Latest News From Chris Bennett

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.

Farmer DIY: Low-cost, weed-specific automated sprayers built on-farm are on the near-horizon for agriculture.

All farmers suffer injuries, but the unbreakable Ward Henry was a breed apart: drill rollover, shooting, anaphylactic shock, amputation, and PTO mangling.

Welcome to a tale too insane for fiction: a cottonmouth farmer seeking a snake venom crop for harvest.

Is private land a federal playground? The government claims a phenomenally powerful right—access and surveillance on every inch of farmland, hunting ground, and pasture in the U.S., without warrant or probable cause.

What if a partial solution to the plight of millions of dying children was a mere bowl of grain, but the sustaining food was pushed away in the name of science? Welcome to the saga of Golden Rice.

As input prices climb to alarming levels, Jon Stevens’ decade-long series of input trials is paying dividends in 2022.

Fathers of invention: The Taggart operation built eight 4WD tractors from the 1950s-1970s, testament to the mechanical genius of an Arkansas farming family.

Welcome to a nightmare—the Yazoo Backwater Project—a bureaucratic taffy pull of dysfunctional government, politics, science, farming, and the backdoor dealings of a federal agency.

Far from formulaic, every grower’s approach to preplanting chemical application is contingent on specific circumstances, but a common thread remains: Hit the window or pay a price.

Jim Bowen carries a scar from a cottonmouth bite, but when he crossed paths with two leviathan-size timber rattlers, the prospect was almost more than he could handle.

Could LED light be used to kill weed seed inside a combine during harvest? The technology has already arrived, according to an inventor raised in the corn and soybean rows of Ohio farmland.

What happens when Dog the Bounty Hunter, agriculture, tomatoes, pickles, worms, survival bunkers, miracle juice, and a bizarre flimflam man get dumped in cauldron? Welcome to a swindle and chase for the ages.

Smashing a weed seed to death as it passes through a combine is a technological reality fast approaching U.S. farmland.

“Agriculture doesn’t have an innovation problem,” says Mississippi producer Chad Swindoll. “It has an implementation problem.” 

A laser beam could be the future of farming. Does an unmanned Autonomous LaserWeeder represent a transformative moment of change for agriculture?

Ground squirrels and voles take tiny bites from soybean fields.

And other reasons you should care about infrastructure.

Four growers from Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Colorado, sound off regarding weed control in 2021.

A peculiar southeast Arkansas farmhouse conceals an obscure treasure of agriculture, grit, and ingenuity behind its walls—a 19th century steamboat.

Jon Stevens is an agriculture heretic: “Don’t argue with me about the awesome changes I’ve seen on my ground. You can argue with my logic and how I arrived there, but not the results.”

Farmer beware: The future impact of herbicide-resistant weeds is a question within a greater Pandora’s Box.

Plant half the seed, yet maintain yield? Less is more for Adam Chappell: He’s all in on 76” rows and is “not going back.”

Flooded by freakish summer rains, southeast Arkansas farmers are trying to salvage their crop season after a $250M loss, and waiting on word about disaster designation.

Digging the depth of the lower Mississippi from 45’ to 50’ could generate an extra $461 million annually for the U.S. soybean industry.

What happens when wild pigs are given 1,000 tons of groceries per day in the form of landfill trash? Expect a ticking time bomb, and quite possibly, a $50 billion blow to the entire U.S. pork industry.

Could Palmer amaranth, the king of resistant weeds and crippler of herbicides, be dethroned by its own sex drive? A herbicide-free technology is under testing and aims to attack pigweed with its own pollen.

China has breached the inner walls of the U.S. agriculture industry in what has arguably been the most expansive heist in farming history.

Farming success is chained to the highest premium paid across a long series of benchmarks, and Matt Brechwald’s farm tale, split between dirt and the digital world, firmly fits the mold.

Cason Anderson, 18, had no acres, few connections, and no equipment, but gained a farming toehold by scavenging tiny bits of neglected ground. Simply, Anderson picked from below the bottom of the pile.

When David Monk, 78, lost the best yielding corn of his life to fire, he took the loss on the chin and remained a farmer grateful for his community.

Johnny Dickerson, an arrowhead hunting warhorse with a bootstrap tale and over 4,000 showpiece points, is a classic American individualist with no concern for conformity.

The dollar rules, but planting decisions are often complex— even when commodities are shining.

When Sesame Street knocked, Casey Cox threw open the door on her Georgia farm and grabbed an opportunity to take U.S. agriculture to a new audience.

Tyler Zimmerman and Chris Walberg have changed agriculture horses in midstream, and say the results are improving long-term ROI—as well as igniting a new zeal for farming.

Wild pig control is one of the greatest challenges in U.S. wildlife management history, and in many ways, wild pig prosperity starts in the fascinating belly of a beast like no other.

A bizarre mix of business and religion, laced with a surreal cast of characters, the Jerusalem artichoke crop scandal may be the most outlandish major scam to curse farming in the past century.

What is the right rental rate for farmland, and what farmer is the best fit for the acreage? CashRent aims to provide the answers.

Farmers Nathan Neameyer and Paul Overby, along with researcher Mike Ostlie, are intercropping innovators intent on finding crop combinations that translate to a whole greater than component parts.

A travel ban on South African guest workers, as currently set in place by executive order, could be devastating for U.S. farming operations.

An American farming titan, Jessie Small, the king of combines, has passed on, and with him goes a sizable chunk of U.S. historical lore.

Legendary. In the annals of survival history, Todd Orr’s account is incredible and magnified by a deuce: He skirted death in two separate grizzly bear attacks separated by mere minutes.

After a Dukes of Hazzard-style jump on a backroad, Matt Griggs escaped a wild combine accident, and the Tennessee farmer is insistent: His survival was not by chance.

A blacked-out John Deere tractor is running the rows, courtesy of Robert Precht, one of American agriculture’s true mavericks.

What is the future of phosphorus, the 11th most abundant mineral on the planet, and a vital component of every farm on the planet?

Rick Clark farms butt-naked and reports savings of $670,000 per year on diesel, synthetic nitrogen, potash, lime, MAP, and chemistry.

Can the government spy on a private citizen’s land at will, without probable cause or a search warrant? Indeed, according to the government’s interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. Welcome to Open Fields.

Robb Fraley’s biotech shot was heard round the world

What considerations weigh heaviest for farmers when buying seed? Three growers offer perspective from Illinois, Indiana and Mississippi.

Adam Chappell’s farming operation is transformed, and the 41-year-old grower doesn’t mince words: It was all about the money.