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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Do you know: Who Farmers Feed?

I have pondering how to improve my blog more than usual lately. With such a busy February, I felt like it slipped backward a little, and I don't like that. I also lost two followers (gasp, sigh). I fully realize that I too add and delete who I am following, and it really isn't that big of a deal, but then again it is.
So, please let me know if you have aspects you particularly like/dislike on here, and any suggestions as I move forward. My most popular posts continue to be the ones that document a task on the ranch with lots of pictures, and those aren't going anywhere. The posts of just photos are also well-received based on number of page views, and I'm not likely to stop taking mountains of photos anytime soon, so those too are safe.
My thoughts are to make a few minor changes that will hopefully make it a better blog to read, and provide me with a few more ways to post regularly. One of these ideas is to start including posts highlighting an interesting ranching/farming/agriculture fact about once a week.
I was given a couple Farm Bureau resources while in Michigan that are jam packed with great facts and figures about agriculture, and I really enjoyed reading them. I also learned a lot. Basically, what Farm Bureau did was take USDA facts and figures, and put them in sentence form. Much more interesting than reading the information as USDA publishes it! I plan to make these the backbone source of information for these new, "Did you know," posts, and throw in additional facts I hear at various events.
So, without further ado, here is the first week of this. Some of these will be things you may already know, and hopefully everyone will learn a thing or two as we go. I know I did as I browsed through the sources I'm pulling these from!


(Tractor equals farming where I'm from, sorry for those of you who are really from farm country)

Did you know that today, each U.S. farmer produces food and fiber for 154 people in the U.S. and abroad? This compares to each farmer feeding 19 people in 1940, and 46 people in 1960.

In 1935, the number of farms in the U.S. peaked at 6.8 million. By 1940, there were 6.3 million U.S. farms. Today, there are 2.2 million farms.

Since 1950, the total U.S. crop yield (tons per acre) has increased more than 360 percent. Even though there are fewer farms today, farmers continue to improve their production practices and utilization of modern tools and technologies to increase productivity and maintain their ability to feed a growing world population.

(Information from publication found here)

1 comment:

  1. I hate it too when I lose followers but I'm torn between keeping my privacy and being popular. Still love your pictures. The "did you know" is very interesting.

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