Country Folks

12/19/2025

Country Folks's Sally Colby created this festive holiday honey-wagon for her Adams County Farm Bureau and friends.

12/19/2025

At this year's Keystone Farm Show: Upgrade your fleet with confidence through our program tailored for farmers, ranchers, and business owners. We’re the best-equipped brand to support your business—because of how we build, support, and stand behind our machines. Enjoy exclusive rebates and extra coverage on Can-Am SxSs and ATVs engineered for the most demanding tasks.

Find out more here!

https://can-am.brp.com/off-road/us/en/can-am-world/agricultural-commercial-program.html

12/17/2025

👨‍🚒 Online training course built for rural firefighters 🔥

The Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture Safety & Health (RF-DASH) online course is now live at rfdash.org/courses/rf-dash-online-course.

Country Folks’ Assistant Editor Enrico Villamaino – who is also a volunteer firefighter – recently completed the course himself.

The free course is part of the broader RF-DASH program, run by the National Farm Medicine Center, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. RF-DASH aims to equip rural first responders with agricultural health and safety knowledge to prevent farm injuries and improve emergency preparedness in rural communities.

The online course introduces fire/EMS personnel to the RF-DASH program, provides instruction in the core RF-DASH material and discusses two technological tools that can be used to improve farm safety. First responders and others completing this course will receive a certificate of completion, which they can submit to their department requesting continuing education credits. Additionally, students that complete an evaluation survey will receive an RF-DASH patch and RF-DASH challenge coin.

The course is open to anyone at any time, at no cost. Simply create an account on the RF-DASH website.

12/16/2025

12/16/2025

12/15/2025

What's on your Christmas list?

12/13/2025

The VA Beef Cattle Improvement Agency's 2025 tested bull sale will be held today, Dec. 13, 2025. Visit the link to learn more.

Link: https://virginiabcia.com/bull-test-information/

12/11/2025

• Administration announces $12B bridge payments for American farmers impacted by unfair market disruptions •

President Donald J. Trump, alongside U.S. Secretary of Ag Brooke L. Rollins, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman (AR), Sen. Deb Fischer (NE), Sen. John Hoeven (ND), Rep. Austin Scott (GA) and farmers from Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, announced USDA will make $12 billion available in one time bridge payments to American farmers in response to temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs that are still impacting farmers.

These bridge payments are intended in part to aid farmers until historic investments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), including reference prices which are set to increase between 10% and 21% for major covered commodities such as soybeans, corn and wheat and will reach eligible farmers on Oct. 1, 2026.

Of the $12 billion provided, up to $11 billion will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, which provides broad relief to row crop farmers who produce barley, canola, chickpeas, corn, cotton, crambe, flax, lentils, mustard, oats, peanuts, peas, rapeseed, rice, safflower, sesame, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower and wheat. FBA will help address market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation and market losses. The FBA Program applies simple, proportional support to producers using a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2025 crop year. This national loss average is based on FSA reported planted acres, Economic Research Service cost of production estimates, World Agricultural Supply & Demand Estimates yields and prices and economic modeling.

Farmers who qualify for the FBA Program can expect payments to be released by Feb. 28, 2026. Eligible farmers should ensure their 2025 acreage reporting is factual and accurate by Dec. 19. Commodity-specific payment rates will be released by the end of the month. Crop insurance linkage will not be required for the FBA Program; however, USDA strongly urges producers to take advantage of the new OBBBA risk management tools to best protect against price risk and volatility in the future.
The remaining $1 billion of the $12 billion in bridge payments will be reserved for commodities not covered in the FBA Program such as specialty crops and sugar, for example, though details including timelines for those payments are still under development and require additional understanding of market impacts and economic needs.

The $12 billion in farmer bridge payments, including those provided through the FBA Program, are authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act and will be administered by the FSA.

To submit questions, justification for USDA farmer bridge aid or to request a meeting on farmer bridge aid, producers can reach out to [email protected].

12/10/2025

Other saps from other taps

It’s no secret that sugar maples are the preferred variety of trees for sugarmakers. But in the interest of making the most of what’s already growing on your property and diversifying your agricultural portfolio, should you consider tapping other trees?
Read the rest of the story here: tinyurl.com/54uhfrj3

12/09/2025

Looking for a cozy last-minute holiday gift to give? have a lot of lovely sock options!

https://www.bloomforgoodonlinestore.com/shop/?campaignid=12361

12/09/2025

Congratulations to Dave Tribbett and his team!

Dave Tribbett Receives Maryland Leopold Conservation Award

12/09/2025

Animal care raises farm profits

Improving both profits and animal welfare was the theme of “Farm 5.0 and the Future of Dairy Care,” a webinar recently presented by Beverly Hampton Phifer, senior director with National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program and hosted by the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council.
Read the rest of the story here: tinyurl.com/45bddyus