3 years ago
Jenny Ifft has a keen eye for the changing landscape in agricultural finance. An agricultural economist at Kansas State University, Ifft is watching as nontraditional forms of lending slowly gain market share, increasing the options available for financing agriculture. “Nontraditional doesn’t mean old or new (forms of lending),” Ifft said. “Some types of nontraditional finance are the ...

3 years ago
Last week saw much needed rainfall across the state, but areas in southwest Kansas missed out on it once again. Much of southwest Kansas has gone nearly 300 days without an inch of precipitation. Annual average rainfall is about 12” in southwest Kansas, and much of the area has seen about 1/3 of that over ...

3 years ago
Wheat specialist Romulo Lollato outlines the effects of various management strategies – including seeding rate and the application of starter fertilizer, nitrogen, sulfur, chloride and foliar fungicides – on wheat yields. “We are replicating management practices that growers are doing in their own commercial fields,” Lollato said. K-State’s trials include 14 research sites in Kansas during the ...

3 years ago
Imagine cattle ranching without traditional fencing and the costly, time-consuming fencing repairs. Two Kansas State University ecologists are working to make that vision a reality while benefiting streams and birds. It's part of a multi-partner research project using virtual electronic cattle fencing in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Virtual fencing is accomplished through special cattle collars ...

3 years ago
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting more than 2 million acres in offers from agricultural producers and landowners through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General signup, which includes 219,000 acres in Kansas. According to the agency, this is the first of the program’s multiple signups occurring in 2022. With about 3.4 million acres expiring ...

3 years ago
Justin Knopf believes that a major part of his life as a farmer is to build a partnership with the land. Not just today, tomorrow…but every day. “Knopf Farms,” he said, “is on a journey of stewardship and partnering with a biological system that we work with every single day as a farmer.” The dedication that Knopf ...

3 years ago
In a video from K-State Research and Extension, wheat specialist Romulo Lollato talks about the condition of the 2022 Kansas winter wheat crop. Lollato says that rainfall last September and October led to early emergence and good fall development of the current crop, especially in northwest, north central and south central parts of the state. But, he ...

3 years ago
Kansas State University crop entomologist Jeff Whitworth said he has received numerous calls from farmers who are already seeing cowpea and pea aphids in their alfalfa fields. The aphids, he said, are probably in every field in Kansas, but “we usually do not see this many of them this early.” He said the cowpea aphid population desnity ...

3 years ago
Leasing or buying is often the debate that people have when deciding on their next vehicle to drive. Many in the agricultural community also enter arrangements to lease pastures, farm ground and – sometimes -- even cows, according to the experts at the Kansas State University Beef Cattle Institute. “Whether it is leasing cows or pasture, ...

3 years ago
The National Agricultural Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University is receiving a more than $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to protect the nation's food supply. With the grant from DHS's Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Defense Division, the center will seek ways to support the production and economic health of the food ...

3 years ago
Even when times are good, some Kansas farmers are losing money. It’s the nature of a business that is often at the mercy of weather, disease, fluctuating markets and more. But a 10-year analysis by Kansas State University farm management economist Greg Ibendahl indicates that it is not the same set of farms that are losing ...