Kate Ziehm

GREENWICH, N.Y. — Recently, I started listening to The Diary of a CEO, a podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett. The title ‘CEO’ sounds so big, legitimate, and highfalutin. It feels so un-agricultural. So, why does this pertain to you, farmer, ag lender, crop consultant, Farm Bureau president, etc.? In agriculture, most of us touch small ag business (or large) and are in or have occupied leadership roles.

If you farm, you have faith. We have faith that the rain will spill over from the clouds when it’s dry. And understand Mother Nature is on her time, not our time. Faith. Farmers have faith that the baby calf is going to live. Praying that the sparkle comes back to the eyes, the coat shines again, and the baby hops up at feeding time. If the calf takes its last breath, we wipe a tear from our eye, look up to the sky, and give thanks… for being able to try. Faith.

For four short days every year, when I was a teenager, I became part of something bigger. It was bigger than me when I was 15. It is bigger than me today, at 47. Eastern States Exposition. New England’s premier agricultural fair. Every year, our state (New Hampshire), along with the five other New England states, sent a delegation of 4-H youth and their dairy cows down to the Young Building, in Springfield, Massachusetts. There we laughed. We competed against each other, won and lost.