Air January 2, 2002

Thank you Mark, good morning everyone, and Happy New Year. Remember the Ag Computing Expo here in Junction City on January 12th. Pre-registrations are due this Friday, late registrations next week will cost you an extra $10. An annual event, the 4-State Beef Conference will be in Clay Center on January 17th starting at 3:30 in the afternoon. There are a lot of meeting opportunities coming up in the next 8 weeks, or so. I have most of them covered in my ag newsletter. If you don’t receive that, call the extension office at 238-4161 to get on the mailing list.

Hopefully everyone’s gotten their heads cleared after the new years merriment and are ready to do some New Year’s resolutions. I used to think that resolutions were a really stupid idea, but in recent years I’ve found them to be a good opportunity for a little introspection and the chance to do a little fine tuning on one’s self. One of the hardest things to do is to have an unbiased evaluation of yourself. Most people are prone to being overly or underly critical. So let me offer a few suggestions of possible resolutions. First of all, resolve to stay current with your farm record keeping. By staying current I mean at least once a month sit down and get those financial records caught up. It’s easy to think that you’re busy and you’ll get to it next month and then all of a sudden you’re 6 months behind, and gosh, I might as well wait until the end of the year now. Don’t fall into that trap, it’s a procrastinator’s specialty! Secondly, resolve to challenge yourself in all your decision making. Ask yourself, am I doing this because it’s the way I, and perhaps my father as well, have always done it, or is there a good reason why I’m going to do this. Tradition is a strong force and a safe haven. Sometimes we do something a certain way because we always have, and it works. But if you never ask yourself "why", and "what are the other options", then you are certainly in the tradition trap. Finally, resolve to take better care of you. Get that annual checkup, even if you never have before. You’re never too young to start and early detection of many problems can reduce problems later on. So you have to start taking blood pressure or cholesterol lowering medication. Have you seen what a stroke can do to you, or what bypass surgery is like. Prevention is much cheaper in the long run than fixing it when something happens. There’s only one of you, so you’d better treat yourself well!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2002.

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