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Enjoy the Progress Agriculture section

The annual Progress edition wraps up with the Agriculture section in today’s edition of The Messenger. It provides a comprehensive look at how a wide array of developments in our region are shaping the agricultural tomorrow. While every issue of this newspaper is filled with articles, features and advertisements that readers find informative and useful, the special section we call Progress provides a perspective that goes far beyond simply reporting the latest happenings. Our goal is to look at the big picture, capture trends and explore more fully events that may lead to headlines ...

Eggs and Issues is democracy in action

Interaction between citizens and the officials they elect to represent them is crucial to a democracy. Citizens must be able to tell the officials what they want and what they don’t want. They must also be able to hold the officials accountable for their actions. The elected officials must explain to the citizens why they take the actions they do. In Fort Dodge there has been an event in place for at least 25 years that brings state, and sometimes federal, legislators together with citizens. It’s called Eggs and Issues. Eggs and Issues is a forum that is held once a month ...

FFA enriches the lives of students

FFA was established in 1928 as Future Farmers of America. It was renamed the National FFA Organization in 1988 to reflect the rapid changes and greater employment diversity in agriculture. To most of us, it is known simply as FFA. After more than eight decades, FFA continues to enrich the lives of students by helping them develop their potential for leadership, personal growth and career success through agriculture education. The FFA motto captures the spirit of the organization succinctly: “Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.” Those 12 words help ...

Partnerships made Iowa Central Fuel Testing Lab possible

The Iowa Central Fuel Testing Laboratory is a place few people will visit, but its presence is a benefit to everyone in the state. Drivers will be assured that the ethanol they pump into their cars and light trucks is good quality fuel, thanks to the work of the lab. Truckers across the state will know that the biodiesel they fill their rigs with will not gum up the engine, thanks to testing conducted at the new facility in Fort Dodge. The Fort Dodge community is lucky to have the lab in its midst. Such a facility could have been built in pretty much any Midwestern state that, like ...

Have a safe Super Bowl Sunday

There is one more professional football game to be played in the 2024-2025 season. There are few Americans who have not heard of this particular contest called the Super Bowl. The sporting event that will take place Sunday evening has essentially no equal. Sure, there are the Olympics, the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals and the NBA championships. The excitement of those events are all spread over a number of days. Sunday’s Super Bowl, however, will pack all the excitement into a few intense hours. The upcoming clash of the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs and the NFC ...

Is your family eligible?

For those area families that have a long, proud history of farming the land, it is not too early to think about the 2025 Century Farm and Heritage Farm awards. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is encouraging eligible farm owners to apply for the 2025 Century and Heritage Farm Program. The program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and recognizes families that have owned their farm for 100 years in the case of Century Farms and 150 years for Heritage Farms. It has been about 192 years since land that is ...