Agriculture The Magazine 2012

Page 2

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Page 3

Drought of 2012 Page 4

Remembering 1934 drought Page 7



Gregory works toward dream Page 12

Treon raises vegetables Page 16

Hurricane remnant saves beans Page 20

Hoping for more rain in 2013 Page 24

Temple Grandin coming to town Page 26

Women in Ag event grows Page 27

Lynn Thompson Page 31

Jane Bartlett Page 32

Beverly Holland Page 34

Marshall FFA rises above others Page 39

Miles spends life on farm Page 42

General Manager& Ad SalesSusan Duvall

EditorMarcia Gorrell

DesignersMarcia Gorrell and Eric Crump

Cover DesignJacob Hatfield

Contributing editorsKelsey Alumbaugh, Sarah Reed,

Eric Crump

PublisherShelly Arth

Agriculture Magazine

110 N. Lafayette Ave., Marshall, MO.

Tel: 660-886-3797

Table of Contents

Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents, without priorwritten permission of the publisher, is strictly prohibited.

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By MARCIA GORRELLSTAFF WRITER

The drought of 2012 has been compared tomany from the past. But by the end of thesummer, many compared it to the Dust BowlDays of the 1930s.

Past records indeed show 2012 was definitely amongthe warmest and driest years Missouri has ever had.According to NOAA, 2012 was the third warmest Aprilthrough August. The only warmer years were 1934 and1936.

In rainfall — or lack of — rainfall, 2012 was the sec-ond driest April through August, with 1901 the driestyear. Records show 1936 was the third driest.

However, despite the records, area farmers still yield-ed some crops in 2012, which made it different than pre-vious drought years.

Retired farmer Homer Pointer, 90, was 12 years oldduring the drought of 1934. He said the weather this year

was every bit as hot and dry — if not worse — thanthose years.

“But technology on the corn, one thing or another(has changed) and a lot of these farmers they had a faircrop ... but in those days you didn’t raise anything,”Pointer said. “Fertilizer and chemicals and seed corn —they’ve improved that so much — that’s the only reasonthey raised a crop this year.”

In the 1930s, farmers didn’t even have hybrid corn,the seed was still open-pollinated.

“If they had to go back to that old Reed’s yellowdent, like we planted back in the ‘30s, they wouldn’thave had no corn,” Pointer said.

Another retired farmer, Dale Miles, remembers thedrought of 1954. He said this year, would have been asbad had it not been for the improved hybrids and geneti-cally modified crops. Another difference is the amount oftillage farmers do now, compared to the past. At thattime they plowed all the ground and then disked severaltimes.

The drought of 2012:

Worse drought, better crops

See 2012 Drought, page 5

Page 5

“It took quite a bit of your moisture in the spring,” hesaid. “Since then, we do minimum till or no-till andthat’s made a difference.”

According to records, the 1980 drought wasn’t assevere as this year’s drought. However, Gabe Ramsey,sales manager for Central Missouri Agri-Service said in1980 farmers had a lot lower yields than this year.

“We had the high hot winds right during pollinationand that just killed our pollination (in 1980),” he said. “Wedid have some late rains and we did have a late bean cropbut our corn was terrible.” He said there are several differ-ences today, beginning with the hybrid seeds.

“I think number one we were dealing with hybrids that

2012 DroughtContinued from page 4


Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News

By early July, it was obvious area corn fields were understress from lack of rain and high heat.

Page 6

weren’t suited for that extreme of drought,” Ramsey said.“But a lot of our breeding we are dealing with today, actu-ally started development in the ‘80s. We just have a lotbetter drought tolerant plants today.”

He said another difference between 1980 and today isearlier planting dates.

“We hadn’t accepted the idea of planting corn as earlyas we are today,” he said. “Consequently it put our cornplant in a very vulnerable position and we had a lot ofreally hot, dry, days with high winds it just sterilized thepollen, so the corn never pollinated in ‘80.”

This year, the majority of corn in the area did polli-nate.

“Usually you can tell from your early sweet corn abouthow well the pollination is occurring, and most of oursweet corn was pollinated pretty well,” Ramsey said.

In 1980, before the invention of today’s geneticallymodified seeds, farmers tilled the ground much moreoften.

“You took quite a bit of your moisture in the spring




As a 12-year-old grow-ing up on the family farmin the Blackwater Riverbottoms near Blue Lick,Homer Pointer remembersthe drought of 1934.

“It was like it was thisyear,” Pointer, 90, said ofthe weather. “It was hotand dry and we didn’t raisea dog-gone ear of corn.”

Of course, in the timebefore air-conditioningsleeping in the hot weather,which topped 100 degreesseveral days, was a chal-lenge.

“You slept out in theyard. It was a mess,” hesaid. “You look back at itand you wonder how youlived through it, youknow.”

One of those nights, astorm did come in, whilehe and his siblings were

sleeping outside. “It came up a big storm

one time and we alwayshad a bunch of chickensand they run loose, youknow, and the chickenfeathers were flying likeyou can’t believe,” he said.“We ran for the house, get-ting out of that wind.”

They had to be creativeto keep the livestock fed.

“We lived down thereon the Blackwater bottom,and of course had a lot ofold trees down in there,and we’d take a cross cutsaw and an axe and godown there and cut downan elm tree,” Pointer said.“Those old cows would eatevery leaf there was. Idon’t know how they madeit but they did.”

He said they wouldfeed one or two trees a day,depending on what the

Page 7

(by tilling), said Miles. “Since then you minimum-till orno-till and that’s made a difference.

According to Wayne Crook, University of MissouriExtension agronomist, tillage can take almost an inch ofwater out of the topsoil.

No-till has definitely helped us conserve moisture,”Ramsey added. “In late July, I was actually checkingbean fields and in the corner of the field I could hearwater running.”

He said two field tiles were still draining a littlewater from the field.

“We had subsoil moisture this year. I think werooted our corn down well enough that we werepulling on a lot of subsoil moisture this time, that’show we kind of held on.”

Other differences between previous droughts and thisdrought were soybeans, or the lack of soybeans.

In the 1930s and 1950s, soybeans weren’t grown ascommodity crops.

However in 1980 and again in 2012, they haveproven to hold on better through the drought, and takeadvantage of late summer rains.

“Beans have helped because they’re pretty tough,”Miles said. “This year proved that.”

For farmers, crop insurance is another advantage,helping to protect against risk.

“Thats improved your chances quite a bit too,” Milessaid. “And it’s a must anymore. The cost of putting in acrop is so high, you need a little help.”

Contact Marcia Gorrell at

[email protected]


Remembering heat and work of 1934 drought


Homer Pointer was growing up on his family farm in 1934when the drought hit. Today, Pointer, 90, is retired from farm-ing but still works for the city of Marshall and was recentlynamed the Region 5 Missouri Outstanding Older Worker. See 1934, page 8


Retired farmer DaleMiles, 78, of ruralMarshall, remembers thedrought of 1954. He hadonly been farming full-time with his father for twoyears.

“We never even got ourpicker out of the barn thatyear,” he said. “The stalksnever put an ear on.”

They were able to sal-vage some feed value bycutting the stalks forsilage. To utilize the feed,they purchased more cattleand “gave our labor away.”

“By the time every-body else does that in this

part of the country, youpay too much for the cattleand they’re all ready aboutthe same time,” he said,laughing.

Miles said because ofthe improvements in seedcorn and with the inventionof air conditioning it is

hard to compare 1954 withthe drought of 2012.

But he remembers itwas “hotter than the dick-ens.”

“If I remember right, itgot to 110 several days,”he said.

That year was also the

first — and last — year ofa joint hog adventure withtheir neighbor, who hadjust retired and was rentingthe ground to Miles and hisfather.

