It all began with a simple question while standing outside the combine in the field during a breakdown at harvest time this year. And I’m not talking about my emotional status. “Can you run home and get me a bolt this size?” my husband asked, handing me a bolt. He told me where that ...
My mother was born into dirt, poverty, and hunger on a tenant farm in east central Nebraska in April 1932. She was the third child — fourth, including her brother Gordon, who died before she was born — of her parents, Lottie and Harry, young Illinoisans drawn west a decade earlier by the ...
I have been posing a lot of questions recently about trade with China needing answers, and we are getting some from the Trump/Xi summit. The really big question was how far that President Trump and Xi would go in the trade war, and the answer is that neither wanted to disengage fully on trade. ...
NEWS *Hansen-Mueller Co. has operations in 11 states including Alabama, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Louisiana. At the end of last week, the Nebraska Public Service Commission suspended Hansen-Mueller’s grain dealers license in the state ...
I have found that it’s difficult to clean out an ancestral farmhouse when history keeps getting in the way. Especially when it’s my family’s history. After delaying the chore for far too long, I have thrown myself into clearing out the home where my seven siblings and I grew up. A house ...
It’s a scary time of year. That peculiar holiday called Halloween is upon us, the only occasion wherein we encourage our children to take candy from strangers — after the kiddos issue a vague threat to homeowner. Trick-or-treating is a grand tradition that dates back centuries. I know ...
NEWS *Pending court approval, Cargill and Tyson Foods have agreed to settle a price-fixing lawsuit. The companies were accused of conspiring to restrict beef supplies to boost prices. To settle the case, Cargill will pay $32.5 million and Tyson will pay $55 million. Litigation continues ...
One of the oldest sayings in poker warns that if you’re in a game for 20 minutes and haven’t figured out who’s the patsy — the player most likely to be the game’s biggest loser — you’re the patsy. In American agriculture, you can make a strong case that this year’s biggest ...
The U.S. economy is believed to be growing at a 3.8% rate. That would not be bad but is widely uneven between states and sectors. Some calculate that 80% of that growth is related to AI investments by the largest companies while the general economy is actually deteriorating without that. Got ...
This year as I found myself waiting on the combine during the soybean harvest, I was amused by many a rip-snorting hilarious Facebook video touting the struggle of the average grain cart operator. I think the word is out, and grain cart operators are uniting for justice. Some of the videos ...