The other day I was at the gym and between racquetball games I was asked what's the oddest farm story I've ever covered. That was an easy one. It was back in Sleepy Eye, Minn. in the mid-1980s. The Herald-Dispatch was the second newspaper in my career. I did a feature on a farmer with, if I remember correctly, a 12-mile, eight-row cornfield. This fella had purchased an old railroad right-of-way and spent much of the summer and fall clearing out the rails, ties, the numerous bits of steel junk that go with railroading and all those rocks that stabilize the rails. Te next spring, with his four-row planter, he loaded up with seed and, with his wife following with more bags of seed in a pick-up truck, they proceeded to plant this 12-mile strip, stopping to drive around stream-spannng trestles that were too narrow for the tractor's wheels to go over. They spent the night in a motel at the far end, then next morning, reloading the pick-up with bags of seed, proceeded to plant the other four rows as they rolled back home. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to follow-up his harvest yield, before leaving that paper (I was handed my hat and shown the door, which is another story altogether). I've always wondered how his experiment went. My guess is, even if he did a harvest off the field, it wasn't much of a yield and he probably did that just once.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN I'd be glad to read of the oddest farm story any of you would like to share. Just click on the "add a comment" button and tell us your story.