As of July 1, 2022, all-terrain vehicles and utility task vehicles, collectively known as Off-Road Vehicles, are legally allowed to be driven on unpaved county roads and many paved public roads under certain conditions in the state of Iowa.

If you have spent time with young people working in agriculture, be it through FFA, 4-H or your own family, you probably came away feeling pretty good about the future of farming. That is certainly true for Gary Stripe in Garden Grove, Iowa, who is proud to have two grandsons, ages 19 and 15…

If you have ever caught a whiff of ammonia while cleaning your kitchen or bathroom, you will know it has a strong, pungent smell that resembles the smell of urine. Likewise, when you are outside you can smell anhydrous ammonia (or NH3) at low concentrations, around 25 ppm (parts per million).

In spring of 2022, I took a weekend-long chainsaw workshop hosted by the Bur Oak Land Trust in eastern Iowa. We met at the Indian Creek Nature Center and the workshop included both classroom instruction and hands-on training to improve technique and safety when operating a chain saw.

In recent years the world has experienced a steady increase in both the frequency and severity of natural disasters. Tropical weather patterns have changed, floods have become more destructive, and wildfires have expanded all leaving behind damage and devastation. In addition, Iowa has exper…

Just last night I was traveling home on my gravel road after dark. I could see headlights of an approaching vehicle, which I thought was a pickup. As we passed each other, I startled a bit as I realized it was actually a tractor and was much wider than I anticipated.

When I drive my old truck out the lane and onto the gravel road, a little flashback from a few years ago jars my memory. I’ll pass it along because there’s a safety lesson in the story. Maybe a few safety pointers in fact, when you look at it in hindsight.