Young Farmers and Ranchers

I apologize for the lack of posts in the last few days. I have been in Grand Rapids, MI, and the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference. It was a busy three days of speakers, informational sessions, and tours of various components of Michigan agriculture. Here's a super-fast look at some of the things I learned/noticed/are stuck in my mind.
- Michigan grows a lot of crops, fruits and has a big dairy industry.
- Very few people at the conference had an understanding of what ranching was in a western state like Wyoming, and I found that interesting and concerning.
-There are some great places to eat in Grand Rapids!
-I saw a million dollar yacht, drank wine ground from Michigan grapes and toured a soybean processing plant that runs on methane.
-There is a heck of a lot of attention to detail that goes into growing wine grapes.
-The end result tells me they're doing a good job : )
-Every minute, 2 acres of farm land are lost to subdivision encroachment in America.
- They're much more ethanol friendly in this state than we are in Wyoming.
- Ultimately, it's all about raising a safe, nutritious food supply while improving the land, and that doesn't change between state borders. All that changes are the foods we raise, and the practices involved in our specialized areas of production.

I'll be back with a more detailed look, and some photos from the trip, soon!