How Much Communication Is Too Much With Neighbors?

By Rob Sharkey

When I first started farming, I wanted to be that guy that was in total communications with my neighbors. I was going to let them know everything. When I was going to plant, when I was going to harvest, and especially when I was going to spray. So that’s exactly what I did, until….

For the most part, it was fine. I started out farming around neighbors that I knew and were farmers themselves. As I grew and expanded acreage, I was dealing with neighbors that had never experienced farming firsthand.

I thought this was going to be great. I’ll prove to them how safe and unintrusive raising corn and soybeans really is. So, I would stop and introduce myself and give them the whole rundown. As expected, the bulk of the questions revolved around spraying. They wanted to know how those “chemicals” were going to affect them.

Is it poison?

I heard it will kill my garden.

Will it make my cat sick?