Krista Swanson is an agricultural economist and research analyst for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Swanson studies economics and policy topics which impact farmers, including traditional farm policy, trade and tax legislation and both proposed policy and passed legislation tha…
As new trends and challenges in crop production emerge — adoption of strip till, managing higher residue levels, new requirements for soil and nutrient management — tillage tools continue to transform and evolve. And while they don’t garner the headlines of a new EV tractor, these new develo…
Tom and his wife, Beth, were and always had been dairy farmers. Their two older children, a son and daughter, had both joined the farming operation after college. Their youngest son became a pharmacist, which was fine with Tom as he believed each child should get to a vocation they enjoyed.
When I drive my old truck out the lane and onto the gravel road, a little flashback from a few years ago jars my memory. I’ll pass it along because there’s a safety lesson in the story. Maybe a few safety pointers in fact, when you look at it in hindsight.
Now more than ever, there is strong demand for a transition plan that can meet a family’s definition of a “fair” plan for land transition yet is flexible enough to change with the planning environment.
One of the scarier events of the past 40 years for some of us older baby boomers was the advent of the personal computer. We saw them coming in the ’70s, and by the ’80s many of us were expected to actually learn how to operate a PC.
A few years ago a farming friend told me during one of our periodic conversations over morning coffee, “If you want to know a little bit about something, just ask me — I only know a little bit.”
David Grunklee is dean of applied technologies at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa.
If there’s one piece of equipment that deserves an agriculture MVP award, it’s the utility vehicle. It carts your tools, drawbar pins and parts, helps in fixing fence and rounding up stray cows, and shuttles lunch and supper to your harvest crew. It’s hard to imagine a more indispensable machine.
Jeff was excited to start his new building project. Two years had passed since he and his wife moved off the home farm, allowing his son to take over his operation. They had purchased an acreage just a few miles away with a nice house and a few small, outdated buildings.
As I’ve grown older, I have avoided becoming a grumpy old man. For the most part.
I was heading north along I-35 through central Iowa on a blistering hot August day when I came upon the flashing yellow caution lights and tattered red flags of a lumbering oversize semi load. Even from a quarter mile away, this load looked unusual … and way larger than most.
The tiny village of Westphalia, Iowa, my home town, celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding on July 3. Westphalia has held an annual two-day celebration of Independence Day for as long as I can remember. The event is still called the St. Boniface Parish Picnic even though the commun…
Stop! Please stop with the public land auctions. This may not be a popular statement in certain circles, and I will probably take some heat from my auctioneer friends, but someone needs to say it.
It may be hard to imagine but the ProFarmer crop tour gets underway next week, Farm Progress kicks off at the end of the month, and harvest is coming at you as fast as a Patrick Mahomes pass.
Wheat growers face many of the same challenges as do corn and soybean producers. But there are added issues, especially with global markets.
Don wondered if he had perhaps over-committed himself. In a moment of temporary insanity, he agreed to host an evening at his farm for 25 youth from his wife’s 4-H group. Don’s own kids were grown up, and he felt somewhat out of touch with what young people liked to do.
DENVER, Colo. — Effects from the pandemic and Ukraine war continue to reverberate through the global economy.
My three brothers celebrate their birthdays within a span of about three weeks in late-June to mid-July.
Over the last years the Iowa Legislature has automatically given hunters whatever they want. More seasons, longer seasons, use of silencers so they can shoot into private property without the resident knowing it, can have loaded and un-cased guns in vehicles so they can quickly shoot out the…
Opinion formation is an established field which many marketers and the news media use to influence what they want people to agree with.
One farming axiom has withstood the test of time: high yields drive big-ness. Just consider how the steady increase in yields over the past half-century has propelled the size of combines. It’s also true when it comes to grain carts.
One of the great symbols of our country’s independence is the long-standing tradition of fireworks. This year, we were downtown in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, watching the massive display of fireworks that closes out the city’s Freedom Festival.
Stephen Censky is chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association. He is in his second stint, having served as CEO for 21 years before serving as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2017 to 2020.
Corn Belt producers accustomed to getting an early- to mid-April jump start on planting were throttled by this season’s cool, wet spring. Farmers were revved up and smoking their tires at the starting line. But once the green light flashed, the pace of planting was unrivaled.
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