Julie Turner-Crawford – New challenges

Across the Fence

Julie Turner-Crawford is a native of Dallas County, Mo., where she grew up on her family’s farm. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Julie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at editor@ ozarksfn.com. By Julie Turner-Crawford A s I think about topics for my columns here in Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, I jot down notes of things I might like to address so I can do a little more research before writing. The stack, however, is too big this time to focus on just one or two things.

There’s the investigation into the big meatpackers and market manipulation, the claims of food shortages, foreign meat brought into the U.S., the pandemic, and the list goes on, and each item seems to be intertwined with the other. If you pull one string, the others ball up to make it an even more complex knot, and the more you try to work at untangling it, the worse the knot gets.

Claims are circulating that there will be a shortage of food lasting up to two years, sending consumers into a panic. In my opinion, people tend to create their own panic. How can there be a shortage of food if producers are dumping milk and tossing eggs, and there are threats of mass livestock euthanizations, keeping food out of the supply chain? Seems there’s a problem somewhere in the middle.

One positive in the farming world today is more and more people finding ways to connect directly with farmers. I have several friends who are direct marketing their farm products, and they are seeing an upswing in demand. A few are even talking about adding animals to their production rotations. That’s good news, but it’s hard to direct market 20, 50, 100 or more slaughter-ready animals, tons of raw milk or thousands of eggs at one time, so many producers are dependant on those

— Continued on Next Page

Appetiz ers Cow Pie Dip Submitted by: Spur Cross Ranch Cook, Pryor, Okla.

Ingredients: • 1 pound sausage (spicy or regular) • 1 pound hamburger • 1 red onion, chopped • 1 small can chopped green chilies (not jalapenos) • 2 small cans black olives, chopped • 1 large block Velveeta • 1 jar picante sauce

Directions: Melt Velveeta in a large saucepan. Brown sausage and hamburger, drain well. Pour cheese into crockpot and stir in meats, followed by other ingredients. Serve warm in crockpot with your favorite tortilla or corn chips.

“We Custom Build To Fit Your Needs” BradfordBuildings.com • 877-303-3737 WORK SHOPS HORSE BARNS GARAGES HAY BARNS

Purebred Corral

8/5/19

Cell: 501-940-0299 Email: kgcagle@windstream.net

Horned Herefords, Charolais, Angus, Brangus & Balancer Bulls For Sale Keith Cagle

Rose Bud Bull Development & Sales

8/19/20

TRIPLE COVERAGE FOR ONLY $21 PER ISSUE!*

Featured In 3 Locations: ✔ Purebred Corral Display Ad

✔ Classifieds Seedstock Directory

✔ Online Seedstock Directory

* Must feature your ad a mininum of 19 issues.

Reg. Brangus Bulls $2,000 • Heifers $1,250 www.HorseheadRanch.net 918-695-2357

Gentle, Top Quality, Delivery Available DISCOUNTS for VETERANS!

4/5/21

7/6/20 SIMANGUS, B ALANCER BULLS

EPDs from the Top 1% Harriman Santa Fe (Bob) bharriman39@hotmail.com www.bhsf.us • Montrose, MO

660-492-2504

Rocking A Ranch Angus Bulls for Sale

Bred for low birth weight, high docility and growth 870-480-7651 cell 870-423-3567 home parthurrockinga@hotmail.com 7/6/20

Registered Lim-Flex Bulls, Cows, & Replacement Heifers For Sale

479-361-2407

mobile

479-200-2677 Odglen Farms

7/27/20

Red Angus Bulls & Heifers Easy Fleshing • Fescue Tolerant • Calving Ease 1764 Countryside Rd. • Harrison, AR 72601 870-688-1231 • 870-741-9795

watkinscattleco@windstream.net

6/15/20

12/29/14

Angus Bulls Bentonville, Arkanas 479-273-3030

5/4/20

Call Today To Reserve Your Space!

Toll Free 1-866-532-1960

1-866-479-7870

Owned & Operated By Farmers Working to Help the American Farmer

We go the extra mile.

Standard Sizes Available TODAY

Custom Designs available Per request Call for a Free Quote!

FREE estimates by the friendliest people in town

www.MarathonMetal.com sales@MarathonMetal.com • All Steel Structures • Bolt Together • Engineered Buildings

Across the Fence Continued from Previous Page

guys in the middle. Be sure to watch our Facebook page and our print edition for announcements about a new product we’re working on to connect consumers directly to producers.

I feel it’s time to reconsider a labeling system that allows consumers to know exactly where their food comes from, such as the country-of-origin labeling that was repealed by federal lawmakers in 2015. Let the consumer decide if they want food from Canada and Brazil (the largest exporters of beef to the U.S.), or meat from an animal that was born, raised and processed in the U.S. Why is it that I can pick up just about any item on my desk and read where it was manufactured, yet if I pick up a package of meat in the grocery store I know nothing more than the weight and the price?

Life Is Simple Continued from Page 3

and Larry still loved to lay back marks. He discovered that he could find an oily part of the highway, lift his butt off the seat, hold on to the handlebars, rev the engine as high as it would go, and pop the clutch. The “motorcycle” would lay the prettiest black marks one had ever seen. The highway by our homes was covered with “peel-out” marks for the next few years.

When he turned 16, Larry, somehow, managed to put together an old car with a flat-head eight engine. From that point forward, I never witnessed my buddy start the car in motion without “laying rubber.” The 10 miles from his house to town was riddled with black marks from burnouts or sliding stops (back then, there was no such thing as ABS brakes). Anytime my dad Come See Us at the Farmers Coop for All your Range and Pasture Chemical Needs We proudly stock Corteva Agriscience Products at 16 locations in the River Valley, NW Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.

6Ozarks Farm & Neighbor • www.ozarksfn.com

It’s a challenge these days to be a farmer and/or rancher, but we’ve faced challenges before. The challenges today may be different than those in the past, but the one thing that has remained constant is that farmers and ranchers are some tough cookies and we have generations of past, present and future generations to prove it.

We will make it through these hard days. We have to keep the faith and keep farming.

saw black marks on any highway, I can still remember him saying, “Looks like Larry has been here.”

Life happened, Larry graduated high school, got a job, got married and had kids, while I went away to college and we lost touch. The last time I saw him was probably 45 years ago and I just learned last week of his passing. I would have liked to have gone to his funeral and pay respects to my old friend, but the pandemic lockdown has prevented any type of normal funeral.

Times, however, haven’t kept me from reminiscing about all of our adventures, together, as childhood friends, and concluding with one certainty: If the streets of heaven truly are paved with gold, I’d bet a dollar to a donut that they now have black marks all over them.