The Farmer's Daughter USA

Hi, I'm Amanda! My family farms corn and soybeans in Southwest Michigan. I'm also a practicing attorney.

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In Defense of “Thank You, Farmers”

October 17, 2022

Time changes everything, even blogging, influencing, and writing. Back in the day, you would often see phrases encouraging people to thank farmers for what they do. Things like, “if you ate today, thank a farmer” or “if you didn’t go to bed hungry, thank a farmer” were everywhere. It was meant as a way to encourage people to recognize how much their modern lives still depend on agriculture.

Lately the phrase has gone out of vogue. Most ag-vocates have moved away from seeking praise or appreciation for being farmers. After all, that’s not why farmers do what they do. It isn’t some primal sacrifice to ensure that our fellow humans are fed, clothed, and can buy anything and everything. Farmers usually enjoy growing animals and crops. They appreciate the rural lifestyle and culture. They enjoy working outside. And some of them prefer not seeing the people they help feed and clothe on a regular basis.

I completely understand that sentiment. At the end of the day, everyone works because they want to make some money, not because they’re taking one for the team.

But I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. To me the shift away from thanking farmers is a sad reflection on the divisiveness in our country. It’s a reflection on the fact that we often feel like we don’t need anyone else to maintain our lifestyles. We’ve lost our sense of community and we don’t appreciate how other members of our society influence and support our lives. We don’t appreciate anyone anymore.

So how about this: instead of losing the “thank you, farmers” sentiment, we expand it?

Thanks to the truck drivers that accomplish logistical feats to keep our grocery stores stocked.

Thanks to teachers for expanding and growing young minds.

Thanks to our firefighters for being available when bad things happen.

Thanks to waitresses for providing friendly service aswe enjoy a meal with family and friends.

Thanks to the grocers making sure our communities have quality food available.

Thanks to our neighbors for creating community and watching out for our homes as well as theirs.

Thanks to the entrepreneurs for creating new products that make our lives easier.

Thanks to the IT professionals who can fix our glitchy technology.

I hope you get my point. Our world doesn’t need less appreciation; it needs more. We need to recognize the contributions of everyone that makes our world run, even though we don’t know most of them. And taking that approach may just solve some of our greatest challenges.

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Filed Under: Farm Living, Lifestyle, Production Methods Tagged With: family farms, promoting ag

Hi, I'm Amanda. My family farms corn and soybeans in Southwest Michigan. I'm an attorney and I'm passionate about agriculture!

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thefarmersdaughterusa

Amanda | The Farmer's Daughter USA
I'm a proud farmer's daughter & advocate for modern agriculture. U.S. farmers are leaders in sustainability.

Amanda Zaluckyj
Just a reminder. #agriculture #usagriculture #far Just a reminder.

#agriculture #usagriculture #farmers #usfarmers #farming #farmfamilies #sustainableag #sustainableagriculture #sustainable #sustainability #farmerscare #homegrown #localagriculture #knowyourfarmer #shoplocal #madeintheusa #madeintheus #americanagriculture
Happy Thanksgiving! I realized this morning that Happy Thanksgiving!

I realized this morning that it's been 20 years since I performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. What a trip!

I hope you and yours have a lovely day! 🦃
Honestly, what is she even doing?? #Mischa #dogsl Honestly, what is she even doing??

#Mischa
#dogslife
She's got me. #dogslife #onlyfurbaby #naptime She's got me. 

#dogslife #onlyfurbaby #naptime
Some of you see this picture and appreciate the vi Some of you see this picture and appreciate the view. Our grain cart driver (mom) just sees that scary hill to drive up. 🫣

 #farming #sustainableag #agriculture #sustainableagriculture #farmers #sustainableagriculturepractices #sustainable #agriculturelife #agricultureeducation #farm #farmer #harvest23🌾
Happy Halloween! I dressed up as an attorney today Happy Halloween! I dressed up as an attorney today. 🤣

Oh, lawyer jokes. Listen, if you can't make fun or yourself and have a little fun, what are you even doing?
It's true. My puppy. 💜💜 It's true. My puppy. 💜💜
The first 25 acres of soybeans are done! But the b The first 25 acres of soybeans are done! But the beans still have very high moisture content. It's so high the granary won't accept them. So we'll have to dry them.

The big concern with soybeans is that the pods won't pop open. If that happens, they'll be discarded  out the back of the combine with the other plant material. Obviously not what we want to happen. After testing a bit, enough were opening that we felt like we should just get started.

Slow going, but at least it's going!

 #farming #sustainableag #agriculture #sustainableagriculture #farmers #sustainableagriculturepractices #sustainable #agriculturelife #agricultureeducation #farm #farmer #fearfree #cleanfood #foodsafety #dietfads #FactsNotFear #cleaneatingdiet #foodlabels #truth #cleaneating #Harvest2023
We're still not harvesting yet. Why not? Moisture We're still not harvesting yet. Why not? Moisture content.

We're currently about 4 weeks behind. But we can't start because our crops are still too wet. The moisture content is the amount of water in each kernel or soybean. If there's too much, they can spoil in storage. If it's really too high, then combine has a hard time handling it.

For corn, the sweet spot is about 15%. We have a dryer system on the farm that can help finish the kernels to the correct moisture level. But the dryer takes a lot of energy to run, so its cost prohibitive if the moisture content is too high. And if we try to sell the crop when it's too wet, we'll take a price hit at the grain elevator. So either the granary dries it, we dry it, or Mother Nature dries it. Right now, it's still too wet for after-harvest drying.

The other complication is that IT. JUST. KEEPS. RAINING. That doesn't help because the corn doesn't have a chance to dry out, and it maintains that moisture. We need some warm, dry days to speed up the process.

So, for now, we're still waiting...

#harvest23
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