What do farmers need to know about search engine optimization (SEO)? Plenty, according to Mike Vysocka. He presented a recent webinar, “SEO 101: Building Digital Impact for Your Business,” hosted by the Business of Food & Farming. Vysocka is a business and technology application specialist in Extens...

By actual definition, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is “commonly known as a drone, as an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or by several other names” – “an aircraft without a human pilot aboard.” William Thiele spoke at the 69th annual meeting of the PA Farm Bureau about this topic. Thiele is a sixt...

Most dairy farmers are familiar with the FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) program, but may not be aware of upcoming changes. Emily Yeiser Stepp, senior director for the National Dairy FARM program, recently discussed changes in the program and said the 2020 version of FARM is now in ef...

“Because hogs aren’t enough!” – a pretty simple answer to a pretty straightforward question. Why did the Peterson family, which for five generations was already a very successful contract hog grower in Clinton, NC, decide to branch out into agritourism? Already overseeing an operation with a capacit...

Coping with stress Stress is a normal part of life, and there’s simply no way to eliminate every bit of stress. However, understanding the basis for stress and adopting coping mechanisms can greatly alleviate the way in which the human body responds when presented with stress. Dr. Michael Bailey, ph...

How stress affects human health One portion of this year’s Dairy Nutrition Workshop, held recently in Hershey, PA, addressed an important concern in the dairy industry: stress. A preconference symposium focused on human stress, the effect of the stress response on dairy cattle, social stress in dair...

Lisa Holden, Penn State associate professor of dairy science who also works in cooperative extension, spends a lot of time helping dairy farmers learn how to optimize operations. Holden compares feeding problems on dairy farms to the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Rim, where fault lines and clashes in ...

It was a dark, cold Sunday evening just a couple weeks ago and the horses were late coming home from their pasture to the barn for the night. I had their feed, water and hay all ready and was just getting a spare lead rope and flashlight to head out and see where they were when they appeared in the ...

Speed and patience may not seem to go hand in hand. For one man, a lifetime in one career demanded the former, but a more recently discovered calling necessitates a great deal of the latter. Robert Stovall has spent much of his professional life in a hurry. For a fire engine operator in the City of ...