Jerry Crownover – New isn’t always better

just athoughtWhat’s On Your Mind, Ozarks?

LifeLife Is Simple By Jerry Crownover

is Simple By Jerry CrownoverSpreading fertilizer on the pastures and hayfields is certainly a lot different today than it was in my younger days. I can remember helping my father with the task by standing on one end of the field with an empty feed sack, and stepping-off the spreader width with each pass he made in order for him to have a point of reference to return to. He did the same on the other end of the field by hanging a feed sack over the fence, but my help allowed him to only have to dismount from the tractor once, instead of twice each round. Today, I have a GPS monitor inside the cab of my Jerry Crownover is a farmer and former professor of Agriculture Education at Missouri State University. He is a native of Baxter County, Arkansas, and an tractor that directs me to within a couple of inches author and professional of accuracy on a 60-foot, spreader width. I thought it speaker. To contact Jerry, was a great investment 10 years ago when fertilizer was go to ozarksfn.com and $250 per ton by preventing me from overlapping my click on ‘Contact Us.’ passes, or skipping strips by being too far apart. Now, with fertilizer costing over $600 per ton, it turns out to be a super-dooper investment.

Since I’ve always been a late-adopter (someone who economists refer to, when talking about people who are too cheap to quickly jump on board of new technology) I thought my old crop-farming buddy in north Missouri cropland would be impressed with my high-tech purchase.

“Do you have an auto-steer connection to your GPS?” he snidely asked.

“No.”

Laughingly, he stated, “Well, if you had that option, you wouldn’t even have to do anything but turn the steering wheel at the end of each pass.”

“I don’t think that would be too helpful, here in the hills and hollers of the Ozarks,” I explained.

— Continued on Page 6

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Kaylea M. Hutson-Miller, Cheryl Kepes, Chad Pittillo and Terry Ropp About the Cover

Kreg and Erika Butler, along with their twins Kash and Kord, are dedicated to the cattle industry. Read more on page 7. Photo by Kaylea M. Hutson-Miller

Ozarks Farm & Neighbor accepts story suggestions from readers. Story information appears as gathered from interviewees. Ozarks Farm & Neighbor assumes no responsibility for the credibility of statements made by interviewees. © Copyright Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, Inc., 2021. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.

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