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“Water is the number one concern in California,” reports Don York (KMJ, Fresno, CA). “Even with recent El Nino generated storms, there is much worry in the San Joaquin Valley about how much water will be available for farmers in 2016. For now, most farmers have to make use of groundwater pumping to irrigate their crops if they want to stay in business. New deep wells are very expensive to drill and could take more than a year of waiting before drilled because of long waiting lists.” Looking ahead, Don said, “This year could bring some relief in the form of surface water deliveries if more snow melts off into the rivers down to the reservoirs.” Don covers a wide range of other stories for a live weekday hour-long farm report on KMJ radio. “I broadcast to about a third of the state, thanks to our powerful AM signal.
After 36 years with Kansas and Oklahoma Farm Bureaus, Sam Knipp retired September 29, 2015. “After a few days, I hungered for continuing advocating for agriculture. American Farmers & Ranchers (AFR) offered me the opportunity to feed that urge. AFR has a 110-year history in Oklahoma as a general farm organization and insurance company servicing rural Oklahoma. Today, AFR has over 100,000 family members and is licensed to provide insurance in 24 states.
Monte James is host of a new start-up radio network called Your Ag Network. He grew up on a ranch on the northern borders of the sprawling Sandhills of Nebraska. His family raised cattle and farmed the Niobrara River Valley in Keya Paha County. His radio career started at a small station in O’Neill, NE, doing everything from hosting the Polka Show to local news and markets. Monte’s “tour of duty” included stops at KSCJ (Sioux City, IA), where he served as morning show host and farm director. Then, he went on to WHO (Des Moines, IA) as part of the Marconi Award winning air-staff, as well as serving a lengthy stint at WNAX (Yankton, SD).
Howard Hale (KSIR, Minatare, NE) and Emily Pile are two western Nebraska residents who were recognized by The University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center for their decades of service to agriculture and Extension. The Service to Panhandle Agriculture Award was presented to Howard Hale and The Service to Panhandle Extension Award was presented to Elaine Pile of Gering, NE.
On November 28, NAFB President Brian Winnekins, owner of WRDN Radio (Durand, WI) hosted a reunion of past staff members. Fifteen staff members dating back as far as 1972 joined Brian and Martha Gingras on air to reminisce about their time working at WRDN. Just like now, agriculture was an important part of the broadcast day at WRDN and many of the staff members remember having to fill in to do the Farm Report. For many of the former staff members, working at WRDN was a stepping stone to larger radio markets or new careers in television.