Hello, farm family! Since you’re reading this, you already know that “farmer” is really a hyphenated word. It stands for farmer-carpenter, farmer-mechanic, farmer-veterinarian, farmer-sales manager, farmer-marketing director – you get the idea! Farmers take great pride in that hyphenated identity, a...

From 1985 to 1992, ABC aired a detective show, “MacGyver,” which followed the adventures of Angus MacGyver, a secret agent armed with remarkable scientific skills, solving problems in the field using any materials at hand. The episode I liked best featured MacGyver hunkered down in a swamp, trying t...

Dr. Troy Rowan, assistant professor, beef cattle genomics, University of Tennessee, realizes cattlemen may not see the value of genomic testing for commercial heifers, but he offers solid information on why it’s worthwhile. “Traditional heifer selection strategy has been to buy good bulls, use commo...

As an undergraduate at Cornell during the mid-1960s, I took a course titled “Marketing of Agricultural Products.” The textbook for the course bore the same name, co-authored by Max Brunk and Lawrence Darrah. When I took the course, Darrah was the instructing professor, and I paid $4.50 for a used co...