Why Farming Is Great
Last week, my wife and I attended the annual Farm Financial Standards Council meeting in beautiful Ranchester, Wyoming (just north of Sheridan). The meeting was hosted by the Padlock Ranch and they did a great job of providing a meeting site and dinner and lunch. I even got to rope a calf (it was a calf head on a bale of hay).
On Thursday night, we got to attend the Sheridan Rodeo. It lead off with four heats of Indian races. If you have never been to a rodeo or seen Indian races, you need to go. It would be worth your time.
On Friday afternoon, my wife and I headed over to the Black Hills. She had never been to Mt. Rushmore and she wanted to get it off of her bucket list. We showed up around 4 pm and the weather was great and it is still nice to see my wife get excited (like a child with a new toy) about viewing the monument.
On Saturday, we headed down to Denver to see my son and his wife. On the way, we stopped off at a farm family and I got to operate a Case IH 8230 with a 42′ Shellbourne stripper header. This is an unique experience for someone who is used to operating a reel. With a stripper header, you essentially just put in down on the top of the wheat heads, and it “strips” the head into the feeder housing. With an old header, you are constantly raising and lowering your header to get the right position. It is much easier with the stripper header.
I must admit it also took me a little time to get used to the Auto Steer. We do not use this on the steep hills around Walla Walla. Keeping my hands off of the steering wheel is hard to do (might have a bit to do with my control issues (according to my wife)). I drove for about two hours and we then stopped for a field dinner. The farm couple provides a dinner for all of the farm hands and it is great to see how everyone gets along (these farm hands can eat a lot). While we were eating a neighbor showed up driving a Miller Sprayer. He visited with the group for a bit and headed off to spray some more fields.
This trip shows me how great farming is.
Paul Neiffer, CPA
CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
Comments are closed.