As I was picking up some dog treats, I stopped in my tracks when I saw the new flavor for fall.

As farm policy has moved away from its roots in the Great Depression, we have observed what policy elements have worked well and which ones have created problems. As farm policy analysts, we view our task as one of building on those policy elements that have worked well and designing new ele…

Imagine turning the handle on the water faucet and nothing comes out. Reaching the scoop into the feedbag only to scrape the bottom and come up empty. Picking up the coffee pot to pour, but no liquid fills your cup.

Autumn is my favorite time of year. In my opinion, no other season comes close.

A limited number of farm operators in the Upper Midwest will receive 2018 farm program payments during October from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA). Most crop producers in Minnesota and surrounding States were still enrolled in the county yield-based Ag Risk Coverage (ARC-CO) farm program…

FARGO, N.D. — The fall dilemma is here: Should we rake our leaves little by little as they drop, knowing there are still more on the tree, or should we delay raking until the trees are totally bare and then accomplish the task in one fell swoop?

If Cinderella were to visit our garden in the hopes of finding transportation to Prince Charming’s little soiree, she would be deeply disappointed.

If government and private estimates are accurate, hundreds of millions of American farm acres will have new owners in the next 15 years.

“We’re supposed to get 1 to 3 inches of snow today,” he whispered, his shadow looming over me as I rubbed my eyes in the dark of the early morning, removed the toddler foot lodged in my ribs and tried to make sense of the horror of the first words I heard in my waking moments on the second d…

I recently returned from “the sweetest place on earth.”

An Iowa farmer sent me an email in anticipation of the freeze this weekend and I suspect many farmers are in the similar position of having mature crops with replant that may not be mature yet. Read more about my thoughts on how to handle this situation below.

For as long as we can remember, we have made the point that farmers plant all their acres all the time. Recently, someone challenged us on that assertion using our favorite line, “Show me the data.”

When I was a teenager, my father and I took a map of the Civil War Battle of Corinth, and we drove around the outskirts of the town until we found some old defensive earthworks from the battle that were still standing on land that was being used as a pasture. There we were, roughly 130 years…

10/08/19 — It appears the bull market is awakening! Prices seem to drift higher daily, and there seems to be plenty of reasons why. By the time many read this in newspapers, the USDA Oct. 10 report will already be released, either validating much of what I wrote below, or not. But it appears…

One piece of machinery used daily on many farms, especially dairies and acreages, is a skid-steer. Skid-steers are used for many tasks on the farm such as pushing up feed, handling manure, hauling and loading feed and maneuvering equipment. Owners and employees need to be aware of the correc…

Like most ranchers, I am not too keen on leaving the ranch and getting involved in politics and policy. In fact, if I hadn’t bumped into Jess Peterson at a bull sale in southern Virginia a few years back, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA). After we ch…

Continued wet, rainy weather has slowed harvest progress in many areas of the Upper Midwest. Harvest progress across the region varies considerably, depending on the amount of rainfall received during September and early October, and the level of soil saturation that existed in given locatio…

I’ve frequently written about the term “One Health” in this space. One Health describes the concept that the health of people, animals, and their environment are inextricably linked. Zoonotic diseases – diseases that can pass from animals to people – like E. coli O157 or some types of influe…

The essentials of management on modern farms and ranches has grown with the need to track income and expense details to determine a profit in a business with very tight margins. Just as each farm or ranch operation is very different, so goes the financial picture and the need for tracking of…

A full-sized pool table occupies a major portion of our basement. It’s been years since I’ve shot a game, but I’ll never part with that pool table.

The internal memo only confirmed what unofficial Washington had been saying for more than a year and what official Washington had been downplaying for even longer: The White House plan to move two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies to Kansas City will severely cripple USDA data c…

Ethanol is vital to the Midwest, especially to South Dakota.

WATFORD CITY, N.D. — There are times when I’m being whiny about how hard life is with two little kids and two (or three?) jobs plus the ranch and the laundry and the 40-minute trip to town, and I think of the women who came before me who raised their children without air conditioning or micr…

As part of our work in polishing up the APAC/TFU (Agricultural Policy Analysis Center/Texas Farmers Union) supply management proposal, we have been reexamining the history of farm-related federal legislation over the last century and a half. During that period most of the farm legislation, e…

As I drove on a highway in northwestern North Dakota, I enjoyed a feast for my eyes.

