Farm & Country Radio

In rural America, it is not uncommon that after a tragedy a community comes together and does something that is just truly special. That most recently happened in Southeast Ohio at the Athens County Fair. 18-year old Noah Cox was killed in a farm accident earlier this year, but his steer was part of the fair last week thanks to a friend and something incredible happened. Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins gets the story from auctioneer Jason Langley.

Craft breweries are popping up like Starbucks. Everywhere you look, someone is trying to put their own mark on a good craft brew. With all of those breweries, comes more demand for what goes into those beverages. Meet Matt Cunningham from Marysville, Ohio. He is growing hops and barley for local breweries and he’s this week’s featured farmer. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

The use of dicamba is a source of contention in agriculture. This herbicide is growing in popularity but its growing usage is not sitting well with some producers who find their soybean fields wilting do to drifting and volatilization of the product. Arkansas weed scientist Ford Baldwin has some thoughts on this issue and he shares them with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins! www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

It takes a lot of hard work and long days to put that steak on your grill and that hamburger on your plate. You can thank this week’s Featured Farmer for those delicious foods. Meet Beef Producer Dale Oeschger from Huron County in Michigan in this conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

It's not often that a video of a wheat harvest goes viral, but when a farmer and his wife save two tiny fawns in the middle of that wheat field right before the combine reaches them. That’s another story. Meet Ryan and Paige Mortimer from Delphos, Kansas and hear their story in this interview with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

Summer is the season for watermelons. If you want to know the best ways to buy them, cut them and store, this report could help. USDA Radio’s Gary Crawford has this week’s Farm & Country Radio Farm News and Notes.

Jennifer Campbell and her husband farm corn, soybeans and wheat just south of Indianapolis in Franklin, Indiana. When the kids started showing cattle in 4-H, the farm also had a beef herd take shape over the years. A story about a calf on the farm is the topic of a new children’s book written by Campbell, called Meet Pete. Find out all about it in this conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

Since the show debuted over two years ago, we have covered all types of agriculture. One segment that is growing rapidly is aquaculture and this week’s Featured Farmer is hoping that growth continues in the U.S. and abroad. Later this hour meet Bill Bayliss, a farmer from Ohio who was just named Chairman of the Soy Aquaculture Alliance.

This week’s Featured Farmer grows something that most of us enjoy. His specialty crop goes great with a Coke, Cracker Jacks and jelly! Later this hour meet peanut farmer Jimmy Webb from Leary, Georgia. Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins visits with Webb about his farm in a nutshell and the ins and outs of peanut farming! www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

These days, with lower commodity prices and very thin margins to operate on, there isn't too much to laugh at in agriculture. Lorimor, Iowa farmer and cartoonist Rick Friday is trying to find some humor for those in America's heartland and also using his "funnies" to help bridge the farmer and consumer gap. Friday, this week's Featured Farmer, visits with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins about the multiple ways he is using his craft to communicate. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

This week's Featured Farmer is DaNelle Wolford from Gilbert, Arizona. Wolford has a small farm in an urban area just outside of Phoenix and she is helping others in her neighborhood and across the country find ways to get involved in agriculture by creating urban farms like hers. Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins finds out more. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

The 2017 is off to a slow start across the Midwest, but it has started nonetheless. This week’s Featured Farmer, Luke Smith and his family are busy in Rochester, Indiana planting corn, soybeans and popcorn! Meet Luke and find out all about the farm in this conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

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When you think about your typical farmer, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to find out that they might run a couple thousand acres of corn, soybeans and wheat and maybe a barn full of livestock. Featured Farmer Brent Pence in New Carlisle, Ohio is fitting of all of these farm stereotypes, but the one characteristic that may be a surprise is that he is a first generation farmer. Meet him in this conversation with Farm & Country Radio's Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

Hundreds of thousands of acres have been charred and thousands of cattle have been lost after wildfires ravaged parts of America’s Heartland. Greg Goodnight, this week’s Featured Farmer, has a ranch in Englewood, Kansas, an area hit hard by the wildfires. Here about the help coming from all corners of the country later this hour.

