Good manure management requires geology knowledge, but it’s easy to ignore what’s below the soil surface. NRCS soil scientist Yuri Plowden spoke recently at a Soils, Hydrology & Liquid Manure event in Lebanon, PA, where she discussed soil details critical to good manure stewardship. Plowden began wi...

Record cattle prices are creating remarkable opportunities for cow calf producers, but a rising market does not guarantee a profitable operation. Feed bills, land costs, breeding choices and calf performance all determine whether a cow contributes to the bottom line or eats away at it. That was the ...

Anyone who has experienced a computer attack or data breach will say it feels as if they’ve been being robbed. While farmers shouldn’t live in fear of cyberattacks, they should be aware of the potential damage to their business and how attacks can be avoided. Dr. Doug Jacobson, director of the Iowa ...

Increasingly, headlines spotlight weather and climate events, most of which are bad news. Remember the last week of September 2024: Hurricane Helene received much media attention. Hurricane Milton then earned coverage Oct. 1 - 10. By mid-October that year, tropical cyclone season was mercifully on i...

If every farmer took time to think through their actions prior to carrying out a task, Ed Aukamp might be out of a job. Aukamp is an EMT, paramedic and EMS instructor with over 30 years of experience responding to incidents in agricultural settings. It’s important to note that most injuries or death...

Mineral programs can be easy to start and surprisingly hard to get right. Most beef herds have a mineral feeder somewhere in the pasture, but having a product on hand is not the same as having a plan. Ohio State University Extension Beef Nutrition Specialist Dr. Haley Linder argues that effective mi...

It’s that time of year, farm family – the time when moving to an abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere starts sounding awfully attractive. There are lots of reasons for that urge, but I think they can be summed up in one word: exhaustion. Exhaustion is that condition when your body feels heavy an...

Just when the global fertilizer scene hints at calming down, one of the normally tamer (and lesser) components has begun misbehaving: elemental sulfur (S). Before addressing the supply/demand orneriness of S, let me present some figures from the Argus Industry Newsletter for Oct. 15, 2026. The follo...

A prickly tree with a sweet secret could help reshape the future of farming. Honey locust ( Gleditsia triacanthos ) has long provided food for people and livestock. Yet despite its sugar-rich pods, welcome shade and potential role in sustainable farming, the tree remains overlooked by modern agricul...

Each summer, the Suffolk County Farm & Education Center in Yaphank, NY, run by CCE Suffolk, hums with campers. They’re in the pastures with livestock, doing crafts in the fields, performing in talent shows in the historic hay barn or taking wagon rides. “Camp is so much more than just a supervised p...

REMSEN, NY – Not many want to be labeled “disrupters,” but in Leon Atwell’s context of improving pasture fields, being disruptive and adaptive in his land management approaches has served him well in the North Country, where the snow is measured in feet. Forty farmers from Oneida, Madison, Herkimer,...

The statistics are sobering: cybercrime was a $14 billion business in 2024. Worse, cybercrimes are no longer the work of teenagers in basements gaining access to others’ computers. Dr. Doug Jacobson, director of the Iowa State University Center for Cybersecurity Innovation & Outreach, explained how ...

At a National Agricultural Law Center presentation, Grant Ballard and Kristine Tidgren provided an update on tax implications for farms related to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Ballard is a partner with Ark Ag Law, PLLC and Tidgren is with Iowa State University serving as an adjunct associ...

Coghlan Mullen arrived in early October to show his hogs at the Big E in West Springfield, MA. His showed a hog named Amy, born in January 2026, of a hog breed he called “Spot,” and a mixed breed hog named Tammy. “Amy is a Spotted Poland China but the breed is most commonly referred to as just ‘Spot...

This title is the opinion of my friend, Certified Crop Advisor Tom Kilcer. I’ll explain the logic behind his statement. He said with the current geopolitical situation, the supply of available fertilizer has been squeezed. Consequently, the price of fertilizer ingredients has increased, threatening ...