Robert Utterback, an agricultural economist, addressed a packed room at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Utterback began his remarks by noting three factors changing our general economic climate:

The National Farm Machinery Show is the Big Daddy of indoor ag shows. This year, more than 310,000 producers slowly strolled the aisles past more than 850 exhibitors in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) administrator, Gina McCarthy, issued remarks to the National Farms Union on March 16 and acknowledged the bumpy start to the rule originally proposed as Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed placing further restrictions on air quality standards that Dale Moore, American Farm Bureau Federation’s executive director of public policy, says would prove costly for agriculture and rural communities.

I talked to a progressive producer at a winter show who said he had invested maybe $40,000 in precision and tracking technology that generated all kinds of data from his farm. Then he spread his arms about 18 inches wide and said, “I have a box full of information that I have no idea what to do with.”

It's time once again for Progressive Forage Grower's annual forage statistics poster. Here are some highlights.

Family relationships are not easy. While there is nobody we’d rather spend relaxed evenings with, family members can be so irritated with each other that they sit on opposite sides of the funeral home, the church, and sadly, in some instances, opposite sides of the attorney’s office or courtroom.

Much of the western U.S. is dotted with old gold mining sites. While some of the mines followed veins, much of the gold was actually obtained through placer mining – the process whereby stream-bed gravel is scooped into a round pan and gently swirled or agitated until the gold sinks to the bottom of the pan and the gravel is gently washed over the sides. It was hard work. You had to want it bad.