Row Crops

Farmers are looking for any advantage they can find to improve their balance sheets as the agricultural economy remains mired in a five-year rut. In the quest to control costs and maximize efficiency, irrigators are increasingly turning to propane to power their pumps. Robert Compton, an MFA Oil member and […]

Leffler Farms Inc. Focuses on Efficiency On the fringes of the Flint Hills of Kansas, Bill and Jacquelyne Leffler are five years into an unexpected partnership. The father and daughter duo raise corn, soybean, wheat and cattle near Americus, Kan., but Jacquelyne’s return to the farm was more happenstance than […]

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 […]

For the first time in 35 years, soybeans are expected to be within reach of claiming the crown as the nation’s top crop. A poll of 21 trading firms and analysts conducted by Bloomberg predicts 2018 will be the year soybeans unseat corn as the top U.S. crop. The survey […]

Graves-Chapple Research Center Demonstrates Benefits of No-Till Systems Landowners across Missouri use numerous tillage systems, including plow, chisel, disk or strip-till. Tillage is the preparation of soil for growing crops using equipment to mechanically agitate and mix the soil. Eliminating tillage is also an option—simply called no-till. The University of […]

Recent environmental and ecological awareness has started a resurgence in cover crop use. Although cover crops have been used for centuries, today’s modern farmer has grown up in a generation which has replaced the use of cover crops with widespread use of fertilizers and herbicides. Now as some farmers are […]

The Next Revolution in Agriculture Thanks to precision agriculture and advancements in equipment and computing technology, farmers are building a treasure trove of production information. The wealth of data generated by precision agriculture technology has enormous potential, but it’s what farmers do with this information that matters. If properly analyzed, […]

When Aaron Collett talks about the plot of land he farms outside Warrensburg, Mo., he does not talk about simply an operation of row crops and cattle. Nor does he talk about simply a means of living. He talks about his family. The land and his family are as intertwined […]

As one of the strongest El Niño weather cycles in the last 65 years begins to weaken, the question on the minds of many is what will come next? Will the Midwest have a return to weather more in line with a typical year, or will a new weather phenomenon […]

Irrigation in the Mid-South has become increasingly popular with farmers who are looking to produce more reliable harvests. The 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture, the most recent data available, shows farmers in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky increased their irrigated acreage by 22 percent, 33 percent, 68 percent and 95 […]

Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” I think that statement is appropriate for where we are with weed management right now in Missouri—if we don’t plan accordingly, the problems experienced in 2015 could lead to even greater problems this year. Last year more […]