Mother Nature recently helped remove snow and ice in most of the Northeast. She did so by shoving outdoor thermometer readings down into single digit Fahrenheit readings. Other than some higher altitude sites, I hadn’t heard of any sub-zero (F) readings. In the second week of February 2024, the bott...

No matter what the industry is, employees play an essential role in a business. Hiring and employee retention are two aspects that managers and owners must take seriously. Not only are the employees working to help keep the business running, but they also interact with your paying customers, meaning...

ELK GARDEN, VA – At Goshen Homestead , a 150-acre family farm in southwest Virginia, Dwayne and Stacey McIntyre manage their farm according to what they call “Biblically Principled Sustainability.” Leviticus 26:3-5 says, in part, “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands … you wi...

According to Gustavo Schuenemann, DVM, Ph.D., there are approximately 9.3 million dairy cows in the U.S., and there is a 33.8% pre-weaned (birth to 60 days) calf morbidity rate. Another 5% of calves are stillborn (either born dead or die within 24 hours). Through careful genetic selection, adequate ...

Selling your farm’s produce online won’t succeed without planning. Farmer Katie Olthoff recently presented “Maximize Your Online Store” as a FACT webinar . She owns ChopLocal , an alternative meat supply chain in Iowa that helps farmers generate and keep more profits. ChopLocal helps producers come ...

Farmers who plant corn for silage, snaplage or grain are continually seeking hybrids that best suit the growing conditions on their farms. When weather conditions allow timely spring planting, corn reaches between nine and 12 feet at maturity and farmers anticipate high yields. While traditional cor...

With improving genetics and management on dairy farms, dairy production and milk prices are changing from year to year. Farm Credit East hosted a session explaining the trends in the dairy industry throughout 2023 – and predicting the trends for 2024. Dr. Christopher Wolf, a professor of applied eco...

David had me pick up some soil samples he’d taken. He owns a small organic farm in the next county. I brought the samples home, air-dried them, then screened them using a wide-mouthed plastic jar with quarter-inch holes in the lid. Screening removes impurities like bug parts, roots, worms, leaves, t...

Even if you do everything right as a beef cattle producer, sometimes things go wrong. Some issues are obvious, but others may be hidden – deep in the heart of your animals. Presenting “A Continued Concern: Bovine Congestive Heart Failure” at the recent CattleCon ’24 , Kelli Retallick-Riley, a quanti...