Farm Progress

Slideshow: A look at crop conditions on northwest Missouri farms.

Mindy Ward, Editor, Missouri Ruralist

August 10, 2018

13 Slides

One town. Two farms. One day.

It did not take long to find farmers willing to share their experiences with the 2018 drought. Both were from the same town, Hamilton, Mo., but on the opposite ends of town.

Row crop farmer Joe Clevenger drove around the county to show damage to corn and soybean fields, pastures and even the town water system. Cattleman John Graham stopped stacking corn bales and gathered his sons, Caleb and Jacob, around to share their experience with the drought.

Click through the slideshow to see some of the scenes from their farms this summer.

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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