Monday, March 16, 2026
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Soybean Commissioners set March meeting ahead of Commodity Classic

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Guest Columnist
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Kansas Soybean Commissioners are scheduled to meet March 7 in Orlando, Florida, ahead of the 2023 Commodity Classic. The meeting begins at 8 a.m.
One item on the agenda is filling the board positions for Districts 4, 5 and 6, which were up for election in the latest cycle. Districts 4 and 6 are to be appointed. For individuals who reside in these districts and want to be involved, an application for the position is available online at www.kansassoybeans.org/forms.
Commissioners volunteer their time to oversee the investment of checkoff dollars to improve profit potential for all soybean farmers in Kansas. They attend three meetings annually and participate in conference calls as needed. The soybean checkoff reimburses Commissioners for travel and other expenses related to their service. Applicants must be a Kansas resident at least 18 years old and must have been engaged in growing soybeans within the last three years to qualify. The Commission seeks to ensure, to the best of its ability, that appointees reflect the diversity of the farmers it serves in terms of farm size, experience, production methods, and marketing strategies. The appointee will take his or her seat on the Commission at the annual meeting in August. Nine farmer-leaders serve on the commission, each elected by region to a three-year term.
Commissioners will also hear and discuss adjustments on a small number of projects included in the fiscal year 2024 funding proposal process. The board may go into executive session to discuss confidential or contractual matters.
To obtain a complete agenda for the March meeting, or receive information about participating, contact KSC Administrator Kaleb Little at [email protected] or call the Kansas Soybean office at 877-577-6923.
Commissioners are attending Commodity Classic, America’s largest farmer-led, farmer-focused trade show, in March to network with soybean farmers across the country and learn from industry leaders. The national soybean checkoff regularly hosts a trade show booth and listening sessions at Classic.

Kelly and Docking (3) Last of three articles

By
John Marshall
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john marshal

By 1974, the last of Robert Docking’s eight years as governor of Kansas, the cost of state government had doubled, from a record $638 million in 1967 to $1.3 billion in fiscal 1975.
Today it’s more than $20 billion, including federal aid.
Nearly half this is the state’s $9.5 billion general fund. Legislators focus on this fund because it reflects the state’s day-to-day operating expenses, financed chiefly by state sales and income taxes. This year it’s fattened with a $2 billion surplus.
Then as now, inflation has come to Kansas. Inflation as a force in Topeka was incubated long ago in Washington by borrowing money to finance a war abroad (Vietnam), and a war on poverty and stagnation at home ‒ President Johnson’s “Great Society”, an historic expansion of federal programs in America.
In 1967, total state spending during Docking’s first year in office was about $300 million short of this year’s benefit package for state employees ($953 million in health insurance, FICA, etc.). In 1967, $2,500 bought a new Ford Mustang; today it might cover half a semester’s tuition at a state university.
After Docking, total budgets under Republican Gov. Robert Bennett (1975-’79) increased from $1.5 billion to a bit more than $2 billion at an average increase of 11 percent ($178 million) per year.
Although spending continued to rise under Democratic Gov. John Carlin (1979-’87), the rate was half what it had been under Docking and Bennett, and the average yearly increase in dollars was less.
During Carlin’s two 4-year terms, spending went from $2.4 billion in1979 to $3.7 billion through 1986. The average yearly increase, 6 percent, was $163 million. Carlin kept spending increases at less than 10 percent, and in some cases far less, in every year but one ‒ 1982, when the state increase was 10 percent and inflation was rampant across America, with a prime lending rate at 20 percent or higher.
No matter how the numbers are recited they cannot be explained in terms other than inflationary and the pressure of the federal dollar on the cost-price squeeze in government.
*
For half a century, money from Washington has composed from 22 to 25 percent of total spending in the state budget. Although the proportion has stayed about the same, the amounts have multiplied exponentially ‒ more than five-fold by the 1980s and ten-fold by the’90s.
In 1967 the Kansas budget contained $139.5 million in federal funds. In fiscal 1974, the first year state spending topped $1 billion, the federal source was nearly $274 million. In fiscal 1979, when the budget topped $2 billion, nearly $483million came from Washington. And in 1986, $750 million of $3.5 billion in state spending were federal dollars.
Today’s $6.04 billion in federal money ‒ 30 percent of total state spending ‒ is 42 times the $139.5 million Kansas received in 1967.
This is because each year Kansans, like Nebraskans and Oklahomans, Californians and New Yorkers and people in every other state want and need and ask for more from Washington.
Of this year’s total federal receipts in Kansas, more than half ‒ $3.4 billion ‒ is for human services and most of that, $2.9 billion, is for the state health department (Covid) and $412 million is for social welfare programs.
Another $1 billion goes to the State Department of Education (local schools) and $750 million to the Board of Regents and six state universities.
These totals do not include federal payments for Social Security, Medicare subsidies, a long list of farm supports, disaster aid and other programs. We participate in the name of better schools and highways, help for the poor, the elderly, the sick. Airports and railroads, endowments for the arts, aid for communities stricken by disaster, help for farmers and hundreds of other groups are on the state list of benefactors of federal aid.
Kansas is part of a global inflation, a national inflation, a system that we helped create. The dilemma is not exclusive to a single governor or legislature. Those state dollars in 1967 have grown over decades to involve federal dollars in an explosion of increased need and largesse. Far from being a state of independents, we nourish dependency.
The question today, as then, is how to continue sound management and deal with a budget surplus, its embarrassment of riches. Today, as then, it calls for legislative leadership with a will to invest ‒ and save ‒ wisely.