“He put in 25 gilts andwe put in 25 gilts. We

cows needed.Farmers also fed the

cows straw, pouringmolasses over the bales.

“The old farmerswould kid each other aboutbuying molasses,” he said.“They’d fool the cows.They’d think they wereeating grass.”

To feed their pigs, theycut weeds, specifically pig-weed, out of the corn.

“You’d go out in thecorn field and you’d pullthose things out of groundand pack them over thefence to where the hogswas, and they’d eat thoseweeds like crazy,” Pointersaid. “I’m sure they didn’tdo no good off of them,

but they stayed alive.”The next year, 1935,

was a very wet year,Pointer remembers.

In many ways, thatyear was harder, especiallysince farming was accom-plished with a team ofmules or horses. Gettingcrops planted and harvest-ed was difficult.

“You didn’t see manytractors then,” he said.

Pointer remembers1936 as another very dry,hot year. That year, theyagain didn’t raise any corn.In those days farmersdidn’t raise soybeans.

Although some statesexperienced dust stormsduring those drought years,

Pointer said he really does-n’t remember that being aproblem.

“Not like it did out inKansas,” he said. “Whenthe wind came real high,from the west, you couldtell it, but it wasn’t thatbad here.”


[email protected]

Page 8

1934

This map, from the New York Times, shows the areas affected by drought in 1934,1935 and 1936.

In drought of 1954, farmers didn’t raise any corn

Continued from page 7

According to maps from the New York Times, there has never been a time when some-where in the continental U.S. was not experiencing drought. Area farmers remember thedroughts of 1954 and 1956, when little to no corn was raised in the county.

See 1954, page 9

turned them loose up in this brush to farrow out,” Milesexplained. “We never knew how many pigs we had, butthe water holes started drying up and the gilts would takethe pigs into the mud and they’d get stuck.”

By the time they were done they only ended up with25 market hogs out of 50 gilts.

“That ended our hog venture at the Buck place,” hesaid. “It’s not hard for me to remember that.”

He said the other hogs they had on their farm werefed a complete feed.

“We kept corn over to keep us going until April orMay,” he said. “Then you had to scrape around and findsomething to feed until harvest,” he said.

They had a field of alfalfa hay, which kept their cowsfed.

“The first two cuttings were good, then it tailed off,”he said. “Alfalfa is a good crop, the roots are deep.”

By the end of the year it got almost unsafe to walk inthe alfalfa field.

“The cracks were almost two inches wide,” he said.“It was just so dry, the ground just cracked wide open.”

Although they didn’t have air-conditioning, Miles,who was single at the time, said he slept in the basementof his parent’s house.

“My dad dug a basement under the house in 1951,”he said. “I’d go down in the basement and sleep, somuch cooler. We had window fans which helped, suckingair through the house. It was miserable.”

Old time farmers often believed the old adage, “Plantwheat in the dust and your bin will bust.”

With that in mind, and with no cash crop the yearbefore, farmers in the area planted a lot of wheat in thefall of 1954. That meant long lines at local elevators thefollowing summer, and a drawn out, frustrating harvest.

“I don’t know if there were any 10-wheelers then. Iremember sitting in line waiting with a pick-up atFletchers, with wheat in (19)55,” Miles said.

Most people didn’t have their own bins at the timeand the local elevator couldn’t get any rail cars in to shipthe wheat.

The pickups only held about 75-80 bushels at a time.“We waited several hours,” he said. “Those days

when you were waiting the tempers were short. Thereweren’t any fights, but close to it.”

By the time he would get the back to field, his father

Page 9

1954Continued from page 8

See 1954, page 10

Page 10

would already have another bin full in the combine,which held about 25 to 30 bushels.

“Then he would have to cut another one to fill thetruck,” Miles said. “It all meant the harvest stretched outa long time.”

Another retired farmer, Homer Pointer, 90, alsoremembers the drought of 1954. He was farming on hisown south of Marshall. He said they didn’t raise anycorn that year, similar to 1934 and 1936.

He also recalled the extreme heat.“One evening we was putting that straw in the barn

and it was 110 in the shade, but we didn’t think nothingabout it, we was used to it,” he said. “But today youcouldn’t live.”

They didn’t raise any corn, but did put up a lot ofsilage.

Pointer bought a new field cutter and cut silage on allhis brother’s farms.

“We didn’t ever hire no help,” said Pointer, who wasfrom a family of eight brothers and two sisters. “Wewent from one farm to the other, filling silos the sameway.”

What corn was left that year was eaten by grasshop-pers. He remembers one 60-acre field of corn on his farmsouth of Marshall.

“You never saw so many grasshoppers in your life,”he said. After being sprayed by a crop duster, thegrasshoppers died. “It killed the heck out of them, but wewould have been better shape to not spray, because westill didn’t raise no corn. But that’s the way farminggoes, you know.

Old-timers used to joke the grasshoppers would “eatthe handle off a pitchfork,” he said.

Pointer remembered 1956 being another dry year,although they did raise a little corn, “maybe 25 bushels.”

They also put up a lot of silage area that year as well.

1954

Farmers in Saline County remember 1980 as the mostrecent drought year. According to this graphic from theNew York Times, that drought wasnʼt as widespread.

Corn crop didn’t pollinateduring drought of 1980


When this year turned off hot and dry, many farmersbegan comparing it to the drought in 1980.

Gabe Ramsey, sales manager for Central Missouri Agri-Service, had been working at Fletcher Grain for just a fewyears before that summer.

“1980 was probably the worst (corn) crop we had,” hesaid. “There was less corn than we had this year.”

He said high, hot winds right during pollination prevent-ed many fields from making seeds.

“It caught it in pollination and sterilized the pollen,” hesaid. “That was one of the big differences, other than thehybrids.”

Ramsey said he remembers the temperatures were evenhigher in 1980.

“We had such a long period of time of dry, hot weather,but we didn’t have the extreme heat that we had in ‘80,” he


See 1980, page 13

Page 11

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This fall, after finishinghis day job in Marshall,Kurtis Gregory headed tohis family’s farm nearBlackburn to plant wheatbefore winter weather hits.

Using an FSA first-timefarmer loan, Gregory isstarting to make his dreamof farming a reality.

“It’s something I’vealways wanted to do andI’m finally getting back andbeing able to do it,” saidGregory. “I guess the moti-vator was to get startedwhile I was young,” he said.“If I was going to go in debtto start farming I might aswell do it when I’m 26 asopposed to 30 or 32 or 34.”

The loan has helped himbuy equipment to farm landowned by his grandfather,Hubert Kiehl, in the MaltaBend and Blackburn area.

“I’m share-croppingwith grandpa,” Gregorysaid. “It’s basically all hisground.”

He’ll be farmingapproximately 1,000 acres,planting wheat, corn, soy-

beans and hay. He also hasa small cow herd. Gregorywill keep working in seedproduction at Mid-StateSeed, where he has been forthe past two years.

Working hard and jug-gling multiple activitiesisn’t new for Gregory, whowas a star football player atSanta Fe High School andthe University of Missouri.At Mizzou he was the start-

ing offensive lineman for 41straight games, earningnumerous honors for on-field and academic perform-ance, including the MizzouROARS Varsity "M" MaleAthlete of the Year in 2009,and was granted the Big 12Chick-Fil-A CommunityChampion award. Heearned two degrees whilethere, a bachelor’s and mas-ter’s in Agriculture.

He still does the post-game and half-time reportsfor Mizzou football and lastyear was a finalist for thecolor commentator job toreplace John Kadlec.

After several surgeries,including five on his knees,helped wrap up his footballcareer, Gregory wanted achance to farm.

