As one year comes to an end and people around the world make plans to usher in a New Year, we find ourselves taking stock of all that happened in 2015 and resolving to make improvements in the year ahead. Did you know that only 45 percent of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions and only 8 percent actually achieve their resolutions?

Talk about a sobering fact! I honestly was surprised and did a little more digging. My theory is that the reason so many people don’t achieve their resolutions is because the type of resolutions they’re setting. These were the Top 5 Resolutions for 2015:

1. Lose Weight
2. Get Organized
3. Spend Less. Save More.
4. Enjoy life to the fullest. (Really… what does this mean?)
5. Stay fit.

Any former 4-H’er can glance at this list of “resolutions” and realize that a person is more apt to have success by setting “SMART “goals. Leadership for Dummies states the following characteristics make up the SMART acronym:

• Specific: Each goal specifies your target exactly. Saying you want to lose 10 pounds is more specific that merely “lose weight.”
• Measurable: One of the big problems with setting goals is being able to evaluate success. Saying you want to “lose 10 pounds by March 15” is more specific and measurable.
• Achievable: A goal that is within your reach increases motivation. Saying you want to lose 10 pounds by January 15 is probably not achievable (nor healthy). If you weigh yourself regularly and see that you’re losing a pound or so per week, that will motivate you to watch what your diet and continue your exercise program in the week ahead.
• Realistic: A realistic goal is one that you have the resources to realize.
• Time: SMART goals are written with an end in mind. If you don’t have a deadline, the goal is too vague and the target is unclear. Time is a motivational factor in achieving goals. (I want to lose ten pounds is a goal. But I want to lose ten pounds by Spring Break provides a deadline.)

Why Set Goals? Successful people – whether they’re top-level athletes or business owners – have goal setting in common. Setting goals creates long-term vision and short-term motivation. For example, my son aspires to take his basketball game to the next level. He’s in eighth grade, but he aspires to play basketball in college. He’s motivated enough to create his own year-round workout schedule, however, he really needs to “get his head in the game.” He needs to be as mentally prepared as he is physically prepared.

In the book Mind Gym, it states that extraordinary people live their lives backwards. They create a future and then live it by how they A.C.T.:

What goals are you setting for 2016? In yesterday’s blog post, Mark Grundmeier wrote about the record-breaking yields achieved in 2015. Great yields don’t just happen, as we all know. Great yields require planning that begins with seed selection and seed treatment to fertility programs, as well as weed and pest management.

At Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds, we’d appreciate an opportunity to work with you on a FieldXField^SM basis for the 2016 planting season. We’d appreciate an opportunity to write down your production goal and help develop a plan to achieve it. Email or call 1-877-G0-LATHAM (1.877.465.2842) to schedule an appointment with a Latham® representative!

Related Posts:

• Reach New Soybean Yield Goals in the Year Ahead
• Ring in the New Year with Fire & Ice
• Beginning the New Year with Family Traditions

“Free range” isn’t all that picturesque when snow drifts are thigh-high and winds are blowing at 30 miles per hour. As I sit here – all cozy in my house – watching a blizzard roaring outside, I’m comforted by the fact that I don’t have pigs outside in this nasty weather. I recall years ago when I tried to herd pigs through snow banks to the feeder. I had to haul hot water from the house to thaw their water. That was not ideal for sure!

There is no doubt in my mind that the way we raise pigs today is better for all involved. Pigs stay nice and warm inside computer-controlled barns with access to fresh feed, fresh water and fresh air. Modern pig farmers engaged in #RealPigFarming keep a close eye on their livestock. If a pig gets sick, we can recognize the symptoms and promptly treat it with antibiotics as prescribed by a veterinarian. Stress causes illness, and I know being outside in a blizzard like yesterday would be stressful! I could always count on sick pigs after a snow storm when I was raising them outside.

Reminiscing about the “good old days” makes me give thought to what is “natural.” I’m not talking about “natural” so much as the way we used to raise livestock before modern technology but, you know, in nature before man intervened. When I was young, I watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and remember seeing the hardships suffered by animals in the wild. It’s natural for one animal to become another animal’s food source. After all, that’s how they survive. Survival of the fittest.

