I love to eat. And like millions of fellow Americans there’s nothing better than the food grown and produced on this nation’s farms and ranches.

I’ll eat a thick, choice rib-eye steak hot off the grill any time. And make sure it has all the fixings – baked potatoes, steamed green beans, salad, fresh bread and a glass of red wine.

I also like a home-cooked omelet with my Sunday morning paper. You know the kind – three eggs filled with sautéed mushrooms, diced red peppers and onions, cheddar cheese, wheat toast with a couple strips of bacon on the side and a tall glass of cold milk.

Dessert?

Who doesn’t enjoy a great piece of apple pie, with ice cream, all produced by farmers and ranchers across Kansas and this country of ours?

You can’t beat good food, prepared right. There’s nothing like it.

That’s why it’s so hard to stomach hearing about the many ways our Kansas and American farmers and ranchers are under siege these days. Still, every year we expect farmers and ranchers to grow more and more food with less land. And every year they do so.

But the attacks and smear tactics come from all sides. Environmental groups, animal welfare activists, social media hacks – everyone seems to have their own agenda and the national media just can’t seem to tell the whole story.

That’s the reason we in agriculture must tell our story. Consumers are people and people forget.

They forget our farmers and livestock producers make sure we eat the healthiest, most affordable food on the planet. These producers also take care of their livestock because it’s the right thing to do. It is part of a farmer and rancher’s values that embody everything they do.

It’s also up to us in agriculture to expose the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for who and what they are. In case you haven’t heard, these two organizations are leading the charge to “step up for animal welfare,” while placing a stake through the heart of modern agriculture.

Go to their website and check it out. HSUS and others wants to remove meat, milk and eggs from the human diet, yours and mine.

Most American consumers have never lived or worked on a farm. Still they retain nostalgic visions of their grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ farms.

You know the story where those farmers and ranchers of old grew their own vegetables, milked a few cows, raised pigs for bacon, ham and pork chops and cared for a couple dozen chickens who laid eggs in an old white wooden chicken coop.

Like a lot of things from the past, nostalgia might appear to be better than it really was. Many of our grandparents were barely able to eke out a living while raising a large family.

The days of yesteryear on the farm took a lot of hard work from sunup to sundown. Many still went hungry or broke and times were lean.

Today’s animal husbandry, or care and feeding of livestock, is no accident. Rather, it’s because of the dedicated men, women and children who raise and care for this state’s livestock.

For generations, Kansas farmers and ranchers have watched over and nurtured cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens and other livestock from sunup to sunset – every day of the year. The more comfortable these animal producers make their animals, the more productive they’re going to be and the better opportunity they’ll have to make a profit.

The health and welfare of livestock trumps everything else on the farm, even a producer’s own comfort. That’s been the recipe for success for more than 150 years in Kansas and with any luck it’ll be the same for another 150 years.

Enjoy your food my friends. Eat healthy.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

There are two meanings to “filthy rich.” One refers to making a ton of money. The other is the “filth” that takes place on how money is made.

Donald Trump got filthy rich through his own private resources. Contrast that with Hillary Clinton if you will.

How did Hillary (and Bill) amass a fortune? There’s a huge difference between presidential candidates Trump and Hillary, not mentioned clearly by media.

Trump’s business is a private enterprise, not a public one as with the Clintons. The Clintons became multi millionaires using public resources. They got rich at your expense and mine as taxpayers. Hillary had access to a treasure trove of your tax money and mine.

The Clinton Foundation scam was bribery on both ends. “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” It was more like promiscuous massages, figuratively speaking. Hillary, through the State Department as Secretary of State, pretty much said donate to the CF and I will return the favor, in some way, through U.S. government.

A good case can be made the Clinton Foundation may be the biggest scam of public monies in the history of this country. How would you like to have government contracts, ambassador appointments, U.S. arms shipments, etc. at your fingertips in order to take in private donations? What a scheme! Rogue nations and even some felons were participants during Hillary’s time as Secretary of State.

