John Phipps: A Tribute to the Cowboy Poet and Legend Baxter Black

Baxter Black was a familiar face on U.S. Farm Report. After joining the show as a regular commentator in 2009, his humor and poetry quickly drew interest from the audience as he became a fan favorite on the show. 

The veterinarian turned cowboy poet was a master at his craft. He was a storyteller of rural life in America, and he died Friday, June 10, at the age of 77.

This weekend on U.S. Farm Report, John Phipps, a commentator himself, has a tribute to Baxter Black as he remembers Baxter's ability to command the attention of a crowd and bring humor to conversations and cowboy poetry. 

I never actually personally met Baxter Black. I just watched him on U.S. Farm Report. But like many of his fans, I felt like I knew him from his prolific body of work and his remarkable communication gifts. 


I did precede him once when speaking at a conference and I remember thinking then, I was really glad he was performing after me. He could seemingly connect effortlessly with any audience via his humor and authenticity. 

If you weren't a cowboy or from cowboy country, his storytelling skill and genuine love of his work made him hard not to like and impossible to truly mimic. My deepest admiration, however, centers on his prodigious output, from poetry to commentary to books and video. And of course, this gift of humor.

Of all the writing I do for U.S. Farm Report, Top Producer, Farm Journal and speeches, the hardest by far is humor. It's also a young man's game, so to speak. Perhaps because the sorrows and regrets we bear accumulative like dust on a tractor windshield, making the funny side a little harder to see every year. But age did not whether Baxter's whimsy, nor weariness shadow his yarns. 

Baxter's ability to make humor seem natural, even toward the end of a long career masked with what all of us humorists have come to learn: to continue to see the lighter side of life the absurdity of human actions and the healing power of gently prompted or laughter required a work ethic of dedication and commitment, not to mention an abiding love of the people he talked to, and about.

His quiet references to his faith reflected the spiritual humility seldom seen today. Baxter was a descendant of great storytellers from Homer to Will Rogers. 

His memory, like his work, will bring melancholy smiles to thousands. It was an honor for me to have worked with him on U.S. Farm Report, even if from a distance.