Author: staff

The writer Arthur Brooks recently penned a column about a dinner party he and his wife attended with several other long-married couples. After some requisite social niceties, the hostess posed a question that sparked an evening of fascinating discussion: have you ever had a major crisis in your marriage? Were you to ask that question of my wife and me, our answer would be, “Are you kidding? Take your pick!” The first crisis arrived forty-four years ago, on the night of our wedding. To set the stage, the connubial couple were decked out in some of the finest duds they…

Choosing a pair of everyday work boots is a highly individual decision. And that somewhat complicates writing a review of Wolverine’s Rancher Pro boot. These new offers are pull-on Wellington-style work boots that spent the past couple of weeks on my feet during various chores around my rural property. While I regularly find boots that I like, it’s not often that I fully adopt something different than what I normally wear. For instance, in terms of my lace-up work boots, I am currently on my fourth pair of the exact same boot over the past 18 years, and I have…

Ahead of 9 a.m. CT, May corn was down less than a penny at $4.63½ per bushel. May soybeans were down 3¾¢ at $10.06 per bushel. May wheat contracts were also lower. CBOT wheat was down 9½¢ at $5.48¾ per bushel. KC wheat was down 10¾¢ at $5.78. Minneapolis wheat was down 6¾¢ at $5.98¼. June live cattle were up 13¢ at $202.90 per hundredweight (cwt) ahead of 9 a.m. CT. May feeder cattle were down 43¢ at $284.68 per cwt. June lean hogs were down $1.23 at $96.25 per cwt. May crude oil was up 23¢ at $68.51 per…

Dennis Bulani has a passion for agriculture. He’s a fourth-generation Saskatchewan farmer and founder/CEO of The Rack, an ag retail chain selling fertilizer, fuel, and crop protection products. His new book, ‘What A Farmer Wants You To Know About Food,” aims to educate consumers and provide farmers with a tool to share the truth about agriculture and food. Listen to the Podcast Subscribe to 15 Minutes With a Farmer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please rate and review us! Meet Dennis Bulani Bulani grew up on a Saskatchewan cattle and wheat farm near Biggar, earned…

Bushel, a farm management software company, has announced an expanded platform with enhanced financial tools for farmers and agribusinesses.  Starting this spring, Bushel Farm will include a digital wallet, providing an all-in-one platform to manage farm operations and finances. This integration offers the opportunity to simplify both financial and operational management for farmers.  Jake Joraanstad, CEO of Bushel, explained the benefit, comparing it to Venmo or PayPal. “We felt that the industry needed something similar for the farm and the facilities that they work with,” he explained. “Farmers care a lot about making sure that their capital i’s in a…

By Cami Koons A case of highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected in a commercial pullet flock in Buena Vista County Friday, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. This is the sixth detection of the H5N1 bird flu in Iowa this year, and the second 2025 detection in Buena Vista County. The previous detection in the county occurred in a commercial turkey flock and impacted more than 26,000 birds.  The current HPAI outbreak has been an ongoing problem for wild and domestic birds since 2022, though it has also spread to dairy cattle and more than 70 humans who…

By Gabriel Araujo SAO PAULO, March 14 (Reuters) – Brazil’s 2024/25 soybean crop is expected to reach 172.45 million metric tons, agribusiness consultancy Safras & Mercado said on Friday, lowering its forecast from a previous 174.88 million tons. The revised crop outlook remains above the 167.37 million tons forecast by state agricultural agency Conab in data released on Thursday. “The Brazilian crop continues to have great potential and is progressing well in the fields,” Safras analyst Rafael Silveira said in a note. “This scenario reinforces expectations for a large supply of soybeans in Brazil in 2025.” Safras said the downward revision was largely due…

By Tom Polansek CHICAGO, March 14 (Reuters) – Canada has resumed imports from the biggest U.S. pork-processing plant, a Smithfield Foods SFD.O facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, after suspending shipments for about a week, the company said on Friday. The halt temporarily limited a market for American pork products at a time when U.S. farmers fear that agricultural exports will suffer from tit-for-tat tariff disputes with major buyers including Mexico, Canada and China. Smithfield CEO Shane Smith said this week that the facility’s suspension centered around a problem with offal products at the border and was unrelated to tariffs. Shares rose slightly on Friday. “Canada…

Susan Watkins joined Successful Farming at Commodity Classic to talk about transitioning the family farm to the eighth generation, implementing sustainable practices to protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and working with the United Soybean Board to promote American soybeans. Listen to the Podcast Subscribe to 15 Minutes With a Farmer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please rate and review us! Meet Susan Watkins Watkins farms around 3,500 acres, growing soybeans, corn, and wheat in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. The farm is located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which means conservation practices like no-till planting and the…

Ahead of the North Carolina Association of Family and Consumer Science (NCAFCS) annual conference in February, I joined 22 teachers for a tour of Lewis Nursery and Farms in southeastern North Carolina to learn how strawberries are grown and marketed. Teachers attending the tour teach classes in food and nutrition, food science and technology, and culinary arts and hospitality.  Each of these classes has standards of learning that relate to agriculture.   The farmer gave teachers a historical overview of this third-generation farm. He described how strawberries are conventionally grown in the state on black plastic mulch, which was a new…