“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone” is more than lyrics to a popular song that has topped the charts since 1970. It’s also become the mantra of many young professionals, who are leaving urban areas for an increased quality of life in rural communities.

A rural renaissance has been happening since the 1970s, says Ben Winchester, a research fellow for the University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality. One of his current projects involves documenting newcomers, or new rural residents who range in age from 30-45 years old and are either returning to their rural roots or moving to rural areas for the first time.

Many newcomers are basing their decisions on lifestyle and quality of life, says Winchester. One of the most interesting findings of his research is that people are not basing their decisions to move to rural areas based solely on job opportunities. Many newcomers are providing a rural brain gain. They’re bring high skill sets, such as college degrees and master’s degrees, and have a career path in place with outside connections.

In fact, many newcomers are self-employed. One in four owns a small business, and those who own businesses are heavily invested in their communities.

“It makes me wonder what the state of our rural economy would be if these newcomers had not been coming back these past 30 years,” says Winchester in an article posted by fedgazette.

Instead of spending so much time focusing on the brain drain of the younger residents who leave the state, Winchester is challenging rural communities to focus on attracting – and then retaining – the 30- to 45-year-olds who are migrating to rural areas.

Like the newcomers described by Winchester, my husband and I both moved to urban areas upon college graduation and then returned to our rural roots when our children were toddlers. After living in Kansas City and then Des Moines for a decade, I personally could never find paradise surrounded by pavement. Give me my apple trees, singing birds and buzzing bees. Give me rolling acres of waving grains and a horizon filled with sunsets instead of skyscrapers. Give me Rural America!

The battle between the GPS industry and a proposed 4G-LTE network backed by ground towers and satellites that may conflict with GPS signals continues, according to an article published recently by Agri-Pulse.

LightSquared is dedicated to bringing fast broadband service with minimal delay in data transfer speed. To do so, it launched a satellite in November 2010 that could give all users signal regardless of cellular range.  This all sounds like an answer to a prayer, especially for rural residents, who frequently experienced dropped calls and other issues associated with a lack of towers and limited capacity.

The conflict arises when the faster mobile 4G service essentially out-performs the satellite sending signals to GPS devices.  If the GPS signal gets interrupted and the GPS device doesn’t receive a service, it could affect data capture in the tractor.

For example, when I shared this story with my marketing team, one of the girls had experienced this problem first-hand six years ago when she was interning with a regional cooperative in northwest Iowa.  She was given the task of mapping field boundaries on 11,000 acres within seven days.  Due to technical difficulties, it became an extremely daunting task.  Her territory was in a very rural area, and the GPS device often lost the signal.  She would have to retrace the field boundary with a four-wheeler on which the GPS device was mounted.

While the GPS satellite system has greatly improved since that summer mapping field boundaries, this is an excellent example to help illustrate what can happen and to help explain why the GPS industry is concerned about how its customers will be impacted by the 4G satellite.  Just imagine the consequences of the GPS signal getting interrupted when fertilizer is being applied or yields are being calculated!

On the other hand, it’s easy to understand why LightSquared executives are upset that their project is being given the red light – or at least the yellow flag – when they’re nearly ready to launch.  They’ve had permission since 2005 to build the 4G network, yet no concerns were raised until the eleventh hour.  In the meantime, they’ve invested millions of dollars and countless hours on R&D.

No wonder the battle continues to wage.  Let’s hope they find common ground.  Figuring out how to protect the GPS signal’s viability for farmers while providing faster, more consistent mobile phone service would certainly benefit all who live in rural America!

Ever since Yahoo! published an article Jan. 19 by Terence Loose listing “College Majors that are Useless,” agriculturists across the nation have been having a field day.  The ground is snow covered throughout the Corn Belt, but the agricultural community is making hay any way!

I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Loose’s article does more than boost hits on the Yahoo! site… I’m betting it’s going to be one of the best PR opportunities our industry has seen.  It gives agriculturists a great chance to tell our side of the story to a captive, engaged audience.  He’s making our story relevant, timely and newsworthy!