Page 12

Gregory works toward his dream


Kurtis Gregory and his fiance, Kella Topel of Marshall, stand in front of the tractor andplanter Gregory has purchased with a first-time farmer loan. He also purchased a verti-cle tillage tool and seed tender. Gregory will be farming land owned by his grandfather,while still keeping a full-time job in seed production at Mid State Seeds of Marshall.

See Young, page 14

said. “We had quite a bit of110, 111 and 112 degreeheat. This year we were at105, we didn’t have quite theextreme we had in 1980.”

Similar to this year,though, farmers did havesome soybeans to harvest.

“We did have some laterains and we did have a beancrop, but our corn was terri-ble,” Ramsey said.

Dale Miles was one ofthe few area farmers whohad irrigation during the1980 drought.

“I was irrigating 80acres,” he said. “But we ranout of water, I don’t remem-ber the date.”

“The corn where it was

irrigated made 115 (bushelsper acre), and corn side-by-side where we couldn’t get

water on it made 50,” Milesremembered.

He said they had added

the irrigation, so they couldensure they had enough cornto feed their hogs.

Page 13

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1980


The drought of 1980 and drought of 2012, had average soybean yields, despite dryconditions. Early in the planting season, however, soybeans struggled to grow withoutany rain. Farmes didnʼt start raising soybeans until the 1960s.


“I wish I would havedone it when I got donewith football,” he said.“But it got to a point whereit was going to be now ornever.”

His father, Roger, gotout of row-cropping in2001, but still raises hogs.He’ll be helping Kurtis, ashis “full-time” hired man.In turn, Gregory also willhelp him some with thehogs.

“You could say dad isfarming with me. It’s mefinancially, but it’s basical-ly just a whole family con-glomerate,” Gregory said.

He’s already spentabout two-thirds of his

loan money, buying a trac-tor, a used 16-row no-tillplanter and a verticaltillage tool, as well as aseed tender. For now, localfarmer Brian Miles will beharvesting his crops, but hehopes to someday buy acombine.

Gregory is also tryingto break into the custom-hay baling business. Hehas a baler, accumulatorand grapple system, which

makes the square baleseasy to move and store.This summer, he used thesystem to put up 60 acresof alfalfa they raise ontheir farm.

He had a few balingjobs around the county thissummer, and is hoping toget more business nextsummer.

Starting to farm, espe-cially while juggling a full-time job, isn’t going to be

easy, but Gregory is ready.“Sometimes I wish I

wasn’t this busy, but fig-ured if I could, I should doit while I’m young,” hesaid.

His lack of experienceis what he worries aboutthe most.

“One farmer gets 40 or50 good chances in a life-time at it, where as other

Page 14

Young


See Young, page 15


Above, Kurtis Gregory gets ready to sow wheat on his farm near Blackburn. Using anFSA young farmer loan, Gregory was able to purchase a tractor, vertical tillage tool and16-row planter, as well as a seed tender to begin farming. He will also use a tractorowned by his father, Roger, who will be helping him.

Page 15

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people in other jobs get a chance at it every day,” hesaid. “The hard part of it for me is not having done itbefore.”

However, he looks forward to the chance to be hisown boss and work side-by-side with family.

“I enjoy working with dad and being able to be in afamily atmosphere with kids, wives, friends, or whoevercomes out,” he said.

Gregory is engaged to Kella Topel, of Marshall, andwill be getting married later this month.

Young Continued from page 14


Top: Kurtis Gregory looks over his planter before head-ing off to sow some wheat.

Above: Gregory starts planting in a field nearBlackburn.


Raymond Treon compares raising 50 acres of vegeta-bles in the Miami bottoms to raising 50 children.

“They all want something at the same time,” he said.He grows watermelon, canteloupe, tomatoes, sweet

corn and peppers on a Saline County Century Farm ownedby Kile Guthrey and his family.

The vegetables end up on grocery store shelves acrossthe Midwest. Buyers come to the farm to pick up about 90percent of what Treon raises.

“They come from Kansas, Illinois, Iowa and somefrom Arkansas,” he said. The vegetables are then sold inPrice Chopper, Sunfresh, Thriftway, Apple Market andPatricia Foods.

Treon comes from a long line of vegetable farmers. Back in the 1930s, his great-grandfather’s family,

which included three boys and seven girls, raised 200acres of melons in Illinois.

“I’ve seen pictures of when the girls were young,they’d take these hay frames behind horses and haul mel-ons from the field into Burlington to the railroad,” he said,adding they were shipped as far away as New York.

“When my granddad came here he raised melons,” hesaid. “I’ve had melons over here in Carroll County onground that my grandfather cleared off with an ax, rightacross the bridge here, near Dewitt.”

Treon, now 72, farms about 450 acres in Saline andChariton counties. With one full-time employee he raises

Page 16

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Treon raises vegetables onMiami bottomland farm


Raymond Treon stands in his shop near Miami, soonafter finishing the 2012 harvest. He raises about 50 acresof vegetables. He also raises rowcrops in Saline andChariton counties.See Treon, page 17

Page 17

corn, soybeans and wheat,along with the vegetables.He also has a bulldozer andtrackhoe business, buildingponds, terraces, waterwaysand clearing brush.

Raising vegetables isvery labor intensive, espe-cially since all of the veg-etables, except sweet corn,are irrigated with drip irri-gation.

He said wet years makeit hard to get things planted,but dry years like 2012make the vegetables veryexpensive to raise.

The cost of fuel to runirrigation pumps is one ofthe biggest costs.

“They ran straight forseven weeks. We never shut

them off — 24 hours aday,” he said. “The pumpswas taking about $1,200worth of gas a week.”

The plastic he putsdown has also increased alot in cost, as have theseeds.

“My tomato seed was$15 a thousand, now it’s$90 a thousand,” he said.“Watermelon seeds, usedto buy them by the pound,

now they sell them by the1,000.

They went from $5 apound, to now over $250.

Beginning in February,they will plant tomatoesand put them in a heatedgreenhouse.

Even in late October,the tomatoes still had largefruit and will keep growinguntil they finally freeze outfor the winter.

He also has two green-houses near his home inDewitt, where he starts hisown plants, before trans-planting them with a trac-tor.

During the growing sea-son, he brings in help topick the vegetables byhand, hiring mostlyHispanic workers from thearea.

Although he has alwaysgravitated towards farming,Treon has had a variety ofinteresting careers through-out his lifetime.

At one time he farmedalmost 6,300 acres of rowcrops in the Missouri Riverbottoms, as far away asGlasgow and Wakenda.

“Raising 50 acres of vegetables is like rais-ing 50 children, they all want something at

the same time.”Raymond Treon,

Vegetable farmer

TreonContinued from page 16

See Treon, page 18

In 1974, he quit farming and bought an oil company. “I was a jobber. I had two service centers, sold whole-

sale, bulk delivery and all that,” Treon explained.Then for several years he fished commercially year-

round.“There’s not a foot of the Missouri River that I haven’t

been on from the Iowa line to St. Louis,” he said. “Andthe Mississippi from New Boston, to seven miles belowCaruthersville. I’ve been on every foot of it.”

He also fished on contracts for the states of Kansasand Illinois.

“I don’t know how many millions of pounds of buffalo(carp) I caught,” he said. Now his son has taken over thecommercial fishing business.

Treon got back into farming full-time about 10 yearsafter he got a call from Guthrey.

“I was raising melons on Kile and he changed opera-tors, and he kinda called me about 11 o’clock one nightand said ‘You’re farming my ground next year,’ and I said,‘Oh, really?” Treon said. “I said, ‘You better let me thinkabout that.’ He said, ‘Okay, I’ll call you back in five min-utes.’”

Despite all the hard work, Treon said farming “gets inyour blood.”

“Every year I say I’m going to quit, but you know youget done and get cleaned up, and you say, “Aww, I guessI’ll try it again.”

Asked if he has any advice for someone who wantedto raise vegetables, Treon said, “If you don’t want towork, don’t fool with it.”

He said there is also a trick to growing food, just likeany trade.

“It’s something you don’t go and pick up right now,”he said. “What you do is a lot of trial and error. You just

remember what works and what don’t work, you don’tmess with.”

As for Treon, he will keep on going as long as he can.“I enjoy working, it don’t bother me,” he said. “It’s

just a question of how much gas I’ve got left in my tank.”He and his wife, Carol, of 55 years, have one son, Bill,

and two daughters, Debbie Perkins and Carol Benedick,along with six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Page 18

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Contributed photo

Raymond Treon poses in front of some of the 50 acresof vegetables he raises in the Miami River bottoms.

TreonContinued from page 17

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Remnants of Hurricane Isaac save bean cropBy MARCIA GORRELL

STAFF WRITER

It will be severalyears before areafarmers forget the2012 crop year.

After setting records in bothhigh temperatures and lack of rain-fall, nationally the drought has beencalled the worst since the Dust Bowldays of 1934 and 1936. For much ofthe growing season, Saline Countywas included in the exceptionaldrought category by the U.S.Drought monitor.

However, most farmershave said harvest turned outbetter than they ever hoped,partially due to improvedseed genetics in corn and one

late rain for the soybeans. In late August, Hurricane Isaac

poured anywhere from four to 12inches of rain in the area. The resultwas a soybean crop, which mostfarmers had given up on.

“I thought the calendar hadcaught us on soybeans and it was toolate for that hurricane to help us,”said Gabe Ramsey, sales manager atCentral Missouri AgriService inMarshall.

But instead, the rain allowed thesoybeans, which had been hangingon in the record drought, to makelarge seeds.

“I’ve never seen so muchimprovement from one rain that latein the season,” Ramsey said. “It wastremendous, about the size of thatbean formed in the pod. I thoughtwe’d have buck shot and we hadreally exceptional beans.”

In the end, soybeans were just alittle below average in the county,according to most experts. Many,depending on maturity and whenthey were planted, yielded in the 30to 60 bushel range.

The corn yields were lower in the

See Crops, page 20

Page 21

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area, yielding anywherefrom 50 to 60 percent ofaverage. However, theyranged greatly from reportsof 220 bushels per acre inirrigated fields, while somefields didn’t yield any cornand were instead choppedfor silage.

“It could have been awhole lot worse for theamount of water we didn’tget,” said MikeBarringhaus, general man-ager of Farmer’s GrainTerminal in Slater. He saidimproved corn hybridshave made the difference.

“The beans havealways been tough, but thecorn just yielded tremen-dously with the littleamount of water we had,”he said. “If we had corngenetics from the 1980s,when we had the lastmajor drought, I think itwould have been a com-plete failure. That wouldbe my thought.”

One new problem thisyear was aflatoxin, a moldwhich grows on corn espe-cially when it has been

damaged by cutworms andstressed by drought.

Area elevators testedfor the mold, even turningdown some harvested corn.The mold can be harmfulto humans and animals invarying amounts.

“We had a slight touchin the beginning ofAugust,” Barringhaus said.“As the season progressedit just kept growing, in thefield and in the bin,” he

said. They had some aflatox-

in last year, south ofInterstate 70, but wasn’twidespread like it was in2012. After testing everyload, FGT was able tokeep the damaged cornseparate from the othercorn.

Although, there aremany reasons soybeans didbetter than corn throughthe drought, one is the way

they grow, said WayneCrook, University ofMissouri Extension agron-omist.

“They’ve got a betterchance later in the seasonbecause they can compen-sate for late season rainswhere corn can’t,” Crookexplained. “Corn generallyis harvested first, whichmeans it’s mature before

CropsContinued from page 20

See Crops, page 22

the beans. So the beanshave another two or threeweeks they can actuallyproduce yield if the raincomes.”

He said corn only hasone way of making extrayield — larger seed size.

“Soybeans can alsoretain some seeds theywould normally abort andthey can make biggerseeds both,” Crook said.“They can also retain podsif they get the rain in time.If corn loses it they can’tcome back.”

Besides genetics, sev-eral other practices havechanged since the lastdrought, including tillage.

Most farmers today useminimum or no-tillage toplant crops.

“One time tilling the

field can take up to an inchof moisture,” Crook said.“If you make three passes(as many did in the 1980s)

that is three inches lesswater for growing crops.”


[email protected]

Page 22

CropsContinued from page 21


What looked like the possibility of a dismal soybean crop in 2012 turned around unex-pectedly when late rains filled out the soybean size.

Page 23

Page 24

Hoping for more rain in 2013By MARCIA GORRELL

STAFF WRITER

Subsoil

moisture

seems to

be the buzzword

for 2013.After being in the

exceptional drought catego-ry for much of 2012,Hurricane Isaac and scat-tered fall rains helped thecounty return to the moder-ate drought category forOctober, according to theNational Drought Monitor.However, records showSaline County is still nearly12 inches behind normalrainfall amounts.

“We’ve been gettingreports that the first coupleinches of topsoil are wetand muddy,” said MikeBarringhaus, manager atFarmer’s Grain Terminal inSlater. “But down lower thesubsoil has nothing. It’scompletely drained ofcourse, so we definitelyneed to get that rechargedif we want a chance nextyear.”

The drought of 2012really began last fall, whendry weather allowed farm-ers to get a lot of field workcompleted.

However, that periodwas followed by an unsea-sonably warm and dry win-ter.

“We survived reallybetter than we ever thought,but I think it primarily wasreally due to the subsoilmoisture we carried into theseason into the middle partof the season in 2012,” saidGabe Ramsey, sales manag-er at Central MissouriAgriService in Marshall.He said, even with the lackof rainfall, he witnessedfield tiles still drainingmoisture in July.

Looking back on therecent history of droughts,there have never been twoin the row in our county.

“Usually there has beenone year of some kind ofchange between, but noth-ing is impossible,” saidRamsey. “It would be reallybad on our farm productionif we were faced with two

droughts in a row to theextreme of what 2012was.”

Because of the dryweather, some farmers,especially south ofInterstate 70 have plantedmore wheat this year.

“It’s kind of an insur-ance crop,” said WayneCrook, University ofMissouri Extension agrono-mist. “You’ve got a betterchance of getting some-thing off of it, if it stays dryagain next year. If you havea good year next year, andyou can double crop, youcan gross about the sameper acre.”

Most area farmers,though, are expected to staywith their normal 50-50corn and soybean rotation.

“That’s still the ideal

plan here,” Ramsey said.“We just see the benefit toomuch from the rotation tochange.”

Despite the drought,plenty of seed should stillbe available this spring.

“Some of the oldhybrids they actually ranshort on last year and theyactually planted extra acresin 2012, so they have plen-ty of seed for 2013,” Crooksaid. “With the drought,that saved them from beingfar behind.”

However, experts sug-gest farmers who want cer-tain hybrids should ordertheir seeds well in advanceof next spring.

“I think we’ll get to thepoint where there will beplenty of seed available, but

See 2013, page 25

Page 25

variety preference could bean issue,” Ramsey said.

One of concerns farm-ers will face in 2013 will becontrolling weeds, especial-ly waterhemp in soybeans.

“The problem we’rehaving in soybean produc-tion is if we don’t go backto a pre-emerge chemistry,we’re going to fight thiswater hemp problem allsummer and spring,”Ramsey said.

Because Round-Upworked so well for manyyears, companies quitspending money onresearch and developmentfor other chemicals.

However, he said farm-ers can control the weed,but it will cost more than ithas in past years.

