The Courage to Tell the Truth

I love pleasant surprises and that's just what I got at the Iowa Farmers Union Annual Convention in Marshalltown this weekend. 

A few months ago my coworker Steph Larsen and I co-hosted community health care reform forums in towns across Iowa.  The forums provided the opportunity for folks to get together and talk about their ideas and concerns on health care reform. 

At one of the forums a man showed up who had a lot of concerns about health care reform.  In fact, he wasn't sure he supported reform at all.  He felt the health care system had worked for him and didn't see the need for reform. 

Chris Peterson, Iowa Farmers Union Board President

I saw the same man at the Iowa Farmers Union convention this weekend and boy, his tune sure had changed.  He gave me an atta-girl pat on the back, shook my hand, thanked me for the Center for Rural Affairs' work on health care and told me how important health care reform was to Iowa Farmers Union.

I was throughly shocked and wondered what had made him change his mind. 

I'll never know for sure what made him realize the importance of health care reform but I am willing to bet Iowa Farmers Union members influenced him a great deal. 

It's people like Chris Peterson, Iowa Farmers Union board president, and Iowa Farmers Union staff Amber Anderson-Mba who have the courage and fire to tell the truth about health care reform and change minds. 

As the health care debate continues, never doubt your ability to change someone's mind with the truth. 

Carrie Underwood Continues to Play On

When you've sold 10 million albums in a really, really short amount of time, you'd never dream of retiring. You'd play on. And on. And on. How perfect, then, that Carrie Underwood has named her third album Play On. It doesn't come out for another 64 days so I don't have an advance copy yet. But I did just see her in concert last night (Aug. 30) and she gave no indication of "new stuff." She played a long list of her hits and a couple of covers but not once did she ask the audience if it was OK to try out some of her new songs.

Two things I do know about the album are that there will be a title track (duh) and that she is working with Mark Bright, one of the producers behind Some Hearts and Carnival Ride. He is a fully-vested hit-making machine, also having made albums with Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, Gary Allan, Lee Ann Womack, Billy Ray Cyrus, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn and Trisha Yearwood.

So why would Underwood look any further for help on this new album? I'm not sure, but USA Today is reporting that Underwood produced a track with Sweden's Max Martin. He is the genius behind such infectious tunes as Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and "My Life Would Suck Without You," Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time," Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" and Pink's "So What."

Does this mean that there's a pop dance mix in Underwood's future? Or a countrier sound in Martin's future? We'll have to wait until the album comes out before we know who influenced who -- that is, if the track ends up on the album. If it does, I'm sure the tune will be a major breakthrough.

Taylor Swift Sings “Tonight” With a Twist

I'm a sucker for a good ol' lyrical rearrangement. And in this promotional spot for MTV's VMA show on Sept. 13, Taylor Swift has taken "Tonight" from West Side Story and turned it into her own funny-but-true thing. Like when she sings, "Tonight, tonight, I'll sing my song tonight/There will be no teardrops on my guitar." But the best is her dramatic lean out of the New York City cab backseat window as her voice soars on the line about making this VMA song take flight. I just hope the show itself lives up to the hype in these Broadway-style promos.

Steve Wariner Honors Chet Atkins at Hall of Fame

Steve Wariner has a new album coming that salutes his mentor and friend Chet Atkins, and he shared some of it during a Saturday afternoon (Aug. 29) performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Wariner led his set with "Leaving Luttrell," followed by "Sails," with its beautiful melody brought to life by Wariner's tender touch. Along with the exceptional picking, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Wariner and fellow c.g.p. (certified guitar picker) John Knowles swap stories about Atkins' wry sense of humor, his humble nature and his desire to keep learning. It made me wish I had met him. Fortunately his legacy is evident in My Tribute to Chet Atkins (due Nov. 10), which balances Atkins' songs with Wariner's new compositions.

Wariner wrote one new tune, "Reeding Out Loud," for another c.g.p., Jerry Reed. He had a chance to play it for Reed, who listened to it on headphones, then muttered, "And that's why I hate you." Funny stuff. That anecdote reminded me that Wariner really is a link to country music's past. At 17, Dottie West hired him to play bass. His next gig was with Bob Luman ("Lonely Women Make Good Lovers"). When Luman died, Atkins casually picked up Wariner for a tour. Thus, Wariner went from a kid in Indiana to a world-traveler in a relatively short amount of time.

