Wednesday, February 25, 2026
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Living the life of Riley … in Riley

By
Milo Yield
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Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield
Well, faithful readers, Nevah and I have finally moved and settled into our new home and our new fiber optic internet connection (it’s fast) is up and running.  So, it’s column-writing time once again. No more excuses.
We moved Oct. 7 and with a lot of good help got the entire move done in one trip. We spent most of the first week, unpacking and finding an appropriate place for the main items. That process is still on-going in the garage.
So now, I’m happily reporting that I’m “Living the life of Riley … in Riley” — both literally and figuratively.
Our new home is just outside the little town of Riley, Kan., which is in the northwest corner of Riley County. Our daughter and son-in-law have a home a mile away. Also, since we have downsized, it made sense to change the name of our property from Damphewmore Acres, to Damphewer Acres.
After living in our new home for almost two weeks, I can list a growing number of things about our new home that make living here the “Life of Riley.”  Many are features that a hairy-legged, pot-bellied ol’ country boy like me would have considered “fantasy land” in my youth. And, I’m not talking about them to brag, but to express wonderment and amazement.
First, in our former home, we had to carry groceries the full length of the house and garage — probably 40 yards — to the kitchen.
In our new home, it’s less than 20 steps from the garage to the kitchen, humongous pantry, and deep freezer. That’s good for 80-year-old backs and knees.
We have a huge kitchen island that serves as the hub for all things that happen in the main living area. It’s particularly handy for using the electric skillet, crock pot, or grill. Another nice feature is that I don’t have to stand on my head — like I did in our former home — to get cooking pans or to get food storage containers out of drawers. They are all thigh-high accessible from drawers that expand when you pull them out. Another feature of the kitchen drawers is they won’t slam shut. They have cushioned closing and shut themselves the last few inches.
Another lazy-living feature is a propane-fueled fireplace that can be turned off and on and flame-adjusted with a handy-dandy remote control. So, can the ceiling lighting.
One more feature that I appreciate is the shower control. It has a control that  lets me set the water temperature in advance, so that every time I turn the water on, it flows at my preferred temperature without fiddling around with the control. No more freezing and scalding getting the water adjusted.
Both the new kitchen range and the microwave have features that let us adjust to multiple cooking and reheating conditions. As a constant snacker and cheese eater, I appreciate that our new refrigerator has a separate pull-out drawer for access to cheeses and deli-meats. It even has an easy-access  “snack zone.”
The sliding doors to our back patio feature internal “mini-blinds” that are enclosed between the glass panes. I can raise, lower, or tilt the blinds with a simple control device.
All in all, I guess Nevah and I are living a “Rurlban” lifestyle now. We are urban enuf to hook onto city sewer, so we don’t have to mess around with a septic tanks or sewer lagoon, but we are rural enuf that we had to dig a well for our water supply. That’s turning  out to be a good deal so far because the well has a high capacity and we won’t have a monthly water bill. In addition, the new water softener the builder installed doesn’t require the use of any softening salts. It uses two big replaceable cartridges instead … and the softened water is plant safe.
Our new home is north-south oriented, so we have perfect viewing of sunrises and sunsets. But, the plat is flat as a pancake with no trees for shade. Just for nostalgia’s sake, I’m going to plant a “memorial oak” sapling that I brought from our former home. And, I’m in the process of trying to plant a lawn while the area is still in a drought.
***
One interesting thing happened here. When we went into the post office to set up our new address, the postmistress saw the name “Milo Yield” and exclaimed “so, you’re the one!” Then she told me her parents live in rural Wyoming and read my column every week. They had informed their daughter to keep on the watch for me when I moved to Riley. I told her to have her parents drop by for an intro whenever they next visit her.
***
A farmer sadly told his doctor, “I can’t pay you, Doc. I slowed down doing all the hard work I needed to do on my farm — just like you advised me to do — and I and went broke.”
***
A harried farm wife dented the family pickup on a trip to town to fetch parts. In tears, she went to a local body shop and asked, “Can you fix this fender so my husband won’t know I bent it?”
The body-man replied, “Nope, but I can fix it so you can ask him in a few days, how he bent it.”
Words of wisdom for the week. “Experience may be a great teacher, but it overloads its students with homework.”
Have a good ‘un.

