Lyle Yost was born on March 5, 1913, near Hesston, Kansas. He attended Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Economics in 1937 and a teaching certificate in 1942. In 1938, he married Erma Martin. In 1943, they moved to the family farm where his grandfather and father had lived, just north of Hesston.

National 4-H Council has received a $500,000 donation from the Monsanto Company to drive the continued expansion of the National 4-H Volunteer Initiative. This grant will fund vital volunteer training programs and the development of new volunteer recruitment and retention strategies.

The National 4-H Volunteer Initiative provides 4-H’s network of more than 540,000 existing volunteers with an extensive hands-on training experience - enhancing their abilities to effectively mentor youth with positive youth development opportunities to learn leadership, citizenship and other important life skills.

Cowtown Holsteins Derby Line, Vermont Online news outlet Vtdigger.org quoted dairy producer Doug Nelson in an April 15 article about declining milk prices and dairy policy. Nelson’s 3,000-head Cowtown Holsteins is the largest dairy operation in Vermont. University of Delaware’s UDairy Creamery KWWL, a news station serving eastern Iowa, acknowledged Jacob Hunt of Newton, Iowa, for his membership on the University of Delaware’s UDairy Creamery student management team.

Colorado agricultural exports grew more than 25 percent during the first two months of this year vs. the same period in 2011, said the state Department of Agriculture. Exports grew $45 million to more than $222 million, according to the agriculture department. The growth, led by meat and dairy exports, marked the fourth consecutive annual increase.

In mid-April, Kansas Dairy Ingredients announced its plans to build a dairy ingredient and cheese plant in Hugoton, Kansas. The company will start construction on the facility in May and begin Phase I operation in the fourth quarter of this year. The facility will be positioned to expand in 2013 to add cheese production.

With record-setting early spring weather, parts of southern Michigan are seeing alfalfa fields with above-average growth. Some of these fields may have been slated to be planted to corn and along with the early growth, the question is whether producers should consider taking the first cutting off these fields before planting to corn?

From cattle handling to overall management, staffing is a key factor for any feedlot and has a direct impact on the bottom line.

McLanahan has recently introduced roll press technology to its line of rotary liquid-solid separation equipment. The roll press will complement the operation of rotary separators by offering dairy producers an alternative to screw press technology for dewatering manure solids.