“I think Jake is barking at the tomatoes,” my older daughter said with a laugh.

08/20/19 — The market seems fairly comfortable sliding lower for the time, with the USDA not helping things last Monday by not cutting acreage as much as expected in corn. However, they did cut soybean acreage much more than expected, and net we actually planted fewer acres than the trade wa…

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Pinedale, Miss., the tiny community where my grandmother grew up.

Successful hay storage is essential to preserving high quality forage, while ensuring desired performance from livestock and deterring economic losses from unwanted hay storage fires. The predominant reason that fires occur in hay is because of excessive moisture in the plant residue that re…

There was a lot of anticipation leading into August 12 USDA Crop Report; however, a very “bearish” report has resulted in a decline of nearly $.50 per bushel in the December corn futures price from August 9 to August 19. Most of the Eastern Corn Belt, as well as portions of the Western Corn …

“What are you doing with this?” my husband asked, as he held up a plastic bag of fresh dill.

“Have you fallen lately?” the doctor asked.

Ag Twitter had a big sandbox to play in after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) clobbered the agricultural futures markets Aug. 12 with its number-filled Crop Report and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, or WASDE.

Chances are good that you’ve already heard about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to relocate two agencies — the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture — out of Washington, D.C., to Kansas City.

08/13/19 — Markets are sure sagging greatly after our spring rally on the horrible planting conditions. That is interesting as yesterday USDA’s August report cut corn/bean planted acreage another 5 million acres (mostly beans) — and the corn market went limit down! But from the market’s pers…

Despite my growing affection for our motley crew of barn cats, I’ve always been more of a dog person. But looking at our Australian shepherd, Cocoa, the past couple months, I gained a new appreciation for the cats’ ability to groom themselves.

Each year many key issues are discussed as part of the various feature forums at Farmfest. The 2019 farm show was held on August 6-8 in Redwood County, Minnesota. A variety of National and State agricultural leaders and policy makers, including the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue,…

Traveling through my territory these past few weeks, I am reminded of days gone by. This is not necessarily a good thing, as the days gone by that have been on my mind is the 1980’s. I was just starting my career as an agriculture education instructor when the farm crisis hit. I helped write…

Phoenix was the first person I’d ever met who went by that name. I asked if she was named for the city or the mythological firebird.

Back in March I wrote about preparing for the mud that was going to result from the winter and spring we endured. I did so knowing that, like most years, our Dakotas climate would eventually dry out.

Some things touch our lives in more ways than we might imagine. Soy-based products are all around us.

With the election of four young women—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlab, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna S. Pressley—to the U.S. House of Representatives, the word “progressive” has visibly returned to the political arena. For those who use the word progressive to describe themselves, it is a po…

The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the yellow roses along the primrose path are dazzling distractions from what, in a matter of days, has already been a long month for farmers and ranchers.

The Sioux Empire Fair’s Ag Appreciation Day is one of many annual events throughout South Dakota that I try to attend each year. It’s a great event for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the hardworking farmers and ranchers who I’m able to see and personally thank for everything the…

08/06/19 — The markets recently have been plagued by two negative factors: Good weather and more China trade talk. Good weather has always hampered the market, but recently whenever China trade negotiations make headlines, ag markets go down. Sometimes it can be good news on trade, sometimes…

When I told my father I was moving to Aberdeen 10 years ago, the first thing he said to me was, “Hey, they’ve got a great county fair there!” He helped organize the county fair near our family’s farm in Mississippi, and somehow, he had learned about the great fair Brown County holds every year.

One of the hottest topics in the world’s swine industry today, as well as in the entire agriculture and animal health sectors, is the spread of African swine fever (ASF) in China and other countries. Many concerns have also been raised about the potential animal health and economic impacts t…

When I was growing up, a few food items always were in our refrigerator: milk, cheese, sandwich meat and a jar of some kind of homemade pickles.

As a kid, all I knew about Galveston was what I gleaned from the 1969 Glen Campbell song that was named for the place. Campbell crooned about sea waves and sea winds and sea birds. There seemed to be a theme.

On the farms of our youths, the dog days of August featured actual dogs and not a whole lot of anything else.

