MANAGEMENT

A recent look at some agricultural statistics showed that, as of 2014, roughly half of the farmland in Wisconsin is being actively managed through soil testing. Given that you’re likely already engaged in soil analysis on a regular basis, this article may come across as review.

They considered themselves to be good farmers.

“We were getting just under 19 inches of moisture in a year, and we were wasting it. We’d plant winter wheat on black fallow and get 50 bushels an acre and be tickled to death,” Dan Forgey says. “But we thought we were good farmers.”

Organic farmers have to make hard choices between protecting soil from erosion and controlling weeds. For example, large-scale organic farming relies heavily on tillage. Tilling breaks up the soil to kill weeds and prepare for planting.

“Worst Drought in 1,000 Years Predicted for American West” – the headline in a 2015 National Geographic Magazine caught readers’ attention.

Ugh! Another article telling me (the manager) about all the things I am doing wrong. Well, not exactly – because as a professional dairy farmer when I was a younger man, I appreciate the fact that farm owners and operators work very hard to provide food and fiber.

Cattle producers have experienced an incredible rollercoaster of market prices with historic price increases in 2013 and 2014, followed by an equally unprecedented correction downward in 2015 and 2016.