The dead zone

By
John Marshall
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john marshal

Half the world erupts: Gaza in ruin, the Middle East a powder keg. War continues in Ukraine. Haiti, west Africa, Central America and Europe’s Balkans could blow any minute. The United Nations holds a long agenda of grief and grievance.
And in Washington, Congress roils. In a world desperate for unified leadership, the U.S. House is a goat ranch with no fence. The Senate’s troupe of unsteady herders probes the terrain for a stable footpath. In a nation at odds with itself, Congress is our accessory to chaos.
It wasn’t always this way. For evidence, consider Ken Burns’ engaging documentary, “The Congress”. This film tells us that government once worked, its foundation an elaborate system of compromise. Released in 1988, it remains an American Primer with enduring lessons.
Burns’ film explains that Congress embraced American sensibilities and common sense. It traces more than two centuries to the beginning, to John Adams, the obligations and responsibilities of a Congress that served the people who sent members to Washington. It is about a different Congress and Washington. Those earlier years may not have been such good old days, but for the Congress and the president and most Americans they were far more productive.
*
What a change: A Congress today of intransigence and ignorance, of shrillness and platitudes, of misfeasance, phobia and demagoguery rising like swamp gas through the Capitol’s hallowed halls.
One of the lessons drawn from “The Congress” is that our current version is incapable of writing the better laws that others had once fashioned; indeed, it cannot conceive of them, much less debate them.
Consider what was accomplished in times when legislators and the president were vibrant and supreme: Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal, its Robber Baron-busting enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, its banking laws, gold standard, Social Security, Depression-ending public works, soil conservation and flood control programs; Truman’s Fair Deal, its provisions for farm aid, unemployment compensation, public works, a minimum wage; and Truman’s Marshall Plan, which saved postwar Europe; Eisenhower’s Interstate highway program, Nixon’s revenue sharing – none of these glorious reforms, not to mention many others, would have a chance in the disorder that is Washington today.
Every major component of Kennedy’s New Frontier and Johnson’s Great Society – the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts, Medicare and Medicaid, the space program (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo 11, the moon!..), the Peace Corps, Consumer Protection acts including meat inspection, weights and measures, clean air and water legislation, and more –would be filibustered out and washed down today’s congressional sewer. Indeed, much of this legislation, the agencies and policies it created, is under threat today.
*
Burns’s film breathes irony. Time has turned it from the portrait of a great institution to the tale of a failed one. It tells us what Congress is no longer capable of doing. Even such basics as health insurance, road and bridge maintenance and improvement, and education are beyond reach. We can no longer conduct clean elections. Yesterday’s gifted Congress points to today’s lack of one.
Washington was once a place that welcomed ideas, not dogma. Then it became a place where ideas went to die. Now it is a place where ideas don’t go at all.

5 ways to reduce stress and fight pneumonia on the dairy

By
Guest Columnist
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Photo credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

As reported in High Plains Journal stress doesn’t just impact the hardworking dairy producer, it can also impact our calves. External stressors and management factors can compromise their immune system and make them susceptible to respiratory disease. Weaning, transportation and vaccination, to name a few, are all events in a calf’s life that can cause stress.

But there are things we can do to manage stress and keep calves healthy. “Taking a closer look at our management practices and improving them can help producers prevent respiratory infections from taking a toll on their herd and their bottom line,” said Dr. Linda Tikofsky, DVM, Boehringer Ingelheim.

Implementing the following can help mitigate stress and prevent disease in your herd:

No. 1: Prioritize cleanliness and comfort

“I’ve seen calves raised successfully in a variety of housing situations,” Tikofsky observed. “Much of that success comes down to good management.”

Calves should be put in a clean, well-bedded, draft-free space that shields them from harsh weather conditions. “It is essential that housing for heifers has good ventilation to reduce airborne pathogens and dust that can put disease pressure on young animals,” stated Tikofsky.

Individual calf pens, where young calves don’t have nose-to-nose contact, are the best option to minimize the transmission of respiratory pathogens. If group housing is required, keep calves in small groups with at least 22 to 33 square feet per calf.

No. 2: Practice low-stress handling

How we handle calves can greatly impact their stress levels, and it can also impact how they react to being handled in the future.

“When handling calves, we want to walk in positions where they can see us, and avoid staying directly behind them in their blind spot,” explained Tikofsky. “Other low-stress handling techniques include presenting a calm disposition, avoiding loud noises and removing visual distractions.”

No. 3: Feed calves a well-balanced diet

A structured feeding schedule, in which the calf is fed at the same time every day, reduces stress and improves average daily gain. The amount of feed should also be increased in colder weather, as animals burn more calories to stay warm. Work with a nutritionist to ensure calves are well-fed with a properly balanced diet.

