Representing agriculture

Bauer to retire from NRCS

Gregory Bauer is retiring as the Natural Resources Conservation Service's supervisory district conservationist out of the Great Bend Field Office. He has served the NRCS for 32 and a half years.

Farmers and ranchers finish business at annual meeting in Manhattan

More than 400 Farm Bureau members of Kansas wrapped up importance business for their farm organization after debating and adopting policy statements for 2013. These policies will now become the roadmap for the organization during the upcoming legislative session.

Sign of the Times

The sheriff from Tillman County Oklahoma was featured this past week during a story on a crime increasing significantly in his and many other counties in the Great Plains. They had successfully arrested the criminals using GPS technology. What was the crime? You might guess some drug problem like crystal meth or even cattle rustling. You would be wrong. The crime epidemic catching the attention of the national media was stealing hay.

Farmers and ranchers of Kansas Farm Bureau to meet in Manhattan

MANHATTAN – More than 1,000 Farm Bureau members in Kansas will gather in Manhattan Monday through Wednesday for their organization's 94th Annual Meeting.

Taking a break

What would you think are the hardest transitions students must make when moving on to college after graduation? Take a second and think about it. This is purely anecdotal but here are the observations and how they relate to working in the world of agriculture:

Drought conditions intensify

If the dry conditions we experienced in Ellis County on the opening weekend of pheasant season are any indication of what's to come, we're in for a lot of trouble. We walked several miles on Nov. 10 and 11 and drove across much of the county and into northern Ness County.

Jobs that don’t exist yet

This past Tuesday at the regular meeting of the Barton Community College Board of Trustees, members of the various advisory boards assisting the various technical programs spoke to the Trustees. They discussed their service on the appropriate advisory board, how programs at Barton have benefitted their industry, and what they saw as the future needs in their area. Agriculture was well represented by Andrew Murphy from ILS and Marvin Rose from the Great Bend Coop. ...

Something To Be Thankful For

As Thanksgiving is this week, it's a good idea here to think of what we can be thankful for in agriculture.

Why it’s called ‘Turkey Day’

How did the turkey reserve its place on our traditional Thanksgiving table? That bird is what the pilgrims feasted upon according to fact and fable. You've all heard how our ancestors hunted this bird. But here is the real story – the turkey scoop. Seems our forefathers remembered to take their muskets that day, but forgot to take their ammunition. As the men marched toward the woods, they took one addition, an Indian scout. You ...

I Know It When I See It

First, let's list the questions readers were asked to think about last week regarding animal care.

Three Sides to Every Story

One course agriculture students take is titled "Agriculture In Society", a class mentioned before in this column. This class exposes students to the role agriculture has played in the development of civilization; the way agriculture is viewed in today's society; the challenges agriculture faces now and as it moves forward; and misconceptions the 98% not involved in the production of food, fiber, and fuel have about the industry. A large area of conflict and misconception ...

Cargill grant introduces students to careers in ag, business and engineering

MANHATTAN – Cargill recently renewed its support of the Cargill Project Impact Diversity Partnership at Kansas State University with a gift of $1.2 million. Through this program, K-State works to recruit and retain qualified, multicultural students in its agriculture, business administration and engineering colleges. The program was first introduced in 2008 through a Cargill contribution of $1 million.

EQIP provides opportunities for rangeland concerns

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist Eric B. Banks, announced that the application evaluation cutoff date will be Friday, Nov. 16 for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

84th Kansas FFA Convention

University team receives $9.6 million USDA grant to help develop solutions for beef cattle grazing s

Drought, flooding, extreme heat, subzero temperatures: All of these climatic events and more in Kansas can threaten the supply and affordability of the nation's beef supply. It's hard to do much about the weather, but a team of Kansas State University scientists will be trying to find solutions so cattlemen can better adapt to any future climate extremes in their grazing operations.

Wandering about wheat

Looking at wheat throughout the central region of Kansas during the first couple days of May, members of the Wheat Quality Council (WQC) labeled the crop in fairly average to slightly above average condition.

Barton County Farm Bureau awards scholarships

Trees need care through dry weather

The question that I seem to get most often right now is why are my trees dying? Most of the time, the answer is the drought. Even though we have had some moisture recently, we are still in a severe drought. Driving around the county, you will even see old, big Red Cedars dying in the tree rows. That is because we have had two summers that were extremely hot and dry which baked the ...

Divide remains in Congress over Farm Bill, food stamps

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House and Senate Agriculture Committees laid the groundwork this week for reducing the size of the federal food stamp program, approving farm bills that would shrink food aid and alter the way people qualify for it.

Kansas CRP meetings for landowners prior to signup hosted by PF

Pheasants Forever is hosting fifty-one informational meetings across Kansas for landowners and agricultural producers in advance of the USDA Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program general sign-up that runs May 20 through June 14. Led by Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Wildlife Biologists, landowners can learn how to increase their farm or ranch income while creating wildlife habitat in the process.

Even Animal Lovers Prefer No Rabbits in the Garden

This week, I found a column from K-State's Mary Lou Peter about the rabbits that are out and about. They may be cute hopping around in a field, but when they get into your garden, their cuteness wears a little thin.

MILC, SURE, and NAP will restart on May 8

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Juan M. Garcia announced today that farm payments, which had been temporarily suspended due to sequestration, are scheduled to resume today, May 8th. This includes payments for the 2011 Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program (SURE), the Noninsured Crop Assistance Program (NAP) and the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC).

Why Does It Matter?

This is finals week at Barton and many of the other colleges around the state. For instructors it's time to evaluate what students learned over the last semester. For students it's time for that one last push to maintain or raise their grades. While faculty see testing as a method to evaluate learning and adjust accordingly, students often see testing as a way to be tortured. Students focus on the grade while faculty focus on ...

Play safe on the farm

The dream of many young farm boys and girls is to ride on a tractor. For a youngster, the mammoth tractor epitomizes raw power, responsibility and coming of age.