Take a look at how people across the country are weighing in:

• “Without agriculture, everyone would be naked and hungry” is one of the tweets I read last week after the Yahoo story ran.  Since I couldn’t remember who deserves attribution for this quote, I did a quite Google search for “hungry naked agriculture.”  WOW.  My search revealed about 14,200,000 results with this one listed at the top:  Are You Ready to Be Hungry and Naked? | Hoosier Ag Today.  You can even buy “Naked & Hungry” T-shirts from the National FFA Organization.

• Ag grads have posted nearly 4,000 comments over the past four days on a new website, I Studied Agriculture and I Have a Job.

• In the Huffington Post, Allen S. Levine, Dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and Director of the Minnesota Obesity Center, University of Minnesota, writes:  “While I’m hesitant to give the list (by Terence Loose) more credibility than it deserves – it’s based almost entirely on U.S. Labor Department projections and one author’s opinions – this blog post is so far off base it has to be refuted.”  Click here to read his rebuttal.

Interestingly enough, a publication entitled Recruiting Trends 2010-2011 published by Dr. Phil Gardner at Michigan State University concludes:  “No sector appears stronger than agriculture/food processing with an increase in hires of approximately 14 percent.”

Mike Gaul, Director of Career Services for Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences,  says, “Every thing that’s happening at our college completely contradicts the Yahoo! article.  Our college has the highest placement rate on campus at 98.2%.  ISU CALS hosts the country’s largest agricultural career day.  The fall career day, on Oct. 18, 2011, was the largest on record with 175 companies exhibiting.  In addition, more nearly 1,200 interviews were conducted on-campus last fall.  Now ISU CALS is getting ready to host its 5^th annual spring ag career for which record participation is expected.

“When you invest in a college degree, you want to be marketable upon graduation.  A degree in agriculture is offering a great ROI right now,” adds Gaul.  “Agriculture is diverse and agriculture grads are in high demand.”

Agriculture is a far different industry than it was 50, 30, or even 10 years ago, says Levine of the University of Minnesota.  He’s quoted in the Huffington Post as saying, “Who knows? The next George Washington Carver, Temple Grandin or Louis Pasteur might be thinking about a future in the agricultural sciences right now; the health of our people and our environment could depend on what he or she chooses.

ISU’s Gaul agrees there are many more majors under the ag umbrella today including microbiology, horticulture, culinary science, and global resource systems.

Agriculture in 2012 is certainly broader than it was in my grandparents’ and my parents’ day.  It’s even broader than it was in 1993 when I enrolled at Iowa State University with a double-major in Agricultural Journalism and Public Service Administration in Agriculture.  My degree has provided me with wonderful experiences during the past 19 years including lobbying on behalf of Iowa agribusinesses, doing public relations for agricultural leaders and now owning a business where I have the pleasure of working daily with those who help feed, clothe and fuel the world.  Truly, an ag degree is one of most useful degrees!

As a family-owned, independent seed company, we believe it’s both our right and responsibility to get involved in the communities where we do business.  That’s why we look for opportunities where our interests and expertise align with community needs.

One such opportunity presented itself a few years ago during a regular meeting of the Iowa 4-H Trustees when I learned that Franklin County is one of the few counties in our great state without an endowed 4-H scholarship.  I had a proverbial “light bulb moment” and decided then and there that I wanted to spearhead efforts to establish an endowment that would help the next generation of agricultural leaders in their pursuit of higher education.

Why is it when you come up with an idea that you find yourself leading the charge? Now I’m helping lead the charge to raise $20,000 to endow the Franklin County 4-H Scholarship.  As much as I enjoy baking, I could never raise the needed dough through bread and muffins alone!

Our fund-raising efforts kicked off last fall with a Brown Bag Burger Benefit during harvest.  Thanks to Fareway of Hampton, Franklin County Pork Producers and Rainbow Feed & Grain for making our first-ever barbecue a success!  Special thanks to Craig Donnelly of KLMJ, the staff at the Franklin County Extension Service and my parents for their service. (Yes, 4-H is still a family affair– 20 years later.)  And all of the area residents who came out on a beautiful fall day to support this cause also deserve a round of applause; we sold 396 pork burgers from our inventory of 400 burgers!

