A Good Mood
As you probably know, I spent the last three days at the Hawkeye Farm Show at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. As always, it was so good to talk with so many of you, familiar faces after the past ten years or so.
It was really the first time I was at a gathering of folks since last November’s general election. And everyone I talked to was in a pretty good mood.
Business owners and vendors at the show reported sales were trending up and people were more comfortable opening their wallets. Show attendees—always a pro-American, patriotic bunch—were even more so. And the overall mood was one of optimism.
That might have had something to do with the sunshine and warmer-than-normal temperatures, but I doubt it. And part of it may have had to do with the fact that a turbulent election season was over and now, for good or bad, there is certainty about the course of Washington for the next two years, but again, I think it’s more than just certainty.
Yes, the agribusiness community faces challenges from outside influences—tariffs, increased competition, high cost of inputs, the inexplainable lack of a five-year farm bill, as always the weather, and so on. But overall, the folks I watched over the past three days were feeling good again about things.
Despite what you hear from folks headquartered in big cities on the coasts, the folks who actually make the country work are smiling again…and that good mood is a good sign.
