By Matt Aultman “If you ate today, thank a farmer,” many have seen these bumper stickers on vehicles throughout the country, but if you think about this statement, it involves more than a farmer. What got me thinking about this is when I recently went to the American Farm Bureau Annual meeting in Nashville, and […]
I recently read an article about how the Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack outlined how agriculture is becoming less and less relevant. I went through a multitude of emotions when I first read it and I came to an epiphany that he is absolutely right. As a farming community, we have become united and we have […]
Father of Ammoniated Nitrogen for plant nutrients By Matt Aultman darkecountyfarmer@gmail.com Haber was born in Breslau, Germany. From 1886 until 1891, he studied at the University of Heidelberg under Robert Bunsen (more noted for the Bunsen burner like what is found in many Chemistry classrooms). Before starting his own academic career, he worked at his […]
Nitrate poisoning of livestock is a condition which will affect the ruminant animals from digesting forages or adsorption of water that has high levels of nitrates in them. Under normal circumstances, nitrates are ingested by the livestock and then are converted into nitrites that are then converted to ammonia in the rumen and then into […]
Matt Aultman darkecountyfarmer@gmail.com As the summer ends, so do the county fairs. Our family enjoys attending the fairs extensively, so we can meet up with friends, family and neighbors. We look forward to the few days we get to spend together talking about old times, about our children growing up and what has happened to […]
We are dealing with some extraordinary weather this year and with that high temperatures and dry conditions affect us all and it also takes a toll on our livestock. High temperatures raise the incidents of heat stress in livestock, especially when coupled with dry conditions and high humidity. When animals are going through times of […]
I felt it was appropriate to highlight the inverts of the implements that we use to sow the seeds. Grain or Seed Drill A grain drill seems simple enough in device but imagine if you will prior to the invention of the grain drill everything was done by hand. Plating by hand is wasteful and not very […]
A common question that I get asked while selling feed to growers is: “What is organics?” Over the next couple of articles I will try my best to answer a few of the most asked questions. What is organic food? Organic is primarily a labeling term that is used on a wide variety of foods […]