After several misfires, Wariner finally landed a Top 10 hit for RCA Records in 1981 with "Your Memory" -- and was promptly fired from Atkins' band. No hard feelings, of course, since Atkins is the one that signed Wariner to RCA in the first place. Naturally, they remained friends until Atkins' death in 2001. At the Hall of Fame, Wariner emphasized, "You can't out-Chet Chet." That's true. But luckily you can make sure his music lives on.

CMT’s All Jacked Up: Snakeman and a Big Bike

Snakeman

Today CMT's All Jacked Up is taking a drive about an hour outside of Dallas to meet Jackie Bibby, also known as "The Texas Snakeman." As I arrive at the location, a group of handlers are beginning to build a wooden-sided pit to hold more than 100 Western Diamondback rattlers. Now, I am not a snake lover. All right -- the damn things scare me to death. As the pit is finished, the handlers begin to unload pallets of snakes ranging in size from little to downright scary. They pile up in the pit with the sound of the snakes filling the air. They don't sound happy. Apparently they become more agitated in the heat and it's starting to get warm out here under the Texas sun. The handlers are casual as they walk among the coiled rattlers, the snakes striking at their leather boots angrily. A crowd is beginning to gather on the small ranch location. I'm beginning to sweat....

A truck pulls up and out climbs the "Snakeman." I step up to meet this Texas legend, sticking a hand out in greeting. Bibby grabs my extended right hand with his left. I glance down and the reason is clear -- his right is curled into a painful claw, marked by scars and stitches with a bloody band-aid across the palm. A large "S" shaped scar runs from wrist to elbow. The hand he grips me with also sports its share of injuries. The thumb is mostly missing above the first joint. Bibby wears a black bowler on his bald head. He smiles at me with a contagious grin and steps into the snake pit.

"Come on in." He drawls, followed by a chuckle. His crew joins in. One of them holds a large snake up in invitation.

I take a deep breath. "Actually, I'm fine out here." Their laughter picks up a notch. The snakes curled around Bibby's boots. This was going to be one of those afternoons ...

World's Tallest Motorcycle

Nothing quite prepares you for the sight of a motorcycle that stands nearly two stories high. Having the opportunity to drive this beast through the streets of Stockton, Calif., made me feel a bit like Brangelina out for a walk with the newborn. The attention was amazing. Everyone I passed had pretty much the same reaction -- their jaws dropped and the cell phones appeared. From that height I had a great view of every double-take and excited call. It truly put the "joy" in "joyride." This is one beautifully crafted machine that you have to see to believe.

Trace Adkins Gets Lifted as a Talent Judge

First, he got a taste of the TV bug on Celebrity Apprentice. Then he had a part in last year's An American Carol. And now the multi-faceted Trace Adkins is going full-on silver screen. He's joined the cast of this cool new film called Lifted, which is about a talented singer named Henry Matthews who has to find a different road to success when his Marine dad is deployed to Afghanistan. His road is through a faux show, Teen Starquest, where Adkins plays a country star turned singing-competition judge. (Sound familiar?) Ruben Studdard, of American Idol fame, is in the movie, too. It's currently being shot in Birmingham, Ala., even though Adkins is currently on tour pretty much everywhere else. The film is expected in September 2010.

Top 10 Tracks I’m Digging Right Now

I was at a Carrie Underwood concert last night (Aug. 30) and got into a deep conversation with the guy sitting behind me all about which artists are truly country. His point was that today's country is really pop. I completely disagree, because really, when was the last time Britney Spears had a steel guitar on her tour? Or the Fray was rocking a banjo? So as long as the right instruments are in place, as they are here, country is country enough for me.

"The More Boys I Meet," Carrie Underwood
"All I Want," Darius Rucker
"Our Song," Taylor Swift
"Here Comes Goodbye," Rascal Flatts
"Back Where I Come From," Kenny Chesney
"Already Gone," Sugarland
"You to Miss," Love and Theft
"I Told You So," Keith Urban
"Kristofferson," Tim McGraw
"Home Is Where the Heart Is," Lady Antebellum

Business Week Finds Success in North Dakota

Elmer Kelton Wrote About People, Not Heroes

San Angelo Standard-Times Elmer Kelton worked four decades covering ranching and livestock in West Texas. Here he is (left) in 1959 with Al Sledge, executive editor of the Standard-Times.

Living in the East in no way prepared people to live in the West. Walter Prescott Webb, the historian, described “what happened in American civilization when in its westward progress it emerged from the woods and essayed life on the Plains....” The vegetation, the wildlife, the topography, the weather — everything changed. The difference threw the settlers’ “whole way of life out of gear.”

