2010: Farmer Josh Makes His Own Cheese

As many dairy farms struggle to stay in operation, one local farmer has found a way to turn his passion into profit. Not only does he milk his own cows, he makes his own cheese. In this season's final... Read More »

2010: Farmer Josh Checks on Soybean Fields

2010: Farmer Josh Picks Sweet Corn

Ever bitten into an ear of sweet corn and wondered how it got to your plate?  Wanting to know the answer, I headed out to a local sweet corn farm. Gary Knight, owner and operator... Read More »

2010: Farmer Josh Changes Coats on Sheep

The next stop on my tour of eastern Iowa farming jobs or tasks landed me at Peeper Hollow Farms just to the east of Marion.  Dee Heinrich, an engineer turned farmer, was my guide with the task... Read More »

2010: Farmer Josh Feeds Cattle

The next stop on my tour of eastern Iowa agriculture landed me at a cattle farm in Linn County. Joe Meythaler was kind enough to let me onto to his farm and let me help feed 300 head of cattle. To get... Read More »

2010: Farmer Josh Visits Cargill

After farming corn last year and taking it to Cargill in Cedar Rapids, I decided to head back to Cargill see what products they make out of corn.  I surprised to hear the number of different products... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Cornfield Time Lapse

Watch the Farmer Josh Cornfield Time Lapse... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Learns to Drive a Tractor

Last year, over 2 billion bushels of corn were produced in the state of Iowa – more than any other U.S. state. This season, KCRG-TV9’s Josh Baynes is going to try his hand at farming corn on a 3-acre... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Gets Ready to Plant

Before planting corn, one must load a planter with seed corn. Farmer Josh recently did that with the help of local farmer Brian Lensch. Brian says that in a bag of seed corn, there are 80,000 seeds and... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Plants Corn

It is now time to plant corn! Technology has really changed the way farming can be done nowadays. For my small plot, I was actually taught how to operate the auto steer function in the tractor. Why... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Gets His Field Sprayed

After a month of the corn being planted, many weeds showed up along with the corn. Rod Peyton from R & R Spraying says weeds (especially grass) are competition for the corn and will reduce... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Checks on Corn

I recently met with agronomist Rich Lee from Golden Harvest to see how my corn is progressing after 55 days of it being planted.  In a nutshell, Rich said the corn is doing well and has really... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Harvests His Corn Crop

On Friday, Oct. 16, I harvested my corn with the help of local farmer Jim Lensch. He was brave enough to let me operate his combine. Really, it was not too difficult to run. The particular John Deere... Read More »

2009: Farmer Josh Sells his Corn

I recently took my corn to market to sell it.  Brian Lensch helped me with that process.  We first had to retrieve the corn out of the bin and put it into the semi trailer.  To do that,... Read More »

2009: Corn Facts

Corn Facts Source: Iowa Corn Growers Association • Corn is a descendent of teosinte, a Mexican grass. The earliest known ears were only a few inches long. • A metric ton of corn = 39.4 bushels •... Read More »