The Brown Bag Benefit helped raise awareness about the endowment fund, but it was just one tactic in our overall campaign. The majority of our funds will be raised through the creation of a book documenting the history of agriculture in Franklin County. The completion of this book is going to take the support of our county and of Franklin County natives.

To garner participation in our book, we began by inviting Century Farm Families to share their stories in honor of the 100^th year of 4-H in 2012.  Coincidentally, this book will be written during the 65^th anniversary of Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds.  Yours truly will definitely be submitting a story about our company’s founders and the contributions they made to agriculture and farm life here.

We hope you’ll join our efforts, too!  It’s as simple as sharing your family’s farm story.  Click here to download a form and to learn more about the donor levels.  Feel free to contact me directly to see how I might help tell your story.

submitted by Aaron Putze
Director of External Relations & Coordinator
Iowa Food & Family Project, Iowa Soybean Association

If past performance is an indicator of future success, then there’s much to be optimistic about regarding agriculture! Corn production has nearly doubled since 1980 while the amount of nutrients used to grow it has declined by more than half.

The numbers speak for themselves. Nearly 30 years ago, America’s farmers harvested 6.64 billion bushels of corn and used 3.9 pounds of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) per bushel to nourish it. In 2010, farmers harvested 12.45 billion bushels of corn while using 1.6 pounds of nutrients per bushel.

Similar trends can be found in soybean, beef and dairy production. For example, since 1987, producing a bushel of soybeans uses 26 percent less land, 61 percent less energy and 20 percent less water. Similarly, a gallon of milk is produced today using 65 percent less water and 90 percent less land than in 1944 while each pound of beef requires 14 percent less water and 34 percent less land.

Why the improvement?

Better feed, seed, livestock facilities and farm equipment. Advancements in all phases of agriculture have helped farmers optimize the use of each acre of land and raise livestock, dairy and poultry that’s healthier and achieve market weight sooner.

submitted by Aaron Putze
Director of External Relations & Coordinator
Iowa Food & Family Project, Iowa Soybean Association

Today marks the two-year remembrance of the 7.0-magnitude quake that devastated Haiti, killing tens of thousands and leaving more than a half-million people homeless.

“Special Delivery. Homes. Help. Hope. For Haiti,”launched last month and coordinated by the Iowa Food & Family Project, is in full swing. Its goal: to generate cash donations of more than $300,000 to the Global Compassion Network for the purchase and construction 48 Sukup SafeTHomes on the Village of Hope near Port au Prince.

“Special Delivery” campaign co-chairs Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Ag Secretary Bill Northey will join representatives of GCN, Iowa FFP and Iowa Soybean Association on today’s Jan Mickelson Show from 9-10 a.m. (listen in at 1040 on your AM dial).

Also, be sure to read a guest editorial about the campaign in today’s Des Moines Register and share it via Facebook and Twitter. The Register will also provide ongoing updates as the campaign progresses. To date, more than a dozen SafeTHomes have been donated!

Thank you for helping share the “Special Delivery” story as we strive to provide homes, help and hope to the neediest of the needy.

There’s a new worker at our plant in Alexander. This one can work nights, weekends and never ever needs a break!

December 1 was the first day on the job for “Willard,” as we’re affectionately calling our new robot. Willard was installed by Chantland Company of Humboldt, Iowa, and Latham crew members spent five days learning how to program the robot and to integrate it into our bagging system. Willard does some heavy lifting! It can stack 18 bags of soybeans per minute, which greatly reduces the amount of physical labor required to move seed from the bagging line to the warehouse.

The addition of Willard frees up team members to complete other tasks, thus increasing our efficiency. Another benefit of Willard is built-in safety. Its electronic eyes will see when a foreign object (like someone’s hand) ventures into the work area; if so, the robot automatically and immediately shuts down.

When your Latham® Hi‑Tech Soybeans get delivered in 2012, know they were probably stacked by “the new guy.” To see video of Latham’s robot in action, go to http://youtu.be/6IyB97uF2nI.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IyB97uF2nI&list=UUfZtxNBIboE3I2RgYLdgDTw&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]