Weather totally impacts our family business of raising cattle. We manage where the cattle are pastured based on the time of the year to best protect them from the weather factors of wind, rain, snow, tornadoes and lightning. The amount of precipitation that we receive determines the growth of the grass which results on how […]
Just as I use my Garmin GPS watch to track my runs, researchers are using GPS tracking collars on cattle that are part of a five-year study to better understand beef production vulnerability across the southern Great Plains in the face of climate change. The goal, said K-State agronomy professor Dan Devlin, is to increase the resiliency of beef cattle […]
What are your questions about GMOs? GMO Answers and the Council for Biotechnology Information are helping to answer those questions. They have commissioned a new national survey which identifies, for the first time, the top 10 questions consumers have about GMOs and to open up the conversation on biotechnology’s role in agriculture. Over the next […]
USDA released their final 2012 #AgCensus results yesterday and included some great infographics on the current status of American agriculture. Some interesting points that I pulled out: The average age of farm operators is 58, yet 22% of all farmers in the U.S. were beginning farmers in 2012. I’m pretty impressed by the number of […]
Much like receiving your daily weather forecast, farmers have the technology to receive an insect forecast. Farmers do the best they can to be good stewards of their land and manage their resources to rid their crops of pests. Many farmers use a crop scout or another professional to help watch for these nuisances in […]
Can you imagine being a farmer in the turn of the 20th century? Source SourceEven though the notion of literally working the dirt with your hands may seem romantic, I certainly am grateful for the technology we have today in raising food. The hours it must have taken just to do a fraction of what […]
Food—it’s something that we think about, plan for and consume every day. But that simple word—food—has so much behind it. I love that we have so many movements around food in our American culture today. I love that I can grow my own veggies in my backyard garden or buy them from the grocery store […]
We all change our minds about things, right? I had the pleasure of interacting with a #SeedsofChange webinar from the Danforth Plant Science Center (@danforthcenter) featuring Mark Lynas (@mark_lynas) today. Mark jokingly started his talk that he is shamelessly known more for an apology, but is glad to share his story about his background of […]
Perusing through my Twitter feed today I found this tweet from National Geographic (@NatGeo): I was instantly interested. Do I consume germs? (My germaphobe husband might gag if he read this tweet.) What I discovered was really interesting. There are “living” germs in a lot of our foods today (like yogurt – I knew that, […]
Just over a year ago, remember that not-so-lovely article by Yahoo! stating that ag degrees are worthless? Well I have a come-back for Mr. Loose (author of that article). In USA Today, there was well-written article on March 26th – Agriculture majors face future with confidence. Who could argue? The author, Ms. Wickel says it […]