“I think we’re reallyfaced with the time soybeanproduction cost is going togo up somewhere in the$20 to $30 an acre range,”he said. “We’ve had goodluck where we spent theextra money to put down apre-emerge, and then wecome back 21 to 28 daysfrom planting and wesprayed that field again.”

Other factors that mayaffect 2013 crops are avariety of bugs, includingJapanese beetles, whichhave gotten steadily worsein the area, according to

Crook.Although no one can

predict the outcome for2013, farmers are everoptimistic.

“Hopefully we getwater, timely rains and

we’ll have a bumper cropnext year and try to offsetthis one,” Barringhaussaid. “It’s been a whilesince we’ve had one.”


[email protected]

2013Continued from page 24


Farmers hope 2013 is a bumper crop year for corn andsoybeans. However, lack of rainfall in the fall of 2012 hassome worried.

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Every year, the annual Women in Agriculture Regional Conference at theMartin Community Center in Marshall gets better than the previous year.

But this year, the 10th annual conference promises to be the best yet.Set for March 15, 2013, attendees will be given the red-carpet treatment,

and treated like all-stars, according to organizers.The conference also boasts nationally known speakers including Temple

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The impressive list of speakers is already causing a buzz around the state.“I had somebody the other day at the (MU) football game say, ‘Is Temple

Grandin really coming to Marshall?’” said Cynthia Crawford, University of Missouri extension specialist. “And yes,we’re not bringing her electronically. We’re bringing her here.”

Nationally known speaker TempleGrandin will be in Marshall

See Women, page 28

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Today, Saline County’sWomen in Agricultureregional conference has areputation as being one ofthe best — if not the best— conferences of its kind.

However, in 2006, rightafter the third year, organiz-ers wondered if they shouldcontinue for a fourth year.After two good years ofmoderate attendance, 2004and 2005, there was a dropto about 25 people in 2006.

“The weather was terri-ble. There was a lot ofadversity that year,”remembered CynthiaCrawford, University ofMissouri Extension special-

ist. “We stopped to evaluatewhether we should contin-ue, and thank goodness wedid because I think this isrecognized as the best inthe Midwest now.”

As they still do, organ-izers met shortly after the2006 conference to work onthe next year’s event.

“I remember makingthe statement one day, thateither we had to fix it ordrop it,” said EveretteWood, former SalineCounty Farm ServiceAgency county executivedirector and one of theoriginal planning commit-tee members. “But Ithought we ought to fix it.And that was the concensusof everybody on the plan-

ning council.”For 2007, organizers

moved the conference fromMalta Bend School to OurRedeemer Lutheran Churchin Marshall. And since thattime, attendance has grownevery year. Now held inMarch at the MartinCommunity Center, theconference has becomenationally known, attractingmore than 300 people eachyear.

“Last year we had athird of Missouri countiesrepresented,” Crawfordsaid. “Plus we had peoplefrom two other states.”

The 2013 event, a 10thanniversary celebration, isset for March 15 at theMartin Community Center.

Registration for the eventopens Jan. 7, 2013, andattendance will cap at 500people. (See page 26 of thisissue for details)

The idea to hold awomen’s ag conferencecame from Becky Plattner,who was Saline County’sPresiding Commissioner atthe time.

“Becky Plattner keptbringing this up,” Crawfordsaid. “We saw the successof the Concordia Women inAg conference and realizedthat people in this part ofthe state and this regionprobably would be verysupportive of a Women inAg conference.”

Women in Ag grows from humble beginnings

See WIA, page 30

Page 28

Women

Trent Loos, a nationally knownagriculture and food educator, and starof the nationally syndicated radioshow, Loos Tales, will also speak atthe conference.

Other speakers include HughHarvey, Saline County probate judge,who has been a conference favorite,because of his knowledge of farmestate planning; and humorous agri-culture speaker Susie Oberdahlhoff, ofBowling Green, who is back by popu-lar demand.

The morning kicks off at 8 a.m.with registration and a light breakfast.At 9 a.m. Susie O’ will entertain thecrowd, followed by Harvey at 10:15a.m. and Loos at 11:10 a.m.

Lunch this year will also be spe-cial, featuring prime rib. A brass bandwill also entertain during the lunchhour.

Grandin will speak at 1:30 p.m.and the conference will wrap up at 3p.m.

Registration opens on Jan. 7 andbecause of the interest already shown,organizers are encouraging thoseinterested to sign up early.

“We think this conference willclose long before the date. The soonersomeone can register to Jan. 7, thebetter, because we anticipate maxingout at 500,” said Crawford. “A person

should not wait until closer to the dateto register this year.”

Registration is just $20 per person.“I think we’ve worked hard to try

to keep the cost for participants as lowas we possibly can,” said Jared Singer,Saline County FSA executive directorand a member of the planning com-mittee.

“I think we would all agree wefeel we are giving a great value withthe level of speakers we are bringingto Marshall. We couldn’t do it withoutthe generosity of our sponsors.” Moreinformation can be found atwww.womeninag.net or on Facebook.

File and contributed photos

The 2013 Women in Ag Regional Conference will be a 10th year celebrationpeople will be talking about for years. Speakers include nationally knownTemple Grandin and (below, right) Trent Loos, but two of the past popularspeakers (above) Susie Oberdahlhoff and (bottom, left) Judge Hugh Harvey.


Page 29

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“Women are in the minority as ag managers and needto be well informed, just as all farming interests need tobe informed,” Crawford added.

Plattner, who is also still a member of the planningcommittee, said it was Crawford who was the catalyst forthe event.

“She said maybe we can look at this and she made acouple phone calls and the next thing I know she’s got ameeting pulled together.”

The intention of the conference, then and now, hasbeen to give information to women landowners, as well asanyone else interested.

“Women are involved in all farms in one way oranother,” Wood explained. “Some of them feel a littleintimidated to go to some of the men’s meetings, but tohave a meeting of their own that offers some of the issuesis just a great opportunity.”

However, men often attend and are more than wel-comed, said Wood, who is now chief of the price supportsection for the state of Missouri for FSA in state office.

“I think the way they approached it is a women in agmeeting, but the men are invited too, and I think a lot oftimes they’ve had men come to the meetings and seem toget a lot of information from it,” Wood said.

By reading over evaluations after each event, organiz-ers have been able to come up with timely speakers andtopics. That is one reason attendance has continued to rise.

“People get cutting edge, new critical information to

make their farming operations more successful, so it’s notjust an enjoyable day, although it is that,” Crawford said.“There is also a substance there that makes people drivefor hundreds of miles.”

Past sponsors represent a cross-section of SalineCounty agriculture including banks, insurance agencies,agri-business companies, the tourism comission, NRCS,FSA, University of Missouri extension and LincolnUniversity.

The success of the conference has also been becausethe agencies have pooled their talents.

“This is an example of something that any of ouragencies alone could not do what all of us working togeth-er can do,” Crawford said.

Many of those entities are also represented on theplanning committee which currently includes: Plattner,Crawford, Jared Singer, Parman Green, Rebecca Malter,Brian McCarthy, Nadia Navarette-Tindall, Susan Pointer,Allen Voss and Steve Wooden.

“I also think the individuals represented each have ourown knack for different aspects of the conference,”Singer, current FSA county executive director, explained.“I think we’ve had a drive also to shoot for the stars, so tospeak. We haven’t been afraid to go big. And I thinkwe’ve had a drive to present a first-rate event for our par-ticipants.”

Since it has been successful, other counties are alsoholding their own Women in Ag events.

“If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is inspi-rational to me that we have been able to inspire otherplaces around the state to have similar events,” Crawfordsaid. “When I look at the program I see they’ve looked atour agenda, and are bringing in the same kind of speakersand doing similar things.”