“The salient truth, the essential truth is that the West cannot be understood as a mere extension of things Eastern,” Webb wrote in The Great Plains.

Nobody understood this difference, and it effect on the people of the Western Plains, like the novelist Elmer Kelton of San Angelo, Texas.

Elmer Kelton died last week. He was 83 years old, and in his time he wrote the best books about the treeless land and the work that men and women faced when they moved beyond the 98th meridian. 

The Financial Crystal Ball Is A Bit More Clear, And You Can See A Lot Of Red Ink.

You have probably penciled in your own estimates for 2009 income, based on high production expenses and low commodity prices. Some of you will have a lot of red ink and some will have a small amount of black ink. Compared to your income for the past several years, there will be a lot of income averaging going on when you file your next tax return. That is because farm income will be off nearly 40% from 2008 as USDA figures it.

Rising prices in 2007 and high prices in 2008 are being met with lower prices in 2009 that will eaten up by relatively high production costs. The net effect is farm income at $54 billion for the US, compared to more than $87 billion in 2008. And compared to the average of last 10 years, USDA’s estimate for 2009 farm income is $9 billion below that average. USDA economists released a preliminary estimate of farm income for the current year, saying:
• 2007 increase in farm expenses of $34.8 billion and 2008 increase in farm expenses of $22.5 billion were the largest year over year changes on record.
• 2009 expenses will be down $9.2 billion from 2009, but still 5% more than 2007.
• Cash receipts will decline $40.3 billion from 2008.
• Crop receipts have increased more than 20% in each of the last two years, but will drop $18 billion below 2008 levels.
• Livestock receipts will decline $22.2 billion from 2008, which is nearly 16%.
2008 income was helped by a strong global demand and expanded markets, before falling late in the year due to recessionary pressures. Farm income began to fade late in 2008 when farmers were forced to accept lower commodity prices. With abundant crops and high prices in 2008, crop receipts were high, but in 2009 the value of crop production is expected to decline 9.8% from last year. With a substantial drop in milk prices and declining export demand for US meat products, the value of livestock production in 2009 is projected to be down 15.6% in 2009.

For grain sales, cash receipts will be down almost 29%, pushed hard by a 35% drop in wheat receipts alone. Corn receipts will be down 19.6%. Soybean and other oil crop receipts will be about level from 2008, says USDA because of forward contracts early in the year when prices were lower. Cash receipts for livestock are forecast at $119 billion, a 15.7% drop from 2008, due in large part to a soft milk market that has receipts some 34% lower than 2008. USDA looks for a 10% drop in cash receipts for cattle and calves and a 13% drop in cash receipts for hogs.

USDA says the cost of inputs in 2009 will be lower than the $290 billion in 2008, particularly for feed, fertilizer and fuel, but the reduction in gross income will far exceed the reduction in production costs, leaving all measures of income below the records established in 2008. The drop in production expenses would be the first since 2002. Despite the decrease, forecast expenses for 2009 would constitute the largest percentage of gross farm income, 84%, since 1984.

Feed costs will be lower by nearly 7%, after rising 67% the past two years. While corn and soybean meal make up most of the feed price, and they are both down 16% for the year, the cost of complete feed is up 15% for the year.

Crop production expenses went up 21% in 2008 and will fall 6% for this year, primarily from 25% lower fertilizer prices. Seed expenses climbed 26.5% in 2008 and another 15.5% in 2009. Specifically, seed corn is up 31.5% over last year and seed beans are up 24.5%. Fuel and oil expenses will be 30% less this year than last year, after a 207% jump between 2002 and 2008.

Something going up in 2009 will be payments made to landowners, laborers, and lenders, and that increase will be slightly less than 6%. Labor will cost 5% more this year, interest costs will be up 7% over 2008, and cash rents and other payments to landowners will be up 11%. While government payments will be up $400 million from 2008, the $12.6 billion being paid out is 20% under the average of 2004 to 2008. The bulk of the payments will be for milk, tobacco, cotton, rice, and peanuts. Direct payments are $5.15 billion.

Summary:
Farm bank accounts will be taking a major hit in 2009 because of lower commodity prices and the fact that production expenses did not drop as much as commodity prices fell. USDA’s projection for 2009 income will be 38% under 2008, and will be less than the average for the prior 10 years. While expenses such as fertilizer and fuel are considerably less expensive than in 2008, and feed prices are down for livestock operators, the market prices for commodities declined at a faster rate, including a 35% decline in wheat, and nearly 20% decline in corn receipts.

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