For some, it’s the scent of sunscreen, barbecue or citronella – but to me, nothing says summertime like the sweet smell of fresh-cut hay.

Here in Wisconsin, some farms are now falling under the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in regards to workplace safety, and I hear a large amount of pushback from my peers about how we as farmers don’t want and cannot afford more government regulation.

We’re lying on the couch, watching Netflix. My girlfriend rests her hand on my belly. I shift on my side so her hand slides off. She puts her hand back on my stomach. I browse through the movies, reading the descriptions below the titles. She rubs my belly and sighs.

June Dairy Month might be over, but that doesn’t mean we are off the hook when it comes to promoting the industry. Sharing our farm story and connecting with consumers is something we should be doing every day.

I met my new neighbor this last week. He just bought the old place down the road and moved here from a big city. He said, “I wanted to move to rural America because you just can’t put a price on family values.”

Today, I attended the graveside services of my uncle. It was a sweet service set in the old country cemetery of Heber, Arizona. The marble and sandstone grave markers are nestled under towering pines and surrounded by limestone hills.

Big things are happening at the small rural school that our kids attend. With under 150 children in grades preschool to eight, the school has dedicated itself to teaching its students life skills, utilizing the “Leader in Me” program, based on the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Farmers across the nation are in dire need of a reliable visa program that provides timely access to a long-term workforce to fill jobs domestic workers continually pass up. Current visa programs do not provide dairy producers with year-round labor and are riddled with complexities and bureaucratic red tape that remain troublesome to even seasonal labor needs.

I’ve heard it said that there are two kinds of people that grow up on a farm: those who can’t wait to leave and those who never leave.

It’s kind of an old hat to constantly dwell on getting the next 5 pounds of milk per cow. It’s easy to talk about, but how do you actually achieve it? Not very many people are brave enough to take you by the hand and show you exactly what it will take to get that next 5 pounds. That’s especially true if you are already making quite a bit of milk per cow.