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Views and opinions: Find out how farm-savvy you really are by taking new quiz
 

 

Dear readers, it’s been 20 months since you’ve taken my last “Farm & Ranch Life” exam. It’s time to see if you have absorbed the agricultural and behavioral health information in your newspaper.

Take the quiz and check the key at the end of exam to see how much you know about agriculture.

1: The standard weight of a bushel of wheat is:

A – 54 pounds

B – 58 pounds in the U.S and Canada, but 56 pounds elsewhere in the world

C – There is no standard weight because there many varieties of wheat

D – 60 pounds

E – 48 pounds

2: Most farm economists describe the current farm financial era as:

A – Bullish

B – A depression

C – A recession

D – The most important factor in the overall U.S. economy

E – Manipulated by Russia

3: The most important factor in determining what we think is true in the news is:

A – What we want to believe

B – Whether the publication we read or the television report is liberal or conservative

C – How often the news story is repeated

D – Who is the writer or newscaster of the report

E – Whether or not we are drunk

4: From what is the drink Postum derived?

A – Wheat

B – Coffee beans

C – Tea leaves

D – Barley

E – None of the above

5: In cattle, the term “polled” means:

A – The animals are registered in a directory by their breed association

B – Someone from Quinnipiac, Gallup or a news organization has contacted their owners

C – They have been weighed and tested in a feeding trial

D – Any horns they have grown have been cut off

E – These bovines possess a trait that causes them to not grow horns

6: The current suicide rate of people in agricultural workplaces is:

A – The highest among all measured occupations in the U.S.

B – Declining, as protective measures have been implemented in the U.S. and various states

C – Lower than in most other agricultural countries around the world

D – Lower than homicides among people in agricultural workplaces

E – Lower than every other measured occupation in the U.S.

7: Are any of the following statements inaccurate?

A – The average education of most new farmers in the U.S. is a college bachelor’s degree

B – The number of high schools offering vocational agriculture courses is holding steady

C – The number of women who farm is increasing in the U.S.

D – The average size of farms in the U.S. is increasing

E – There has never been a female Secretary of Agriculture in the U.S.

8: The major factor that contributes to a lower divorce rate among couples who currently farm is:

A – They married at a later age than previous generations married

B – Farm couples avoid divorce because they have more children than non-farming couples

C – Most young farm couples now have prenuptial agreements that discourage separation

D – Their claimed lower divorce rate is fake news

E – They have stronger religious beliefs than previous generations had

9: PED is a relatively new term that swine producers are familiar with because:

A – The federal government recently banned performance enhancing drugs for pigs

B – Technicians equip some pigs with physical exercise devices to measure their amount of physical activity to see how it affects the quality of their meat

C – PED is a viral disease that can significantly harm swine health

D – It’s a new and promising program for marketing pork

E – A PED measures how much exercise the herd managers obtain daily

10: Mozzarella cheese is obtained from the milk of all the following animals, except:

A – Horses

B – Water buffalo

C – Cows

D – Sheep

E – Goats

11: What does selling short on the Board of Trade mean?

A – This happens when a purchaser of a commodity contract sells the commodity at a later date for a lower price; the seller came up short and has to make up the difference

B – The purchaser of a commodity contract sells it immediately after buying it, hoping the price of the commodity will drop; if that happens, the purchaser buys it back at a lower price and retains the difference between the earlier higher sale income and the later lower cost for the same amount of the commodity

C – Selling short occurs when a purchaser buys a commodity during a rapidly rising market and reaps a significant profit, but could have reaped an even greater profit by hanging on to the commodity longer until the price peaked

D – The business of commodity trading is corrupt and no one profits except insiders who short the people who “play” the BOT

E – I’m hopelessly confused

Answers

1: D

2: C (although we are close to a farm depression, interest rates are low and land values are mostly stable currently)

3: A

4: A

5: E

6: A

7: E (remember Ann Veneman?)

8: A

9: C

10: A

11: B

If your score is 8 or higher, you are a smart farmer. Everybody else – well, nice try!

 

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Dr. Mike Rosmann is a psychologist and farmer in western Iowa. Readers may contact him at mike@agbehavioralhealth.com

3/8/2018