Articles from the Winter 2016 edition of the Kontact.
Been a lot going on... Amazing Grazing Mary Howell has just finished up a marathon 17 Amazing Grazing III events through this past year! State Convention We had our annual state convention in Topeka that had an all-star cast of speakers who were educational, hilarious and motivating. Our two keynote presentations were truly amazing and [...]
I was approached by NAU to ask me to encourage more Farmers Union members to consider NAU crop insurance in 2016. I don’t like to mess in members personal business and feel that I owe you a more thorough explanation of why I am agreeing to do this than what the accompanying promo letter gets [...]
By Mary Howell The Amazing Grazing project has concluded. Forty different events over the last three years were held for farmers, ranchers and professionals. This series brought together industry experts and producers to enhance the ranching and grazing skills of hundreds of Kansans. “We have had the greatest time delivering this program; I am sad [...]
By Tom Parker When Rosanna Bauman took the stage at the annual Kansas Farmers Union State Convention in Topeka, she wordlessly held up an empty drinking glass and a saucer, placed them before her in a tray and began pouring water into the glass. Within seconds the water spilled over the rim and spread across [...]
Nick Levendofsky was selected to receive the 2015 Ruth Hirsh Award. Nick has steadily grown and re-activated Republic County FU. He has gone from knowing little of KFU to becoming a member, representing us at NFU Fly-In’s, becoming Republic Co. president and a KFU staffer. It would not be appropriate to award Nick this [...]
Stephanie Teske displays the autographed Bill Snyder football donated by Midwest Agency agent Zach Teske. The football, won by Jeff Kindle, was the top item during the annual Kansas Farmers Union Foundation Auction. A close second was the John Deere quilt donated by Becky Craig and won by Jackie Eyer. Symphony in the Flint Hills [...]
By Tom Parker Climate change, country-of-origin labeling, foreign trade, trade deficits, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, biofuels, sequestration, incentive bills for young farmers, education programs and the Food Safety Modernization Act were among the blizzard of legislative discussions coming out of Washington, D.C., National Farmers Union Government Relations Representative Tom Driscoll told members of the Kansas Farmers [...]
By Tom Parker Kansas governor Sam Brownback’s fiscal experiment has brought so many unprecedented changes and impacts to the state budget that it’s earned its own designation among other states—even conservative states—seeking similar tax-cutting proposals: “the Kansas Effect.” It is not an endearing term, said Duane Goossen. “As other states are considering different kinds of [...]
Making solar energy more efficient, affordable and easier to install By Tom Parker The last thing Cheri Harper wanted to do was to stand in front of a group of semi-strangers and talk about renewable solar energy. It wasn’t due to any lack of knowledge or experience or technical proficiency, or passion, for that matter, [...]
By Bill Wood, Cromwell Solar Project Developer Farmers have been harvesting the power of the sun to grow crops and forages for food since the beginning of time. With the increasing cost of electricity and the dropping prices of solar systems, more people are finding that solar photovoltaic (electricity-producing) systems make both economic and environmental [...]
