The weather is ridiculous.

Hauling car food today.

So pleased and honored that @Sentinel_Ag named their Advocate Award after my wife who passed away on Christmas. First winner of this award is @jenreesources

The University of Nebraska debunks the manipulation behind cow farts/burps and methane: “They have not accounted for the capture part, they only account for methane being released. Carbon capture in soil and grass - helped out by cow grazing and manure - can far outweigh the emissions from cattle. Grasslands can take up more CO2 and carbon in the soil and plants, that offsets the CO2 that cattle are producing but it also offsets the methane.”

Alabama is overrated. Indiana is making them look foolish.

Barb Batie loved agriculture and Nebraska. Her passion spilled onto the pages of some of our state’s most important publications and into the lives of nearly everyone she met. Guided by her faith and dedication to agriculture, Barb’s impact will carry on — especially through her wonderful family, including her daughter Cicely who serves Nebraskans as my ag and energy policy advisor. Here’s a challenge for each of us from the Baties, in Barb’s memory: “Of each and every one of you who read these words: Be like Barb. Write down your memories. Volunteer with the local 4-H club. Give back to your community with time or money. Say yes when people ask you to help plan big events. Be a proud supporter of the arts. Travel the world to see something new. Make something in the kitchen. Grow something in the garden. Love your family.” agupdate.com/midwestmessenge…

Barb’s farewell column for the Midwest Messenger. She passed away before she could write it so my daughter took on the challenge and nailed it. The Christmas Mouse agupdate.com/midwestmessenge… via @agupdatecom

You know those people who seem to be everywhere? The Baties of Lexington are those people. Whether in Lincoln or Lexington, Ravenna or Grand Island, @dbatie and Barb Batie have always been a team. ruralradio.com/krvn/news/sal…

The love of my life, my partner and best friend passed away this afternoon. I’m not sure how I will go on, but I will because that’s what she wanted, and told me so. 💔 caringbridge.org/site/c1c906…

Congratulations to the A&M volleyball team. They earned their final four spot. Nebraska gave everything they had, but A&M was better today. So proud to be a Husker supporter. GBR!!

My wife Barb was diagnosed with cancer this last week. I created a Caring page for her if you want to follow along. caringbridge.org/site/c1c906…

Nebraska volleyball is heading to the Elite Eight with a dominant win over Kansas (25-12, 25-11, 25-12). They will face Texas A&M on Sunday. The Huskers hit .450 and held KU to a .029 clip. Rebekah Allick had 9 kills on 9 swings. Andi Jackson posted 9 kills and 5 blocks.

They told us China was cheating. Turns out they were just building while we were preaching. While the West was busy dismantling coal plants, paying people not to boil kettles and covering farmland with solar panels that don’t work when it’s dark, China did the obvious: They kept the lights on and built everything. The result? China now makes 80% of the world’s solar panels, 70% of the batteries, 60% of the wind turbine parts and 55% of global steel (more than the next 15 countries combined). And they’re still commissioning two state-of-the-art coal plants a week – the cleanest coal plants ever built, because reliable power beats ideology every single time. In 2000 China’s manufacturing output was smaller than Italy’s. Today it’s larger than America Europe Japan South Korea combined. We outsourced the actual hardware of the 'green revolution' to our main rival, then acted surprised when they became the workshop of the world and the richest industrial power in history. The miracle isn’t mysterious. It’s embarrassingly simple: Abundant energy. No net-zero cults. A government that sees steel mills and giga-factories as strategic assets, not sins. The biggest transfer of wealth and power in human history didn’t happen with guns or treaties. It happened because one side built things and the other side wrote strongly worded letters and paid influencers to shame anyone who pointed it out. China installed more solar in 2024 than the entire world had installed cumulatively by 2017. From 2005–2023 China added ~1,100 GW of coal capacity while the West lost ~200 GW. That gap is the story of the century. The West ran a 20-year experiment in whether you can deindustrialize your own civilization, hand the manufacturing base to a strategic rival, subsidise that rival with your own climate policies, yet still win the century. Result so far: China’s manufacturing share of global GDP went from ~6% in 2000 to ~30% today. America’s went from ~22% to ~15%. Europe’s collapsed from ~25% to ~14%. China didn’t beat us. We decommissioned ourselves. Ready to discuss?

I was at a conference yesterday and enjoyed a yummy roll. However when I finished the roll I looked at the paper plate and found this. Remarkable design that this paper plate will compost anywhere except California. 😂😂😂

So much hate for people who have different skin color or speak another language, working jobs we don’t want to do. There probably are a few illegal people in town, but the vast majority are American or here legally. They are great neighbors who work hard for their family.