Store shelves were looking bleak and empty in late March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From meat products to your basic necessities, like toilet paper, milk and eggs and – flour. But Bob Morando, CEO of Farmers Direct Foods in New Cambria, Kansas, was ready to rise to the challenge.

 In a difficult year for optimism, Kansas Department of Agriculture unveiled Kansas Ag Heroes — a new award program to celebrate businesses, first responders and farmers who made a positive impact.

Last week, in an event that showcased ranchers’ resiliency, Kansas Livestock Association and Kansas State University hosted a ranch management field day at G-Three Cattle Company near Uniontown, Kansas.

“I got bucked off a lot; landing upside down makes a hard head, costly too with all the crushed hats.”

Each year, over a million head of cattle from Texas to Tennessee enter the care of Flint Hills families for a brief season of intensive grazing from April to late July or August. It’s a daunting task — bearing the bulk of responsibility for America’s beef — and it falls to a select few lando…

Kansas State University has deep roots in the state’s agricultural history and in 2020 the university made plans to honor the Kansas agricultural families in a whole new way. The first annual Celebrate Agriculture Day, hosted by K-State Football, will be November 7 at the K-State vs. Texas T…

From 2 to 500-plus horsepower, Dale Roberds has witnessed and made a lot of history on his Cherokee County, Kansas, operation. At 90 years old, when Roberds isn’t neglecting auto-steer in favor of leaving his younger farm employees in his dust, he’s marketing soybeans in his office and parti…

Heritage Family Farms is a nothing-but-blueberries operation among many specialty fruit growers and you-pick operations in the Joplin-area. Like many small orchards and specialty fruit growers in the Southwest Missouri area, owner Ted McDonald has faced a challenging growing season.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that 2020 is a tough year to be a cattleman or cattlewoman. Anyone who has made a career in the beef industry over the last 20-plus years would probably reassure young cattle producers of the ingenuity and progress that can be made during difficult circu…

In the maze of meat production, processing and distribution challenges triggered by COVID-19, establishing a local meat processing business began to look more appealing to businessmen and women in the agriculture sector than ever before.

At the corner of Highway 400 and 7 in Cherokee, Kansas, a little red and white roadside store has played host to a number of past local businesses. In early 2019, Coal Valley Angus ranch’s Jackie and Ronda Coltrane moved in intent on opening up a family-friendly outlet for the community to e…

2019 was a wet, difficult year for farmers across the state of Kansas. Trade decisions during negotiations with China put a damper on commodity prices and producers were concerned they might face a farm collapse similar to the 1980s.

Few things are business as usual amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and yet, Oklahoma State Extension managed to maintain the integrity of the experience of one of the state’s longest standing wheat field days despite utter chaos.

Spring management on grazing lands is critical for optimum forage production and nutrition year-round. After a wet and muddy winter that left pastures with problem areas and with low cattle prices pushing producers to retain marketable animals, careful grass management will be more important…

While the world seems to be at a standstill for most non-essential and office workers, spring planting season waits for no man. Farmers in the Four State took advantage of clear skies and warm weather last week as they prepared for the 2020 corn crop.

Grocery related health concerns, food service outlet closings and heightened milk production during the spring flush put dairy producers in the eye of the perfect storm. While the drama of seeing milk drained from lines of tanker trucks can make even the most wasteful of grocery shoppers cri…

Beef market turmoil and weather challenges will make Kansas and Oklahoma’s stocker industry a high-stakes game in 2020. With reining in costs to save profit margins a more important strategy than ever before, producers are searching for ways to reduce overhead without sacrificing cattle heal…

Empty meat counters and simultaneously plummeting cattle prices is an unsettling phenomenon for cattle producers and beef consumers alike.

For an online celebration of combined passions for family, cattle and cuisine, Flint Hills stocker operators Arturo and Wrenn Pacheco created their Cooking with the Cowboy culinary blog four years ago in 2016.

While most of the world has secluded itself in isolation, across the Midwest spring rains are producing a high volume of nutritious forage critical to beef producers’ success, especially in challenging market conditions.

On paper, the patterns performed by a competitive reining horse are a dizzying combination of stops, starts, circles and lines. In person, the patterns are a feat of athleticism few horses and riders ever completely master.

A successful youth livestock project ultimately sets the student up for future success. For brothers Ben and Jake Gleason, learning through livestock projects laid the foundation for a lifelong business.

For more than 47 years, animal handling expert Temple Grandin has guided the cattle industry through improved corporate facilities, animal welfare awareness and on-farm animal management. Last week at the Spring Forage Conference in Springfield, Missouri, Grandin shared some of her new findi…

In the new era of agriculture, people skills will be as paramount as plowing skills and the National FFA Organization has been influential in instructing students in both areas since 1928.

