Did you sing the title of this article in your head? When we were outlining this article, the hit song inexplicably popped into our heads. Then we realized it was because it so accurately describes how dairy advocates are feeling right now.

No matter the state of the industry, the dairy community rallies together every year for June Dairy Month. What started as an effort to promote drinking milk and help boost demand has become a tradition of thanking farmers across the country for the delicious dairy foods we enjoy.

Celebrate June Dairy Month with these tried-and-true recipes, straight from the kitchens of real farmwomen and Progressive Dairyman staff members who use real dairy products as a staple ingredient. They arekid-tested and potluck-approved.

If you are direct marketing your farm products and need to hear a success story, this is a story to hear.

When local specialty hardwood lumber store owner Lou Irion called, I thought it was about an upcoming orchard pruning demonstration I had organized for our Woodland Owners Association.

A co-worker raised interesting questions: As dairy farms consolidate (fewer dairy farms with more cows on each farm), what changes in forage production need to be considered?

Recently, I sat with a silver-haired gentleman looking at his photo album of more than a half-century ago. Black-and-white pictures stared back at us with his cherished memories. He lovingly stroked the pictures; “This is when we were on the ranch; we all got together for a family reunion.

If you have been actively farming for as long as I have, you have seen more than a few changes in the machinery we use. Today’s farm machinery is more powerful, faster, “smarter” and more comfortable than ever before. To be fair, they are also more complicated and expensive.

Every English major knows the slagging that comes with announcing your choice of study. Close friends and concerned relatives play it off as a momentary lapse of judgement or quote employment statistics they hastily looked up on their phone.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: How agriculture presents itself to the public needs to change. Personally, most people in ag follow more conservative values, and I’m one of them. But professionally, publicly, in the way we market our lives and our product, it’s time to let them go.