agriculture

For the last few months, transgender service members have had to wrestle with the reality that they’ve been deemed unqualified to serve in the U.S. military. Hear more from an officer stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, who is directly affected. Also, The Natural Resources Conservation Service turns 90 this year. But the agency, which sprung out of the Dust Bowl, has lost employees and could see major funding cuts.

Western Kansas is running out of the water needed to fuel irrigated agriculture. Why is it so hard for farmers to switch to alternative crops?

Supporters of the mandate say it will help to make roads safer, but some are worried about how it will impact immigrant drivers.

The Dust Bowl led to the creation of what is now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Just as it celebrates a major milestone, the agency is dealing with job losses, massive proposed budget cuts and talk of consolidation.

Scientists in Kansas, Missouri and other states were poised to start research to cut U.S. reliance on fertilizer imports, keep biofuel farming cost-competitive and tackle a potent greenhouse gas.

Despite efforts to develop markets and genetics, Missouri's industrial hemp industry is at its lowest point in years. “Most of the farmers who started with hemp — they lost money,” says a Missouri agricultural economist.

Every year, 2 million seedlings from the George O. White State Forest tree nursery make their way to front yards and fields all over the region. We'll hear from the staff growing and cultivating trees at the 100-acre site in Licking, Missouri.

All six U.S. regional climate centers will remain online through a new contract deadline in mid-June. Four of the centers, which are overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were abruptly closed last week after their funding ran out.

South Dakota regulators say Summit Carbon Solutions will need to reapply for a permit application to build a carbon dioxide pipeline. The decision is another setback for the multi-state project.

Many of these programs offered incentive payments to farmers who adopt an environmentally sustainable or “climate-smart” practice. Some partnerships will be renewed and folded into a new program.

President Trump said that he is standing up for skilled workers and farmers by slapping tariffs on imports but farmers aren't happy. "It is being economically drawn and quartered," one Kansas farmer said.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins assured an audience of agriculture leaders that the president would remember farmers in the midst of imposing tariffs.