A view from Jeremy Ostrander, CEO of AgriVision Equipment & PrairieLand Partners - January/February 2024

As we kick off 2024, I am most appreciative of you, our fellow stewards of the land and livestock. As I sat pondering what to write this last evening, I took a call from my brother. He was out in the dark rolling out some hay for his cows preparing for the storm and it made me think about all of the things that have to happen to provide food for the people of this world. The snow is now blowing and the temperatures are expected to drop below zero for a few days this week. In honor of all of the ranchers, farmers, truck drivers, mothers and fathers, kids, technicians, agronomists, and many others that make agriculture happen; I want to share some of my favorite quotes on agriculture. We will start it off with a few presidential quotes………I’m still waiting for a good quote from our current slate of presidential candidates. And in honor of my wife, I dropped one in on baling wire. We have a well-aged and experienced John Deere wire tie baler on our farm, and we seem to make really good use of our baling wire.

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals & happiness.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man.” – George Washington

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” – Dwight D Eisenhower

“My grandfather used to say that once in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher. But every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.” – Brenda Schoepp

“The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.” – Will Rogers

“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” – Daniel Webster

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” – Masanobu Fukuoka

“We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist.” – Wendell Berry

“Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest.” – Proverbs 20:4

“Bailing wire turns every farmer into MacGyver.” – Unknown

“Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can’t hurry the crops or make an ox in two days.” – Henri Alain

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” – Dolly Parton

“Misery might love company, but so does joy. And joy throws much better parties.” – Billy Ivey

“It’s not about being happy all the time, or being sure of all your choices. It’s about knowing that life is precious, even when it’s tough.” – Topher Kearby

“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” – E.B. White

“The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land.” – Deuteronomy 28:8

“But I will bless the person who puts his trust in me. He is like a tree growing near a stream and sending out roots to the water. It is not afraid when hot weather comes, because its leaves stay green; it has no worries when there is no rain; it keeps on bearing fruit.” – Jeremiah 17:7-8

And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. – Deuteronomy 11:13-15

From all of us PrairieLand Partners/AgriVsion Equipment, may you and your family have a safe and prosperous 2024.