Kansas Farm Bureau

Let’s take stroll back to Vacation Bible School many years ago. One of the songs we learned at the McLouth nondenominational event was about a wee little man named Zacchaeus who climbed up in a sycamore tree. Centuries later, I have an issue with that particular species of tree. What a hot summer we’ve had thus far! My wife and I are fortunate to have a plethora of mature trees to provide nearly all-day shade for most of the house as well as much of the backyard.

During our first session of Leadership KFB in January this year, our program coordinator, Myndi Krafft, described the general theme of each of our future sessions with just a few words. Our final in-state session to be held in western Kansas was described as the scope and scale of agriculture in Kansas. As a lifelong western Kansas resident, this felt like a no-brainer.

Much of what I learned about cooking came from watching my mom and grandmother prepare meals on a daily basis. It was a matter of necessity in those days. There weren’t enough restaurants in my small town to go for more than a couple of days without having to eat at the same place. The menu at home was only slightly more varied and consisted of the standard meat, potatoes and a vegetable of some kind.

Join us and Shop Kansas Farms (SKF) at the Kansas State Fair Sept. 11-20 and shop from a handful of SKF vendors! Look for the booth in the Pride of Kansas building at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson. Friday, Sept. 11 Twisted Sisters Pretzels flavored-snack pretzels from Mulvane Saturday, Sept. 12 Basinger’s Beef from Pretty Prairie Sunday, Sept. 13 The Gingham Pig pork snack sticks from Neodesha Monday, Sept. 14 Farm Bureau Financial Services Tuesday, Sept.

Another school year is right around the corner for the kids in our community. Summers with my kids always go so fast given all of their activities as well as farm responsibilities. This summer has been a flurry of movement given that we haven't seen rain since June. No rain means irrigation duties have been nonstop all summer. Rain days in the summer generally translate to opportunities to turn off the irrigation for a day or two. If it’s off, we have the ability to slow down and rest for a few days.

The Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) Foundation for Agriculture has received a $15,000 Bill House Agricultural Grant from the Community Foundation of Southeast Kansas (CFSEK) to expand scholarship opportunities that help rural and agricultural leaders participate in leadership development programs across the state. The grant will support the Foundation's existing leadership scholarship program, which offsets travel, registration, lodging and other costs of participation.

As we get older, we are taught to be responsible — to manage our schedules, organize our lives, prepare for the unexpected. Responsibility helps us build careers, care for families and thrive in adulthood. But there is a tradeoff to always being prepared: sometimes we miss out on spontaneity.

There’s no better grammatical way to say this: it’s hot! During my wife’s grandfather’s later years, he used to begin many stories with “I remember when I was a kid…”. Well, I’m gonna borrow that family favorite line to say I remember when I was a kid, it was hot during the summer. In fact, the old timers used to have a word for it — July. As a youngster in the ’60s and ’70s, our local town had a travelling youth baseball team in the Jefferson County League.

No matter how hot it was, my grandfather always wore a brimmed hat and long-sleeved pearl snap shirts to protect against the ever-present and invisible ultraviolet rays in the summer. He had a good reason to cover up; the season’s work rarely took place in the shade. Hayfields don’t have any trees, or at least the ones I worked in didn’t. Fencelines are also in full sun. Cattle might be found in the shade when it was time to move them, but the rest of the journey was over open ground.

County Farm Bureau board members are the boots on the ground who turn grassroots ideas into action. Whether they're serving hamburgers at the county fair, teaching students about agriculture or helping shape statewide policy, these local leaders keep Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) moving forward.