Back to the Basics –Jan 1986

I’m not sure who it was, but some great
person, perhaps an insurance salesman,
said, “When all else fails, go back to the
basics.”
As the New Year fast approaches, I
think for me and a lot of my neighbors,
remembering-and applying, the basics
of good husbandry and good manage-
ment will be crucial to our ability to call
ourselves farmers a year from now.
Unless your life is totally enveloped in
college football, there haven’t been too
many things to brighten the outlook of the
Iowa countryside this past year-or more
accurately, the past four years.
Land prices took another tumble of just
over 30 percent during the past 12
months. It was the biggest single-year
decline in history, including the infamous
Great Depression days of the early thir-
ties. An acre of “average” Iowa land now
sells for less than half what it would have
in 1980.
To go into detail about the Iowa
economy would, I am sure, be a maudlin
topic for most of you readers, and besides,
I hate to mess up the inner workings of
my antique typewriter with big, salty tear-
drops. Especially if they are my own.
Right now, Iowa is a lot like a sheep just
rescued from hours of struggling on its
back. I’m hoping we’re upright again. But
we may still stumble and fall as we try to
shake ourselves off. And no doubt it will
be awhile before we find our way back to
the main flock.
Unlike the sheep, I hope we will remem-
ber how we arrived at this unfortunate
position.
Though the fickle finger of blame has
been pointed at everything and everyone
from government below to God above, it
probably would be healthy for all of us to
take a deep breath … and then just ad-
mit it that in many cases we have been
our own worst enemy.
Many a farmer’s father in this area in
years past enjoyed modest prosperity
through use of crop rotations, diversity,
limited use of purchased inputs, and

limited use of borrowed money. Many a
farmer’s son abandoned each of those
tried and proven tenets for success amid
the bloated decade of the seventies, and
now regrets it!
They used to say that in order to be as
good a farmer as your Dad, you had to
be better. In 1986, I will settle for “as
good.”
As is my custom, I attended the annual
meeting of the Iowa Forage and Grass-
lands Council in early December. Usual-
ly I have been able to address most of the
folks present on a first-name basis. As a
sign of just how bad things are around
here, this year there was a whole room full
of people. Several hundred, in fact. And
when a gentleman from Pennsylvania told
the group how he netted $240 per acre
last year from several hundred acres of
alfalfa, you could have heard a pin drop.
The row-croppers present would have
been no less amazed had he changed
water into wine before their eyes.
The fact that he was over 100 miles
from home no doubt made him a bit more
believable, though I know of a few top
livestock men in closer proximity who
have been quietly doing similar things
with forages for years.
Interestingly, among the throng in atten-
dance, I recognized only two other lamb
producers. One, upon greeting me, gazed
around the room and asked with tongue
firmly in cheek, “How soon do you sup-
pose our comrades will discover the
sheep to be a ruminant animal?”
One of the speakers, in emphasizing
that quality forages are the key to
profitable livestock production, noted that
U.S. producers might take a lesson from
those in New Zealand who realize that
livestock are not their main crop. Forages
are. Livestock are merely a means to sell
it.
From the read it and weep department
comes word that the only real difference
between Congress and the Boy Scouts is
that the Boy Scouts have adult leadership!

Anyway … Have a Happy New Year.

Originally published The Shepherd Magazine January 1986