When my husband and I decided to come back to his family’s farm, we sure didn’t come back for the money or the cushy hours. We chose farming as an occupation because we knew we wanted to raise our family on a farm.

Normally, my sister’s kid goes to summer camp to learn how to make s’mores and post it on Facebook. Not this summer. She said she wanted him to learn new things and experience farm life. What she meant to say is, “Summer camp is expensive.

College is out for summer and many students are embarking upon new internships. Whether this is the first internship or the second or third, there are many ways to maximize the experience.

Celebrating Dairy Month in June and Ice Cream Month in July, dairy farmers open their farms to thousands of visitors for tours, breakfasts on the farms and other large events. These are great opportunities to share what we do and our love for dairy. Hosting large events like these do come at a cost. A cost of time, labor shortages, space, weather and the fear of bringing so many people to your place can be overwhelming for many. But what if we scaled back all the big productions?

I just finished a spring season of Little League Baseball as assistant coach of my son’s team. Our coach often repeated his goal for us as coaches and players: have a great attitude and give an exceptional effort. We had a young team and were inexperienced; the season was a development year for most of our players.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” I have long been puzzled by the word “meek.” It is one of those elusive concepts that has no adequate definition but seems to be more important than any other attribute of Jesus.

“Now look at the sitting room. Big sitting room, big sitting room. Very comfortable. Look at the couch there. Go ahead and sit on it. And look at the light. Lots of light, those windows. Now look at the kitchen.”

June is Dairy Month. Does the average person know that? Probably not. Heck, most people don’t know what a dairy is. These days, walking through the dairy aisle in a store, you would think soybeans, almonds, rice, tofu, coconuts and silk all came from cows.

I live for my morning routine. I wake up, drink my coffee with extra cream and sugar, drive six and a half minutes to the farm and put on my muck boots. Next, I’ll pick a playlist based off my mood for the day and pop in my headphones. I walk down to the dry cow barn and inspect every cow. I’m looking for cows that may need birthing assistance.

In this modern era of dairy farming, it takes more creativity than ever to stay in business. It seems as dairy farmers face an onslaught of forces determined to weed out any but the most efficient, they must be more creative than ever to stay in business. In this article we’re going to mention just a few ideas that many have employed to not only survive in business, but even thrive despite tough economic times. Let’s consider just a few suggestions.