Ryan Dennis

I walked gingerly up to the table with my registration slip. The eight men sitting there turned toward me. They looked me up and down, making calculations. Rural poker sharks do not look like the Vegas typecast seen in movies.

It’s difficult to get people’s attention in the modern era. According to research, the average individual sees over 5,000 advertisements per day.

There were times and places in history when stealing a man’s livestock got you hanged. From Vikings in the north to the cowboys of Australia, getting caught with another farmer’s animals was considered especially heinous.

The nature of agriculture has changed consistently through the decades, becoming largely a global phenomenon.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the typical American Christmas dinner originates from the United Kingdom. We may have swapped out the Christmas pudding for apple pie and shunned the British mainstay of brussels sprouts, but we still have the ham, mashed potatoes and gravy.

We have tractors that can connect to GPS and drive on autopilot. An offsite mechanic can use telematics to access the onboard diagnostic system of a machine. Cows can wear sensing collars that send messages to a farmer’s smartphone if they’re sick or in heat. Let it be said farming has seen its share of advancements.