Guest Blog

Hello and Happy New Year’s from southwestern Virginia! I am Lance Phillips, and I’m pleased to be sharing some of my favorite old tractors and haying equipment through this column. I’ve been a pharmacist for almost nine years for a local grocery store chain that serves parts of four states in our area, and I do a little farming when time allows.

Change is the inherent challenge to which forage-livestock systems are constantly subjected.

The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.
—Paulo Coelho

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued its Federal Automated Vehicles Policy. Although this policy applies solely to on-road vehicles, CNH’s recent introduction of a concept autonomous tractor suggests that NHTSA’s policy may have agricultural implications too.

The holiday season will soon be here, that time of year when belts shrink and stretchy pants become your best friend. The big three of holiday celebrations come one after another, with scant time for the waistline to recover.

My granddad’s favorite way to describe his “spare tire” was that he had a bad case of “water on the belly.” Now certainly, this was not a physiologically accurate diagnosis, but people understood what he meant. Grandpa’s extra 15 pounds he put on most winters settled right on his gut.