Country Folks, Farmers First
Posted on June 3, 2026
Hello, farm family! Yesterday, an old memory resurfaced from some dusty corner of my mind. It was of my great-grandfather sharpening a hoe on our old foot-powered wheel grinder. Hoes We used hoes a lot on our farm back then. Naturally, we employed them for transplanting seedlings and weeding vegetab...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Crop Comments A15 
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, Dairy
by Joseph Armstrong 
Posted on May 27, 2026
Giant farms dominate the dairy landscape. According to Jon Winsten with the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC), the last 20 years have seen a 63% decrease in the number of farms, but overall milk production has risen by 28% – with massive farms driven to produce more and more milk ...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on May 27, 2026
Nearly everyone looks forward to retirement, and many anticipate collecting Social Security. However, planning is essential. Paula Ledney, Penn State Extension program specialist, retirement planning and business management, explained, “Social Security is a federal program that provides retirement b...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on May 27, 2026
Herbicide resistance is an increasing problem for soybean growers. Resistance leaves fewer tools for operators to combat weeds. Vipan Kumar, Ph.D., presented “Integrated Weed Management Strategies in New York Soybean Production” at the recent Soybean & Small Grains Congress hosted by Northwest New Y...
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
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on May 20, 2026
“Are the PFAS in pesticides contaminating our land and water? Unfortunately, there really isn’t enough research yet to give us a firm answer,” said Faith Cullens-Nobis, an Extension educator with Michigan State University. Despite the lack of a firm answer, Cullens-Nobis thinks farmers need more inf...
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
by Cheryl Bruce, Senior Consultant, Agricultural Consulting Services 
Posted on May 20, 2026
The title above sounds like it could be the set-up for a joke: A farmer, a logger and a lobsterman walk into a bar… Instead, this was part of the conference schedule at the Northeast Dairy Management Conference, co-hosted by PRO-DAIRY and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA) , which too...
News
by Laura Rodley 
September 1, 2026
Rod Wert has been growing Christmas trees since 1986. He named his operation Blue Ridge Christmas Tree Farm as it was in the Blue Ridge Mountains in P...
News
by Sally Colby 
September 1, 2026
The Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), organized by USDA’s National Organic Program , has helped farmers navigate the transition proces...
News
by Enrico Villamaino 
September 1, 2026
A farm bonfire has a certain magic. Hayrides roll in from the fields, boots crunch across the ground and a crackling blaze gives families a warm place...
News
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
September 1, 2026
“One thing I’m not going to tell you today is that as a founder or as a producer that you need to start recording more videos and being on social medi...