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One stretch of road shows two different #Plant19 stories in Missouri.

Mindy Ward, Editor, Missouri Ruralist

June 11, 2019

12 Slides

Water fills the bottom ground acres along the Missouri River in Carroll County, Mo., but only a mile up the road in the hills of Saline County, Mo., crops abound. In just a short stretch of Missouri Highway 41, there are two vastly different #Plant19 stories.

While looking across to the water outside of Miami, Mo., it may seem as though you’re in Florida, but really it is a small town in north-central Missouri affected by the flood of 2019. Farmland just across the Missouri River bridge likely will not be planted this year. Those acres that were planted may not yield.

However, travel south outside of town toward Marshall and farming routines are in full swing. Both the corn and soybean crop are up. Farmers are checking crops. Sprayers are in fields. Farming in the hills, it is hard to see the effect of the floodwaters only miles away.

The slideshow offers a glimpse at the two worlds on one rural road.

About the Author(s)

Mindy Ward

Editor, Missouri Ruralist

Mindy resides on a small farm just outside of Holstein, Mo, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis.

After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism, she worked briefly at a public relations firm in Kansas City. Her husband’s career led the couple north to Minnesota.

There, she reported on large-scale production of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and dairy, as well as, biofuels for The Land. After 10 years, the couple returned to Missouri and she began covering agriculture in the Show-Me State.

“In all my 15 years of writing about agriculture, I have found some of the most progressive thinkers are farmers,” she says. “They are constantly searching for ways to do more with less, improve their land and leave their legacy to the next generation.”

Mindy and her husband, Stacy, together with their daughters, Elisa and Cassidy, operate Showtime Farms in southern Warren County. The family spends a great deal of time caring for and showing Dorset, Oxford and crossbred sheep.

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