As we make our journey through our blessed lives, we all experience various seasons of life. No matter what season of life you are in, we all experience challenges mixed with great joy. Recently, I have found that embracing my season of life is the key to my day-to-day endurance and survival.

Well, spring is in the air. The days are warmer, things are starting to green up again – and just last week I had a group of bird watchers show up at the farm. I inquired if they needed to borrow some birdshot. They looked at me like I had a talking parrot on my shoulder.

“I don’t have the time for that,” is a common phrase I hear when encouraging fellow farmers to get involved with professional organizations. There is always an excuse about the busyness of farming and life that seems to trump professional organizations. An excuse is just that – an excuse. I would like to share with you a few reasons why you can’t afford to not be involved with professional organizations.

Getting more involved on social media provides the dairy community with numerous benefits but can be daunting at first. There are over a billion people around the world consumed by social media every day. One post could create millions of lasting impressions. It all starts with baby steps to reach your goals and reap the rewards.

Technology, among other things, has changed the dairy landscape, and as dairy numbers continue to decline and farm sizes increase, it’s important to tell the story of how we progressed to where we are today.

I really love cows, but where does this passion come from? Growing up on the farm, you just assume your love of animals comes from spending time with them. But then I found it in my DNA.

Nothing beats the life of a farm kid. By the time our kids hit 3-year-old preschool (which is a thing in Iowa, a wonderful, wonderful thing), they know how to care for animals, they have a great sense of responsibility and, in the Moore house, they can make their own sandwich.

Times are tough for farmers across the nation, who are suffering through everything from low milk prices to severe labor shortages. Now, more than ever, dairy producers of all sizes – and the allied businesses that support them – are seeing how federal policy, such as immigration executive actions, EPA overregulation and more, directly impact the future viability of our businesses.

In February, I participated in the 2017 Midwest Regional Dairy Challenge contest in Madison, Wisconsin. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a contest where one sits at a table and chugs a gallon of milk faster than the next person without throwing up. Although something of the sort would have been epic, I am thankful I was not asked to do so.

Too many of the nation’s dairy farmers are facing an ongoing, daunting challenge: finding enough American workers to fill jobs on their farms, even when they provide wages higher than those paid by other local jobs.