Eastern and central Kansas provide prime spring grazing land for much of the nation’s growing beef cattle each year. In drought years, stocker operators get creative to find alternatives to premium pasture.

The 2020 Four State Farm Show is headed to town after 36 years on the farm.

With adaptations perfect for the wild, dry prairies of the West, hard red winter wheat has been a clear choice for the majority of Kansas and Oklahoma, but in the wet conditions that permeate southeast Kansas, soft wheat is a rising star.

Farmers were facing an unclear outlook for the future when Larry and Joanne Lindberg married in 1967. With over 50 years in their rearview mirror, the Lindbergs, as well as their sons Troy and Todd, faced challenges familiar to anyone who has made a life as a steward of the soil.

Winter feeding is far and above the most labor-intensive, cost-prohibitive portion of running a beef cattle operation. E.M. Tiffany was almost certainly imagining unrolling hay in January mud when he penned his phrases on the “discomforts of agricultural life.”

Leaving a lifetime of hard work and dedication to the livestock industry behind would be difficult for any proud cattleman. For Parsons Livestock Market owner Mark McKee, selling his established business to current manager Wade Dillinger represents a bright future as well as an end to his li…

It’s never too early to prepare for disease prevention. During the Kansas Corn Management School in Parsons, Kansas State University plant pathologist Doug Jardine named his top diseases to watch in the New Year.

Growing industrial hemp may seem like a novel practice in agriculture but Missouri actually has a history as a leader in hemp production. That history, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t much to learn about the crop with its resurgence in the state.

Each year, our nation’s neighbor to the north, Canada, produces millions of acres of spring canola, while Kansas’ neighbor to the south, Oklahoma, is one of the top winter canola-producing states. As more producers look for profitable, sustainable crop rotation options amid decreasing wheat …

In pipe dreams, the perfect cow weighs 1,000 pounds and requires 1 acre of prairie pasture per year to meet nutrient requirements while producing a 700-pound calf at weaning.

The beef industry in 2019 has given packers and producers alike a trying tutorial in tolerance, with cattlemen across the states asking themselves how much volatility and risk the market can stand.

Leaving the security of a career as a store manager for a farm equipment dealership to run a YouTube channel and blog doesn’t sound like a choice many people would make but it’s one Mike Wiles has found to be successful.

Four of the best of the best in the sport of rodeo hail from Kansas.

The southeastern city of Longton, Kansas, has just over 300 people and a growing vision for the future of rural, agricultural communities that begins at home.

If there ever was a year where southeast Kansas farmers were dependent on and disappointed by the munificence of a merciless Mother Nature, it was 2019. There are few facets of farming producers can agree upon, but the challenges and opportunities of 2019 are recognizable by even the most ob…

As the next generation of the cow herd, raising replacement heifers to have healthy, productive lifespans is critical to cow-calf producers.

Late maturing soybeans face damage from early killing frost and need special attention for harvest and storage, said University of Missouri Extension soybean specialist Bill Wiebold.

Traceability in theory is a magic bullet for the beef industry. It connects producers and consumers, prevents disease outbreaks, supplements value and increases efficiency.

Cattle profitability is an illusive, multi-level construct that begins on a foundation of efficient forage, is enhanced through technology utilization, and ultimately fulfilled by decisive marketing. During the Eastern Research Station field day in Haskell, Oklahoma, researchers shared their…

The 40th annual Ozark Fall Farmfest in Springfield, Missouri, drew farm and ranch enthusiasts from all over the Four States last weekend.

Larry Julian is not a typical cattleman — from his career as a public-school music teacher, opera singer and co-owner of a formal wear and tuxedo business with his wife Norma in Aurora, Missouri, to his philosophy of raising cattle.

A more passionate dissertation on worms has never been given than David Pugh’s presentation during Kansas State University’s Beef Stocker Field Day in Manhattan.

Definitions for innovation and sustainability across the globe were discussed in Manhattan as Kansas State University hosted the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock’s ninth annual multi stakeholder partnership meeting. While conference participants and international livestock leaders may…

Capitol Hill is only about 1,100 miles from Farm Talk’s corner of Kansas, but its clashing culture and distance from agricultural agendas often makes it feel like a million miles or more.

In a few short weeks, the largest agricultural event in the Ozarks will return to Springfield, Missouri. The 40th annual Ozark Fall Farmfest will be held Oct. 4, 5 and 6 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds.