By KATHERINE GRANDSTRAND
Aberdeen, SD American News
Several years ago Aberdeen American News readers were treated to a single green sheet sent along with their regular paper featuring some agricultural news and classifieds.
That was in 1966.
The Farm Forum is in its 50th year of publication and has grown from a single sheet to a massive 200-plus page weekly publication, said Connie Groop, who has been with the publication for nearly half its life, since 1993. Groop has served as editor and as a reporter for the publication, which is nicknamed The Green Sheet for its distinctive green wrapping.
“From that it was so popular that people decided that they wanted to see more of it,” Groop said. “It has really grown.”
When the Farm Forum started, it was limited to the same circulation as the American News, but is now distributed throughout most South Dakota and parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa, Groop said.
“Plus it seems to pop-up in different places,” Groop said. “We get calls from Missouri or Kentucky from people that have seen it.”
Not only does Groop’s reporting and other stories inform the readers, so do the classifieds and ads, Groop said.
“When they read the classifieds they can see the different prices that land is going for, what feed is going for, what different types of machinery are going for,” Groop said. “So they’re not only reading the stories, but a lot of people are referring to it as the farmer’s bible. It sits next to the farmers’ recliners when they come in at lunch time they pick it up and go through it.”
As tablets, smartphones and in-tractor GPS navigation have become more popular with farmers, so has online readership, Groop said. Farmers can read the Farm Forum while the GPS guides the tractor in the field.
To celebrate it’s 50th year, the Farm Forum is running a photo contest with six different categories, the best of which will be published into a book, Groop said.
“We just finished up the barn section,” Groop said. “So we had quite a few people take a look at the different barns that they see in the area and take photos of them and then submit them.”
Groop is taking a special look back at the last 50 years in agriculture.
“Back in the ‘60s a lot of hybrid seeds were just coming on the market so farmers were getting better yields,” Groop said. From there GMO seeds were introduced.
Other advancements over the last 50 years include precision ag, where the exact nutrients are place with the seeds in the ground and automation that syncs combines together with grain carts, Groop said. The Farm Forum is going to look at land prices, crop prices and weather impacts throughout the last half-century.
“There’s a lot of neat things that have gone on in agriculture,” Groop said. “So we’re going to take a look at what’s happened there.”
The Farm Forum is also working with South Dakota State University in Brookings, the state’s top agricultural school, to rank agriculture’s most influential South Dakotans.
“We’re hoping to find a lot of people who have influence agriculture,” Groop said.
Groop and editor Stan Wise have asked readers to submit their stories about life on the farm 50 years ago, she said. They’re going through archival photos from the last 50 years to visualize the change throughout decades.
“We’re always looking for the next crop, the next thing that’s coming up,” Groop said. “Farmers, even though they’re told that this is going to be a bad economic year, they’re still looking forward to putting those crops in the ground, they’re looking forward to seeing those seeds grow and flourish and be able to harvest and be able they say they have a good crop.”
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