Farm & Field
As High-Tech Farms Take Hold, Can Farm Towns Hold On?
Brandon Biesemeier climbs up a small ladder into a John Deere sprayer, takes a seat in the enclosed cab, closes the door, and blocks out most of the machine’s loud engine hum. It is a familiar perch to the fourth-generation farmer on Colorado’s eastern plains. He turns onto a country road, heading south to spray…
Without Big Trade Deals, Missouri Farmers Worry They’ll Lose Out
President Trump made campaign promises to pull the U.S. out of big international trade deals and focus instead on one-on-one agreements with other countries. But that has farmers worried they will lose some of the $135 billion in goods they sold overseas last year. Two years ago, Missouri rancher Mike John expected the U.S. beef…
Big Data Is Transforming How Scientists Create Better Seeds
This summer, in cornfields in Iowa and Nebraska, about a thousand small point-and-shoot digital cameras will be enclosed in waterproof cases, mounted on poles and attached to solar-powered battery chargers. They will take pictures every ten minutes as plants grow; all part of a plan to create better seeds. “We watch plants go through their…
New Farm Will Cultivate a Future for Veterans and American Agriculture
Off a narrow dirt road in the middle of Kansas, retired Army Col. Gary LaGrange, his daughter Shari LaGrange-Aulich and a group of veterans are cultivating a future for service members and American agriculture. Three hundred and twenty acres nestled between Manhattan, Kansas and Fort Riley will be the future site of S.A.V.E. Farm, which stands…
As Bird Flu Strengthens In China, Midwest Farmers Prepare For The Next Outbreak
Midwest farmers are warily watching as one strain of a highly contagious bird flu virus infects and kills humans in China and another less-worrying but still highly contagious strain infects a Tennessee poultry farm. Two years after a devastating bird flu outbreak in the Midwest, many farmers here say they now have a better idea…