfare depends on it.