If you or I gave, let’s say, a hundred dollars to a charitable organization wouldn’t we expect more than ten dollars (10%) to go to charity per se? Some agencies that oversee charitable organizations don’t even recognize CF as charity. Most of the CF money goes for administrative expenses such as office space and equipment, high class travel, over night stays, six figure salaries, etc., even “lawyering up.” To say, as in the case of a recent local editorial, that the CF does great things as a charitable organization is a stretch of the worst kind.

Lots of the money going into the CF is used by the Clintons for their own personal use, even as we speak. On top of CF donations, they became multimillionaires in a few short years giving speeches in return for favors. Bill, in one case, got three quarters of a million dollars for one speech! What? Only God could give a speech worth that much! Hillary gave a number of 20-minute speeches for a quarter of a million dollars each.

How is it done in a multitude of cases? Read best seller author Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash.” You darn right the dots can be connected. You darn right there is more than smoke in this huge scandal. There is fire! Enormous research went into writing this book and everything is documented.

Hillary’s private email server was primarily for one purpose and that was to hide how the State Department and Clinton Foundation were connected at the hip in a massive scheme to line the pockets of the Clintons personally. It was all about concealment, lack of transparency, and no accountability to we the people.

Hillary’s private email server was, for a fact, a criminal enterprise. Just because the FBI didn’t make it illegal doesn’t make it so. She’s guilty as sin. FBI Director James Comey clearly is in on the take. He is corrupt, as is Attorney General Loretta Lynch of the Dept. of Justice. The State Dept. was complicit in what Hillary was doing, and President Obama could care less what she did in as much as he wants her to take his place and continue with his agendas. They are all in it together.

As things look right now, half the country could care less about how corrupt our government and the Clintons have become. We all know people that have moral values, but for inexplicable reasons plan to vote for crooked Hillary anyway. What does that say about what this country has become? We went from a Christian one to a secular one.

As I said in several previous Reader Forum letters, the bombshells of this scandal may be so very big our greatest fears of a corrupt presidential candidate taking over the most powerful office in the world just might be dead in the water.

God willing, that needs to be the case.

Les Knoll lives in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.

As a kid growing up in the farm country of central Ohio, my summer income came from the same source as all other farm boys near and far; baling hay! I know I’m aging myself here, but we’re talking pre-round bale days; we’re talking wagon load after wagon load of at least 100 square bales apiece, loaded on wagons pulled behind the baler, taken to the barn, unloaded onto an elevator and stacked into the loft.

The farm boys in our neighborhood were the usual ornery, free-spirited lot, but we all knew how to work hard, and come hayin’time each year we became a necessary commodity to most local farmers. Such was the case with Chester Campbell. “Chet” as he was known, lived across the road from me, and for reasons unknown, didn’t seem to care much for us neighborhood boys. I think the feelings were mutual, but like I said, once his hay was down, we became pretty good kids.

Ohio has groundhogs like Kansas has coyotes; wherever there is ground there are groundhogs. Groundhogs, best known as woodchucks, look like overgrown prairie dogs, short stumpy tail and all, and can easily grow to weigh ten pounds or more. They have two sharp incisor teeth in the front of their mouth, much like a beaver, and eat all types of green plant life. They dig their burrows in fence rows and woodlots where they can easily sneak out into fields of young growing crops and wreak havoc. Like mini combines they choose a row of tender young soybean plants, straddle the row and eat every plant off to the ground for several feet.

We had a dog named “Silly” who was a groundhog slayin’ machine. Silly knew just how and where to grab them, and would shake them till their teeth rattled. One day we heard a huge ruckus coming from the cornfield by the house. Upon investigation, it was Silly who had caught a groundhog, probably sneaking through the cornfield on its way back to the safety of its den. When the fight was over, Silly was victorious as usual, the groundhog was dead and a patch of corn the size of a pickup was flattened from the fray.

