Roger Reaves forged the most astounding farm life of modern times. Row crops to moonshine to marijuana to cocaine, he was the highest paid narco-pilot in history.
After Kevin Whitney’s iPhone fell into 220,000 bushels of grain, the device made a 20,000-mile roundtrip across the globe before returning to its stunned owner.
After a year-long wait, Grant Hilbert and his company, SquadBuilt, released American Farming on Nov. 24, 2023. Here's a look back at his journey to become a gamer, social media influencer and farmer.
Tom Askjem disappears under farmland, descends to depths of 13’-plus, and returns to the surface with treasure—bottles and glassware from agriculture’s past.
Nonconformity is nature in Bill Jones’ triple-cropping world. “This is about ROI, hitting yield averages, and taking care of my soil,” says Jones. “Home runs are fine, but they’re for somebody else to chase.”
In Bob Lindeman’s soybean rows, planting populations are on a general decline, and the reduction is not about saving dollars up front, but on combatting mold and rot.
Thomas Villegas says the administrative state operates a fixed game. His lawsuit contends private landowners are accused, judged, and sentenced by the same set of unelected government employees.
An intrepid Kansas mother and her Johnny-on-the-spot son found one of the most stunning Indian artifacts of recent history. Welcome to the impossible tale of the Oehm Blade.
Illinois’ Jack Shissler hit major dryland corn yields in 2022: “Boiled down, my yields were about choosing the right variety and applying fungicide. Variety and fungicide—that’s where it was at.”
When a pair of Midwest farmers dropped a backhoe bucket 8’ below mature soybeans, they made one of the most unlikely scientific discoveries of the 21st century—a woolly mammoth.
Politicians, scientists, and celebs assure us the apocalypse is tomorrow, and if not, the day after will do. Buckle up for a look at 50 years of cataclysmic predictions.
In the biggest con in agriculture history, Anthony De Angelis stole over $1 billion, shook Wall Street to its core, humiliated big banking, embarrassed USDA, and ushered in the rise of Warren Buffet.
Skeptic, heretic, eccentric, disruptor—Roy Pfaltzgraff pleads guilty to all. “People think I’m crazy. They’re right, I am crazy, but I’m also the owner of a farm that is working great.”
Agriculture’s simple kind of man, Ken Ferrie is all fact and no flash, with a stellar reputation for honesty. “A farmer wants one thing from me, the truth.”
China, the top food importer on the planet and biggest buyer in history, is entangled in a potentially devastating population crash and the effect could be massive for U.S. agriculture.
Russell Hedrick smashed dryland corn yield records in 2022. He averaged 268 bushels across his operation, including 40 acres at 368 bpa—bookended by a contest spot at a stunning 459.51 bpa.
Matt Brincks’ average yields have climbed 30 bushels in corn and 12 bushels in soybeans, while his nitrogen fertilizer use has dipped by half, along with a two-thirds drop in phosphorus and potassium.
At first blush, water, or lack thereof, is the supreme bushel thief in the majority of corn and soybean fields. But, according to several farmers, the answer is not quite so simple.
In 2020, Pat Duncanson began a three-year march toward organic certification on 100 acres of corn and soybean ground. After a weed honeymoon, weeds rebounded in 2021, and Duncanson brought in a chopping crew.
Shawn Conley is mad for soybeans: “It’s a crop with more moving parts than anyone except a farmer realizes, and there are so many nuances to work on that have yet to be explored.”
The early, buck-wild days of hemp farming spawned many a gun-shy grower, but Aaron Baldwin found a sweet spot. He brought hemp processing home and established a corresponding grower group.
Can Matt Miles grow three crops in one year on the same field? Soybeans to soybeans to wheat? Don’t bet against a farmer whose name is synonymous with stellar yields.
With five minutes to go on the farm clock, Max Miller jumped into a river of corn and changed his life’s course, riding the flow to massive entrepreneurial success.
The bare-bones simplicity of chaff lining may offer farmers with resistant weed control for pennies on the dollar. Chaff lining is showing major promise in ongoing Iowa field trials.
The Great Spaghetti Tree Hoax is an outrageous agriculture prank for the ages, masterfully executed as fake news by the media and ravenously swallowed by the public. Welcome to madness on a bogus farm.
Release the rat reapers. Joseph Carter operates the most unique farm pest control service on the planet, ridding farms of rats by deploying mink—rodent slayers extraordinaire.
