Farmers

Cody Struckhoff, manager of the office, harvest crew and transportation logistics, prints shipping labels Sept. 1 at River Hill Harvest in Hartsburg. The farm ships products across the U.S. and in some weeks ships to all 50 states.

Missouri elderberries find success in markets across the U.S.

Jana Rose Schleis

Partnerships between Missouri elderberry growers and researchers have helped farmers produce and sell the local fruit.

Why more Midwestern farmers are planting native landscapes in their crop fields

Rachel Cramer

Corn and soybeans dominate the Midwestern landscape today, but farmers are integrating strips of native prairie back into their fields. This conservation practice has expanded to more than a dozen states, including Missouri.

Evie Gholson, 18, speaks about her turkey while showing the bird to a judge on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at the St. Charles County State Fair in Wentzville.

Economy & Business

U.S. Postal Service slowdowns are so bad, baby birds are dying in transit

Kavahn Mansouri

Backyard and large-scale farmers in the Midwest and around the country report more deliveries that arrive too late for baby birds to survive. The trend is part of complaints about the USPS as it tries to stem budgetary bleeding.

Economy & Business

Bird flu hasn’t affected overall milk production or prices — but that could change

Will Bauer

Four months after the first reported cases of bird flu in dairy cows, the price of milk and demand for it have largely remained unchanged. Industry experts say whether that remains the case will depend on how far and how quickly cases spread.

Jason Imel, a deck hand with Cargill, Inc., blows excess soybeans off the top of a river barge and closes the barge’s loading lids on Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, at Cargill, Inc.’s facility in East St. Louis. For the third time in five years, the U.S. will import more agricultural products than it exports. However, this year’s deficit is tracking to be around $20 billion, far more than last year’s $2 billion deficit.

Economy & Business

Agricultural trade deficit could soon reach record highs. Is there cause for concern?

Will Bauer

Through November 2023, the United States has imported $20 billion more in agricultural products than it exported — putting the sector on pace to run a record deficit.

A close-up picture of a Thanksgiving meal on a table, with a turkey, squash, cheese and cranberry sauce.

Economy & Business

Here’s how much money farmers make when you buy your Thanksgiving meal

Elizabeth Rembert

Farmers got a slightly smaller percentage of what consumers spent on food in 2022 than the year before, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In most cases, Thanksgiving staples return cents on the dollar to farmers.

More than half of bankers reported that high interest rates were impairing agricultural equipment sales, according to Creighton University's Rural Mainstreet Economy survey.

U.S. farmers are facing a tough economy: Lower crop prices and higher interest rates

Eva Tesfaye

A slowdown in the agricultural industry is "going to put a strain on farmers." But analysts say the rural economy in the Midwest and Great Plains is still doing well.

Shae Pesek (left) and Anna Hankins (right) own and operate Over the Moon Farm and Flowers in Coggon, Iowa. "We've had a lot of support, honestly, especially from our very local community. There's a lot of people that will tell us like, 'Oh, I showed my queer relative your page, and they were really excited to know that you existed,'" Pesek said.

Health, Science & Environment

LGBTQ farmers often go unnoticed. But their perspective may help reshape agriculture

Catherine Wheeler

There aren’t any definite numbers about how many farmers belong to the LGBTQ community in the U.S, but many are making a point to become more visible in their rural communities.

Scratch Brewing Company co-owner Marika Josephson holds a hot tray of toasted hickory bark, which she uses to infuse a dark stout beer with a toasted marshmallow flavor. “We almost want this to be smoking by the time we put it in the beer," Josephson said.

Culture & History

These Brewers Are Making Beer That 'Tastes Like Southern Illinois' — With Herbs, Roots And Mushrooms

Shahla Farzan

Nestled within a patchwork of corn and soybean fields in Ava, Illinois, Scratch Brewing Co. uses hyperlocal ingredients foraged from the surrounding forest to flavor its beers. The microbrewery has garnered national attention for its unusual brews, earning a spot as a semifinalist for a James Beard Award this year.

Friday is the deadline for U.S.-China trade talks. If they fail and China's 25-percent tariff on soybeans goes into effect, Missouri farmers will feel the impact.

Government, Politics & Issues

Farmers Are More Pessimistic And Have More Concerns In 2020

Jonathan Ahl

The number of Missouri farmers who are pessimistic about the new year is double what it was at the same time in 2019, according to a new survey by the…