The kitchen clock ticked away keeping beat to an ancestral song. It grew fainter and then came back strong, like dramatic music in a suspense movie, the audience waiting for the crescendo. The clock didn’t seem to care that it was midmorning and nothing of importance was happening. It beat on, striking down living moments […]
Ag boom years on the decline?
Prices for agricultural commodities and land will level off in the coming years. The high price for commodities like corn will fall but not bottom out. Right now an additional 215 million bushels are grown every year to meet Renewable Fuel Standards. Gloy says the gas industry will not tolerate more than that and acres dedicated to renewable fuel will hold around the rate they are now.
Something “good” to write about
The past month I have had the privilege to report on a group from Alabama who raised funding this past winter to bring heifers to ranchers in South Dakota who were impacted by Storm Atlas. The Lauderdale Jr. Cattlemen’s Assocation had the goal of bringing heifers to S.D. and for they themselves to travel to […]
Food replacing art as high culture
Artisanal meat products trending By Codi Vallery-Mills A trend has emerged in the retail food sector – food has replaced art as high culture. Coastal residents and even those here in the heart of America are taking serious interest in the food they prepare and eat (and the money they spend on it.) Premier grocery […]
The Money Cow
It’s the closing of the year and oh, what a year it was. 2013 will be a year for the history books you can be sure. What will you remember from the year? Will it be when you finally saw your pastures climbing out of drought? Or the day you sold steer calves for record […]
A South Dakota couple promotes beef, gains marketing insight
By Codi Vallery-Mills For most of us, going to the local grocery store for a few hours isn’t our idea of leisurely weekend entertainment, but for customers of Stew Leonard’s grocery it is. A retail grocery store chain in Connecticut and New York, Stew Leonard’s has pushed food marketing to the next level. The chain […]
What to expect in Farm Bill mark-up
By Codi Vallery-Mills Another round – the third to be exact – of Farm Bill re-writes and discussion is set to spark up again this week and next. The House Agriculture Committee is expected to mark-up a farm bill on May 15 while the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee is expected to produce something […]
Plastic Flowers
By Codi Vallery-Mills Novices stumble in search of their markers, and fuss over what looks right. The well practiced sit down in silent remembrance. A husband steps out of his pickup and surveys the sea of plastic flowers and American flags. He grabs his own offering from the cab seat, a small bundle of fragrant yellow […]
Ready For Russia
South Dakota is latest to visit country, talk cattle trade By Codi Vallery-Mills Thousands of live cattle cross the ocean each year to be placed into Russian cattle operations from the United States. The US Department of Commerce reports 61,000 head left the U.S. for Russia between May 2011and May 2012. Cattlemen in the region, […]
Why the estate tax matters to farmers
As we approach the end of the year lots of political dander is floating through the air on a variety of topics. Included is the estate tax. The Federal Estate Tax is designed to tax a certain amount of the estate left behind by someone who has recently passed. Currently people are able to gift/exempt […]