Pivotal Issues Blog

A legal case unravels a web of business deception in a close-knit Indiana farming community, exposing dozens of delinquent machinery loans worth more than $2 million. By Dan Looker The beginning of the end of Echelbarger Hay, LLC landed as a letter at Kim and Justin Hannah’s farm near Greentown, Indiana, early last September. It […]

Across the country, U.S. farmers are expected to plant 95.3 million acres of corn in 2025, said the recent Prospective Plantings report from USDA. By Natalina Sents Bausch What state does USDA expect to plant the most acres of corn this year? The agency answered that and many other questions with the release of the […]

By Lisa Foust Prater Before Dr. Peggy Whitson became America’s most experienced astronaut — accumulating 675 days in space between her three NASA long-duration space flights and the Axiom Mission 2 — she was a farm girl near the town of Beaconsfield in southwest Iowa. From an early age, Whitson saw her parents put in […]

In this Hometown Hero feature, the musical Brown family restores a 100-year-old building into a state-of-the-art theater in an Iowa community. By Laurie Bedord The message of the song “Brighten The Corner Where You Are” resonates with the Brown family. After touring the globe for more than 20 years, the musically gifted group decided it […]

By Lisa Foust Prater Marshal Sewell grew up on his family’s fifth-generation fruit and vegetable farm near Plant City, Florida, between Tampa and Orlando. They grew strawberries in winter and mixed vegetables in spring and fall. When Sewell was in high school, he planned to study ag business and ag economics at the University of […]

By Chelsea Dinterman In many cases, the highest-yielding crops are coddled by a team of experts. Perfectly chosen seed, near-constant scouting, and spoon-fed nutrition are cornerstones of record-breaking production. While applying the perfect nutrients at the perfect time may lead to high yields, that’s not economically viable for most production systems. The average farmer knows […]

By: Mark McLaughlin Question: My wife and I are in a good position. We don’t need much income. We have three kids and eight grandkids. One son farms with us. Our other two work outside the farm. We’re all different, but we get along great. We operate through a C corporation that holds machinery, grain, […]

By: Jerry Nelson We all have pressure in our lives. Too much pressure can be disastrous, but the same can be said about too little. I have a family member who had been experiencing pressure problems for the past several years. OK, so she technically isn’t an actual family member or even a human being. […]

By: Myron Friesen I am 70 years old and my husband passed away suddenly. I have three sons including an attorney in Chicago, a realtor in California, and a son farming with us. I have 900 acres with $1 million in debt. Right after the funeral, we got together as a family and everyone seemed […]