Animals are a link in the food chain. The first thing people in emerging economies want when they can afford it is animal protein. (Click here to see how food consumption has evolved in China, for example.) Right now we have the luxury of too much food, but what’s going to happen as the world approaches 2050 and our population soars to 9 billion (#feedthe9)? Will the next world war be fought over food?

Right now, we have an overeating problem in this country. We eat more calories than we burn, but depriving our bodies of certain foods isn’t the answer to weight loss. Certain foods satisfy better than others. (Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.) When the body is deprived of what it needs, it makes a body want to consume more. Increasing calorie intake with less manual labor results in heavier Americans, and the newest nutritional data shows it. P.S. I’m not talking about the USDA recommendations that are biased by radical groups with an agenda! It’s a fact that Americans aren’t making the best food choices, regardless of what health professionals recommend and government regulations mandate!

Balance is key. Eat sensibly. Splurge a little. Enjoy your food. Enjoy the New Year. “No More Food Fights!” makes a lot of sense!

I’m really loving this “global warming” so far this winter! It must be true… After all, temperatures have been unseasonably warm. Nearly 3 inches of rain fell from Saturday through Monday in North Central Iowa. Our creeks are running rapidly. The grass is truly green. The view out my window looks like we should be preparing for Easter, not Christmas.  Did Al Gore really have it right?!

Speakers at Sunday’s climate change awareness event in Des Moines believe it. They said the warm weather we experienced over the weekend was a case in point. One of these speakers was Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, who had attended the climate change conference in Paris.

Earlier this week, President Obama called the global climate accord to limit greenhouse gas emissions “a turning point for the world.” That’s not exactly what I would call it! All the doom and gloom we have heard about our planet since November 30 would be comical if it wasn’t such a huge problem.

The biggest outcome of the Paris Agreement, as I see it, will be huge taxation of the world’s people. Taking away money that could be used for building economies. Money that will be tied up by governments, which we all know are not very efficient users of our money.

Secretary Kerry says there is money to be made! What he doesn’t share, or I’m sure even understand, is that taxation does not build an economy. How does taxing, or regulating people and companies until they’re broke, and then giving those dollars to “green” energy companies build an economy? Where are the people with the economic degrees hiding anyway?!

In other news… Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) CEO Bill Stowe’s feelings are hurt by television advertisements. The narrator in these ads says, “He’s wasting hundreds of thousands on an outrageous lawsuit targeting farmers. Now Stowe is using legal tricks to keep public documents from those trying to find actual solutions.”

Apparently The Des Moines Register believes it must help defend Stowe’s honor by running an editorial with the headline, “Ads are a smear campaign against Stowe.” Seriously? When a man casts the first stone as Stowe did, he has to expect a ripple effect. I think Bill had better put on his big boy pants! Not only has he filed an unprecedented lawsuit against rural Iowa counties, but he is a public figure. As a result, he should expect to be a lightning rod.

The more I think about it, the more I want to thank Stowe. Let me explain… He has brought something that farmers have always known into the public light. Farmers know their livelihoods depend on Mother Earth. We know that if we take care of our soil and water that it takes care of us. (Unless the government gets in the way and screws it all up!) Stowe’s lawsuit against several drainage districts in Northwest Iowa has started a lot of conversations.

With the recent warm weather and record rain falls this week, much of Des Moines is being flooded again. I’m sure Stowe has closed the flood gates, protecting the water supply for 500,000 people. I have toured the DMWW facilities, and it’s pretty impressive. But I couldn’t help noticing all of the low ground and creeks running through Water Works Park. I also noticed the banks of the creek were not very protected, so lot of erosion was occurring just upstream from the water plant. Curious, I used Google Earth to follow that water supply. Honestly, DMWW should ask for some expert advice from a farmer to help get that erosion under control!

Despite claims made by Stowe that farmers are doing nothing to keep the water clean, the facts show otherwise. Iowa agriculture is leading the nation with groundbreaking new technology that was in place one year before Stowe filed his lawsuit. And farmers have been implementing conservation practices for years prior to that! “Iowa farmers voluntarily spend tens of millions of dollars out of their own pockets each year, to do right by the land and take great pride in seeing results. Results are imperative to the long-term success of their farm. But one type of conservation practice won’t work on every farm, for every terrain, for every crop they grow.”

