You should never watch a cooking show when you are hungry.

Changes are occurring in our world, as trade shifts are starting to have an impact on grain prices. Weather also is an issue.

Tom Vilsack to be nominated to return as Secretary of Agriculture

One time, Mama Hogan looked at me and said, “Christopher” — she had my attention when she said my full name — “I don’t ever want you to be a ‘been’ brother.”

The incoming Biden administration has announced that it will nominate Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture, a role he held for during the Obama Administration. This announcement has been greeted with mixed reviews.

Winter has well and truly arrived, much to the disappointment of those (such as me) who had hoped that global warming would spare us from this season of freezing blizzards and stinging snowstorms.

While 2021 is not 2009, it’s easy to see how some Americans - and, in fact, many farmers and ranchers - might get confused.

We seem to have developed a bullish mentality in the marketplace now after six years of extremely bearish sentiment.

As a fourth-generation family farmer, I have always felt blessed to live and work in South Dakota. With my three sons now raising their families on the farm, I am optimistic for their future because in South Dakota, agriculture is our state’s number one economic driver. South Dakota’s leader…

As a veterinarian, I smile a little inside when I hear human health experts talk about “herd immunity.” I like the idea that high level policymakers might be envisioning cattle or pigs in the back of their mind while discussing disease dynamics in the human population.

One morning, my eyes snapped open at the sound of a familiar rumbling engine outside my window.

A big portion of the latest Covid-19 relief package that was passed by Congress in late December was directed to assist small businesses through another round of funding to reopen and strengthen the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day was wonderfully different than every other week of the year on the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth.

As with so many epic ventures, it began with an idea that was so simple it could only be described as pure genius.

Farmers are smiling a lot more often to start 2021, with soybean prices in the teens and corn near $5 to start the year.

The approval of an Emergency Use Authorization of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease called COVID-19, is an important step in bringing the pandemic under control.

Houseplants were one of the many trends during this past year.

The highly contentious 2020 election is now history, and we will move forward with a new administration and several new members of Congress, along with changes in leadership to the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees.

As we all experienced, 2020 was a year for the history books in many ways.

Agriculture is, without argument, South Dakota’s leading industry.

Insects are the ultimate survivors.

The last column of the year usually features comments from readers whose views differ from those found here the previous 50 or so weeks. Most point out, often in vivid language, the shortcomings of my ideas, opinions, and - increasingly - the “fake news” I peddle through both.

With a wintertime pandemic raging outside our windows, many of us have opted to hunker down. Watching a movie in the comfort and safety of your living room has gone from being an unhealthy way to avoid exercise to a good way to stay healthy.

Every year around this time, the calls come in.

After months of debate, Congress passed the COVID-19 Relief Package by a wide margin on December 22.

The United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (ERS) recently released their final farm income forecast which includes a forecast of 2020 net farm income. The numbers they present are a variation of the old “good news/bad news” story.

As I rose from my office chair after a day filled with Zoom meetings, I felt like the Tin Man with stiff joints from “The Wizard of Oz.”

“Just 1 cup before bedtime,” the text message said. “Take off your huge stomach.”

We ended a recent column on strengthening anti-trust laws writing: “Will this solve all the economic-challenges farmers face? No, but making agricultural input and output markets more robust is a part of the equation.”

Editor’s note: Every year during the holidays the Farm Forum reprints one of Alan Guebert’s previously published columns. This one is the most requested he has ever written.

It’s time to paw through the clutter of the past 12 months and ask some deep, philosophical questions, the chief one being: “What the heck just happened?”

It’s the holiday season, and things will slow down for a time while Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth and life. Our whole world revolves around this event, as even time itself is measured by it.

At the end of every year, various publications and websites list their “Top 10” or “Top 5” list for that year. In this issue of “Focus on Ag”, I am highlighting my “Top 5 Ag Issues” for 2020, based on issues that were discussed in columns throughout the year.

Wrapping presents has always been one of my favorite parts leading up to the holiday season. From picking out the perfect gift tags to watching the cheesiest Hallmark movie I can find, it’s a small tradition in the making.

In early 1999, I wrote a column about lions and gazelles.

“When we have a vaccine, _________”

It’s the rainy season for South America - when the yield potential for grain is either enhanced or reduced.

Nutritional advice can be confusing. Getting a definitive answer regarding whether any particular food is good or bad for you is like trying to pin Jell-O to a wall with a red-hot branding iron.

Establishing policies to reduce the impact of climate change on daily life is not only a stated concern of the incoming Biden administration, it is also a concern for a wide range of agricultural and forestry leaders.

“What’s that smell?” I thought to myself. I was just a child at the time.

Based on data in the latest “2020 Farm Income Forecast” that was released by the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) in early December, U.S. net farm income is expected to increase by $36 billion, or 43%, above 2019 levels.

Dairy producers and industry-involved individuals are invited to the I-29 MOO University virtual winter workshop in partnership with Midwest Dairy & State Trade Associations that will be held on Jan. 12 from 10 to 1:30 p.m.

“What would you like for Christmas?” I asked my husband a few years ago.

It’s a challenge to find one person with the combined skills of a farmer, rancher, forester, food aid administrator, tribal leader, attorney, economist, conservationist, miner, insurance expert, food scientist, and finance specialist to fill the about-to open job of the secretary of agriculture.

This is the time of year when the importance of weather in South America reaches its peak, as December and January are the two peak months for rainfall in the southern hemisphere.

Many of us feel that 2020 has lasted way longer than a normal year.

Ask a farmer what their profit levels from crop farming were in 2020, and the answers can range from “excellent” to “pretty good” to “disappointing”.

We begin the month of December with significant problems in South America, where dry weather has resulted in a delayed start to planting and now is affecting the growing season, as well.