Now old man Campbell also had a dog, sort of a cross between a Beagle and a Bassett, named Wimpy. As I remember Wimpy was a good old dog, just not the “sharpest knife in the drawer,” if you know what I mean. This particular day, Campbell’s hay was ready to bale, and, as usual, three of us neighbor boys suddenly became handier to him than sliced bread! The hay field was bordered by a creek on one side and by woods on one end, and those borders were riddled with woodchuck dens.

Empty wagons were pulled behind the baler, and when one was loaded, we stopped long enough to unhook the loaded one, hook up to the empty behind us and go again. In the middle of one such exchange, we heard the most awful wailing, screeching and thrashing imaginable coming from the nearby field edge. The three of us ran to investigate and found Wimpy in the weeds with a big groundhog fastened securely to the end of his snout! Around and around they went, the woodchuck showing no intentions of letting go.

We all knew better than to try and interrupt the festivities barehanded, so we scrambled to find something to end the brawl and save Wimpy’s snout. The back of all the hay wagons had metal “pockets” welded to them into which wooden racks could be inserted to provide something solid to stack the back row of hay bales against. One wagon happened to have just single 2×4’s in those pockets, so someone grabbed one and ran back to the brawl. After taking careful aim amidst the ball of thrashing fur, a well placed wallop across the groundhogs back dropped it to the ground and sent it diving for its burrow minus Wimpy, who raced shrieking toward the house. So ended Wimpys close encounter with the woodchuck, and I sincerely doubt he ever saw one that close again.

Although I’ve not heard of groundhogs in my neck of the woods, they are in Eastern KS and will probably someday make their way here much like the armadillos have. Each time I go to Hutchinson I marvel at the prairie dog “city” there around the mall, and I think to myself that if our commercial food supply was ever cut off and I wanted something different than fish or venison, I’d simply head to the mall with a pellet gun and fill my freezer; I’m sure prairie dog tastes just like chicken!…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].

By MARSHA BOSWELL
Kansas Wheat

This year’s Kansas Wheat state fair booth once again pays homage to Kansas wheat farmers. The theme of the booth is #ThankAFarmer.

Visitors to the Kansas Wheat booth in the Pride of Kansas building are encouraged to stop by and sign a thank you card for the wheat farmers of the state, who work long and hard to grow the healthy grains that feed a hungry world.

In years like this one, farmers may find it difficult to remain optimistic about the future of farming, with depressed prices and struggling markets. But there is a rose among the thorns in the form of improved productivity with record yields due to good management practices, good weather and improved varieties.

Farmer-leaders of the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers will be on hand to answer questions from their fellow farmers.

Fairgoers will also get a chance to learn about the many products that contain wheat. The “Bread, Bath & Beyond” display highlights the many products made from wheat, from foods to pet litter to bath products to industrial adhesives to many things in between.

The 2016 Kansas Wheat Recipe Book is hot off the presses, making its debut at the Kansas State Fair booth. The annual recipe book, a staple in kitchens statewide, features recipes developed by Cindy Falk and Julene DeRouchey, nutrition educators at Kansas Wheat. The recipes have been thoroughly tested and perfected, as the staff members of Kansas Wheat can confirm. Recipes include Speedy Pesto-Garlic Skillet Bread, Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Pretzel Balls, Blueberry-Lemon Wheat Rolls, Twisted Honey Nut Loaves and many more! This year’s recipe book, along with a limited quantity of the 2015 recipe book, will be available for free at the Kansas Wheat booth. These recipes are also available at nationalfestivalofbreads.com.

Young visitors to the booth will enjoy getting their photo taken in one of the new cutouts this year. Kids and other visitors can pose in a Kansas wheat field or inside a combine cab to have their photos taken.