WIA Continued from page 27

Contributed photo

One of the first Women in Agriculture conferences washeld at Malta Bend School.

Contributed photo

The Women in Agriculture conference spent a few yearsat Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Marshall, beforemoving to the Martin Community Center. The next confer-ence on March 15, 2013 is set to draw 500 people.

Page 31

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Lynn Holland Thompson and her sister, Lesa, grewup helping on their family’s farm north of Marshall.

“When they were in high school they wanted to go totown and get a job because they wanted some money oftheir own,” explained their father, Larry Holland. “I said‘No, the farrowing house is yours. You and Lesa just takecare of the sows.’”

From that moment on the girls took care of the pigs,with little or no help from himself or his wife, Beverly.

“A lot of times we’d have a whole set of pigs gothrough the farrowing house, the whole string, and we’dnever go down there,” he said.

About 15 years ago, when her sons, Joe and Nick,

Local woman findsniche in life workingon her family farm


Lynn Thompson spends most of her days taking care ofa fall and spring calving cow herd on their farm north ofMarshall. She has been farming full-time with her parentsfor about 15 years. Today one of her sons and a nephewwork on the farm as well.See Thompson, page 35

Page 32

Bartlett learns to do a variety of jobs on farmBy MARCIA GORRELL

STAFF WRITER

It would be easy to assume Jane Bartlett loves farming.

After all, for 39 years she has worked side by side with

her husband, Charlie, working ground, applying chemi-

cals and hauling their harvested crops to town.

“I always tell people my heart’s not in farming,” shesaid. “I don’t love farming, I just happened to fall in lovewith a farmer.”

She grew up on a farm near Miami, even helpingsome on the farm. Yet, she said, didn’t intend to marry afarmer.

“I didn’t want to marry a farmer. I really, really did-n’t,” she said, laughing. “We kept getting serious and hesaid, ‘You better making up your mind, because if youdon’t I’m out of here.’”

Now 47 years later, Bartlett is quick to point outthey’ve had a good life.

“I really can’t complain, you know,” she said. Each spring, Bartlett works the ground in front of the

planter and then does field work in the fall. When theyapplied chemicals with the field cultivator, she did that aswell. She also hauls anhydrous tanks, and used to helpcultivate. Since 1982, she has driven the trucks each fall,taking their corn and soybeans to local elevators or theirown bins. Bartlett said she has never learned to drive thecombine.

“That was probably my biggest mistake,” she said. “Ishould have learned how to run the combine.”

However, she points out she has had the easy jobs,and Charlie has taken on more of the farm work, becauseshe helps.

“There are times I really wish Charlie had a hiredhand,” she said. “I think it would have been easier onhim, because he really doesn’t let me do a lot.”

He takes care of the equipment maintenance, bookwork, as well as the combining, planting and putting onthe anhydrous.

They had been married about seven years, she said,before she really started helping on the farm.

“I probably couldn’t have done what I did without aneighbor lady and that was Alberta Benedick,” Bartlettsaid. “She watched the kids for me.”

For the first several years, she only helped with fieldwork, but then started driving a truck during harvest in1982.

“That changed my life then, because before, I woulddo the fall work and I was home in the evenings and

stuff,” she said.She began driving a 10-wheeler, and eventually

Charlie started talking about buying an 18-wheeler tohaul grain.

“I’d say, ‘If you get an 18-wheeler you need to getsomebody to drive for you,” she said. However, in 1997they did purchase one and he taught her to drive it whenthey were cleaning out bins.

“He would drive it in and I would drive it backhome,” she said. After a few days, she told him she wasready to drive it by herself.

“He’s probably ridden with me twice since then,” shesaid.

In fact, she said even after all these years, she stillgets nervous with him riding in the farm equipment withher.

“Whenever we get a new piece of equipment, he’ll goaround the field with me and show me how it works,” shesaid. “I want him to be like Elvis. I want him to leave. Idon’t want him to be anywhere close to me when I takeover. So it’s kind of the thing now he’ll show me how to


About seven years into their marriage Jane Bartlettstarted helping her husband, Charlie, on their farm. For39 years she has worked side-by-side running tractorsand driving trucks.

See Bartlett, page 33

run it, and he’ll leave.”She said she often

jokes with people, “Thedistance between our twotractors has saved our mar-riage.”

They raised two chil-dren on the farm, Bruce,who is an attorney in St.Louis, and StephanieTobin, a kindergartenteacher in Marshall.

“Bruce helped a littlebit in the spring before hegot in high school,” shesaid. “But we did not wantBruce to be deprived ofsports to help us farm.”

“He really helped uswhen he went to college,”

she said. “About May, hewould be home and hereally helped Charlie fillthe planter.”

He also helped duringthe time between graduat-ing from MU with an engi-neering degree and enter-ing law school.

Stephanie helped bytaking over cooking by thetime she was in the fourthor fifth grade.

“I would put somethingin the crockpot, like somekind of meat, andStephanie would finish themeal out. Then supperwould be ready every nightwhen we got home,”Bartlett said. “WhenStephanie left it was bad.”

Now Bartlett said shefixes their lunches and atnight she and Charlie usu-ally eat whatever they canfind.

“Charlie is very easy,”Bartlett said. “It doesn’tmake him any difference.He never says what hewants and he never com-plains what he gets.”

When Jane started, shesaid there weren’t manywomen helping on thefarm.

“Now it’s not unusualto see women helping,” shesaid.

Besides farming,Bartlett has had other jobs,working at the shoe facto-ry, helping at her family’s

business, Acme Supply, fora while and then severalyears helping a local insur-ance agent who workedaround her farming sched-ule.

Although she may notlove farming, she said thereare times of the year on thefarm that are her favorites.

“One of my all-timefavorite stages of the cornis when you can row thecorn,” she said. Her otherfavorite time is when “itgets about knee high andyou see that anhydrous getahold of it and it’s thatblackish-green.”

She enjoys seeing the

Page 33

BartlettContinued from page 32

See Bartlett, page 38

Page 34

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Beverly Holland grewup on her family’s farm inthe Miami river bottoms.

In fact, she was just 9years old when she firsthelped her father and unclemove equipment, drivingbetween them in a 1948Dodge pickup.

“My dad was in a trac-tor in front of me and myuncle was in the tractorbehind me,” she said. “Idon’t know what that wassupposed to help whenyou’re driving right alongthe edge of the river.”

Nonetheless she madeit.

“I was real proud, butmy mother wasn’t,” shelaughed.

After graduating fromhigh school, she attendedbusiness school inWarrensburg for a year,before marrying her highschool sweetheart, LarryHolland. They moved to hisfamily’s Century Farmnorth of Marshall, where hehas lived his entire life.

Through the years, thecouple worked together tobuild a family farm.

There are very few jobsBeverly hasn’t helped withon the farm, with the excep-

tion of running the bulldoz-er and tiling machine.

“I bought two new 4-wheel drive tractors in1980,” Larry said. One wasrun by their long-timeemployee, Herb Malan,while Beverly ran the othertractor.

“They both had 7,000hours on them, when wegot rid of them, and I imag-ine Beverly put 6,500 ofthem on that one tractor,”he said.

She not only did springand fall field work, but alsoapplied chemicals whenthey were put on behind thefield cultivator.

Until this year, she ranthe grain cart during har-vest, before finally givingup the job to her grandson,Andrew Weiss fromJackson.

However, she still madesure everyone was fedthrough harvest, serving as“meals on wheels,” shelaughed.

Larry is also semi-retired, giving up combin-ing and planting to anothergrandson, Nick Thompson.Their daughter, LynnThompson, also works onthe farm, taking care of alarge cow herd and drivingtrucks during harvest.