No. 4: Manage parasites

Clinical or subclinical parasitism can suppress an animal’s immune system and decrease their ability to fight disease. Even calves kept in a confined environment can benefit from lice and mange control in the winter months. “Keep animals comfortable and tackle parasites by working with a veterinarian to implement a deworming protocol that works for your operation,” emphasized Tikofsky.

No. 5: Be ready with a game plan during stressful events

Even with the best management practices in place, some stressful events such as shipping are unavoidable. “When producers know that animals are about to experience a stressful event, metaphylaxis is an option to explore,” noted Tikofsky. Administering metaphylaxis, or a group antibiotic treatment, for at-risk animals can help reduce morbidity and mortality.

“Talk with a veterinarian about finding an antibiotic for metaphylaxis that works best for your herd,” Tikofsky concluded. “Typically, several factors should be evaluated, such as spectrum of activity, speed of action and post-metaphylactic interval, or the length of time the antibiotic is at effective levels in the bloodstream before another dose is required.”

Oilseed can be used to support regenerative agriculture

By
Guest Columnist
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0

As reported in High Plains Journal Syngenta Seeds, LLC, Downers Grove, Illinois, part of the Syngenta Group, and Sustainable Oils, Inc., Great Falls, Montana, a subsidiary of Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc., have entered into a new agreement.

The agreement is sell camelina sativa (camelina) seed—an ultra-low carbon oilseed crop that can be used as feedstock, an ingredient in sustainable animal feed, or for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable fuels.

The collaboration reflects Syngenta’s commitment to enabling farmers to economically adopt regenerative practices around the world. Camelina can be planted on fallow land or land left idle between crop cycles.

It is valued for its low water usage, quick maturity, and resilient yields. Camelina protects land like a cover crop providing a range of environmental benefits, including soil health and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

By offering farmers a new cash crop in high demand, the commercial partnership promotes a more diverse and resilient agricultural system. That can help deliver direct economic benefits to farmers from their otherwise idle or fallow farm acres.

Camelina seed will be sold through Syngenta’s AgriPro dealer network in a vertical marketing model. Farmers who buy camelina seed will have a harvest purchase contract. There is no marketing risk for the farmer since there is already an integrated value chain model.

In addition, producing camelina is an attractive option, providing farmers with quick soil cover and improved soil structure, without displacing another crop or requiring new equipment.

Camelina seed will be marketed in select areas of western Kansas, Colorado, Montana and the Pacific Northwest. It can be included as a spring crop in a wheat-fallow rotation in Montana and the Pacific Northwest, and as a winter crop in Kansas and Colorado.

2024 wheat crop already faces challenge

By
Guest Columnist
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0

As reported in High Plains Journal on the heels of planting his 2024 wheat crop, western Kansas farmer Ron Suppes lamented a rather bleak future, with equal shares of blame for the weather and politics.

Based in Lane County, with an operation that reaches into Scott and Finney counties, Suppes guessed in early October there was just enough moisture for the crop to emerge and achieve adequate top growth before winter dormancy.

But with a relatively dry subsoil, regular doses of rain will be necessary on the long journey to the early summer 2024 harvest.

“Farmers are hustling right now. They know the moisture is leaving,” he said. “They need to get with it if they’re going to have a stand.”

Many perils await Suppes, a Kansas Wheat commissioner who is on a number of agriculture-related state and federal committees.

Worries include the high cost of inputs—fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, machinery, interest on operating capital, and inadequate crop insurance coverage—commodity markets, and other global issues.

Price a big unknown

Looking forward, Suppes fears chances are grim for a competitive price when combines begin to whir next summer.

Daniel O’Brien, a Kansas State University Research and Extension agricultural economist, based in Colby, projected the full economic cost breakeven price for a decent wheat harvest next year—with yields of 45 bushels to the acre—at $9.01 a bushel, factoring in the full cost of cash rent and machinery costs. This compares to direct or cash costs—less cash rent and machinery costs—of production at $5.70 per bushel.

The local cash price in Dighton was hovering just below $6 a bushel early this month, Suppes said.

Most farmers make their cropping decisions based on these “direct costs” O’Brien said, which considers fertilizer, seed, fuel, labor and other cash costs, but not cash rent and machinery investments.

In this case, he said direct costs of production for wheat in wheat-summer crop-fallow rotations are estimated to be $5.70 per bushel at the 45-bushel yield level in southwest Kansas.

In comparison to currently available new crop July 2024 wheat bids of $6.29 a bushel offered by local grain elevators on Oct. 4, there would be a profit of 59 cents a bushel over the $5.70 direct cost breakeven, O’Brien said, that would be available to go toward paying cash rents and replacing farm equipment.