Farmers are also encouraged to attend a forum at the state fair on Saturday, September 10, with ag economist Dr. Allen Featherstone from Kansas State University, to detail the current problems with low commodity prices. Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, and Representative Mike Conaway, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, will be there to hear this first-hand. This is one avenue to let people know of the difficulties Kansas growers are facing.

Other exhibits include the market wheat show, 4-H Wheat Variety Plot Display Awards, Kansas wheat photography contest and Kansas Wheat Breadbasket. On September 13 at 2:00 p.m., nutrition educators Falk and DeRouchey will be giving a presentation in the domestic arts building entitled, “National Festival of Breads tips and trends.”

On Governor’s Day, September 15, winners of the Kansas Wheat Yield Contest will receive their awards. The top record-breaking yield was 121.48 bushels per acre, achieved by Alec Horton of Horton Seed Services in Leoti, Kansas, on his plot of Joe, a new hard white wheat variety from the Kansas Wheat Alliance. The governor will also announce the winner of the quality initiative, which achieved the highest overall quality, mill and bake scores.

Kansas Wheat representatives will man the Agriland exhibit on Saturday, September 17. Fairgoers will have the chance to ride in a virtual combine, sift grain between their fingers, milk Blossom – the mechanical dairy cow, learn about livestock feed rations and walk through the soil tunnel trailer for an under-the-scenes look at Kansas soils.

The Kansas State Fair runs September 9-18, 2016. While visiting the State Fair, take the opportunity to stop by the Pride of Kansas building to visit the Kansas Wheat booth and learn more about our number one crop, from research to production to wheat foods, which provide about 20% of global calories for human consumption and ensure that the world has enough to eat.

Marsha Boswell is Director of Communications at Kansas Wheat.

By Secretary of Revenue Nick Jordan

There has been ongoing discussion and evaluation of the small business tax policy, which will continue.

We all interact with small businesses on a day-to-day basis, and every national statistic shows these are key components to our communities and are also significant job creators.

These small businesses have had a difficult time finding capital to grow. Many are entrepreneurs wanting to grow their business in Kansas and don’t qualify for many of the incentives available to large corporations.

To assist them, Kansas has created one of the best small business environments in the country, lowering individual income tax rates by an average 30 percent for Kansas since 2013. Seventy-one percent of the tax savings went to families and individuals, with income taxes eliminated for more than 300,000 of Kansas’ lowest income families. Only 29 percent of the tax savings went to small businesses.

There has been ongoing discussion and evaluation of the small business tax policy, which will continue. The policy has allowed many businesses to grow, and 20,000 first-time small business filers have come to Kansas. These are people and businesses whose Social Security number, name or name of the company has not previously appeared on a Kansas tax return.

The vast majority of the businesses taking advantage of the exemption are truly small. Ninety-three percent have a net income of less than $75,000

They have brought more than $1 billion in new income to Kansas and $899 million in taxable income because small businesses, even with the exemption, pay taxes on wages, capital gains, and dividends and guaranteed payments.

We recognize that people are frustrated and concerned that, while state revenues have been growing annually since fiscal year 2014, collections have not been meeting estimates.

The administration shares that concern and has assembled an external review team of accountants and bankers who are studying the Consensus Estimating Process to see if we can develop a new more reliable and accurate estimating formula.

The group will present their recommendations to the governor’s office by late October. Budget officials and the governor’s office will then begin planning the budget and present a workable, structured plan to the Legislature in January. We look forward to working with the Legislature to address higher than anticipated government expenditures.

There are some who argue that the solution to our challenges is to eliminate the exemption for small business, or even eliminate all the income tax cuts since 2013.

We have said all along that the answer is not higher taxes.

We must continue to put the people of Kansas before the growth of government by managing expenditures and being fiscally responsible while meeting our state’s core needs.

The counter-productive NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude has reared its ugly head again. In this week’s Ellis County Commissioner’s meeting, approval of Mary Alice Unrein’s proposed Blue Sky Acres Addition was on the agenda.

