While we were broadcasting live yesterday on 1040 WHO Radio at JDM Farms near Redfield in Central Iowa, Latham® dealer Michael Meyers was turning up a little dust as he finished planting corn. Around noon, he and his father were switching over to begin planting soybeans.

Meanwhile, many farmers in North Central Iowa were working ground in hopes it would be fit for planting today. We have yet to plant a seed at Latham HQ, and once we get in the field, we’ll likely have to plant around many wet spots. This Facebook post yesterday by Laura Cunningham of Skyview Farms near Nora Springs in North Central Iowa sums up the feeling of many locals:

Hear that? That’s a sigh of relief from all farm wives in the area with pent up farmer hubbies. Field work has begun, thank the Lord! Now if only we could miss this rain coming…

Today’s local forecast calls for a high of 80° with 20% chance of precipitation. Those numbers change tomorrow when a storm system is predicted to move into the area, bringing a 70% chance of rain that continues into the early hours of Friday. You can bet farmers will be making tracks, covering as much ground as possible while the skies are clear!

Giving to others, without any expectation of receiving anything in return, can be one of the most satisfying works in life. Even though I volunteer without expecting anything, the rewards have been so great! It’s hard to describe the feelings I’ve experienced while watching a child learn about life by doing a 4-H project or an elderly hospice patient enjoy one last time fishing.

The fact that fewer Americans are willing to give of their time may be leading to larger government. When I think about how much the U.S. government has grown, I wonder what society would be like with less government. Apathy grows as society decides to depend more on government and less on themselves.

Because I care deeply about what happens on my family farm, I began volunteering with farm organizations during the 1980s Farm Crisis. Times were very tough, and change needed to happen! I can tell you from personal experience that our government’s efforts at that time were a dismal failure. Huge amounts of money were thrown at problems, and often times, government involvement just making things worse.

No one understands the problem like the people living it! That’s why it’s so important to get involved at the grassroots level. Through the National Pork Board’s speaker corps, Operation Main Street, I have had the opportunity to present to groups such as the Kiwanis, Lions Clubs, and many civic organizations that I had never before heard of. The definition of a civic organization is “a structure that benefits a community.” It has been eye-opening to learn what civic groups can accomplish! One commonality between these groups, however, is the growing lack of volunteers.

Hospice also is in need of people. I began involved with this organization about five years ago. While it has been the most emotional volunteer work I do, it also has been most fulfilling.

Another area where volunteers are needed is farm organizations. Grassroots efforts lead to better representation. I have done much lobbying and have gotten to know many elected officials. What I can’t understand is why more folks don’t have a voice in “our” government! This process starts on the local level, so I started by attending our caucus in the little town near my farm where I was elected as a delegate to the county and district levels. At the district level, we developed an agenda to help us decide what candidates “fit” with our beliefs. Of course, not every delegate had the same belief system. Developing a platform definitely required compromise, but we worked together and got the job done.

It takes the involvement of many people to make a civilized society work. If like me, you prefer a volunteer society over government control and regulation, then I hope you’ll get involved in the policy making process.

I’ve farmed long enough that I sometimes wake up early. I don’t want to sleep too late because there is livestock to be fed and crops to be planted, so I have a big clock that I can read in the dark to know whether it’s really time to get up or try to go back to sleep. When I saw 2 AM on Monday morning, I turned on 1040 WHO Radio where I can usually be lulled back to sleep by the “Coast to Coast” program.

But last night, I experienced a living nightmare when I heard the voice of Wayne Pacelle, President/CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Nothing makes my blood boil faster than that smooth talker! Janice even woke up and tried to convince me to shut off the radio and go back to sleep, but I was wide awake as I listened to the same old sound bites and misinformation Wayne always shares.

What was different about this program, however, was the admissions that activists go under cover. Not only Cody Carlson admits to, but he’s very proud of lying his way into animal operations. He looks for ways to come up with footage that will make an operation look bad. He even shares how he spent weeks filming to get some video to take public!

Also on the program was HSUS public policy director, Matthew Dominguez, who railed against laws that are meant to keep undercover, doctored up videos from inflaming fear about livestock operations.  There was so much hype and untruths by these three men, and the program host just keep egging them on about factory farms!

The first caller to the program wanted to hear from farmers. George Knapp, the host, answered this question by saying there is no way a farmer would come on his show to debate with his current guests. His opinion was that farmers want to hide all the bad things they’re doing. “How could farmers possibly defend torturing animals?” he asked.

