Country Lifestyles
Outstanding Rodeo Man — John Farris
By Judy Wade
John Farris is a name known and respected by rodeo contestants and fans across the country. Farris worked every National Finals Rodeo in one capacity or another from 1967 to 2013.
He staked the barrel pattern for every one of those years, worked as the NFR saddle horse boss for two years, served as the assistant rough stock event chute boss for one year and as the timed-event chute boss for 17 years.
He worked the Fort Worth Rodeo for 25 years and the Texas Circuit Finals 20 years and has been chute boss for the Prairie Circuit Finals for four years, a position he still holds today. He also worked the Clay County Pioneer Reunion Rodeo in Henrietta, Texas, for many years. “My favorite rodeo would have to be Fort Worth because we got to stay in one place for two weeks, not having to move around,” Farris explained.
A PRCA member since 1959, he competed in bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, tie-down calf roping and occasionally steer wrestling until age 44, although he continued calf roping for several more years.
Born in Iowa Park in 1928 to B.A. and Eva Farris, he had two brothers and three sisters. “Sometimes our neighbor’s cows would get over on us, and my brother and I would ride them. All I ever wanted to be was a cowboy,” he said. “I entered the bull riding at my first rodeo at Jacksboro, when I was 16. I got a broken ankle and a fat lip that I still have today, but that didn’t stop me,” Farris laughed.
To read more pick up a copy of the April 2018 issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
By Martha Crump
That old adage, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.,” may have some basis in truth when applied to minor situations. However, when what you don’t know is presented in the form of a “Trojan Horse” and is what amounts to an incredible attempt to fleece American property rights, it becomes a different story altogether.
To put this unbelievable tale together, we need to step back to Joe Biden’s 2021 Executive Order which pledged commitment to help restore balance on public lands and waters, to create jobs, and to provide a path to align the management of America’s public lands and waters with our nation’s climate, conservation, and clean energy goals.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Lacey Vilhauer
Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
¼ cup water
Directions:
Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree the strawberries in a food processor and add to the lemon mixture along with juice of one lemon and water. Taste and add more juice as desired.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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