Momentum

A man wearing a dark gray MFA Oil Propane polo shirt and matching baseball cap stands outdoors in a field with a cloudy sky in the background.

Man on a Mission

Tom Cushing climbs out of a propane bobtail truck, unfurls its heavy hose and stretches it toward a customer’s nearby tank. The way he moves it’s hard to tell the man once sustained a back-breaking injury that would lead to the eventual replacement of both of his hips. Cushing’s job […]

A group of smiling people dressed in dark jackets stands around a Thompson Hall sign outdoors, with trees in the background.

Embracing the Art of Teaching Ag

Ag Educators Series Life changed in spring 2020. People stopped going to work, the movies and restaurants. They even stopped hanging out together. It was literally a matter of life and death. But ag workers kept working. You don’t get days off on a farm. That includes school farms, like […]

Close-up of a pile of dry, cream-colored corn kernels with a smooth texture, filling the entire frame. The kernels vary slightly in size and have a natural, muted tone.

White Gold

The Erickson family has filled a farming niche in northwest Missouri Most of the year, an Erickson family cornfield looks like any other around the small town of Tarkio, Mo., practically a stone’s throw from the Iowa border. In the spring, row after row of newly emerged petite plants line […]

Aerial view of a river overflowing, breaching a grassy levee and flooding a nearby area. The brown floodwaters rush towards a green forest on the right side of the image.

Levee Repairs Progressing

Last spring’s floods along the Missouri River and its tributaries ravaged dozens of levee systems, and many have yet to be repaired. As of May 1, at least 28 levees that are managed by the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers remain breached, leaving surrounding communities […]

Apple Ambitions

A ‘happy accident’ 50 years ago launched a legacy Few foods are as synonymous with a season as the lauded caramel apple. For a handful of weeks each autumn, this timeless treat — with its classic combination of tart apple, sweet caramel and salty chopped peanuts — adorns countless grocery […]

The Day the Crude Futures Market Broke

On April 20, the energy market did something we’ve never seen before. Futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange for May contracts of West Texas intermediate crude oil, or WTI, traded to a low of -$40.32 per barrel and settled at -$37.63 per barrel on the same day they were […]

An almost empty supermarket meat section with a few packages remaining. Signs advertise natural beef options. A digital sign shows the price of ground beef as $9.48. The shelves are mostly bare, indicating low stock.

How the Coronavirus Outbreak Upended the Meat Supply Chain

The protein production pipeline is backed up and the repercussions are already being felt by farmers and consumers. Grocery store meat cases are emptier, some fast food restaurants are unable to offer standard menu items, and food prices are up across the board. In April, the overall price of meats, […]

Jon Ihler - MFA Oil Company president and CEO

Where We Stand

By MFA Oil President and CEO Jon Ihler What an interesting spring it’s been. While the coronavirus outbreak shut down large portions of the country and the economy, MFA Oil remained open as an essential business so that we could continue to meet your needs. We took action in the […]

We Live Where You Do

By MFA Oil President and CEO Jon Ihler – Published in the Fall 2019 issue of Momentum magazine. Slogans are great for quickly stating or reinforcing the character of a company or brand. They also help to align our team and differentiate us from our competitors. MFA Oil Company recently reintroduced […]

A snowboarder in mid-air performs a trick against a bright, cloudy sky. The snowy landscape is visible below, with trees in the background and a few people on the slopes.

Hidden Valley Ski Resort

Western St. Louis County might not seem like the ideal spot for a ski resort, but that’s exactly what it’s been since 1982. At Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Wildwood, Mo., fans flock to ski, snowboard and tube each year from around mid-December to mid-March. “One of the things that […]

A red basket filled with apples sits on a grassy patch in an apple orchard. Trees with green leaves line the background under a clear blue sky, creating a serene, natural setting.

Orchard Opportunity

After journeying from Romania to the United States, the Gradinariu family has put down deep roots in the Ozarks Radu Gradinariu was only 4 years old when his father, Cornelius, made a decision that would change the course of his family’s life forever. Living in Soviet-occupied Romania in the late […]

A conveyor belt pours grain onto a large yellow mound under a sky filled with grayish clouds. The scene is illuminated by warm sunlight.

Guessing Game

Commodity Outlook for 2019 is Clouded by Missing Government Data, Trade Concerns As the partial government shutdown stretches to historic length, farmers, ranchers, agricultural economists and agribusinesses remain cut off from key reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA was scheduled to release a collection of crop reports […]