I'm sure many of you have been following the developments of the USDA's Critical Feed Use initiative. The program allows farmers and ranchers to hay and graze their cattle on land previously set aside for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) when other feeding options have run out. This year, 24 million acres of CRP land would be eligible for the program. Now more than ever, with escalating corn prices and a dry summer, this program is needed to keep our livestock industry successful.

You do not need a doctorate in mathematics to figure out the population in western Kansas is declining. It is fairly evident wherever you go. From the closing of the local grocery store to the demolition of the neighbor's barn, many of our sons and daughters leave for college and never move back home. People are leaving this beautiful part of the state, and we're not doing much about it. Well, at least some of us aren't.