“From a long term full economic cost perspective, you would be operating at a loss,” O’Brien said. “That said, in the drought- and weather-challenged areas of western Kansas, our farmers don’t consistently meet the financial goal of covering full economic costs for the crops we grow here.” In this case, to cover total expenses at the $6.29 selling price, farms would need yields of 64-bushel per acre to cover expenses—rather than the 45 bushel per acre average currently estimated in the K-State crop budget.

Other crops in similar straits

Same goes for all major crops—wheat, sorghum, corn, sunflowers, and soybeans.

“All of them would be challenged to cover full economic costs at average yields and current selling prices,” O’Brien said. “That’s what is driving us to fewer, but larger, farms in Kansas and elsewhere. It’s a major problem we have with agriculture in western Kansas, that we have a difficult time covering our true full economic costs with the crops we produce.”

How those facts affect farmers “depends on what value you put on your own income, how leveraged you are in land and equipment, and interest rates, which are not very friendly right now,” Suppes said. “We’ve got a lot of different things going right now, including a global influence. When you’ve got Russia and Ukraine exporting 30% of the wheat in the world, and they don’t care much about the profits they receive, that makes our stuff pretty cheap.”

Export picture

Naomi Blohm sides with Suppes’s concerns. The senior market advisor with Total Farm Marketing expects typical changes to occur this month.

“I can tell you that our exports are only average, as Russia is undercutting wheat prices and is gaining some global business because of that,” Blohm said.

“However, now that wheat prices are so low, I would think that we will see an uptick in U.S. wheat exports, soon.”

Thus, some of the gloom could ease temporarily.

“Seasonally, both Chicago and Kansas City wheat futures prices have a tendency to increase for a few weeks in early October—then fizzle out,” Blohm said.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has played a role in price spikes, Suppes said.

“Every time Russia makes a move into Ukraine, it improves the prices, but when the wheat price is high, inputs follow, and they stay up while the wheat price is falling,” he said. “What I’m concerned about right now is the way Russia is manipulating the price. They flood the market. Part of it could be Ukraine wheat, too.”

Meanwhile, Suppes said, “farmers hear in the news about the aid we’re giving to Ukraine, especially farmers and even shop keepers, and their fertilizer is getting subsidized. That’s a hard pill for us to swallow. We’re not in the best shape either.”

Tim Unruh can be reached at [email protected].

White wheat revival could benefit High Plains growers 

By Tim Unruh 

Ron Suppes favors ramping up production of hard white winter wheat in Kansas, “so we’re not competing so much with Russia.” 

Categorized as “the newest and the smallest class of wheat in the United States,” according to uswheat.org, advantages exist in milling and baking. 

“There is little difference in kernels, with the exception that hard white’s outer covering is thinner, making it more conducive for whole grain,” Suppes said. “The bitterness is less and you’re able to mill the whole kernel. We’re trying to convince the industry.” 

Hard white winter wheat is primarily grown in the central Plains, Montana, Idaho and California—with a heavy smattering in western Kansas, eastern Colorado and southwest Nebraska. 

Domestic production ranged from 0.7 million metric tons in 2021 to 0.5 mmt in 2022, versus 14.1 mmt of hard red winter wheat. 

“Hard white was starting out to be a big deal 30 years ago, but we got our cart in front of the horse, produced a bunch of white wheat and didn’t have much of a market for it,” Suppes said. 

A healthy market for hard white exists today in Nigeria, Taiwan and Mexico, he said, but now there is not enough production in the United States to meet those countries’ needs. 

“We not only have domestic customers for hard white winter wheat, but for years, international buyers have been clamoring for our product. Rather than to continue to lose white wheat acres we need to grasp the situation. This would be possible and is within reach only if all the U.S. wheat industry gets on board,” Suppes said “There is not enough critical mass. Hard white wheat needs its own market on the board of trade. It should be treated as its own commodity.” 

Separating the traditional hard red winter wheat from the hard white winter wheat at the grain elevators proved problematic, he said. Today, the gradual increase in identity-preserved hard white winter wheat is primarily in farmer-owned storage. 

“Elevators are docking (price) for hard white,” Suppes said. “We’re trying to increase the percentage of hard white to have more flexibility. We’ve kind of given that market to Australia, and the other competitor is Canada. 

“If we could turn about a third of Kansas into hard white wheat and a third of Oklahoma and Texas, we could go into a higher end market—Asia. We would get into more markets.” F

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