Married shortly after high school, Beverly and LarryHolland have worked together building a family farm. Thecouple lives on the Holland Century Farm. Just recentlythey planted 150 pecan trees on a farm near Miami. Theyalso planted a few in their backyard.

See Holland, page 38

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were in 8th and 6th grade,Lynn had a babysittingbusiness in Marshall. Thechildren she had lookedafter since they werebabies were heading off tofirst grade. At the sametime, she knew her fatherwas in the process of look-ing for new farm help.

“I called him and said,‘Have you hired anyoneyet?’” she said.

“She’s been back herefull-time 15 years, but shehelped all the time any-way,” Beverly added.

Today, she still lovesworking full-time on theirfamily row-crop and cattlefarm. There is always

something to do.“I could go to town and

work somewhere 6 to 3 if I

had to, but I like getting upand putting my stockingcap on,” she said.

“Anybody can do it,they just have to want to.Like everyday, you have toget up every morning andthink who needs checked,what do we need to donext,?” Lynn added.

They sold out of thehog business many yearsago, but backgrounded

heifers for several years.Lynn would climb up

and down their feeders,

while their long-time hiredman, Herb Malan, drovethe tractor. However, afterHerb died from cancer,feeding the calves becametoo labor intensive to con-tinue.

“It would take twodays a week, all day long,just to keep feed groundfor the number of heifers,”Lynn said.

She would drive a 10-

wheeler to Macon every 10days to pick-up 10-12 tonsof distillers to use for theprotein.

“We started transition-ing into cows and that wassomething I could domyself and not have help,”Lynn said.

They are now buildingup the herd to includeheifers they have raisedthemselves, including athree-year-old and four-year old herd. They nowhave spring calving andfall calving cows.

They raise mostlyAngus and Angus crosscows, but are beginning toadd Gelbvieh and Balancer

ThompsonContinued from page 31

See Thompson, page 36

“I like getting up and puttingmy stocking cap on.”

Lynn Thompson, family farmer

Page 36

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cows.“We just start using

those bulls and will haveour first calves from themthis spring,” she said.

Lynn takes pride inseeing the cow herd theyhave built.

“I look at some ofthem, the markings onthem and I remember whenthey were born,” she said.“It’s just kind of cool toknow, the last two yearswe’ve gotten to where wewant to be.”

Her son, NickThompson, and nephew,Andrew Weiss, also workon the farm.

“Everybody’s on callfor everybody else. Wetake turns feeding. Thethree of us all work togeth-er,” she said. “They keeptrack of me.”

Since Lynn’s parentsare now semi-retired, Nickis taking care of the row-crops and ran the combineduring harvest this year.Lynn drove the semi-trucks, as she has for manyyears, while Andrew tookover driving the grain cart.

During harvest, Larryand neighbor Mike Deibel,who has helped for manyyears, went from farm tofarm, cleaning upfencerows and filling inditches with bulldozers.

Last spring the familystarted a new project,planting 150 pecan trees onsome of their land nearMiami. The grafted treeswere about 8-feet-tall.They will be planting 250more this spring.

Planting the trees,which already had a fewpecans this year, will beanother way to diversifytheir farm.

They know some pecangrowers from across theriver, and when they haveenough will start dis-cussing selling the pecanson shares.

Lynn said she plans oncontinuing to farm, “until Ifall over.”

“I hope I’m doing adecent job,” she said. “I’mdoing it to the best of myknowledge.”

When she has sparetime, she participates inbarrel races, something shehas done for about 20years.

“A friend of mine and Itravel together,” she said.She also enjoys riding herhorse through the cowsbehind her house nearMiami.

Nick and his wife,Elizabeth, have one son,Axel, 2 ½, who likes tocome help on the farm.Lynn’s other son, Joe, hashis own business inMarshall.


Page 37

Page 38

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soybeans, too, when theyfirst pop up in rows.

Although there aretimes she has a fantasy thatthe first load of crops shetakes to town is her last,fall makes her sad.

“It’s like the end of theseason, it’s like anotherphase of your life’s goneby,” she said.

However, she doesenjoy winter, especiallysince they no longer havelivestock.

“You don’t have to fretabout rain, snow or sleet,”she said.

Although there aretimes she thinks an 8 a.m.to 5 p.m. job might havebeen easier, she plans tokeep helping Charlie —who does love farming —until he’s ready to retire.

“Everybody tells meyou can just quit him,” shesaid. “Well, how can I quithim? Besides, what are wegoing to do?”

Bruce and his wife,Heather, live in Wildwoodand have two daughters,Reese and Brooke.Stephanie and her husband,Lance Tobin, live inMarshall with their twodaughters, Emily and Jani.

Beverly said farminghas been a way of life forthem.

“It may not be the mostprofitable way, but it’s theonly way to raise a family,”she said. “Its’ a good way toteach your family responsi-bilities. Everybody learns todo their part. “

She still takes care ofthe farm books and workedoutside of the home part-time during the 1980s sell-ing real estate.

With everyone in thefield, she said she kept thefarm crew fed, as everybodytook their lunches. SinceLynn has helped them full-time for 15 years, they oftenwork together to get thecrew fed.

“None of us are picky.Mom’s real good about justthrowing something togeth-er,” Lynn said.

Beverly said she wouldtell a young farm wife toremember the farm is a part-nership.

“You need to knowwhat’s going on,” she said,adding, “You need to rollwith the punches, someyears are good, a lot ofyears are not.”

The couple’s otherdaughter, Lesa Weiss, liveswith her husband inJackson. They have threegrandsons, two granddaugh-ters and one great-grandson,Axel Thompson. One oftheir granddaughters isexpecting their first great-granddaughter later thismonth.



Holland


To say 2012 was a greatyear for the Marshall HighSchool FFA chapter wouldbe an understatement.

After all, in April theywon Missouri’s top ChapterActivity award at the StateFFA Convention inColumbia. A few monthslater they found out theywere one of the nation’s top10 chapters, as a finalist inthe Model of Excellenceaward.

On Thursday, Oct. 25,chapter president AbreaMizer and senior CaleBoedeker stood on stage atthe National FFAConvention at Lucas OilStadium in Indianapolis toaccept the award as one ofthe top 10 out of 7,500chapters. Although anotherschool was announced asthe national winner, it didn’ttake away from all Marshallhad accomplished in 2012.

Their journey began atMissouri FFA Conventionon April 19. President AbreaMizer had just returned tothe convention hall after fin-ishing her CDE contest

when the state winners wereannounced on stage.

“Everyone started cheer-ing and screaming and cry-ing,” she said of the 30 orso Marshall members pres-ent.

“It was one of thosemoments you dream of, andit happened,” she said. “Idon’t want that to get over-shadowed, I really want to

be able to take that in. It’s abig year for us.”

But in August, just asschool was beginning, theaccomplishment took onnew meaning whenMarshall found out theywere named as a finalist forthe national FFA Model ofExcellence Award. Theirstate application was used asthe basis for the national

award. Both awards arebased on the chapter’s activ-ities.

In order to compete forthe national award, Mizer,Boedeker and junior KaylaElson spent many hourspreparing a 10-minutePowerPoint for judges high-lighting nine of the chap-

Page 39

See FFA, page 40

Marshall FFA rises above others in 2012

Contributed photo

The Marshall FFA Chapter rose to the top in 2012, first being named Missouriʼs topchapter and then being selected as a top 10 National FFA Model of Excellence winner.They were also presented the 3-star chapter award. About 17 members were inIndianapolis in October to receive the awards.

ter’s activities, three each in the areas of Chapter, Studentand Community development.

At the national convention they presented thePowerPoint, and answered about 10 minutes worth of ques-tions.

