News

The whole family had the opportunity to get a taste of cowboy life at the National Day of the Cowboy the past weekend.   About 1,200 people braved the heat to attend the free event at the American Quarter Horse Association Headquarters according to the AQHA.

Nebraska farmer Bill Volkmer describes himself as an "old farmer." But this old farmer is willing to learn some new tricks. He started planting cover crops in 2011.

Even though it’s 2014, for Jerry and Diane McReynolds they live like it’s the 1800s.  The McReynolds’ domestic well in Rooks County, Kansas, went dry in October 2013.   The couple are members of Rural Water District No. 3, but service is not reliable, especially during the day reported Tim Unruh for the Salina Journal.

After pulling weeds, mowing lawns, playing, or swimming under hot summer sun, evening breezes provided welcome relief during games of softball and freeze tag played at dusk during my childhood. As a youngster, I loved being outside under lavender, apricot, and rose tinted  skies when cool winds blew  and tangled hair into Medusa-like snakes and tickled sunburnt skin. This was a such a positive part of my life that I still enjoy replaying mental videos of evenings my brother and I invented new games or enjoyed old standbys with neighborhood kids after supper.

Everyone knew the open, treeless High Plains wasn’t a place to put down roots.  Making a home, farming, and development takes water, and in Western Kansas it’s arid and rainfall is in short supply.  Enter the grand idea of irrigation.

"Open Range" this week features two great Ry Cooder-produced cuts: Buena Vista Social Club's "Chan Chan" and "I'll Be Rested" from the great Mavis Staples. Also, new music from Johnnie Lang and London Grammar. As an added bonus, local poet Ms. G. Dunbar will be reading from her work.

The ag world is gearing up to feed 9 billion people, but the Ogallala Aquifer sprawling under the surface of eight Midwestern states is going down the drain.  In fact, in some places, it’s gone reported Amy Bickel for Kansas Agland.

With the outdoor hunting shows coming up in a few weeks and many hunters making plans for their fall hunting trips, I though it might be interesting this week to discuss hunting on high fences ranches. This is a ‘hot button’ topic for many hunters.

Let me share my thoughts on hunting ranches with game proof fencing. I know many of you have been reading my columns/articles for years and I hope you have come to learn that “Ole Luke” is all about the total hunting experience rather than just the harvest.

“The Last of the Big Dogs” has been dismantled, and now sits in the Freedom Museum in Pampa, Texas.  Disassembly workers at Pantex dubbed the B53 uranium bomb.  It’s a megaton-class, weighed about 10,000 pounds and is about the size of a minivan according to a recent article from the Amarillo Globe-News.

One of the lesser-known parts of the Affordable Care Act is about to put some money back into the pockets of nearly 60,000 Kansas families.  The refunds will total $3.6 million reported Bryan Thompson for Kansas Public Radio.

The Kansas economy relies on water and for more than a generation, experts have warned that western Kansas' economic resource is vanishing.

Thank goodness for gadgets because how else would we ever get things done?  Things like cherry pitting for example must have driven Simple Simon's Pie Man to distraction.  But then he probably was never lucky enough to find a dandy little gadget called the

Kernomat der “schnelle” Doppelentkerner.  Ah, the joys of modern living live on in today's Growing on the High Plains.

  Two ladies, one light, one dark, are traveling across Kansas this week talking about a grassroots movement called, “Women for Kansas.” 

If you’re traveling Route 66, you might see a caravan of Cadillacs getting their kicks traveling the open road.  They’ve traveled all the way from China for the experience according to a recent article in the Amarillo Globe-News.

Playas benefit from practices that result in good soil health.

Improving the health and quality of the soil is one of the easiest and most effective ways producers can increase crop productivity, hence profitability, while benefitting wildlife and improving the environment. No-till practices, plus the planting of cover crops, mean less soil moves as runoff into playas during rain events.

Many Colorado cattle ranchers are beginning to recover from the drought, but for many the rain is too little and too late.

Fanatical: adjective.  Filled with excessive and  single minded zeal...enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion.  

Recent torrential rains brought flash flooding to low-lying portions of Lamar and southeastern Colorado.  Heavy rains and strong winds closed Highway 50 in low areas.  Several railroad underpasses were closed until waters receded reported Russ Baldwin for the Prowers Journal.

This week on High Plains Morning, instead of our usual CD of the week, we will feature the music of Cat Stevens and Yusuf, as he is now known.  From his early recordings in the mid 60's to his massive hits in the 70's, and music from the current phase of his career after his return from retirement in 2004. Cat Stevens and Yusuf-all this week on High Plains Morning. 

We’ve enjoyed a lush garden this summer with tall corn, big cabbages, sweet potato vines that could be jungle instead of food, and towering tomato plants. Imagine our horror when we visited the garden one morning to find an interstate of raised trails weaving in and out our plantings. This was my introduction to a live mole.

HPPR and Process Art House welcome Amarillo native Rodney Branigan to The Fibonacci for a Living Room Concert on Saturday, August 2!

This is Rodney's first appearance at an HPPR event!

The Fibonacci is located at 3306 SW 6th Ave. We'll open the doors at 7:00, and the show will start at 7:30. We'll have the usual great coffee from the good folks at Evocation Coffee Roasters and cookies from Kristy Fuller, who has taken over baking duties from Molly.

As a young man, Elisha Pullen never imagined he would spend his days on the farm.

Growing up near rural Bell City in southeastern Missouri’s “Bootheel” region, Pullen longed to leave the farm and get an education.

“I grew up in the day and time when we had to do a lot of chopping and stuff like that. Hard labor,” Pullen said. “I’m going to college, I’m getting my degree and I’m going to work in the air conditioning.”

Catfish have always been a favorite of mine for many reasons. I love catching the big blues, usually during the cold weather months, and I dearly love the often non-stop catching that is common this time of year on lakes with high numbers of channel catfish. Dusted with a liberal amount of cornmeal and dropped into hot cooking oil, catfish fillets fried crispy are a culinary delight.

The WT graduating class of 2012 entered the job market with better prospects and significantly less student loan debt.  The Amarillo Globe-News reported the average WT grad had student loan debt of $19,774 compared to the national average of $29,400.

Former Senate President Steve Morris is one of 104 Kansas Republicans backing Paul Davis in his bid to be governor according to a recent article in the Garden City Telegram. 

The “who” part of the Farm Bill is pretty clear.

With trillions dollars of government spending up for grabs, lobbyists from all ends of the spectrum – representing environmental interests, biotech companies, food companies, farmers – flocked to Capitol Hill to find their piece of the Farm Bill pie.

Monday’s performance by Old Crow Medicine Show at the Globe-News Center was significant for a number of reasons.