The Ag Census Is Coming

It is really easy to confuse a lot of us with certain terminology, and just the other night as I opened my mail, I found a very government looking piece that had the look of “confusion” written all over it. It was from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and contained a cellophane window in it with my name on the inside. Fearing the worst, I laid it aside and pulled a Scarlet O’Hara from “Gone With The Wind” and said, “I’ll do that tomorrow.”

Tomorrow finally arrived two days later and I opened the envelope to find a set of forms containing questions concerning our farm and just what goes on in a general manner. They were asking me questions about the number of acres, employees, amount of crops sold, income, number of animals and mainly trying to find out if the farm was still being farmed or not. The forms were fact finders for the upcoming 2012 Census of Agriculture, which will be conducted later in 2012 and into 2013

Forget The Cold And Grow A Garden

As the first of the year settles in and the celebrations subside, it is now that time of the season to turn our attention to what is really important. This year we elect a president of this country once again and the state caucuses across the land are becoming a “you said/he said” sort of affair. They are important, but not what we all really wish to talk about at the beginning of January. It’s not like we haven’t heard all of this discussion since last summer and it is becoming somewhat the same old thing.

The really important item of discussion this time of the year is something much more important than an election. It is the first thing uttered from a visitor’s mouth and the main topic at the country store. Bankers say it in conversations, preachers include it in sermons, farmers don’t like it, kids ignore it, old folks dread it, wood cutters work for it and the list could go on for a good length when you try to define the first extreme winter cold snap of the year.

Federal Government Trying To Decide What’s Safe For Farm Kids

A child growing up on a farm soon learns that there is work to be done most all the time and everyone who puts their feet under the kitchen table is usually required to help out in some way. It may involve only turning the water on for the cows to drink or seeing that the feed buckets are filled at the end of the day, but even the smallest members of farm families soon are taught responsibility and how to work. At least that is the way it used to be. But, if our federal Department of Labor enforces some newly proposed restrictions, big government may be telling farm families how they can raise their families and when children are ready to learn how to work.