Downsizing surprises

By
Milo Yield
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Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield

As I’ve mentioned before, ol’ Nevah and I are in the process of downsizing our lives. It’s pretty much mandatory because of our advancing ages. And, we can’t deny it’s getting more and more difficult to keep up with everything that needs done at Damphewmore Acres.
Plus, when we get our new home built, hopefully by next fall, there simply won’t be enuf space in the new house and garage for all the current “stuff” we possess. We made sure of that on purpose!
So, the two old pickups are gone and a big pile of my writings and collections already have found a new home at Texas Tech University.
Now, a downsizing auction sale for us is somewhere on the horizon. And, last week I began that process by starting an auction list from items in the outbuildings and the garage. So, far the list is lengthy and getting longer by the day. I started by listing all the motorized equipment, implements and attachments.
Then I moved on to all the tools and items I use in gardening, raising chickens, and maintaining the place. All the hunting and fishing gear followed. So far, the list is on the 4th page, and we haven’t even started listing from the house itself. For sure, every item in our basement will have to go — plus lots of stuff from upstairs, too.
While I was sorting drawers and cabinets of stuff in the garage, I got some surprises. First, down on the bottom shelf of the work bench, I dragged out an almost full roll of brand new, long-forgotten 12-gauge copper wiring, and a big box of new electrical plugs, switches and plates that we can use in the new home. I’ll bet I couldn’t replace it for $200.
But, the biggest surprise was when I uncovered a thin plastic carrying case stashed among the decrepit electric drills and saws. It wuz too thin to be a power tool and too big to be a discarded filleting knife. So, imaging my surprise when I opened the case and inside found a brand new extravagant set of drill bits and drivers in full geometric display— wood, metal, Phillips, hexagon, flat — every kind and size you could imagine.
And the weird thing is this: I can’t remember ever buying the case of bits, nor do I recall ever receiving them as a gift — which must be what happened. At first, I wuz a bit peeved at myself because I could have been using them for years. But then I realized that I could take that full set of bits to our new home and sell at the auction all the odd ball, misfit drill bits kits that I’ve been using.
So, it just goes to prove that everyone should go through their old “stuff” every once in a while. You might be surprised at what you uncover.
***
One Sunday, when counting the money in the weekly offering, the pastor of a small rural church found a pink envelope containing $1,000. It happened again the next week!
The following Sunday, he watched as the offering was collected and saw an elderly farm widow put the distinctive pink envelope on the plate. This went on for weeks until the pastor, overcome by curiosity, approached her.
“Ma’am, I couldn’t help but notice that you put $1,000 a week in the collection plate,” he stated.
“Why yes,” she replied, “every week my son sends me money and I tithe a tenth of it to the church.”
The pastor replied, “That’s wonderful. But $1,000 is a lot. Are you sure you can afford this? How much does he send you?”
The elderly woman answered, “$10,000 a week.”
The pastor was amazed. “Your son is very successful. What does he do for a living?”
“He is a veterinarian,” she answered.
“That’s an honorable profession, but I had no idea they made that much money,” the pastor said. “Where does he practice?”
The woman answered proudly, “In Nevada. He has two cat houses — one in Las Vegas, and one in Reno.”
***
A busy farm wife was called to come to her daughter’s school for an emergency meeting with the principal. Her daughter was in the 9th grade.
When she arrived and entered the principal’s office, he told her, “I thought you should know we have discovered proof that your daughter is part of the drug culture. Come with me and look.”
The mother went with the principal to her daughter’s locker and opened it.
“See that,” he said. “It’s pretty plain to me that your daughter is into drugs!”
The astonished mother looked at the principal, pulled a book out of her daughter’s backpack and saw “LSD” was written all over it.
The mother turned around and said, “Our daughter’s name is Linda Sue Davis, you idiot!”
***
Words of wisdom for the geezers, like me, and geezerettes, too: “I’ve reached the age where ‘happy hour’ is a nap.” “Do you realize that, in a few years, we’ll have thousands of old ladies and gents running around with wrinkly tattoos?” “After 60, if you don’t wake up aching in every joint, you’re probably dead.”
Have a good ‘un.

 

Succulents

By
Guest Columnist
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The definition of a succulent plant is: Having thick, fleshy, water-storing leaves or stems. Defined by theses thick leaves, these hardy plants handle being forgotten during a vacation perfectly. Even more-so, some are so adapted to low moisture that they do best if you leave them alone for months at a time. Our theme for the Harvey County Home and Garden Show this year is “The Art of Succulents” to be held at the Dyck Arboretum in Hesston March 25 and 26, 2023.
My favorite succulent is the Jade. These common South African plants are enjoyed for their ease of care, though they may be more intensive and less drought tolerant than many other succulents. They require a little more attention to their moisture level than their drought-hardy friends, so if you can’t stand seeing dry soil, the Jade Plant is a fun choice! While normally sold quite small, the Jade Plant can certainly grow into a small, indoor tree at 5 feet tall! In time, its stems can develop a darker, thicker skin that resembles a tree trunk. It makes an interesting tree with numerous fat leaves on its branches!

The following is basic care of Jade:
1. Indoor or Outdoor: Best grown indoors, though some gardeners have luck outdoors.
2. Recommended zone: Hardy to zones 10-11.
3. Care difficulty: Intermediate.
4. Light: Full sun, as much as possible without burning the leaves, at least four hours per day.
5. Soil: Well-draining potting mix.
6. Water: Keep moist during growing season, allow to dry slightly during dormant period.
7. Fertilizer: At 25-50% strength once every 3-4 months. Do not fertilize dry soil.

KU News via Media

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Guest Columnist
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From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch
A fossil fruit from California shows ancestors of coffee and potatoes survived cataclysm that killed the dinosaurs

LAWRENCE — The discovery of an 80-million-year-old fossil plant pushes back the known origins of lamiids to the Cretaceous, extending the record of nearly 40,000 species of flowering plants including modern-day staple crops like coffee, tomatoes, potatoes and mint.

Brian Atkinson, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas and curator of paleobotany at the KU Biodiversity Institute, recently published a study of the fossil plant, named Palaeophytocrene chicoensis, in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Plants.