What should have been a relatively minor matter, since all the county commissioners had previously expressed their desire to see Blue Sky Acres Addition move forward, was stopped dead in its tracks.

Why? Because the home owners in VonFeldt’s Subdivision to Ellis County, which is adjacent to the proposed Blue Sky Acres Addition, filed a petition to vacate the already dedicated Randall Road which provides access for Highway 183 to the proposed Blue Sky Acres Addition. Ironically enough, two of the homeowners are the current Register of Deeds and an assistant to the county counselor.

Why should they want this you ask? Good question. Because new homes built on the lots of Blue Sky Acres Addition would add much needed revenue in Ellis County and USD 489. The new homes would add to the overall value of the homes of everyone living in the area. Also, Mary Alice is not asking for any help from Ellis County. She has agreed to install private roads at her expense and to be responsible for all future maintenance. This is a win-win for Ellis County taxpayers. So then the question must be asked again, why are these homeowners trying to derail Blue Sky Acres Addition?

A person might conclude the homeowners are just being punitive, but Mary Alice wants more than anything to be a good neighbor. Another thought is that these homeowners don’t want their taxes to rise based upon the general increase in value that the new homes would probably generate. That seems a bit selfish given the fact all the taxpayers in Ellis County would benefit from the increased tax revenue Blue Sky Acres Addition would produce over the years.

It is possible we will never know what the motivation is of these homeowners, because they aren’t offering any reasonable explanation. This much is clear, however, the self-centered NIMBY attitude is alive and well in Von Feld’s Subdivision.

The question remaining is how the Ellis County Commissioners will react to the NIMBY petition to effectively kill Mary Alice’s proposed Blue Sky Acres Addition. If you are concerned about the financial situation of Ellis County, you might want to contact your Ellis County Commissioners and let them know you don’t think it’s right to take away access to Blue Sky Acres Addition.

Errol Wuertz, Hays

On Capitol Hill, I spend a lot of time explaining that in rural Kansas community development can come down to whether or not there’s a grocery store in town. It’s something few people in Washington think much about, but in so many of our communities across Kansas keeping the local economy alive and well is about having a Main Street with a hardware store, grocer, pharmacy and a weekly newspaper.

Growing up in rural Kansas, newspapers are where I not only learned about the rest of the world, but also who won Friday night at the football game, who was getting married, who received a blue ribbon at the county fair and which new businesses were opening in town. As Kansans, we care about our neighbors and the local paper is a big part of how we connect to them. Strong local newspapers improve the quality of life for local citizens and help strengthen local communities.

But newspapers are so much more. In the 18th century they were a tool in the fight for independence, and the freedom of the press was established in the First Amendment. Newspapers also played a critical role in keeping Kansas Territory settlers informed of the rapid succession of events leading up to our state’s admission to the Union in 1861. And today, newspapers help root out wrongdoing as a community watchdog.

The news about the World Company selling to a West Virginia-based newspaper company and Harris Enterprises selling five Kansas newspapers – The Ottawa Herald (which the Harris family has owned since 1907), The Hutchinson News, Salina Journal, The Garden City Telegram and The Hays Daily News – is disappointing because it will result in fewer of our papers being owned by Kansans. The benefit of your hometown paper being owned and operated by a member of a Kansas community is in their innate understanding of the local point of view. They know what news matters to you and your family, and they know the history of our state and people.

The digital age has changed the way we receive and share information. Seeing local news departments downsize, lay off reporters or shut their doors altogether should remind us all how important it is to support our local papers just like all other local businesses. We may no longer settle in with a print edition and our morning coffee at the kitchen table, or get to know our paperboy, but we can demonstrate our desire to keep community journalism alive by investing in online subscriptions, calling newsrooms with tips about upcoming events, and sharing articles with our neighbors. We can and must help slow the decline of newspaper readership – our communities depend on them just as much as they depend on us.

