Smith's Favorite Story of 2024

Editor's Note:

As the year comes to a close, we've once again asked the DTN/Progressive Farmer reporting team to pick out the most significant, most fun, or otherwise their favorite, story of 2024. They range from solar events to seeing how seed corn is produced, political/policy coverage to wildfire impact, to including profiles of American farmers and ranchers who shared their marketing, production and even life choices with our writers. We hope you enjoy our writers' favorites, continuing the series with today's story by DTN Senior Crops Editor Pamela Smith.

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It is inspiring to watch farming families work together, especially when they not only love each other, but respect and like their partners. My favorite article this year dealt with two such relationships.

It came as part of DTN's View From the Cab series, a diary-like approach to describing what happens on the farm throughout a season. The 2024 series included nearly 30 segments spanning the May-through-November crop season and featured Dan Lakey of Soda Springs, Idaho, and Quint Pottinger of New Haven, Kentucky.

I've been writing about family business relationships for most of my professional writing career. Every family farm has their moments, but nearly every discussion with Pottinger and Lakey brought up the mention of the farming team and their importance.

After years of witnessing and writing about the angst and issues within family farms, I have found myself listening for the differences between those that work well and those that don't. During the Lakey and Pottinger interviews, they often talked of how much fun they were having farming -- even in times of great stress. The partners have goals as a farm operation. They communicate. As corny as it sounds, they really like working together.

The View From the Cab feature is special because it allows a deeper dive into technical and human aspects of farming. While it is difficult to choose one article from the series, the title "Farmers Celebrate Farming Fathers" (https://www.dtnpf.com/…) stands out for me.

Quint Pottinger's partnership with his father, Ramey, thrives on blunt honesty. The elder Pottinger admitted during DTN interviews that he has found new energy in this son's enthusiasm. Both father and son enjoy mentoring farm interns and sharing their fervor for agriculture. That positivity did this farm girl's heart good as I was writing this article and others in the series.

Dan Lakey explaining why he writes more handwritten notes to himself these days is also now written on my heart. Lakey's late-father, Dwight, who died unexpectedly in 2021, scratched important farm details in small pocket dairies over the years. Those diaries now serve as precious treasures for the family and as touchpoints for Lakey.

The strength of his relationship with brother and farm business partner, David Lakey, was also documented throughout the View From the Cab series. "I'm so lucky to work with someone who has extreme patience and who is also really good at what he does," said Lakey. "We are better because we farm together."

Growing -- not just crops but families that are stronger together -- is always worth celebrating.

Read Pottinger's View From the Cab profiles by visiting: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Read Lakey's View From the Cab profile by visiting: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Farmers interested in participating in the 2025 View From the Cab series should send a note about their farm and interest in the project to pamela.smith@dtn.com.

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @PamSmithDTN

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