Over the years we have heard the arguments taking place among the proponents of commercial agriculture with their use of synthetic fertilizers and the accompanying mix of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, those who support the use of multi-year crop rotations including cover crops wi…

For several years now, the people who live on my street have held an annual block party. We get permission from the city to block off both ends of the street from mid-afternoon until the early hours of the morning.

07/30/19 — Weather is perfect for temperatures normally this time of year — cooler than average for pollination. But precip amounts have also been below average for most all of the Corn Belt the past week. For the past 30 days, many central Corn Belt states have seen below normal precip incl…

On July 25, USDA announced the details for the $16.0 billion trade assistance package for farm operators. A total of $14.5 billion, which is the largest portion of the aid package, is designated as direct payments to farmers, in the form of market facilitation program (MFP) payments.

“Grandma and Grandpa, can you come see us?”

Johnson Space Center is a collection of nondescript office buildings situated in the southeast corner of Houston, Texas. The structures aren’t named; they are instead assigned mundane numbers, none of which are the least bit sciencey. You would think that they could have named at least one b…

You know it’s going to be a long, hot summer if, on the day before you assume the political leadership of the United Kingdom—as Boris Johnson did on July 23—one of the world’s most authoritative newspapers, the New York Times, prints a column that begins with the phrase, “Boris Johnson, to w…

Because it’s fairly unusual, when the animal disease called vesicular stomatitis hits the news, livestock owners typically have a lot of questions. Currently this summer, the problematic disease has been found in horses in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado – not the Dakotas yet. In 2015, South…

“Be sure to lift the bean plants,” I instructed as I picked string beans. “There are lots more beans under here.”

When I was a small kid on the farm, I was often left with my grandmother.

07/23/19 — We are now at the reproductive stage for corn and soybeans, when weather becomes critically important for crops. The weatherman seems to be unsure what to call for a weather forecast during this stage, as we’ve gone from a hot/dry forecast a week ago, to cool/wet, to cool/dry, and…

As an Extension specialist for South Dakota State University, I’m passionate about our grasslands, and I’m a staunch advocate for keeping our grasslands intact, especially when it comes to converting native pastures to cropland. We’ve seen plenty of grass conversion in both high and low grai…

Everyone lives in the past to a certain extent, but I probably do so more than the average bear. You might even say that I’m a nostalgic nostalgist.

Just about the time it appears that crop conditions seem to be improving, Mother Nature throws a new twist into the situation, which appears to be the case in 2019. After a very wet Spring and late planting season in most of the Midwest, crop conditions had begun to improve in late June and …

4-H prep should be an Olympic sport. Or at least it felt that way as I helped my older kids get ready for entry day at the county fair. Forms filled out, recipes found, last coats of paint applied. It’s a race against the clock. Even with a couple of decades behind her, I think my mom still …

Look out, rural America, Congress is headed your way during its annual month-long break in August and its members want to talk trade, trade, and trade.

“Do you know what that is?” I asked.

Following up on our column, “2019 is one of THOSE years” (https://tinyurl.com/yyakav5c), we want to examine some of the financial issues facing farmers in a year with widespread flooding, fields that won’t dry out, and prevented planting, all taking place in the midst of a trade war that has…

When I stray into politics in this column, I like to stick to concrete realities — decisions made by government agencies, changes made to people’s lives and how they conduct business, etc. Though I am not always successful, I try to avoid the mud-slinging.

07/17/19 — Markets have been erratic since the June 28 acreage report, which ignored the obvious prevent planting that occurred in all states except the Dakotas. But the direction ultimately has been down as temps warmed and soggy soils dried out in the Corn Belt.

What is farm management education?

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally getting to the time of year when the water in our lakes is warm enough for summertime activities. Partly because of that phenomenon, our family is careful not to schedule its annual trip to “the lake” in northern Minnesota too early in the seas…

Hard to believe that it’s been 50 years since I’ve been to the moon.

The USDA Grains Supply and Demand (WASDE) Report released on July 11 did not seem to have any impact on corn and soybean prices, even though some of the data was somewhat “bearish” toward the grain markets. In fact, prices for both corn and soybeans increased immediately following the WASDE …

Call it what you will—coincidence, chance or just bad luck—but on the very day that President Donald J. Trump defended his Administration’s almost indefensible record on the environment, the Washington, D. C. metro area was deluged by rainfall not seen since Noah.