The reality is that the future of rural America is not a big concern for a majority of decision-makers in Washington, D.C. That’s why a strong work ethic and genuine concern for others – values that bind Kansans together – are as important now as ever. Together we build up the strength and spirit of our communities to keep our home such a great place to live, work and raise a family. Supporting local news is just one piece of that puzzle, but it’s up to us to make certain our local papers are a part of our shared futures.

Jerry Moran is a U.S. senator from Kansas.

For six years, Governor Brownback has put his spin on the state of the state’s fiscal condition. Perhaps we have all been too dense to appreciate the underlying grand strategy of this supremely skilled budgeteer and his legislative allies who knew in advance that planning both pleasure (tax reduction) and pain (spending cuts) at the same time would awaken the beast in the body politic.

Recently the governor rejected the Kansas Hospital Association’s proposal to expand KanCare and take advantage of Medicaid. He noted that the current program was not yet functioning well and it therefore seemed foolish to expand it or add money that would lead to service expansion beyond the current clientele. His punchline on the subject was, “At the end of the day, every big government program is about one thing, taking money from the many and giving it to the few. Is that really in the best interests of all Kansans?”

While he was clearly making a rhetorical query, it is in fact a policy question. Services provided by government tend to raise revenues from the broadest available resources and provide services to a narrower group of beneficiaries. Government typically implements programs because they are too difficult, unprofitable or legally and ethically inappropriate for private parties to provide. Government spending and programs are meant to solve problems, and good problem-solving requires planning. One thing a majority of Kansans would agree upon is that planning has not been the premier skill of this gubernatorial administration.

Consider this list of widely discussed problems: The societal costs associated with Kansas children who fail from the beginning due to disparities of wealth, parenting and skimpy public resources; The ongoing need to adequately and equitably fund K-12 public education requires a sound plan; and KanCare, an enterprise based healthcare ‘solution’ that is failing in the absence of Medicaid expansion and by the governor’s own admission – poor planning. Who is planning to end the flight of our best and brightest young people as funding for higher education stagnates and declines precipitously? The greatest unmet planning challenge is addressing the tremendous differences in the cultures, public costs and economies that exist between urbanized Kansas and the rest, where the population gets down to fewer than 20 people per square mile in spots and the most severe healthcare issues exist.

The governor, after six years has just solicited a reported 50 organizations to propose alternatives to his two year’s of block grant funding for the state’s K-12 education system. He says he wants ideas from the citizenry in general and from a long list of other sources ranging from the Brookings Institution to Americans for Prosperity and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. He declares that the time has NOW come to begin serious conversations and planning to reduce public appetites for state spending in light of continued revenue shortages which have – wait for it – come about because of hard times in agriculture, the oil patch and aviation.

It is stunning to think that the administration is finally accepting that, along with revenue cuts, good government practice dictates aligning spending habits with revenue. What is equally stunning is the implicit acknowledgement that the governor and his administration isn’t willing to offer leadership on these matters. Grudgingly, the state Senate President Susan Wagle and several apprehensive state House members seem to have come to realize that the cupboards have been swept bare.

The evidence, however, strongly points to cluelessness rather than calculation. With November 8th now just 60 days away, it might be well to remember, fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

Dr. Mark Peterson teaches political science at the college level in Topeka.

Western Kansans are well into the time of year they can help some international travelers maintain their body weight and stamina. Yes, it’s the fall half of the hummingbird migration. This bi-annual passage permits birders to view the smallest bird species in search of nectar-rich flowers and sugar-syrup filled feeders. Those of us in the western half of the state have shot at seeing these iridescent hover machines for several weeks during their travels from and to Mexico, Central, and South America each spring and fall.

Species we’re likely to see in our region are the Rufous, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Anna’s, and Black-chinned. Several of these birds have a red-tinged throat that causes novice hummer watchers to jump to the conclusion they have a Ruby Throat at their feeder. Typically, this species is a visitor to eastern Kansas rather than our more arid region. Anyone who wants to identify these visitors must study birding books and internet sites before they can classify their target with confidence.

