Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Posted on June 3, 2026
In a video clip filmed in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a 4WD truck grew mired. Its 60 PSI tires dug deeper and deeper, rendering the vehicle helpless as its operator tried to back away from the mess. The narrator reduced tire pressure to 15 PSI, enabling the truck to easily back out of its sand tra...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Crop Comments A7 
Posted on May 27, 2026
According to Dan Quinn, Purdue University agronomist, examining corn ears from your fields helps estimate what yield might be. Examining corn ears prior to harvest helps growers visualize how the corn plant was impacted by different factors throughout the growing season, and why their yields may be ...
Country Folks, Dairy
by Sally Colby 
Posted on May 20, 2026
A relatively small dairy farm with fewer than 100 cows was the norm not long ago, and it’s working today on Becky and Dave Troop’s farm in Cochranville, PA. Becky grew up on a dairy not far from where she and Dave are farming now. Cows were housed in a tie-stall barn that wasn’t much different than ...
Country Folks, Dairy
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on May 20, 2026
What you feed the herd affects both herd health and milk composition. Kevin Harvatine, Ph.D., professor of nutritional physiology and chair in Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, presented “Fatty Acids & Milk Components: Optimizing Milkfat Yield” as part of the recent Herd Health & Nutrition Confer...
Country Folks
Horse Tales
Posted on May 20, 2026
Buying a horse is an exciting experience, but also requires caution, careful planning and research, especially when purchasing your first horse. First, determine what you can afford to pay and stay within that number. Horses are expensive to keep and will require money to be budgeted for daily upkee...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Paris Reidhead 
Posted on May 20, 2026
Three years ago, Canadian wildfires were ramping up. The maximum impact was felt in the northern tier of the U.S. during the second week of June 2023. Firefighters scrambled to put out blazes in Quebec, where more than 160 forest fires were roaring. These fires were fueled by high temperatures and d...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on May 13, 2026
If a liquid manure system eliminated agitation, saved fuel, increased manure value and created safer working conditions by eliminating deadly gases, would farmers be willing to try it? Farmers in Ireland tried it and liked it, and now farmers in the U.S. can benefit from a manure management system b...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on May 13, 2026
Is your farm just surviving or thriving? Chris Wilson, business manager at Wilson Family Organic Farms , pondered that question when he began working on the farm in 2017; however, with some major changes, the family turned it around. Wilson presented “Practical Systems, Real Returns: Dairy-Cropping ...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on May 13, 2026
Benjamin Clark, a former employee on a large Montana organic grain farm, now an organic farm inspector, provided perspective on organic grain certification at a Maine Grain Alliance meeting. Clark is a staff inspector for the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Certification Servic...
Courtney Llewellyn 
June 1, 2026
In northwest Illinois, where fields flatten into horizon and seasons set the pace of life, Selmi’s Greenhouse & Family Farm stands as both a working f...
News
by Andy Haman 
June 1, 2026
Play is important for children of all ages, and children’s play areas can become an integral part of your agritourism operation – but these spaces mus...
News
by Sally Colby 
June 1, 2026
Jared Hughes’s entry into the plant and greenhouse business happened naturally. During college, he propagated succulents on his parents’ property and ...
News
by Enrico Villamaino 
June 1, 2026
At the most recent Cultivate Conference , growers packed together to soak up smart strategies on a deceptively simple subject: watering. In a session ...