Why did you start writing for Farm News?

If I remember right, Farm News’ first editor, Bill Rentsch, reached out to his alma mater (Iowa State University) and contacted the journalism department. He was looking for stringers (freelancers). I was a senior majoring in journalism/mass communication, with a double major in history. I also served as the editor of the Iowa Agriculturist, a student magazine at ISU. I sent a letter of introduction to inquire about an internship with Farm News. Bill hired me, and I spent the summer of 1996 working with Bill and the Farm News team in downtown Fort Dodge. We were on the second floor in the same office building that housed The Messenger crew. I never imagined I’d still be working for Farm News nearly 30 years later.

What is the most memorable story you covered in 30 years with the paper?

That summer I was a Farm News intern, we got a story lead about an interesting farmer southwest of Lytton. His name was Reinard Wulkow, and his story sounded too outrageous to be true. He was part of the D-Day invasion in 1944 in World War II. He was a spy who could speak multiple languages. He posed as a high-ranking Nazi leader to gain access to the Buchenwald concentration camp during the war. After returning to Sac County to farm, he also made grandfather clocks and taught art at Iowa Central. Bill Rentsch and I were intrigued by this news tip, but we were skeptical. It all sounded too outrageous. We called the Sac Sun newspaper to get the scoop on this guy. Turns out it was all true, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Reinard and sharing his remarkable story in the June 28, 1996, issue of Farm News.

How have you experienced agricultural changes in 30 years?

When I started with Farm News, the 1980s Farm Crisis was still fresh in many people’s minds. The farm economy was recovering, though, and agriculture was entering a time of tremendous change. Yields seem almost unbelievably low by today’s standards. In 1995, corn yields in Iowa averaged 123 bushels per acre, while average soybean yields hovered around 40 bushels per acre, according to Iowa State University Extension. (One of our neighbors won a Pioneer yield contest in 1995 by growing soybeans that yielded 71.46 bushels per acre.)

The days of bean walking and riding the bean bar (something I spent hours doing on my family’s farm) vanished almost overnight when Monsanto developed the first widely used, genetically-modified crop in 1996 with the introduction of Roundup Ready soybeans.

By the mid-1990s, computers were fairly commonplace in most offices and many farms. The latest, greatest operating system was Windows 95, computer hard drives were measured in megabytes (MB), and high-tech data storage included 3.5-inch floppy disks. (I thought we were cutting edge when we had an electronic Magnavox VideoWriter word processor on the farm in the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

Cell phones were available, but not everyone had one. Smartphones wouldn’t become a big thing until the early 2000s. In the mid-1990s, using the internet and email were “high tech.” Film cameras and fax machines were common. There was no social media.

Precision agriculture technology was just starting to become part of agriculture around the time Farm News was launched. GPS and auto steer were still more science fiction than reality at that point, but look at how they’ve become part of daily life today.

At harvest in the 1990s, it wasn’t uncommon to see lines of tractors and small wagons, as well as straight trucks, waiting to unload grain at local elevators. Semi-trucks and big grain carts weren’t the norm like they are today.

The livestock industry was also in a major state of change 30 years ago. While most farmers in my area (including my dad) had a farrow-to-finish swine operation, contracts and swine confinement barns began transforming the swine industry in the 1990s. From the time I graduated from Southern Cal High School in Lake City in 1992 until I graduated from Iowa State University in 1996, it’s shocking when you look back at how much was changing at this time.

Today, the tech revolution continues with artificial intelligence (AI). Also, the growing focus on soil health and a healthy soil microbiome is one of the most exciting developments I’ve seen in my career as an ag journalist. The next revolution in farming is right under our feet.

My family — 30 years ago and now.

In 1995, when Farm News started, I was a student at Iowa State University. My dad, Jim Dougherty, owned and operated our family’s corn, soybean and hog farm between Lake City and Yetter. He and my mom, Jan, lived on the farm with my younger brother, Jason, who was in high school. I married J. Maulsby, a “town kid” from Rockwell City, in 1999. (His family has extensive farm roots in Calhoun County.) My husband and I moved back to Calhoun County from the Des Moines metro in 2006 so we could be closer to my family’s farm. While my dad died in 2019, my mom still lives on our family’s Century Farm. My family continues to operate our corn and soybean farm. We’re proud to carry on this tradition.

What has kept you writing for Farm News?

I’ve made so many friends across the state and learned so much about all facets of Iowa agriculture during my decades with Farm News. As more people become more disconnected from the farm, telling these stories becomes even more important. To me, this is more of a calling than a job. If you eat three times a day, you have a connection to Iowa agriculture. I love sharing these stories, and I look forward to writing for Farm News for years to come.