This migration is interesting because it reveals these birds have adapted to cross cultural living. These little guys journey from South and Central America or Mexico to the United States or Canada each spring and fall. Many fly over the Gulf of Mexico in a single 20-hour flight. To prepare for each trip, they eat enough to double their body weight (e.g. from 3 grams to 6). Another survival trick of these multinationals who summer in cooler northern regions is the ability to go into a state of torpor. This slows their metabolism and helps them survive early cold fronts. An additional adaptation theorists note is that males migrate earlier than females and juveniles. Scientists suggest this allows them to establish territorial rights prior to breeding season.

That leads to another interesting observation. Unlike geese, ducks, and chickens who flock together, hummers are independent souls. They aren’t friendly with other hummingbirds, and they don’t migrate in groups. Once mating occurs, the female handles the brooding and feeding on her own so she doesn’t have to share her nectar patch with another adult. This explains feuds I’ve seen at our feeder where one feisty bird drives interlopers away.

While most of these itinerant visitors stay only a little awhile, those of us who enjoy watching them can encourage their visits. Who knows, maybe we might persuade a mom to nest nearby. One obvious way to inspire hummers to hang around is to offer one or two feeders filled with a 1 to 4 solution of sugar to water changed every three or four days. Another is to garden for hummers. Adding trumpet vine, honey suckle, salvia, sage, bee balm, and other nectar -rich plants to the landscape invites these miniscule hoverers to linger longer. If you want them to nest, encourage spiders to weave webs that hummingbird moms will use to construct Thumbelina-sized nurseries. Birding sites suggest providing feeders from mid-April to Halloween to guarantee food supplies for the earliest and latest migrants.

While you sit on the porch enjoying your brilliantly colored visitors, consider how lucky you are to share this moment. Mother Nature has synchronized so many events to make sure her tiniest bird species survive each year. We’re lucky to be in their path.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

In the east, west, south and north, rain hung in the morning sky. Low-lying fog blanketed the Clark County countryside. At nine o’clock, the temperature inched toward 70 degrees.

Rains throughout August left puddles in low spots on the gravel roads while pickup trucks carved their (tire) signature in the mud. Black, summer fallow fields ballooned with a full complement of moisture. Puddles and small lagoons brimmed over with water as well.

During the month of August alone, Clark County farmer/stockman Bruce McKissick reports his crops have received a strong four inches of rain. These rains came an inch and a half one day, 90 hundreds another and one half inch the last of the month.

With above normal rainfall the last two years, farm life has been a joy in southwestern Kansas. The moisture is truly welcome, especially following four years of drought.

“It’s amazing to see how adequate rainfall can change the landscape in this country,” McKissick says. “The whole countryside is green, fields and ponds are filled with moisture and we’ve really enjoyed this year. It’s a wonderful change.”

According to McKissick, soil profiles are full. At the end of August that’s a rare phenomenon in this part of Kansas.

For the Clark County wheat farmer this means he and his neighbors will have plenty of moisture to plant this fall. The bumper milo crop will also finish out without any trouble.

This year’s milo crop is amazing. Mile after mile and field after field of grain sorghum looks as good or better than western Kansas producers can ever remember.

“The (milo) heads are huge,” McKissick says. “They stand 10 to 12 inches tall.”

Nearly all the fields look uniform as well. Because of the lush crop vegetation, no rows can be seen in the fields. It’s one solid milo crop.

“Our milo crop has really never suffered at any time this year,” McKissick continues. “The crop enjoyed a full profile of moisture going into spring planting and it’s received rain all summer. This growing season was perfect.”

The Clark County farmer walked in some of his milo fields the day before we visited. McKissick says the crop stood four to four and a half feet high. Few weeds sprouted in the crop so far, but aphids continued to munch milo leaves.

