F2FV

We headed out to Omaha this week for our annual pre-holiday getaway to attend Farmer2Farmer V.  There was still some corn in the field as we crossed Iowa on I-80.  I sat at a table at the meetings with some farmers from North Dakota who came to F2F even though their corn crop was still in the field.  They had heavy snow on the ground and the corn hadn't dried down yet, so they were just letting it sit until the conditions are right later this winter.  I don't know if I would have that kind of patience!  There was a farmer in attendance from Alaska that I was hoping to visit with, but he was always busy, so I never got the chance.  He grows small grains.
There were over 3000 farmers in attendance, including hundreds from Canada.  Next year, Farmers Business Network is expanding into Australia. 

The first evening our speaker was Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy Seal.  He was the lone survivor from Operation Redwing, an attempt to locate dangerous terrorists on the mountainous border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Hence the name of his best selling book, Lone Survivor.  The book was recently made into a blockbuster movie by the same name.  He told his incredible story of survival after being all shot up, getting knocked out a half dozen times, being paralyzed from chest down, and still crawling seven miles through the mountains until he was rescued by some friendly villagers.  He was full of patriotism, dedication, encouragement, anecdotes, common sense, and gratitude gained from his years of training, service, and traumatic experiences.

The next day, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, showed up to give us an update on the trade agreements, trade wars and tariffs.  He had a positive message about the future of agriculture and shared what the Dept. of  Ag. and the current administration was doing to help.

Another interesting speaker was Billy Beane, EVP of the Oakland A's baseball team.  He changed the game of baseball (and eventually other sports and businesses) with his progressive use of big data and analytics to build winning teams with one of the lowest payrolls in major league baseball.  His methodology became known as the "Moneyball" philosophy, and was the subject of the bestselling book by that name.  He was pretty proud of the fact that Brad Pitt played him in the movie about his story in Moneyball.  Farmers Business Network applies some of the same data analytics in their business model to help their farmer members with decision making.

One of the sessions I attended addressed the use of social media for farmers to connect and the importance of agriculture spreading a positive message to counteract all the negative messages.  An executive from You Tube was invited and spoke on the rise of farmer You Tube channels.  Also speaking were a number of popular You Tubers including Zach Johnson, the "MN Millennial Farmer", Ryan Kuster "How Farms Work" and Merideth Bernard "This Farm Wife". 

We had a safe uneventful trip, for which we are thankful.  We paid $3.19 for gas in Des Moines, the lowest price I saw on the trip!

And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Job 1:15