Rising conspicuously smack-dab in the middle of Oregon’s wine country near Dayton are two large, blue manure-slurry holding tanks with expandable tops – methane digesters – erected in 2012 at Forest Glen Jerseys. It’s a $2.4 million facility.

Education and a production plan are only as good as the marketing plan. When Darby Line left Kearney State College (now University of Nebraska – Kearney), he had only one of those elements working for him – the diploma in his back pocket.

Recently I was asked, “Why do show ring standards for quality fail to match the standards for quality in the industry?”

Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series looking at how four individuals are turning dreams into reality to become first-generation farmers, ranchers and dairymen.

How difficult is it for first-generation farmers to get started in farming? Conventional thought over the past decade or so is that it’s nearly impossible with land prices rising and profit margins decreasing. But is it as impossible as we thought?

I lost my hearing on the back of a spud harvester. Where did you lose yours?

Brandon Fawaz was skeptical. It took Fawaz about eight years to warm up to the idea of using soil moisture sensors on his land. However, as a result of implementing the sensors in his operation in 2010, Fawaz states, “Our entire system has not changed due to the moisture sensors, but our practice has.

The Hundred Years War between England and France has nothing on me and my husband. We’ve fought for at least 35 years about whether something should be stored in the shop or in the garage.