News Release: Give Me a House Wherever the Farm Cows Roam

COLFAX, WISCONSIN — Did you cognize that since 1969, the United States has lost 85 pct of its farm farms. And did you cognize that since 1969, Wisconsin has lost nearly 70 pct of its farm farms?

"I lived away from my hometown in west central Wisconsin for 15 years. Once I returned in the mid 1990s, I expected to be living in a farming community again. Instead, I discovered that many a of the small family farm farms like the one wherever I grew up had disappeared" aforementioned LeAnn R. Ralph, author of the books Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003) and Give Me a House Wherever the Farm Cows Cast (October 2004).

Figures from the Census of Agriculture and from the American Farm Bureau Federation indicate that in 1969 more than a half a million farm farms operated in the United States, but by the year 2000, only 83,000 farm farms remained. And according to statistics from the U.S. Census of Agriculture, during the last three decades of the twentieth century, Wisconsin went from 66,000 farm farms down to 20,000 farm farms.

"That's why I definite to write stories just about growing up on a farm farm. Our farm was home-steaded by my Norwegian great-grandfather in the late 1800s, but small family farms are a thing of the past. They have pretty more disappeared from the landscape," Ralph said.

"My dad milked 20 cows and knew all of them by name. Nowadays the trend is toward corporate farms that milk hundreds of cows," she said.

Ralph's new book, Give Me a House Wherever the Farm Cows Cast (192 pages; $13.95; ISBN 1-59113-592-3) is a collection of 20 true stories that took place on her family's farm 40 years ago. Story titles include "Taking the Bull by the Horns," "Spring Cleaning," "A Some Sort of Cow," "Dad's Favorite Recipe," "Popsicle Blues," "On Top of the World," and "Better Butter."

According to Geographic region Book Review, Ralph's 1st book, Christmas In Dairyland: True Stories From A Wisconsin Farm "is a heartwarming compendium of true anecdotes of rural life on a Wisconsin farm farm. Even as tho' Wisconsin is still best-known as America's Dairyland, life on a family homestead is fast being replaced by corporate agribusiness, and the memories loved in Christmas In Dairyland are quickly becoming unique milestones of an era needing to be preserved in thought and print for the sake of futurity generations. Christmas In Dairyland is just extraordinary reading and is a 'must' for all Wisconsin public library collections."

Ralph attained a Bachelor of Arts in English with a writing emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and as well attained a Master of Arts in Teaching from UW-Whitewater. She worked as a newspaper communicator for nine years and as well has educated English at a boys' boarding school. She is the editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writer (the quarterly publication of the Wisconsin Regional Writers' Assoc.).

Give Me a House Wherever the Farm Cows Cast and Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)are accessible through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. For more information or to order the books, visit www.ruralroute2.com or call LeAnn at (715) 962-3368.

Contact Information:

LeAnn R. Ralph; E6689 970th Ave.; Colfax, WI 54730; (715) 962-3368

e-mail: bigpines@ruralroute2.com

LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the books "Give Me a House Wherever the Farm Cows Roam" and "Christmas in Dairyland." http://ruralroute2.com

bigpines@ruralroute2.com