Yay for Farming!

Ok, I'll try to make this shorter.
Thursday came early, but we sure made it and ate. We started out at Pioneer by listening to a kid talk about the I-Cal trip that goes to a new country every year. It's basically an international ag travel group- pretty cool to hear about, but they are going to China and heay guess what- I've been there!

Next, a gal came and talked about nitch marketing. Her name was Abby Nichol and she called her boxed beef business Dougherty Farms Beef. Basically, she raises steers on their farm for the specific purose of bringing them to the locker and selling them from there. She talked about the "5 P" concept: people, product, price, place, promotion. It was interesting to learn about branding and such. Fun fact: 86% of people have brand preference to logos. So, she was interesting but we finally had a break to move around and try to wake up before the next speaker! By the way, the pioneer people are awesome- they had bottles of pop and fully sized candy bars, granola, chips, fruit, coffee, the whole nine yards in the back of the room the whole conference. That, in combination with the random stuff in the middle of our tables helped to keep us interested and awake during the morning speakers.

Next, we hard from The folks at Rabo Agrifinance about ag finaincing and budgets. Neil Stadlman was the man in charge and they did this fun theme with a borning subject. It was a CSI investigation via finances. They wore lab coats and gloves and crazy glasses- sounds childish but the way they put things together was really fun. I learned a lot from their presentation. They even had clickers there like we use at school. You click in yoru answer from this remote control and then within seconds it shows the results in a graph on the projector. They basically showed us what we didn know! But that's not all bad, the talk taught us something! I even got some software from them that normally costs like $30. But after explaining my situation, and talking to the guy he produced one out of his van outside! Sweetness! It has some super forms and such on it for some easy bookeeping and loan preparation stuff.

After they spoke we ate another meal at Pioneer and then headed back into the room for one of the most influential parts of New Century Farmer. At this point, we had Dr. Ron Hanson come in a speak about farm succession. This was the most interesting talk ever. Basically, this man has devoted his life to teaching at UNL and helping families get through farm succession nightmares. He hit on some super important topics and told some unbelievable stories. I was able to share some with the group just from experience and knowing how it works already. Not gunna lie, the my hair stood on end the entire talk and I almost left the room beacuse i was hard to sit through- I can relate to it wayy to much. But, he provided everyone with lots of useful tools, including myself in my unique situation.

After he spoke we went to small group and worked on our visions. But between times, a few of us go pulled aside to be put in a short movie. We just said some phrases and I knew when we did it that it wasn't a good idea cuz I was way out of it and half upset from Dr. Hanson's talk yet. It went ok, but I'm sure I looked ridiculous! We did some more work on our visions and wrote some thank yous in small group. When we finished there we went to the hotel and got ready for a baseball game. At 5:30 we headed out for an ICubs game. This is DeMoines minor league team, and they aren't that amazing- but hey I love baseball so it's all good. I sat through a lot of the game in the stands and such but my back started to hurt and it was really hot so I travelled over to some picnik tables close the the stands and chatted with some other NCF kids there. Our group took off at about the 7th inning so we didn't get to see the rest of the game. But hey, we saw some good baseball, got a free shirt and cap, and ate a hot dog! When we got back that night we went to a reception for us and the alumni that were there.

Each year they have New Century Farmer alumni come back for the last two days of the conference and do their own little conference. They met us there and we chatted for a while. Then, we all decided to go cruise DeMoines. I drove one vehicle and a Jeremy (a friend) drove another guys pickup and we took off and used some directions to a sports bar that we had. Well, they were rather sketch so I had a kid mapquest it on his phone. We used those directions to get us there. After driving around all over we ended up in a sketchy housing district..not exactly the right directions. So...we turned around and went to the nearest local bar. That was hillarious. I think we gave them more business than they have had in a year. I watched some ridiculously bad pool (apparently farmkids don't have enough time to be good at pool). Meanwhile, a group of them went across the street and climbed the 30ft Dean foods Cow Calf pair. Yes, 30 ft. I don't know how they did it, but wow- it's lit and all, and apparently you get into huge trouble if you get caught. hhaha- I wish I could have watched but the risk seems a littel too high.... Anyway, we eventually left and went back to the hotel. I went to bed- the 'amazing' roomate didn't show up...no comment.

So thus far the conference was absoluetly amazing. Love the people and the speakers, Truly learning a ton! I talked to Merle on the phone shortly after I got there and found out that the wheat that was yet to be harvested got hailed out...not good. Also heard that they did some more haying and Adreinne and Riley did some tractor driving! Yey for them:D But, it was rather concerning to hear about the wheat-but then again, what can you do. I guess the harvesters left because the wheat that was left was too wet after the storm and they went to Allen. That doesn't work out too well because once they leave, they are hard to get back. Anyway, that's what I knew of from the ranch.

I know I'm still behind, but I have a super sore back...I don't know what I did or how I did it, but somehow I really messed up my back. I'll write the rest tomorrow.