The activities they highlighted include a walk acrossMissouri, in which chapter members walked on the MHStrack, the equivalent miles of walking between Kansas Cityand St. Louis.

Their community activities included several for areaveterans, including a breakfast and assembly. They alsosponsored a “Kiss a Pig” contest to raise money for theVeteran Honor Flight. Four teachers were put up for theaward, and the one earning the most money had the honorof kissing a pig. The chapter also collected items andpacked care boxes to be sent to the National Guard agricul-ture unit in Afghanistan.

Chapter activities included forming membership coop-eratives.

“We divided all our members into six teams and theteams were led by officers so that way the officers had spe-cific people they kept in touch with to inform them of FFAevents,” Boedeker explained. “If they ever needed some-body to talk to, their leader was always there.”

Although they will never know exactly how they placedin the national award, the presenters were pleased with theirefforts.

“The presentation went very well,” Mizer said. “I really

couldn’t have asked for more. We answered questions real-ly well.”

They hope the chapter’s recognition this year will be aplatform to keep adding accomplishments.

“It’s another thing we can say we accomplished, butthere are still places to go and things that we have to getdone and things that have to improve,” Mizer said.

Although they will both graduate this year, Mizer andBoedeker said the new members are ready to keep building.

“I think they have more pride starting off and that’sgoing to keep the ball rolling for the chapter,” Mizer said.“I anticipate the future to be really good.”

Since returning back from the National Convention,

members haven’t been resting on their laurels. Just afterreturning they jumped into Veterans Day activities and theGreenhand initiation.

“We’re always busy,” Mizer said. “There is no downtime for sure. We’ve been busy the entire time we got backfrom convention.”

Although the officers, and advisors Callie Dobbins,Jason Price and Randy Plattner, keep busy, it is an entirechapter effort.

“Everyone gets involved and I think that’s what makesus one of the top chapters, because we have such a greatinvolvement of our members,” Mizer said.

Although the awards serve as motivation, Mizer saidthe most important part of being in FFA is developing skillsand giving back to the community.

“The awards are nice, but that’s really what it’s aboutand that’s one thing I hope the members see,” Mizer said.

Page 40

FFAContinued from page 39

Contributed photos

Fitness for all (above, right) and Boxes for soldiers arejust two of the many activities Marshall FFA members takepart in each school year.

Page 41

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Dale Miles, 78, grew up workingon his family’s farm just south ofMarshall and attending a one-roomschool. After graduating from eighthgrade with just four other classmates,his first year at Marshall High School(in the building that is now BuekerMiddle School) was a bit of a cultureshock.

“It took me three days to figureout that the numbers 100, 200 and 300meant what floors the classes wereon,” he laughed.

He soon got involved in FFA,which turned out to be a “Godsend.”

“I didn’t know it at the time, but Ihad a great instructor,” he said.Morton Craig was only there for fiveyears before he left to take a job in adifferent industry.

“He challenged me to do some dif-ferent things and argued with me onwhat was right and wrong,” he said. “Iguess that’s where I got my ability toshoot off to some different things andtry different things.”

Miles became an FFA state officerand got his American Farmer Degreein 1954.

“There is no better leadership pro-gram than FFA,” he said.

After graduating high school in1952, Miles, now 78, began farmingwith his father, Richard. At the time,his father still planted their crops withteams and a two-row planter.

Soon after he started, they pur-chased an F20 tractor, using it to diskand do other field work.

Eventually they purchased an 8NFord tractor and mounted a two-rowplanter onto it, which his father ran forseveral years.

“Then we got a four-row planterand he was not happy with that deci-

sion,” Miles said. Eventually, though,he said his father liked the updatedequipment.

When Dale got drafted into mili-tary service in 1956, his father pur-chased a larger tractor.

“He bought a 400 International, soit would be easier for him to keep theland going for two years,” he said,adding his father was a hard worker.

The cost of starting to farm wasmuch lower than it is now, and Milessaid his father helped him.

“The boss was very good to me,”he said.

Their biggest difference wasDale’s willingness to take more risksin farming.

“The depression left him veryreluctant to take any chances and I canunderstand that,” Miles said. “I wasmore of a gambler. I’m sure he lost alot of sleep over that at times.”

Most of those decisions paid offuntil the 1980s, when the farm econo-my took a downturn.

“Then I made some wrong movesand made us sweat some,” he said.“By that time he had turned it over to

me pretty well.”Miles raised hogs for many years,

first outside, and then in confinementuntil quitting altogether a few yearsago.

“Hogs were a challenge, but Ialways liked them,” he said. “Theywere good to me.”

When he first started farming, theyfarrowed their sows west of the house,carrying feed to them by hand.However, the coyotes figured out howto team up on the sows and draw heraway to snatch a baby pig. That madethe sows naturally mean.

“Sometimes you had to run likethe devil to get away from them,because they thought you were goingto do something with the pigs,” hesaid. “We had to quit farrowing out forthat reason, the coyotes were taking abunch of our pigs.”

Eventually they were farrowing150 sows in buildings which they builtthrough the years.

As the hog business changed inthe 1990s, they became part owners ofa sow farrowing complex in Lafayette

Page 42

Miles spends lifetime on farm


Dale Miles grew up on his familyʼs farm south of Marshall. Although nowretired, he still occasionally helps his son, Brian, who has taken over the busi-ness.

See Miles, page 43

County. They would get early weaned pigs to raise in theirbuildings.

Besides the hogs and row crops, through the years theyalso raised cows, and fed 30-50 out a year on an adjacentfarm.

Richard, who lived until he was 96-years-old, workedwith his son for many years, before gradually getting out ofthe partnership.

Later, Miles and his neighbor, Wayne Buck, farmedtogether for several years.

“(Wayne) did the planting and my dad was kind of thegopher, like I am now,” Miles said.

It was just after he came home from service, 1958,when Miles had met his future wife.

“My aunt introduced me to Grace and we had our firstdate on the 10th day of November, got engaged Christmasand married in April,” he said. “I knew when I found ajewel. She was the one for me.”

He and Grace, the long time Saline County collector,have been married for almost 54 years.

They raised three children on the farm, two daughters,Connie (Kiburz), Annette (Bishop), and a son, Brian. Theyhave five grandsons and three granddaughters.

In the 1990s, Brian came back to the farm after gradu-ating with honors from the University of Missouri.

“Nowadays I wonder if a person can farm withoutgoing to college,” Miles said, noting how computers andGPS have changed the business.

When Brian joined the farm, they rented more land.“I was backing out and he was going strong and getting

more ground,” he said.Just like when he joined the farm 40 years before, there

was an adjustment period.“We’re both hard-headed, but it’s worked out well,”

Miles said. “We are very proud of him.”About three years ago, they got out of the pig business

altogether.“I’m glad Brian got out of it,” he said. “We lost a lot of

money in the last few years. Brian didn’t like the livestockand that’s fine. He is very, very good at row crop.”

Now officially retired, Miles still helps run errands,even taking over the combine driving for a few hours, ifneeded.

Computerized equipment and cost are two of thebiggest changes in farming.

“The biggest change is the acres it takes to make a liv-ing and the expense of putting in a crop.”

Although running the farm took a lot of time, Milesstill found time for many other activities in the community.

Those included sports, playing basketball in winter andsoftball in the summer. He was also a long-time member ofthe Marshall school board, Saline County Fair board andPork Producers. They belong to First Christian Church,where he has served as an elder, a deacon, and member ofthe board. He has been on the Farm Service AgencyCounty Committee for six years and currently serves aschairman. He was also on the Federal Land Bank for sever-al years.

Page 43

MilesContinued from page 42

File photo

Dale Miles (center) has been a long-time member of theFarm Service Agency County Committee, which helpsoversee USDA programs for farmers.

Page 44

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