farming

Chris Knight's avatar

When it comes to North Carolina architecture, there is no more ubiquitous an example than the humble tobacco barn. You can barely drive half a mile in the rural farming areas without seeing at least one or two dotting the landscape. With some of them dating back a century and more, they once exemplified this state’s agricultural acumen like nothing else could.

And it is not without some sadness that in the modern era, most of them have fallen into disuse. Once they hummed with hard work and a handsome payoff. Now, no more. But the barns still stand: a testimony to times gone by and a tradition that many families maintained for generations.

For those reasons and more (not the least of which is the gorgeous cinematography and editing by Stewart Pittman) I can’t recommend enough that y’all check out this Buckley Report story by WGHP Fox 8 reporter ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

On the fertile green plains of Alberta, Canada, the Kraay Family has engineered the world’s largest QR code into a cornfield.

And yes, the code works! Hold your smartphone outside the window of a hovering helicopter and when you point it at the code you’ll be directed straight to the Kraay Family Farm website.

The QR code takes up about 1.1 square miles of land and has just been verified by Guinness as being officially the world’s largest functioning QR code. It’s just the latest in a tradition going back more than a decade for the Kraay family: every year they do a “maize maze” featuring wildly intricate designs in their cornfield.

Mash on over to Engadget for more about the Kraay family’s techno-agricultural art!...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

The drought in the Midwest is causing the price of food to soar worldwide. Especially for corn and corn-based products.

It could be less though in spite of the recent weather. That is, if more corn were available as feed for livestock farmers. But the Obama Administration refuses to let those farmers and ranchers have the needed corn. Instead, the corn is being used to fulfill government “mandates” for ethanol in gasoline. And it’s making corn drastically scarce to those who depend on farming livestock (and who the rest of us depend upon in turn).

We don’t need ethanol to survive. We do need food, however.

Can’t help but be reminded of the government-enforced devastation that Ma Chalmers and her soybean worshipers wracked in Atlas Shrugged…...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

That’s my father Robert Knight in the photograph on the right, sitting next to friend and fellow farmer John Ashe, in a pic taken for a news story that’s gotten national circulation (The Republic out of Columbus, Indiana has it along with a whole slideshow of photos) about tobacco farmers trying to stay profitable in spite of new trade deals.

I’ve known John for most of my life. He’s a solid dude and everyone around here is proud of the success he’s had as a farmer. It’s really good to see him getting coverage like this on behalf of farmers everywhere. But I want y’all to click on the link and see the full photo taken by Ted Richardson. The entire pic of Dad and John sitting on the tailgate of Dad’s truck, it’s just a classic pic about modern farming. I’d even say “award worthy” 🙂...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Late last night this blog joined numerous other outlets in reporting that the Obama Administration was set to impose a 15-cent tax on all freshly cut Christmas trees. You can read that initial post for more information, including some stuff I came across during a bit o’ investigatin’ (I’m still curious as to who the heck the people behind “Christmas Tree Promotion Now” are…)

Looks like Obama and gang got the message: the tax is being put on hold. But not without some snide commentary from the White House…

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told ABC News that despite some media coverage, “I can tell you unequivocally that the Obama Administration is not taxing Christmas trees. What’s being talked about here is an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign, similar to how the dairy producers have created the ‘Got Milk?’ campaign.”

Nonetheless,

...
Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

This is not satire and it’s not from The Onion. I already checked and it’s true…

President Barack Obama’s administration is trying to impose a 15-cent “Christmas Tree tax” on all freshly-cut trees intended for Yuletide celebration. Fifteen cents on the sale of every tree to… get this now… “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States.”

Okay, two things that already stick out in this blogger’s mind: that this is a tax without any representation or due process, regardless of what the administration is arguing. Indeed, within the text of the “order” issued by the Department of Agriculture it is found that “…the assessment provided for in this type of program is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government. These producer and importers funds raised by producers and importers are for the benefit of producers ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

(Not Marcus after slaughter and sectioning, but an incredible simulation)

Elementary students in Kent, Great Britain have elected to send a lamb they reared as a school project off to be slaughtered and rendered into succulent ribs and chops.

The decision to dispatch the lamb, which the students had named Marcus, has met with outcry from “grown-ups”…

Marcus the six-month-old lamb has now been culled, the head teacher of the primary school in Kent confirmed on Monday, after the school’s council — a 14-member group of children aged 6 to 11 — voted 13-1 to have him killed.

The decision has provoked fury among animal-loving celebrities, animal and human rights campaigners and the parents of some of the children, and led to threats against Lydd primary school and its teachers, according to a member of staff.

Around 250 children at the school take part in a program designed to

...
Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Actually, I was told that it’s bails of straw, but farmer though I’ve been I’ve never been able to tell the difference 😛

Just something that I thought would make a good photo while out and about this afternoon. That’s one of the largest family-owned dairy farms in the country in the background, here in Rockingham County, North Carolina. And that hay straw has been gathered up to eventually feed to the cows.

Maybe I’ll post a new picture of this field a few weeks or months from now, when the same straw comes back as spread cow manure....

Read more