Have you seen those quizzes that are supposed to prepare you for parenthood? The idea is to get people thinking about how their lives will change once they have a child. These quizzes make me laugh because there really isn’t anything that can prepare you for it.

I remember back many years ago to a very special time in my life: Feb. 14, 1989. It was Valentine’s Day, and it was the third month that I had been dating a very beautiful, godly lady named Joanne.  

In an exchange parroted ad nauseam with my buddies with every charming ounce of teenage wit available to us in the mid-2000s, two movie pirates discuss their Plan B should Plan A go awry: “What if the worst should happen?” “Keep to the Code.”

Everything – soil health, pasture productivity, the symbiotic relationship between grass and cattle – is interrelated. When trying to fit this all together, Riley and Jimmie Kammerer became part of something much bigger. Something good.

When most ranchers describe unforgiving conditions, they often think of high-mountain cattle or those hunkering down for a long, drawn-out winter.

Some of the concerns heirs have in taking over the family farm include the financial viability of farming, the challenges of modern agriculture and lifestyle implications.