Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Lisa Foust Prater To win, a football team needs innovative leadership, a productive offense, committed defense, and reliable special teams. The same goes for your farm. As iconic Kansas City Chiefs coach Hank Stram was famous for saying, the job of the offense is to “matriculate the ball down the field” until they score. […]

By: Raylene Nickel For corn and soybean grower Tyler Zimmerman, who grew up farming in the Red River Valley, stopping soil erosion on his farm of 2,800 acres near Leonard, North Dakota, was one of the main reasons he wanted to switch to no-till. Over the years, he’d seen too many “black clouds of soil” […]

By: Pamela Smith Fathers and farming seem to go together like soil and water. Often, great things germinate from the combination. Other times, the relationship can get downright muddy. Ramey Pottinger and Quint Pottinger will tell you that their farm partnership thrives because they don’t sugarcoat anything. “Blunt honesty is how we roll, and it […]

By: Jennifer Carrico Improvements can be made in a purebred cowherd by evaluating cattle using data and phenotypic evaluation. Silver Spur Ranch, Kiowa Creek division, uses recordkeeping to select cattle to use in their herd and for other breeding programs. Keeping accurate records for each animal helps gauge improvements within the Angus, Red Angus, Charolais […]

By: Jennifer Carrico In 1865, before Colorado was even a state, there were brand inspections to help prevent theft and straying cattle. The Silver Spur Ranch’s X-C brand dates back to the 1870s at the original ranch in Encampment, Wyoming. The brand has been passed down to be used at the ranch through the years; […]

By: Lisa Foust Prater Driving through the family farm near Ithaca, Michigan, Paige Tuggle points out the extensive system of fencing, gates, and chutes in the lots surrounding the barn and heading down a lane in the middle of the property. “The way this facility is set up, one person can do everything that needs […]

By: Lisa Foust Prater Wayne County, Iowa, rests on the Missouri border in the south-central part of the state. It is the sixth-least populous county in Iowa, and 85% of its acres are farmland. Visitors find the lush rolling hills and friendly residents they’d expect, but they may be surprised by its rich history and […]

By: Laurie Bedord Much fanfare accompanies programs that pay farmers to sequester green-house gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in their soils. Yet, questions linger as research casts doubt on whether the promise equals reality. “Just about everywhere we look, there are claims about carbon sequestration being akin to the holy grail […]

By: Jennifer Carrico The Beagle Brigade has been protecting American agriculture at ports of entry since 1984. Led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agricultural specialists (USCBPAS), these dogs help detect harmful plants, pests and foreign animal diseases in luggage, carry-ons and cargo from other countries. USCBPAS’ Scheele said the dogs are selected based on […]

By: Chris Clayton Rural America is learning the hard way that more investment is needed to protect rural infrastructure from catastrophic storms. That includes Iowa, which is now coping with catastrophic damage in the northwestern part of the state following two April tornadoes that also ripped through communities. At least 28 counties have state disaster […]