Waffles, Not Pancakes: Local Farmer’s Invention Could Improve Crop Yields

Plastic disk from TerraManus Technologies

As vice president of Shatto Milk Company, Matt Shatto also wears another hat, that of CEO of TerraManus Technologies. Shatto has come up with a simple way that he says can increase crop yields. It’s a plastic disk that, when used with regular tilling, can help soil retain water and consolidate it instead of compact it. He says…

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Giving Away the (Wind) Farm

A turbine on the Rolling Hills Wind Farm in Wilson, Kansas. (Brad Austin | Flatland)

Mark Buck can see some of the 314 turbines in Kansas’ largest wind farm from his office window in Medicine Lodge, where he is superintendent of the Barber County North School District. The nearly $1 billion Flat Ridge project, built in two phases and owned in part by British Petroleum, spans 70,000 acres near the…

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Federal Tax Credits Drive Foreign Wind Investment

Investment in U.S. wind energy production has increased tenfold over the past decade with the help of billions of dollars in federal tax help, with foreign companies making up much of the increase. Indeed, six foreign-owned wind energy companies have received at least $4.8 billion in federal tax credits between 2000 and 2015, according to…

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Can The Buzz Of Bees Predict Success For Farmers?

Bumblebee queens on a flower

See a bee; hear a buzz. That is what researchers studying the declining bee population are banking on. A new technique based on recording buzzing bees hopes to show farmers just how much pollinating the native bee population is doing in their fields. Vegetable and fruit growers depend on pollinators to do a lot of…

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