Winter may still have some fury left, but Todd Christeson, agronomy manager at United Co-op in Webster City, is looking forward to serving customers when the soil warms and the tractors and planters hit the fields again. After years when central Iowa has seen frequent drought conditions, ...
In a concept called farm to fashion, Iowa corn farmers are raising a crop that’s being used by global apparel brands. Last year, Qore opened its $360 million plant in Eddyville, which has been busy converting corn sugar into 1,4-butanediol (BDO), a chemical feedstock once made from coal ...
We were hundreds of miles from home, riding in the car and heading west when I had nothing better to do than inspect my wedding ring for cleanliness and flaws. I was sure my husband would prefer that to my examining him for the same things. And I was glad he was driving so he couldn’t do ...
A reader recently emailed me, saying that they were distressed about how modern dairies operate. I replied with some insights gleaned from my six decades’ worth of dairy experience. The majority of America’s dairy cows live in confinement facilities. The cows remain indoors from time they ...
Springtime will soon be making an appearance across the state of Iowa. The green is a welcome sight as trees bud out across the rural landscape. The tree line isn’t as green as it once was. Over the last few years, ash trees have died back significantly. This is a direct result from the ...
If you grew up on a farm, you know that milk cows show up to be milked, horses return to the barn to be fed and, like clockwork, chickens return to roost every night. In fact, chickens are so certain to return each evening that we’ve recast this commendable habit into a common admonition: ...
I bought ice cream while on vacation and got a quarter back in change because they had stopped using pennies. That is inflation. The Supreme Courts ruling that IEEPA tariffs are illegal will have more ramifications than the administration suggests. That is why President Donald Trump was so ...
NEWS *The price discovery period for crop insurance has ended. The base average price for corn is $4.62 per bushel, down from $4.70 last year. Soybeans are at $11.09 per bushel, up from $10.54 per bushel in 2025. Spring wheat is at $6.19 per bushel, down from $6.55 per bushel a year ago. The ...
The Winter Olympics have come and gone, that quadrennial phenomenon that should be called the “It’s Cold Enough Out There to Freeze the Whiskers Off a Polar Bear!” I have nothing against people who enjoy winter sporting events. But I’ve had my fill of cold, having grown up in a drafty ...
SPENCER — Clarity on tax preparation and planning for 2026 took center stage with the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) starting things off at the 41st annual Northwest Iowa Ag Outlook in Spencer. Eric Hofland, consultant with Northwest Iowa Farm Business Association, briefly ...
