Tim is currently at the Alltech Global 500 Conference . He will be updating us about all that he is learning.
Traveling to Kentucky
I started yesterday the same way I start most days feeding the milk cows and caring for their daughters. I was in a bit more of a hurry than usual though because I was headed to Kentucky to the Alltech Global500. The Global500 is a dairy and beef focused conference held every year to bring the most progressive farmers from around the world together in Kentucky to share knowledge and discuss issues in their industries.
After making it through the security lines at MSP just in time to make it to my gate before the plane boarded I was on my way. Note to self: plan on leaving earlier next time because people still don’t know you need to take laptops out of bags and leaving liquids in them will cause the TSA to search your luggage. I flew to Charlotte NC hoping to see the country from the window but it is cloudy everywhere, not just in MN, and I ended up reading A Country Doctors Casebook on my iPhone which is a wonderful memoir about a northern MN doctor’s adventures making house calls in the early to mid 1900s. Thank you Scott County Library system for having ebooks!
After a short layover inCharlotte I was on my way to Lexington and that flight was equally short of scenery so I read my book again until the last part of the flight when there was some rollercoaster style turbulence. I commented on the up down shakiness of the flight to the woman sitting by me who had also been reading most of the flight. We got talking and I found out she was from New Jersey through discussing weather (a favorite subject for farmers). She told me about her mother’s house being flooded by hurricane Sandy and the devastation it had caused to so many others she knew. Despite this she still had a funny story about a lone fire hydrant (she works for a water company) that someone she worked with photographed sitting high in the air in the middle of nowhere because all the houses and soil around it washed away. It amazed me that even seeing that kind of damage she had great empathy for farmers who had experienced a drought this summer. We chatted until the plane landed about hurricanes and farming wishing each other a good trip home after exiting from the plane.
I can’t wait for today’s events when I get to meet farmers from around the world and talk farming with them. Nothing better than talking farming, except maybe strawberry pie but that’s in short supply this time of year so I guess farm talk will do. I’ll keep you all posted on what I learn today via twitter (#global500) and Facebook and will blog about it tonight.
-Tim
