Magazine Issue: Summer 2018

I was recently asked by an employee what I think MFA Oil Company will look like in the future and whether I feel we are still prospering. Both are great questions and probably something I don’t talk about enough. I feel the company will be much larger in the future […]

After producing award-winning goat cheese for more than a decade, Baetje Farms is poised to begin a new chapter With the pull of a rope, a trap door at the end of the milking parlor rises. Eight Saanen dairy goats enter, moving in unison like choreographed dancers taking the stage. […]

Frank Yiannas walked into his staff meeting with a package of sliced mangoes. As he set it down on the table, he looked at his team of Walmart colleagues and said, “The traceback study starts right now. Hit the clock.” Yiannas wanted to know from which country the mangoes came […]

When Missouri soybean farmers began investing their checkoff dollars into biodiesel research in 1991, they set the wheels in motion for the development of a renewable fuel that would drive demand for their crop and provide a clean-burning alternative to petroleum diesel. “Biodiesel started out as an idea—an opportunity to […]

As the summer temperatures rise, the crisp winds of fall and winter can seem impossibly far away. In the heat of the summer, it can be easy to put winter to-do’s, such as filling up your propane tank, on the back burner. But filling tanks now, rather than waiting until […]

Finding Farmworkers is a Challenge When Dannie Daughhetee reached out to his local unemployment office in West Memphis, Ark., last fall looking for help in filling four positions on his 5,000-acre rice, soybean, corn and cotton farm, he received 18 applications. Only four people bothered to show up to the […]

In dry weather with short pastures, Missouri cow-herd owners face tough culling decisions. One way to match cows’ needs to available grass is to sell cows. Give careful thought to which grass eaters go first, says Eric Bailey, University of Missouri Extension beef nutritionist. Under drought stress, identifying those cows […]

Oliver Farms While most family farms have a long history, the Oliver family is breaking ground with their first-generation farm, Oliver Farms. Bill Oliver started farming in the 1990s, during his high school agricultural education courses. Fifteen years ago, Laura came on board, turning the farming project into a family […]

Missouri Bans Misrepresentation of Meat Missouri has become the first state to ban alternative-meat products from being marketed as meat. The state’s lawmakers approved legislation outlawing foods originating from sources other than livestock or poultry from using the term “meat” on product labels. The surge of interlopers vying to compete […]

Fields of corn and soybean are common sights on the short drive from Interstate 29 to Jowler Creek Road in rural Platte County, Mo. A different kind of crop grown in rows soon comes into view as tires crunch the gravel of the road. An unpaved driveway leads the way […]

How would you describe yourself and your farming operation? I was born and raised in northwest Missouri and have been farming here my entire life. I represent the fifth generation of my family to do so. My wife, Nancy, and I raise corn, soybeans and cattle with our two sons […]

Summer is here, and it is officially barbecue season. Propane fuels grills across the country, but the pursuit of a perfectly grilled pork chop isn’t the only reason to purchase propane this summer. It is never too early to start getting ready for winter. As we came out of last […]