EDITOR'S NOTES

Decisions.

Should I plant low-lignin alfalfa? Can I afford to hire another employee? Can I not afford to hire another employee? Should I buy the neighboring property? Can I justify a new rake? What about a hay barn? Is it time for me to sell out?

With farming and ranching profit margins getting slimmer, it’s increasingly difficult to keep things afloat. So why do you do it?

A man is talking to the family doctor.

“Doc,” he says, “I think my wife’s going deaf.”

A farmer and a farmhand were hiking in the forest when a bull moose suddenly appeared and charged them. The farmer climbed a tree, and the farmhand ran to a nearby cave. The moose stood its ground. About every minute, the farmhand would run out of the cave only to be met by the angry moose and chased back in.

By the time you read this, I’ll once again be walking the aisles at NCBA’s convention in Phoenix. I learned something last year at the convention in Nashville I think will prepare me for a better show this year and a better year beyond that.

Clichés we should drop from our everyday speech might include, “It is what it is.” I actually used that in an email today and thought, “That’s a stupid statement.” It’s a five-word waste of breath, a 16-character waste of keystrokes. Of course it is what it is – what else would it be?