2020: The year of the “C” word that millions of people think of…COVID. I believe the more fitting word is courage. The ability of being courageous and working hard during a time of unknowing is why I think it represents 2020 in my world. For that matter, perseverance, independence, responsibility, persistence, opportunity, and long term are the words I think represent 2020 in my world. Read Full Article
The last two or three months have allowed Wyomingites the opportunity to breath smoke from forest fires throughout the west. Indeed, just west of Laramie there is a forest fire which is over 170,000 acres as of the writing of this column. South of us in Colorado, there are also some large forest fires, and everyone has heard about the conflagrations in California and Oregon. Read Full Article
Readers of my column will see a column from time to time expressing how the current Endangered Species Act (ESA) needs some work. For those of you who have read these columns and are tired of hearing about how the ESA doesn’t work you may want to stop reading now because I’m going to talk about another example of how the current ESA needs some changes. Read Full Article
Some people are good at connecting dots to get the picture, some are not, and some can connect dots on some things but not others. Just ask my wife. Read Full Article
It’s been over a month since Wyoming started seeing the affects from the coronavirus. Some states have been dealing with it longer and Wyoming was probably one of the last states to be affected. The impact has been significant, and we’ve seen a number of businesses close their doors to help prevent the spread. There are some things we can learn from this. Read Full Article
The big news everywhere is the coronavirus which seems to have taken over the headlines for most of the news media. The virus has been confirmed here in Wyoming and public officials are taking actions to try and either prevent the spread of the virus or avoid getting criticized for not acting. Read Full Article
One of the things that is always amazing when attending the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting is the shear diversity of agriculture in the United States. We also learn about the diversity of issues too and when you consider how many different commodities come together at the annual meeting it is a small wonder our system of adopting policy developed the way it did. I doubt it could occur any other way and still be successful for over 100 years. Read Full Article
The Southwest District will host the 100th annual meeting in Laramie beginning on Wednesday November 13th. This will be the kickoff for our 100th Celebration and we have a number of additions to this year’s meeting to help begin the celebration. AFBF president Zippy Duvall will be the keynote speaker at the banquet Thursday evening. As the head of the largest agricultural organization in the nation we are honored to have an opportunity to hear from President Duvall. We will also have Chancey Williams and the Younger Brothers Band entertain us later that evening. Many of you have probably heard Read Full Article
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet states that “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Of course, this saying refers to different words for the same thing. But what happens when you try to create a “rose look alike” and call it a rose? How do we describe it then? Read Full Article
Why is Farm Bureau supporting this policy asked a Farm Bureau member? You know that it will hurt me and others? Another member called wanting to know why we weren’t supporting a piece of legislation and in a meeting with some legislative leaders we were asked if there were some way we could support a legislative proposal different than Farm Bureau policy. Read Full Article