This lawsuit has nothing to do with clean water and everything to do with advancing a political position! The DMWW is spending more money on a lawsuit than it costs to remove the trace amount of nitrogen they remove – and then discharge into the river downstream with additional pollutants.

Let’s keep looking for better ways. I’m always open to improvements, and I can show the huge gains that have been made during the last 40 years on my own farm. I wish more Americans understood sustainability has been practiced since the 1930s, and I wish our water woes would end!

Ongoing conversation and information exchange is a good thing. It’s certainly more productive than name calling and stone casting, although I expect we’ll see more of this before real progress is made. Let’s work together for the betterment of all!

This time of year we’re receiving mixed messages everywhere we turn. Turn on the television and feel a pull on your heartstrings as diamond companies encourage you to celebrate each moment that has changed your life forever. Move over Sears® Wish Book®… YouTube has published a Christmas Wish List video. Toys R Us has pushed a list of the “Fabulous 15,” the only hot toys that matter. Radio ads, Facebook pages, websites and Twitter feeds continually update us on the countdown for Christmas. (Do you know there 16 sleeps, until #Christmas?)

If a person took all of these ads and retail messages to heart, you could miss out on the true meaning of Christmas and find yourself feeling totally inadequate or else entitled to more. This sense of entitlement – and our government’s response to it – has provided me with more content for my 2015 blog posts than I’d like! That’s why today I’m sharing my Top 5 Grownup Wish List for this holiday season:

5. I wish Americans would take personal responsibility.

One of my biggest pet peeves is how Americans are more focused on blaming someone else for their circumstances than they are on realizing the American dream. (Remember the editorial that ran recently in The Des Moines Register that insinuated American farmers are responsible for poverty?) Unfortunately, some people have learned they can make a better living off the government than they can by earning a living. This is why I have a problem with the minimum wage and food stamps (SNAP). Rather than taking everything so personally – and becoming overly offended and demanding political correctness – Americans should take personal responsibility. Let’s ban bad behavior!

4. I wish our water quality woes would end.

From Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) and the Clean Water Rule to the Des Moines Waterworks lawsuit, Iowa farmers are finding themselves in troubled waters. We can’t take water quality issues at surface level. As I’ve written in the past, it’s important to consider the source, and follow the money to find the motive. Several federal farm groups are keeping the pressure on Congress to act in a bi-partisan manner to withdraw the EPA and Army Corps’ of Engineers’ “waters of the United States” rule. Ironically, the EPA’s water rule is likely to slow to adoption of conservation practices. Water quality is just one of the regulations that impact our livelihoods. In fact, I’ve heard that 29% of an American’s income goes to cover regulations! It’s important that get involved in the political process. We don’t have the luxury of sitting back and trusting that the government is here to help us.

3. I wish the public understood that sustainability has been practiced since the 1930s!

“Sustainability” seems to be one of the biggest buzzwords in agriculture today. Recently it made headlines again touting how locally-raised food crops could help improve water quality and aid refugees. Many “hot buttons” were covered, including the lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Waterworks. However, many of the so-called problems stated in this article are totally untrue!

You might remember that last spring “sustainability practices” was the overlying reason that HHS and USDA released “dietary guidelines” calling for a reduction of beef. Congress addressed sustainability in the food and farming system as far back as the 1990 Farm Bill, wrote Registered Dietician and New England farmer Jennie Schmidt wrote the dietary guidelines committee is 25 years late to the party.

Sustainability practices were also the focus of AgWeek 2015. If people in powerful positions were honest, they’d admit that sustainability practices have been in place since the 1930s. After all, we haven’t experienced another Dust Bowl! Farms must be sustainable or we couldn’t pass them down from one generation to the next. I know sixth generation farmers. How can you not call that sustainable?

2. I wish more farmers had a virtual “open [barn] door policy.”

Truth is, most Americans are at least three generations removed from the farm! It’s no wonder that consumers are easily confused by misleading food labels. It’s no wonder consumers have questions about antibiotics usage and concerns about hormones in our meat supply. Ag illiteracy, combined with an atmosphere of misunderstanding, means many people are easily swayed by groups like HSUS or celebrities like Food Babe and Dr. Oz. If farmers aren’t willing to set the record straight will, then who will? If not you, then who?

