Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Dave Mowitz At a recent dealer invention reduction sale conducted by Sullivan Auctioneers in central Iowa, I saw the bottom of the late-model large machinery market. At that auction, a 2014 Kinze 3660 ASD 12/23 planter that had covered 5,822 acres (pictured at right) brought $72,000. Next up was a 2013 Deere 1770NT CCS […]

Growing and producing a high-quality silage crop starts now. “With feed costs close to 60% of a dairy operation’s budget, the choices a producer makes now will not only impact the upcoming growing season but also profitability down the road,” says Jon Erickson, Mycogen Seeds commercial agronomist. Erickson offers the following tips for producers to […]

By: Gene Johnston If a calf does well early – even before he’s born – he tends to do well later. Mark Hilton, beef cattle technical services veterinarian for Elanco, says that if a calf doesn’t get adequate colostrum in the first day of life, he’s three times as likely to get BRD (bovine respiratory […]

By: Natalina Sents From how we get our news, to the way we keep in touch with family and friends, Facebook has transformed many of our habits since its start nearly 15 years ago. For farmers, the social media platform gives an opportunity to offer a glimpse into their operations, and lives, like never before. […]

By: Laurie Bedord When Paul Overby returned to his family’s North Dakota farm in 1993, he realized his operation would need a good set of records in order to manage the nearly 1,800 acres it covered. “I had my own computer and spreadsheet software, and I’d been using Money Counts for personal budget and finance,” […]

By: Raylene Nickel It’s no insurance against setbacks, but having a whole-farm plan in place can help your family stay on course when difficulties unfold. “It’s often tough to communicate as a family because you tend to focus so much on the day-to-day business operations of producing a commodity,” says David Marrison, Ohio State University […]

By: Emma Wilson Tired of traveling to town to submit government forms? The new Farmers.gov website might just save you a trip to the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. Farmers.gov is a new interactive website recently launched for producers across the country, and it will be crucial in saving farmers time and money. The newly […]

By: Liz Juchems The land is one of the most valuable assets in the farming operation — second only to the people who care for it. Practices like no-tillage and strip-tillage work to protect those assets from erosion of the soil and the land’s value. A new publication series by the Iowa Learning Farms can help […]

By: Tyne Morgan #1: Assess land—is it draining your cash? “My first tip for farmers out there is to really look at each piece of land that you’re operating. Determine if it is a cash flow positive or cash or negative to you. Don’t just look at this year; go back and look at multiple years so […]

By: Kim Mullenix Cold weather has struck the Southeast for the next several days with the most recent weather pattern change bringing arctic-like air to the region. ( Farm Journal ) Cold weather has struck the Southeast for the next several days with the most recent weather pattern change bringing arctic-like air to the region. During […]