Have you ever noticed in ranching that there’s “flow” and “no flow”? The days things click into place are great. Items on the to-do list get crossed off, and people and animals are happy.

Rural America is the backbone of our nation. It is where family values are based, where respect and responsibility are grown and where future leaders are developed.

Leading any business is extremely challenging. If the business is a family business, the level of difficulty is increased, and if you intend for it to be a multigenerational business, the difficulty is even greater still.

Heim’s Hillcrest Dairy in Wisconsin has created a welcoming team culture with low employee turnover. Since the farm started in 1963, it has grown from less than 100 cows to more than 800. Today, members of the second, third and fourth generations work on the dairy.

I am a firm believer that attending these events are crucial for the success and improvement of the cattle industry, but the loveliest thing to me is the fact that nobody has to do it.

Have you seen those quizzes that are supposed to prepare you for parenthood? The idea is to get people thinking about how their lives will change once they have a child. These quizzes make me laugh because there really isn’t anything that can prepare you for it.

I remember back many years ago to a very special time in my life: Feb. 14, 1989. It was Valentine’s Day, and it was the third month that I had been dating a very beautiful, godly lady named Joanne.  

In an exchange parroted ad nauseam with my buddies with every charming ounce of teenage wit available to us in the mid-2000s, two movie pirates discuss their Plan B should Plan A go awry: “What if the worst should happen?” “Keep to the Code.”