My wife, two kids and I farm with my father. I am the fifth generation on our land.

Notice I said “former” county extension agent. After 19 years and four counties, I left extension to farm and ranch full time. I loved being an extension agent, and I can only hope the people I served learned as much from me as I learned from them. I have had the opportunity to serve the most incredible people and still get paid for it. It was a great gig.

So why leave a good job with good benefits for an occupation that offers no benefits, sick leave, holidays or pension? I often tell people that other kids grew up wanting to be firefighters, baseball players, generals or even president of the United States. All I ever wanted to be was a farmer. So making the transition from part-time, weekend farmer is the culmination of a life-long dream. You could say I have made it to my own version of the big leagues.

Our operation is a much-diversified mix of crops and livestock. We have a herd of spring-calving cows and a small flock of ewes. We believe in low-stress animal handling and high-stress fences. The cropping operation consists of soybeans, corn, milo, wheat and hay. In other words, we have a little of everything and not a lot of anything. Six years ago, we switched over to complete no-till on our crops, and I truly believe it is one of the best things we have ever done, both for us and for the environment.

My column will be called “Dust on the dashboard.” Why? I spend many hours in the cab of my pickup and in the cab of a tractor. This gives me hours to think and ponder questions, problems and ideas. Often those ponderings become ideas to write about. Seldom can I find a pen or a pad of paper in the vehicle I am driving (if you could see them, you would understand), and I jot ideas for columns down in the dust on the dashboard; hence, the name of my column.

The thoughts in this column are my own, and I hope we can have conversations about them. Over the coming weeks, we will have fun and I hope I will make you think a little bit. I believe differences in opinion and the right to civilly (notice I said “civilly”) debate those opinions are what make this country great. So, I do not ask that you agree with me (that would be no fun), but I ask that you thoughtfully consider what I am writing.

I do believe it is important to share my passion for agriculture with anyone who will listen. Farmers and ranchers account for less than 2 percent of our population, and that number is rapidly declining. Increasingly, people are more and more disconnected with how their food is produced. We, as agricultural producers, should welcome questions and be willing to explain what we do. Surveys have shown that farmers and ranchers are some of the most trusted professionals, and we need to use this trust to share our story with anyone who will listen. That is what I plan to do.

I hope that this column will inspire you to share your story about your farm or ranch with others. Each of us has a story to tell and a passion for what we do. You would not be involved in agriculture if you did not have a passion for it; farming and ranching are simply too hard for anyone who is not fully committed.

I tell everyone that I am a proud producer of the food we all need. I have had conversations about agriculture on planes, over the Internet and at church potlucks – anywhere people will listen (or at least not run away screaming). So check back and see what shows up in the dust on my dashboard.  FG

PHOTO: Photo by Lynn Jaynes.