Human resources may seem like a department or set of duties for a business far different from your farm; however, it’s important to perform these tasks legally and consistently, both to protect your farm and to train new people correctly. Jess Skellie works for a small group of dairy farms. She rece...

Happy New Year, farm family! As I type these words, I find myself straddling the space-time continuum in a way that I don’t often do. The change from one year to another has heightened my awareness of both the nature and passage of time. What is the Nature of Time? In my writing present, it is still...

Four basic inputs are required for successful crop production: solar radiation, moisture, warmth (soil and air) and soil nutrients. All equally important, if any one factor is seriously limiting, crop production is greatly undermined. The input category threatened most by wildfire smoke is solar rad...

With recent acceleration of the digital world and artificial intelligence (AI) seeing increased use in nearly every industry, there’s a growing need for data centers to manage the processing, storage and transmission of digital information. Data centers require significant land, power and water, and...

Normally I try to give crop-growing readers an update on the global fertilizer situation once every quarter. I get much of my information from an online industry publication titled “Argus North American Fertilizer Newsletter.” My friend and associate Jeff Cassim subscribes to this twice-monthly peri...

The American Dairy Coalition , which focuses on federal dairy policy, met virtually this December to wrap up 2025 and look ahead to 2026. GT Thompson, chair of the House Ag Committee, opened the session. “It’s an exciting time for dairy,” said Thompson. “A lot of good things are happening. We will b...

"About 25% of a dairy’s production costs are going to be in raising heifer replacements. So, they are not actually paying the bills right now, but they are costing a fair amount of money,” said Gail Carpenter. Carpenter is an assistant professor of Extension and outreach in the Department of Animal ...

The Dec. 10, 2025 issue of Country Folks listed 11 advertisements for hay crops, one of which was for organic hay. This is relevant, because one year ago our paper posted approximately 30 hay crop ads, roughly 10 of which were for organic forages. I believe that these numbers provide a report card o...

This year’s Keystone Farm Show is one of the largest in its 28-year history. Started in 1998, the Keystone Farm Show carved out an important marketing niche for the agri-businesses in Pennsylvania. While the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg is a great show to educate the people about the importa...