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The Leo High School marching band has plenty to celebrate this fall!

With 110 students on the field—the largest group in its history—the band has qualified for Semi-State. The opening of the new Leo Fieldhouse has also given the band its own practice field and tower.

It's a fitting time to revisit my conversation with band director Colby Stackhouse.

Long before Colby became a band director, he was involved in agriculture and 4-H. Those experiences helped shape the leader and teacher he is today.

In our conversation, we explore how lessons learned raising livestock, participating in 4-H, and growing up around agriculture can influence the way we approach leadership, education, and working with others.

Sometimes the greatest impact of agriculture happens far beyond the farm.

Join me for this week's Patio Pondering Archive Gem, From Livestock to Leadership.

Be Safe Out There.

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PATIO PONDERING GEM

Some conversations are worth another listen.

For this Patio Pondering Gem, we’re going back to Episode 50 and my conversation with Oklahoma farmer and rancher Jerod McDaniel: Against the Grain — Bullshit, Big Ag, and the Power of Speaking Up.

Jerod has never been particularly interested in doing something simply because that’s the way everyone else does it. After taking responsibility for his family’s operation at 18, experience taught him to question assumptions, trace information back to its source, make his own mistakes, and be willing to change course when the evidence says he was wrong.

That philosophy takes this conversation well beyond farming.

We talk about raising cattle and crops in the Oklahoma Panhandle, low-population corn, agricultural economics, raising independent kids, learning from previous generations, the danger of following the herd, and why agriculture sometimes hurts itself by refusing to be completely honest about how food is produced.

Jerod’s lesson from agriculture is simple: Question everything—and do your own due diligence.

And when I ask what small change could make a huge difference for agriculture’s future, his answer may summarize the entire conversation:

Rip back the curtain.

This was one of the most-listened-to conversations in Patio Pondering history. The original episode was released as audio only, but the video remained in the archive.

For the first time, here is the original video conversation.

Jerod McDaniel — Against the Grain.

Clear Thinking for Complex Agriculture.

Be Safe Out There.

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John Canary farms with his family in Johnson County, Indiana, where the edge of Indianapolis keeps moving closer. Houses, warehouses, and other development compete for the land around him. What does a farmer build when he cannot count on the acres being there?

John has found openings in sweet corn, pumpkins, straw, hay, livestock, and direct sales. He is also repairing old barns and weighing what to preserve against the changes the farm needs to survive. His family’s history matters to him, but he is candid about the burden that history can place on the next generation.

We talk about the roadside stand, competition for niche markets, and how he tells the farm’s story online without turning it into a performance. The conversation moves into the work his children do, the difficulty of stepping away from the farm, and the financial pressure behind many conversations about farmers’ mental health.

This is John’s first podcast interview. He does not arrive with a polished answer to where he fits in agriculture. He thinks it through with me: how to keep a family farm useful, honest, and possible as the world around it changes.

Be Safe Out There.