Education: February, 2003 February, 2003 Table of Contents

by Shan Ingram

One of the pleasures I have been fortunate to have during my career at the Noble Foundation is to meet, interact with and become friends with a lot of great and interesting people. I have learned and received far more from them than they have from me. One of these good people is a man from Shawnee who I call Miami. He commended me on my last article in the News & Views and suggested I write "a column on challenges for old ranchers." Well, Miami, I'm going to change up the title a little and make an attempt.

I think a big challenge for most of today's agricultural producers is to keep the proper attitude. In today's economic and political climate, it is difficult for the agriculturist to maintain a positive attitude. Many times it appears that the challenges of weather, input costs, poor markets for products and lack of political clout and respect from the general consuming public puts ag producers in a disastrous situation. It is easy for us to get down and be totally negative. We need to remember that attitude is mostly a state of mind we can choose to be positive or negative. Be optimistic and enjoy what you are doing.

Another challenge is to remember everything we need to before it is too late. I have found it helpful to write things down on some type of list and review it. If there are items that have a definite time deadline, it is helpful to put them on a calendar and review the calendar regularly (several times a day for me!). It may be helpful to keep notes on a small pocket notepad and make important entries in a logbook or other type of record form at the end of the day.

Perhaps a greater challenge than either of the previous ones is motivation. What makes you do what you do, and why do you want to do it? Some may feel that this is the same as attitude, but I don't think so. We can have a bad attitude and still be highly motivated or we can be very positive in our attitude and poorly motivated. If you have done the same thing for very long, you may lack motivation. I was brought up to believe that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing right. Maybe your wife, family or banker motivates you. Whatever motivates you, it's hard to do a good job without it. For me, it is much easier to accomplish (and do a good job of it) when it is my own motivation that drives me. Figure out why it is important to you and you will enjoy what you are doing more and you will do a better job, too.

A continual challenge for agriculture is to recruit new people. Many times these new people are and should be young people. A wise man once told me that it is easier to catch flies with sugar than with vinegar. If you want a new person to become involved in agriculture or your operation, you need to sell them on what a good life or "good deal" it is, not how hard the work is or how tough it is to survive. We must also be patient and let them learn things for themselves. One of my greatest failings is that I do things myself rather than be patient and take the time to teach someone else to do it. Yes, many times it is easier to do it yourself, but that doesn't allow someone new to learn. We must be patient, explain things and allow others to make some of the mistakes we made. How will they learn and gain experience if we don't allow them any opportunities?

A final challenge I will mention is that we need to discipline ourselves to be in good shape. This applies to both mind and body. Agriculture is many times demanding on our bodies. We should exercise regularly and eat balanced diets in the proper amounts. Mentally, we should not become stale. The easiest thing is the world is to say, "Oh, I know how to do that" and never consider something new or different. Technology and methodologies are changing daily. Unless we make efforts to update ourselves, we will become outdated and mentally out of condition very soon. It is important to attend educational meetings and to visit with and inquire of people who know new developments and techniques.

I don't know if I fulfilled my friend's request by writing this article, but perhaps it has helped some of you a little. If you have ideas for educational events that we are not addressing, please let me know and we will see what we can do.