It’s rare to see milo that good, that tall and that uniform, he says. Ironically, last year’s crop averaged 100 bushels per acre and McKissick believes 2016 could be as good or better with yields from 120 -130 bushels per acre.

The Clark County farmer does not plant dryland corn. He considers doing so too risky.

The same goes for soybeans. Although if McKissick knew crops would have received moisture like this year, planting them could have paid off.

He prefers to stick with milo and winter wheat and this year’s crop did not disappoint.

“We harvested a 70-bushel wheat crop this year,” McKissick says. “Although we began in June and finished in August.”

That said, this crop averaged 20 bushels-per-acre better than any other crop the Clark County farmer ever raised.

“This year’s wheat crop was the best,” he says. “I credit that to the good Lord.”

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

The average college textbook costs a student $84.14. Students buy an average of 5.8 textbooks per semester. That averages $488 per semester or just under a thousand dollars per academic year. These are the results of an annual survey for CampusBooks.com.

In disciplines such as biology and chemistry, one new textbook can exceed $200.  Back in the 1980s, those textbooks were just as thick and colorful and could usually be bought for $40–$60 dollars. Since the cost of paper and printing has actually gone down, why has the cost soared?

One problem is that market forces are not at work. It is the professor that the textbook company has to charm and the students who have to pay. Some professors do not consider the cost of their textbook in their decision. And with digital bells-and-whistles being added over these last twenty years, it is ironic that the exorbitant cost of a textbook today is due not to the paper book production, but to the many electronic ancillaries that companies tout to professors.

Many of today’s textbooks—especially the general education books that are taken by high numbers of students across the nation’s campuses—offer online tutoring to students, online practice quizzes, the actual quizzes with grading, and even total testing. This is in addition to ready-made PowerPoints and short video clips that can be downloaded from the textbook company site. To a professor at a big research university who is burdened with teaching a large section of 300 or more students (but who really wants to spend all his time doing research), the textbook company has the perfect answer. The book company provides the canned lessons and testing and the students pay for these digital extras through the required textbook that costs four times more than it should.

At some online for-profit operations, an adjunct faculty member seizes the offers from custom “publishers”: “Send in your class notes and we will bind them as a required book. Then require your students to buy it and we will split the profits.” Such hire-a-profs can make more money from this online textbook scheme than they are paid to teach the course.

With the average college student taking 5 ½ years to complete a bachelor’s degree—primarily because 60–70 percent of students change majors at least once—the average cost of college textbooks can approach $5000. Since rising tuition is beyond their control, more-and-more students are cutting corners on textbooks. According to CampusBooks.com, the average textbook depreciates 40 percent the first semester and 60 percent after two semesters.  Textbook companies often produce new editions every two years, based on unnecessary and trivial changes; this drops the sell-back value of the prior edition to zero.

Their survey revealed that 25 percent of students buy new and 67 percent buy used textbooks. Notice that this leaves some students who go without a textbook, often attempting to find the content online. Today, 55 percent rent their new or used book. Freshmen tend to buy new books while seniors increasingly rent their books. In the freshman year, textbook cost averages $572 per semester; this drops to $421 a semester in the senior year.
eTexts have been a massive failure in students’ eyes. Although the computer-industrial complex keeps hyping digital media, students began turning away from electronics to paper well before 2014. This new survey conducted by Campbell Rinker for CampusBooks.com sampled American college students from May 5–10, 2016. The number of students who owned a laptop dropped 8 percent from 2014. E-reader use was down 22 percent. This confirms earlier surveys in 2014 that found that 80 percent of students preferred print to screen.

The solution to the exorbitant textbook scam lies in the hands of professors. There are new “publishers” appearing who will provide very inexpensive textbooks that can be downloaded cheaply or bought at minimal cost, printed on demand.

As the cost of higher education in public institutions skyrockets, this is one place where professors sensitive to the desperate plight of economically poor students can make some difference.