New farm bill was a shameful process
The farm bill may be settled, but the process was ugly.
Go slow on the bull market
You wouldn’t order a new pick-up truck without reserving the right to amend—choose—how the truck is equipped inside and out.
The same goes for a...
Ag’s budget math favors crop insurance
Claims of food stamp fraud just don't match up with reality.
Books, plans and farm ‘Congress’
A week or two into every new year, most folks review, often regretfully, their list of resolutions already bent, broken or buried. That never...
Congress wraps up its least productive year ever
Every year ends on Dec. 31.
Every baseball season ends with the World Series. Growing seasons end with a hard freeze and the opera season...
Another satisfied customer
There are two file folders in the lower, right drawer of my desk. One is labeled “Mail,” the other “Another Satisfied Customer.”
The former is...
Cooperatives keep farmers competitive
The weekly hometown newspaper recently brought news of a family friend’s death. The friend, a dairy farmer, had lived a long, good life and...
Big Ag, big data and big money
Big Ag — John Deere, Dow, Monsanto, Pioneer, and Syngenta — are “on the verge of going ‘all in’" on big data collection, analysis and operational planning.
Fifty years of never forgetting
Like most Americans of 1955 or so vintage, the lovely Catherine and I will spend time this week recalling our personal whos, whats, whens...
Is Big Ag acting overly confident?
What is it about American agriculture that inspires farm and ranch groups to not trust American consumers? What do we fear?