“This fossil tells us a really diverse group of flowering plants evolved prior to our original understanding,” Atkinson said. “The fossil belongs to a group of lianas, which are woody vines that add structural complexity to rainforests. It shows us this group of flowering plants appeared super early in the fossil record. There’d been some hypotheses that they were around in the Cretaceous period — but no good clear evidence. This is a great indicator that structurally complex, modern-type rainforests may have been around as early as 80 million years ago.”

According to the KU researcher, the fossil fruit sheds new light on a “critical interval” in the history of life on Earth.

“It’s a time when forests are transitioning from being dominated by gymnosperms such as conifers to being dominated by flowering plants,” Atkinson said. “We know these ecological transitions occurred during the Late Cretaceous — but we still need critical pieces of evidence, like how certain ecosystems formed, such as rainforests, which today comprise over half of plant species that are alive today. This fossil shows this diverse group of plants, the lamiids, were older than previously thought, and Cretaceous ecosystems on the west coast of North America may have resembled structurally complex rainforests.”

The well-preserved fossil was unearthed in the 1990s by construction crews building housing near Granite Bay in Sacramento, California. Located in deposits of the Chico Formation tied to the Campanian (fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch), the fossil was collected by Richard Hilton and Patrick Antuzzi of Sierra College and housed at their natural history museum.

“I spent seven years looking for these things [Cretaceous lamiids], and I couldn’t find them,” Atkinson said. “I’d been collecting and studying Cretaceous plants on the West Coast to better understand the evolution of flowering plants. Somebody said, ‘Oh, you should check out the Sierra College Museum of Natural History,’ as it wasn’t on my radar to contact them. They gladly had me over to look at their fossil plant collection, and I was just kind of blown away by the diversity of plants that these guys were able to dig up in this housing development.”

It wasn’t until Atkinson saw the fossil plant recovered decades earlier from the construction site that the specimen’s potential significance was understood.
“As I was opening this drawer, I noticed this fruit with really striking patterns on its surface,” the KU researcher said. “I immediately recognized it as belonging to this lamiid family called Icacinaceae, which is well-known in younger, post-Cretaceous deposits after the mass-extinction event. It’s all over the place. But before, there are no clear known fossils that belong to that family. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is it!’ You know, this family of plants have just these really striking fruits.”

To confirm his thinking about the fossil, Atkinson needed to take a closer look. He studied the fossil fruit’s structures using light microscopy, which allowed him to generate beautiful photographs of the specimen. By scrutinizing its arrangement of ridges, pits, rows and tubercles, the KU investigator could make comparisons to previously described fossils to place it correctly within its family tree. The work challenged Atkinson because he’d never described a “compression fossil” of its kind.

“I’m used to working on fossils that preserve in a different mode called ‘permineralization,’” Atkinson said. “This is my first paper on a compression fossil, and it was a little bit nerve-wracking, working in a different preservation type than you’re used to. Imaging it is a whole different process — I’m glad this turned out so well.”

After placing the fossil plant within the genus Palaeophytocrene, Atkinson named the species chicoensis after the Chico Formation where it was found.

“I just named it after the formation it was recovered from,” he said. “Part of my job is coming up with scientific names for new species that I describe, but I’m not that creative about it — usually I look up the location where it was discovered. Has that name been taken already?”

If the fossil fruit’s name is humdrum, it’s significance isn’t. The KU researcher said the findings help establish that one of the most diverse flowering plant groups survived the cataclysm that killed the dinosaurs to evolve into thousands of familiar modern species, including vital food crops for humanity.

“My research involves understanding deep time to better reconcile how modern biodiversity came to be — and potentially how it will fare in the future with climate change,” said Atkinson. “I’ve been trying to characterize these evolutionary events of flowering plants in the Cretaceous period, when the diversity of these plants just exploded. The Cretaceous record of lamiids has been hard to establish, but I knew these fossils had to be around. The West Coast of North America is under-sampled for Cretaceous plants compared to the Western Interior and East Coast of North America. By broadening our sampling geographically, we’ll come across more and more plants to help us understand Cretaceous diversification that led to modern biodiversity.”

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KU News Service
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Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

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