1. I wish more people understood #RealPigFarming.

Ag literacy is a challenge for elected officials and rulemakers, as well as consumers. Invite consumers to take a look inside your barns – virtually. Wanda of Minnesota Farm Living and Lauren of Farm Girl with Curls do a particularly good job of giving consumers a glimpse of what happens inside their hog barns. These two ladies are definitely passionate about living on a farm and raising livestock, and I applaud their online efforts. After all, passion leads us all to reach our full potential.

“If you have a strong commitment to your goals and dreams, if you wake up every day with a passion to do your job, everything is possible,” says Canadian wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc. How can this Paralympic Champion and World Record Holder inspire you?

Pull up a chair to the kitchen table and prepare to enjoy a fun, delicious adventure through Iowa’s food history as Darcy Dougherty Maulsby of Lake City writes the “Culinary History of Iowa.”

“Iowa has a rich heritage of food, farming and culinary traditions,” said Maulsby, a lifelong Iowan and guest blogger on TheFieldPosition. She recently published her first book, “Calhoun County,” which tells the stories of small-town and rural Iowa life through the eyes of those who lived it.

“I’m excited to share these remarkable stories, historic photos and delicious recipes through my new book,” she says. The 128-page book, which will be released by the South Carolina-based History Press in the summer of 2016, will include a mix of vintage photos, color photos, unique stories and historic and modern recipes that offer a taste of Iowa from border to border.

Highlights of the book include:

1. Food-on-a-stick and other delights from the legendary Iowa State Fair
2. Pie and other favorites along the RAGBRAI route
3. Stories from the Masters Hotel at Burr Oak that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family ran in the late 1870s
4. Blue Bunny and LeMars, the “Ice Cream Capital of the World”
5. the Best Burger in Iowa contest
6. Iowa Maid-Rites
7. Iowa’s diverse ethnic heritage including Franklin County’s Æbelskiver Dinner and Christmas at the Vesterheim in Decorah
8. 100-year Iowa food companies like Jolly Time Popcorn
9. Food festivals, community celebrations and church suppers
10. Regional specialties like turkey dressing sandwiches

The book will also include recipes like ham and bean soup, strawberry-rhubarb pie, dishes from the Younkers tea room, and much more.

The project is a natural fit for Maulsby, who began cooking at age 12 and has written about Iowa agriculture and food extensively during her 17-year career. As a member of the Lake Creek Go-Getters 4-H Club in Lake City, she won numerous awards for her culinary creations at the Calhoun County Exposition. As an adult, she continues to compete and has won blue ribbons for her molasses cookies at the Clay County Fair and her mixed-berry jams at the Iowa State Fair.

“I love to try new recipes, perfect my existing recipes and keep expanding my culinary skills,” said Maulsby, who also teaches cooking classes at local county fairs and other events. “I’m proud to be an Iowan and am thrilled to have the opportunity to write ‘The Culinary History of Iowa. I look forward to sharing a taste of our great state and preserving a slice of our cultural heritage.”

Your input is welcome!

Maulsby welcomes suggestions on topics, recipes and photos to include in her “Culinary History of Iowa” book. You can contact her through her website (www.darcymaulsby.com), or e-mail her at yettergirl@yahoo.com.

About Darcy Dougherty Maulsby: Darcy has been described as an “artist with words” who writes to sell. This Iowa native has covered agriculture and business for regional and national publications and corporations for 17 years. She has worked with a number of leading organizations, including Arcadia Publishing, Syngenta, Progressive Farmer, the Iowan Magazine, the National Pork Board, Farm News and many others. She also teaches writing, photography and social media classes.

Darcy, who grew up on a Century Farm near Lake City, earned her undergraduate degrees in journalism/mass communication and history from Iowa State University (ISU) in 1996. She completed her master’s degree in business administration and marketing at ISU in 2004.

In her free time, Darcy loves to cook and help on her family’s Century Farm in Calhoun County. She serves as the president of the Calhoun County Corn Growers, president of the Calhoun County Farm Bureau and vice president of Historic Central School Preservation in Lake City.