Maybe it was the weather. Maybe the rural crowds were inspired by the political town hall meetings sweeping across the country in August. Or, maybe Farm Bureau families were just carrying on with a long-held August tradition when they showed up in impressive numbers for OFB's annual August area meetings. Regardless of the reason, the meetings provided a snapshot of rural attitudes going into the fall.

"The numbers (of those attending) were tremendous and most were optimistic about the future," said Mike Spradling, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

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