This week’s Featured Farmer is Calvin Riggleman, but you can call him Bigg Riggs. That was his nickname in the Marines. Bigg Riggs, after serving multiple tours overseas, has set up shop in Augusta, West Virginia, where he runs a small farm divvying out fruits and veggies at farmers markets nearby. Listen to his conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

This week's Featured Farmer, Shane Kirschten, is from Northwest Iowa in Alton. Shane raises sheep for two purposes, for youth to exhibit in the show ring and for consumers to enjoy in an ever growing meat market. He visits with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins about his farm and how lambing season is going so far.

This week’s Featured Farmer is Crawfordville, Indiana’s Joe Mills. He has grown corn and soybeans and has raised beef cattle for many years, but recently made a decision to grown non-GMO corn to feed his cattle. That and raising cover crops, are two of the reasons that Mills refers to himself as The Hippie Farmer. Find out more about Mills in this week's conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

Every day, farmers are looking for ways to keep their farms sustainable. For this week’s Featured Farmer, that meant making his California dairy farm the first certified organic one west of the Mississippi. Meet Albert Straus and find out all about Straus Family Creamery with his conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

Farmers wear many hats, literally and figuratively. They're producers, weathermen, accountants, and marketers, among other titles. Kent Blunier from Forrest, Illinois, this week’s Featured Farmer, wanted to highlight this by starting a Facebook page where farmers post stories about what they do. Now, little more than a year later, his “Farm Hats” Facebook page has more than 7,200 members. Meet Blunier in this conversation with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins.

To make money these days, many farmers are having to decide whether to get creative with their farm to make ends meet, or just sell their land and get out of the business altogether. This week’s Featured Farmer has decided to diversify things on the farm. Hear about the specialty crop Jason McGlone from Grayson, Kentucky will be adding to his rotation as his visits with Farm & Country Radio host Ty Higgins. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

More and more farmers are utilizing social media to tell more consumers about their farm and exactly how they farm. Some go even further in their efforts by creating blogs and even a podcast every now and again. This week’s Featured Farmer, Rob Sharkey, is one of those farmers that has his own show for anyone and everyone to listen to. His podcast is a little bit different from others though. Learn more about The Shark Farmer Podcast here on Farm & Country Radio. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.ccom

Mike Zuzolo from Global Commodity Analytics has the latest news behind the numbers for the grain trade in Chicago. www.GlobalAnalytics.biz Commodities involve risk/Not advice to buy-sell commodities.

With the New Year come new rules for the way livestock producers keep their herds healthy. The new Veterinary Feed Directive, or VFD, has an end goal of keeping consumers healthy as well. This week’s Featured Farmer knows all about these new regulations. Jerry Lahmers from Newcomersville, Ohio is not only a beef producer in The Buckeye State, he also has spend decades as a large animal vet in the area. Meet Lahmers and find out about his farm and the current state of the beef industry coming up in just a bit.

Have you had the chance to check out the Carbon TV.com documentary American Harvest? It’s a series about the oldest industry known to mankind - farming. It’s about hard work, community and the marriage of old wisdom and new technologies that feed the world. Viewers are experiencing the extraordinary life of farming through the eyes the next generation like Minnesota’s Leah Johnson, this week’s Featured Farmer. Find out all about Johnson’s farm, their record-breaking harvest this year and how she landed a major role in American Harvest on Carbon TV.com www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com

It is one of the great traditions of December to load up the family and head to the Christmas Tree Farm! Although you may think that Christmas Tree Farmers only work one month out of the year, you would be surprised about just how much work it takes all year long to get that perfect tree ready for your family. Matt Reese with Kaleidoscope Farms in Northwest Ohio is this week’s Featured Farmer. He and his family are welcoming many other families to the farm this month to hunt for that one tree that everyone agrees on…or not. Reese also just wrote a book, titled Christmas Anthology that, just like the tree, is a great way to get ready for the Holiday Season. www.FarmAndCountryRadio.com