Drought is depressing. Drought is different than other natural disasters. Hail, tornadoes, flash floods – they often come with little warning. The damage can be devastating, but it’s quick. Those disasters are rather like a heart attack or stroke. Drought, on the other hand, is more like cancer.
Our daughter in New York sent me a BBC article she came across about the future of farming. It talks about “the communications technologies required to move data between the field and the computational cloud, and the technology to process mind-boggling volumes of information with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.”
How do you feel about the future of farming? It’s a future full of technological advances, with “drones detecting weeds and delivering the right mix of herbicide.” Farming’s future is exciting.
There is a Facebook group, “Dakotas Abandoned Images,” where people post pictures of old, abandoned farm buildings and horse-drawn farm implements. Those photos elicit lots of comments about farming in a simpler time – about hard work, family and dreams.
A newspaper account I found said steamboats passing through Bismarck in 1881 carried 1,800 head of horses and cattle and 600 sheep.
The Bismarck Tribune, on Sept. 1, 1882, reported, “The Coteaus are admirably fit for stock raising. Sheep do particularly well. The effect of the climate is to make fleeces heavier.”
In March of that same year, the Jamestown Weekly Alert reported, “A party of Philadelphia capitalists are contemplating sheep farming on a large scale in Dakota.”
In early March, I went to check the cows in the calving pasture near the yard. There, probably cleaning up after a cow had given birth, was a bald eagle. The frequent bald eagle sightings of recent years are another reminder of how the mix of wildlife on our farm has changed.
We are enjoined to find a job we love. It’s a favorite of commencement speakers: “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” A veteran farm broadcaster who I know and respect wrote, “I was always so radio-crazy that I arrived at work early and left late.”
One who thinks agriculture’s reliability should not be minimized is Neal Fisher, administrator of the N.D. Wheat Commission. Fisher cites statistics that crops and livestock, combined, have generated between $7 billion and $8.5 billion in all but two of the past 12 years. If you add crop insurance and government payments, Fisher says, the annual new wealth from those two agricultural sectors has been between $8 billion and $10 billion in all but two years since 2008.
Over the years, there have been many such trade team visits to North Dakota and many return visits of North Dakotans to overseas markets. I had the privilege of reporting from a trade mission to Egypt and Jordan in 1976 and one to Japan and China in 1982.
The occasion was the addition of one more name to the list – Ray Erbele of Streeter. Erbele was described simply as “rancher,” but he has been so much more than that – educator, marketer, industry servant and mentor.
The scholarship applications listing the students’ accomplishments and goals were all impressive. But I found the letters of recommendation especially revealing. Here are some of the comments made in those letters. “Well-organized, passionate and dependable.” “Her work ethic and determination will push her to succeed in everything she undertakes.” “Responsible beyond his years and looked to for leadership.” “Outstanding student leader and citizen.”
