Kyle Jones, a 22-year custom applicator with Heartland Coop in Slater, Iowa, was named as the 2008 Ag-Chem Operator of the Year during this year’s Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) annual convention in Austin, Texas. Jones covers an average of 44,000 acres each year between fertilizing and spraying fields. He started in custom application because he enjoys the work, being in …
Farmer Perspective on Corn Cob Harvest
When you’re attending a farm event it’s always nice to get a farmer’s perspective on things. That’s what I did at the POET Project LIBERTY field day when I spoke with Todd Mathisen who farms just east of Emmetsburg, IA. I asked him what he thought of POET’s idea to harvest corn cobs for cellulosic ethanol production. He said, “I …
A Sociable Farmer
Are farmers using social networking and new media? I wonder how many times I’ve been asked that. Of course it tells me something about the person asking. Because if you’re online and “in the conversation” then you know the answer to that question! Let me point you to Tucker who writes The View From The Tractor. He’s following me on …
Blog Action Day and World Food Prize
Today has been “Blog Action Day” and the theme this year is poverty. Coincidentally, that is the basic theme here in Des Moines at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium – since the key focus is on feeding the hungry. So, I actually decided to participate in the event this year – both on AgWired and Domestic Fuel, since …
Ag Cash Income At All Time High
One of our distinguished guests at today’s Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeast Farmer of the Year luncheon was Mark E. Keenum, USDA Under Secretary, Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service. If you’re interested in hearing about the economics of what’s going on in agriculture then you may want to listen to him. His full comments are only about 12 minutes. However, I’m …
Brian Kirksey is Southeast Farmer of the Year
The big news of the day here at Sunbelt Ag Expo is the announcement of the Southeast Farmer of the Year. After a number of speeches and suspense it was announced that Brian Kirksey, Arkansas, was chosen as this year’s winner. He receives a check for $14,000 and is seen here on stage with his wife, Nan. Brian got to …
Harvesting Soybeans
I kind of thought I’d see more of this on the way back to Missouri from Wisconsin but I saw very little harvesting going on even though the weather was beautiful. Of course there is still a lot of green corn out there, especially in Iowa. Most of what I saw was soybean harvesting. Today I’m organizing and editing the …
Soldier Farmers
Here’s something you won’t see on the evening tv news. Soldier farmers helping rebuild the ag economy in Afghanistan. We’ve already seen this type of work being done in Iraq thanks to Paul McKellips. It looks like soldiers from several states are doing something similar to this in Afghanistan. Despite recent progress, Afghanistan remains a poor country. Its agriculture industry, …
Aquafinca Farms Fish in Honduras
I just received this story from Laura who visited Honduras recently and is back there now. Her trip was made possible by the Honduras Foundation for Investment and Export Development. Here’s a novel idea when running a business that manages more than a thousand employees: “We try to do basically everything to make them feel they are like partners not …
Urban Farmer Receives MacArthur Fellow Award
An “urban farmer” has received one of the MacArthur Fellows awards. The MacArthur Foundation today named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2008. This past week, the recipients learned in a single phone call from the Foundation that they will each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years. The new Fellows work across a broad spectrum …