As a result of late planting and inconsistent (mostly cooler-than-average) weather conditions — both in-field and across fields — yield variations have been quite significant this year in South Dakota as compared to previous years. Even on high productive land, it is expected for corn yields…

10/01/19 — It’s October, and so far producers have dodged the frost bullet — an extremely positive development for northern growers but also a bearish development for the market. Crops will likely mature or get close to it in many northern areas, at least most of the crop in North Dakota, So…

FARGO — I must extend an apology. As a boy gardening at our home in Lisbon, N.D., and on my grandparent’s farm between Alice and Fingal, I naively thought all soil was probably similar to ours, which was a pleasant and workable soil.

It is likely that a significant number of corn and soybean producers in many areas of Southern and Western Minnesota, as well as adjoining areas of Iowa and South Dakota, will qualify for crop insurance indemnity payments in 2019. Much of this region dealt with planting delays last Spring, e…

Lee Kratochvil reminds me of Theodore Roosevelt. Like T.R., Lee has an effusive personality and is an avid outdoorsman. Some years ago, Lee’s broad, toothy grin landed him the role of Teddy in a local production of “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

Some years ago, I wrote a column on how farm groups sternly preached the value of what they reverently called “sound science” but, in fact, usually endorsed only “science that sounds good” to the groups.

“Can you say ‘muy bellissimo’?” the participant said after taking a bite of the soup.

A long to-do list has been on my mind the past four weeks as I travel the prairie; the biggest project requiring the most thought is the preparation of a presentation for the South Dakota Farm and Ranch Stress Summit that was held Sept. 23-25 in Chamberlain. I was asked to present on farm fi…

One of my earliest memories isn’t really a memory. It’s a smell — the smell of dirt inside the cab of a tractor. To me, there’s no other smell like it, and it’s hard to describe. Dry and slightly sweet is the closest I can get, but however you describe it, it’s wholesome.

09/24/19 — North Dakota and northern Minnesota now officially will have a late frost in 2019 (and likely South Dakota), as we’ve already surpassed the normal frost date in most areas with at least another week of warm weather forecast. That will help crops mature, or at least get closer to m…

Above normal temperatures in mid-September have helped the 2019 corn and soybean crop move somewhat closer to reaching maturity. As we entered September, there was a great deal of concern about crop maturity, due to the very late planting dates this year in many areas of the Upper Midwest, a…

It all began with a tiny twinge in my big toe.

FARGO — Have you heard the latest? Rumor has it that early fall color appearing on some trees and shrubs means the upcoming winter will be brutal, with record-setting bitter cold, and snow depths seldom seen in modern history.

It seems like I’ve led off most of my columns this year with some sort of statement about the weather. Blizzards from January through April, a wet cool spring, the recent rains and flooding – they’ve affected us all in some way or another, including the animals we care for.

I looked at the stapled thick packet of instructions on my first day as a member of the NDSU Gold Star Marching Band. I was a teenager at the time.

Over the last three columns, we examined the agricultural and rural policies set forth by the three leading candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President. Of the three, Warren has the most detailed plan for commodity policy, though both she and Sanders support supply management…

I see all kinds.

Songwriter Mac McAnally once said in a presentation at my high school that the reason there are so many writers from Mississippi is that everyone there has so much time on their hands. There might be a little truth to that — life does move a little slower down South.

09/17/19 — Today as I write this column it’s 84 degrees at noon in Fargo — a very nice summer day. When you consider it’s Sept. 17 and we have a very delayed maturity corn and soybean crop in the field, it’s an absolute hallelujah day! We couldn’t have asked for better weather up and down th…

The right thing for Steve Ollerich to do is resign as the president of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association.

The September 12 USDA Crop Report slightly lowered the projected U.S. average corn and soybean yields for 2019, as compared to the August National Ag Statistics Service (NASS) yield estimates. The USDA yield estimates were based on U.S. crop conditions as of September 1st; however, the NASS …

Fly Control in concentrated animal feeding operations such as dairies is a challenge, especially in warm weather or late in the year and also if there is abundant moisture and organic matter available. Flies not only are a pest, but they also decrease production efficiency. Flies cause lives…

A few weeks ago, I was digging through online copies of old newspapers, purportedly in search of some tidbits related to my family history. In reality, it was because I love old newspapers and the unpolished history within them.

As part of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the coming 2020 presidential campaign which will, in all likelihood, pit the winner against the incumbent Republican, Donald Trump, Joe Biden has issued “The Biden Plan for Rural America” (https://joebiden.com/rural/). Unlike two of h…