Of course, Matt and Cody agreed with George. Wayne wasn’t heard from again after the first hour. This makes for good radio, but I know these men know better. I have personally been sharing what I do and why. You’d think they have never heard of Google! There are many farmers today making a huge effort to share why we raise livestock the way we do.

For almost 10 years now, I have been sharing the experiences I’ve had while raising pigs for 50 years. I try to explain how much we have improved their care by moving them inside climate controlled buildings, away from the harsh winter weather and hot summers. This was done for the comfort of the animals. They have better nutrition and better housing because of these new technologies.

Gestation stalls were condemned by this show. This piece of equipment seems to be a lightning rod for animal activist! Even Temple Grandin has condemned stalls. The problem is, I have personal experience raising gestating sows many different ways. I can tell you these stalls were designed for the welfare of the sow! There have been several studies now showing, if the sow can chose between being in a crate or in with a group, she picks the crate over 90 percent of the time!

“Coast to Coast” talked many times about how farming should be like Old McDonald’s Farm instead of the big, bad factory farms. Truth is, over 90% of today’s farms are “family farms.” Today’s family farmers are growing food the best way they know how, using all the new technology they can learn to keep animals stress free. Growing the best, safest food they can for my family and yours to enjoy!

Today’s teens, as we know, are tech savvy. The average American teen sends 60 text messages daily, and more than 400 million Tweets are posted per day by people of all ages. But how many of these messages are sent with purpose?

Yesterday I had the honor and privilege of being on the program with some of the biggest names in agriculture during the annual Agvocacy Day on the Iowa State University campus. A prelude to the annual Iowa FFA Leadership Conference, approximately 225 high school students came to campus on Sunday afternoon to learn how they can use social media for the purpose of sharing their agricultural stories.

“Social media, when used properly, is a great tool for advocating,” said Mike Pearson, host of Market to Market, during a keynote address yesterday in Kildee Hall’s Lush Auditorium. Pearson opened the day, using graphs and drawing laughs, by sharing statistics and his own personal experiences as a cattle producer. Graphs illustrate how the world’s population is growing, and then Pearson explained how this is great news to American livestock producers.

As societies around the world – particularly in Asia and Africa – transition from rural to urban lifestyles, their per capita grows. As their incomes grow, Pearson said, so does their appetite for protein. This creates more markets for American beef as long as government rules and regulations allow beef to be exported from the U.S. to international markets. Then Pearson reminded FFA members that we live in a democracy. The majority rules, which means that the 2 percent of America’s population that produces food, fiber, fuel and pharmaceuticals must be diligent in explaining what they do and how they do it.

Blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all tools that American farmers are using to share what they do on a daily basis. In my presentation, “Make Your Voice Heard,” I shared examples of advocates for students to follow. Topping my list are the Peterson Farm Brothers. With 144K followers on Facebook and more than 1 million views on YouTube, these beef producers have become online sensations with parodies of popular songs like Chore and Farmer Style.

Another farmer who has learned how to grab your attention and then entertain you is Wisconsin dairy farmer Carrie Mess. The Adventures of Dairy Carrie blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram give followers an insider’s look at life on a dairy farm. She shares the joys of birth by photographing newborn calves and released “undercover video footage.” She also shares the compassion farmers feel when their stock is diagnosed with disease or falls ill. She’s given play-by-play of surgeries and uses terms like “Tums” to explain when and why medicine is given. She has a love affair with cheese and encourages her followers to branch out beyond slices of American. In fact, she’ll tell you that she’s actually anti-American… cheese!

Following breakout sessions like mine, the students again gathered in the auditorium for closing remarks by sixth generation United States farmer Trent Loos. When anti-agricultural activists threatened the way of life he cherished, he took a stand and launched Loos Tales. Loos was recognized in 2008 as the “Voice of Rural America” by the West Quest organization for his ground-breaking work in advocating for agriculture.

Yesterday Loos told FFA members that he believes the true value of food supply is a means of national security for America. “Farmers who feed us and the dedicated United States military personnel are the two most unsung and vitally important factions of our population,” he said.

Both farmer and soldiers are undervalued and misunderstood, so Loos says we must work to change that. Go ahead and advocate. Start telling your ag story – or someone else will and you may not like it!