Hats Off to Farmers

Grandpa’s hat collection says a lot of about farm history, agribusinesses and their tradition of free hats, and about livestock.

Illinois Farm Families Field Moms at Lindale Farms

Suburban Moms Tour Illinois Farms with Illinois Farm Families

Illinois Farm Families takes suburban moms onto Illinois farms to help them learn about the realities of farming.

Christmas Tree Farms in Illinois

Christmas Trees: Find a Farm in Illinois

‘Tis the season to traipse across Illinois farms with your families in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

HoKa Turkeys: Howard Kauffman Turkey Farm, Baby turkey

Talking Turkey at Kauffman Farms

Family farm in Northern Illinois raises safe, savory HoKa turkeys for consumers’ holiday dinners.

Candlelit Christmas

As much as we plan ahead for life’s most cherished holiday traditions, we often most remember the unplanned in our lives.

Sledders, Cattle Gather Where the Illinois Prairie Slopes

Illinois’ biggest hills are often in cattle pastures, designated for grazing livestock – and they’re great for sledding.

Rural Halloween: A Real Treat in Illinois

Halloween in rural Illinois yields bountiful goodies and relationships.

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A-maizing: Corn Mazes in Illinois

Satellites, artists team up to create this unique farm attraction.

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Going Monkeys Over Cider

Memories and goodness are pressed with apple treat.

4-year-old Dylan Beilfuss looks for a pumpkin at The Pumpkin Patch in Caledonia, Illinois.

Patch Things Up at The Great Pumpkin Patch

Pick out the perfect pumpkin at an Illinois farm.

Get Your Cameras Ready for the Picture Illinois Photo Contest

Capture the beauty and diversity of Illinois’ agricultural landscape in this year’s Picture Illinois photo contest from the Illinois Farm Bureau.

Wiener Roasts Evolve but Remain Fall Favorite

My family likes to dine out – in the outside sense of the word.

The Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences

Chicago High School Focuses on Agriculture Education

One Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences student said she originally stereotyped the school as a place that taught kids how to farm. She left understanding the myriad opportunities in the agriculture industry.

The Beauty Of an Illinois Sunset

Urban friends find peace in the rural Illinois sunset.

Illinois Ag Fun website

Ag Fun Website Lives Up to Its Name

The Illinois Ag Fun website can help locate your nearest farmers’ markets, orchards, wineries and pumpkin patches.

Robotic milking Dairy Farm

Udder Delight: Robots Rejuvenate Dairy Farm’s Milking Process

At one Southern Illinois dairy farm, cows are milked at their leisure, instead of the typical twice-a-day schedule.

Lightning Bugs Spark Summer Nostalgia

Chasing fireflies is one of Illinois’ most wholesome and inexpensive forms of entertainment to share with any age.

Dinner Dilemma: Does “Dinnertime” Mean Supper or Lunch?

Is dinner served at noon or night? I say “not at all” at our house, where lunch and supper supersede to avoid the confusion of when dinner shall be served.

Corn Field

The Life Cycle of a Corn Plant

Follow the Illinois corn crop through the year from planting in spring to harvesting in fall and its uses beyond.

Q&A With and Illinois Farmer

Q&A With an Illinois Corn Farmer

Since Len Corzine began farming in 1974, the farm has reduced soil erosion, cut fertilizer use per bushel by half, and adopted satellite-guidance technology in its tractors to reduce fuel and chemical use.

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Funk Farm Brings Maple Syrup From Tree to Tabletop

As operators of Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup Farm in Shirley, Illinois, Mike and Debby Funk bring syrup from the tree to your table.

Video: Sager Farms in Kell, Illinois

Sager Farms in Kell, Illinois has raised peaches and apples for more than 30 years.

Terry Lieb starting raising bison about 8 years ago when he bought his first bison for his farm in Monticello, Il. Since then, Lieb has grown his herd to about 20 bison and has converted 60 acres from his soybean fields into pasture for the enormous creatures that reach upwards of 2000 pounds.

See the Buffalo Roam at Illinois Bison Farm

Terry Lieb’s 3,400-acre corn and soybean farm in Piatt County is as modern as any in the state, with genetically modified crops, GPS mapping and other high-tech innovations.

Lisa Buzzard, age 47, of Beecher City, Illinois, feeds the beef cattle on the farm where she works side by side with her husband Stan tending their 600-acre farm raising corn, beans, wheat, and hay for feed the beef cattle.

4 Women of the Illinois Ag World

Farm women are among the busiest – on and off the farm – as they have found a niche that ties in with Illinois agriculture.

Warsaw, Illinois, farmer and chairman of the local drainage district, Sam Zumwalt, age 64, with the flood gage at the Hunt Drainage District pumping station. He has long been a champion of better flood control for the 16,000 acres of lowlands that make up the district. Water from the nearby Mississippi River reached 25-feet above flood stage in both 1993 and 2008. In the background is the outlet from the pumping station that can pump 200,000 gallons of water per minute off of the nearby farmland through a series of ditches and canals.

Illinois Flood Control Plans Are Flowing

It’s a system that sustains fish and wildlife, communities and commerce. It’s an integrated system where navigation, environmental stewardship, recreation and flood control all play a crucial role in its continued health and welfare.

Dan and Janet Hart (members of Heart of Illinois Beekeepers Association) work with their bees at their home in Brimfield, Illinois.

Sweet Life of Beekeeping

Here’s the buzz on beekeeping in Illinois.

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What a Shortage of Rural Veterinarians Means for Farms

A national shortage of rural veterinarians may lead to a health-care crisis for our animals.

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Lipizzans Have an Air About Them

High-jumping Lipizzan stallions date back to royal beginnings. Tempel Farms in Wadsworth, a northwest suburb of Chicago, is the only place in the United States where the rare, white Lipizzan stallions are bred and trained, then perform.

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Life’s a Peach at Eckert’s Country Store

The sixth and seventh generations run Eckert’s Country Store and Farms in Belleville, the largest you-pick apple and peach orchard in the nation.

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A Hayfield of Dreams

Sunny days and storytelling arrive with season’s first Illinois hay bales.

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Illinois Farms Are Tuned in to Technology

Today’s Illinois farmers are armed with crop-yield monitors and biotech hybrids.

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Fairbury’s Patriotic Corncrib

Most farmers use metal grain bins to store their harvested crops. But not Norman Young. This is his patriotic corncrib in Fairbury, Illinois.

Ropp Jersey Cheese in Normal, Illinois

Ropp Jersey Cheese Breaks the Mold

McLean County’s Ropp family finds a niche with its artisan cheese business.

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Memories Trim the Christmas Tree

Real trees provide long-remembered family experiences.