Have you ever picked up the phone to call a consultant and upon asking your question and hearing the answer you feel like the dumbest person on the face of the earth? Well, for those of you who have not yet had the experience, let me shed some light on the feeling.

Let’s face it. Dairy producers are going through some challenging times. Working for an A.I. company, I see it on a daily basis. But I heard a few words at a recent conference that reinvigorated my excitement for this industry.

I love the fairs. Mostly because some of my best childhood memories were made in the cattle barns at the King County Fair and the Washington State Fair while showing my cows. A lot has changed since my 4-H days, but the fair is still a great place to connect with consumers about agriculture.

Failure. I looked at the big fat F next to organic chemistry and felt every dream, every optimistic thought in my head fade to gray and disappear. I had just finished the fall semester of my junior year of college and returned home for Christmas break. It was the first time I’d ever failed a class or anything for that matter. Sitting there in my room, I’d never felt so frustrated, so defeated, so hopeless.

The news rattles on with campaign reporting. Gossip, true stories and lies framing the lives of the candidates permeate every facet of the media. You can’t turn on the radio, television, access your email or Facebook account without hearing some new scandal introduced by the key words “stunning,” “shocking” or “This could change the course of the election.”

Tristan told me to come to Dublin that weekend and bring my boots. He had gotten the allotment. He had been on the list for more than a year, and it was finally his. Tristan said the word again, as if it was the grandest thing he knew: The Allotment.

“I want to be a teacher when I grow up,” I declared after my first day of kindergarten. I began alphabetizing all of my books on my bookshelf and, just like the school library, I included a check-out card inside the front cover of each book.

The thought of “homemade” usually brings a warm fuzzy feeling combined with magical rainbows; however, not all homes should be manufacturing plants. My dad always said, “Homemade products aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.

The kids are out of school, and that makes everyone at my house a little giddy. Summers on the farm are crazy busy, but it’s a fun kind of busy. I love having the kids popping in and out of the house. I love having them home for meals and to help out at the house.

Cultural trends wax and wane, as fads and fashions popular with consumers evolve over time. Right now the trendy narrative about the conventional practices common across American agriculture – and why those conventions are supposedly suspect – is presenting a real challenge to dairy farmers and, frankly, all mainstream food producers.