Alva Review-Courier -

On the morning of March 6, 2017, rancher Bernie Smith was in a hurry. Smith and one of his sons were moving cattle from one wheat pasture to another along the Kansas-Oklahoma border. But the spring chore was happening on one of those days that keeps...

FREEPORT, Kan. (AP) — The conversation varied at the old bank building, where 15 folks gathered around a table for the most recent Freeport coffee. Some talked about the cotton harvest. Others admired the newly paved road - and first ever - which r...

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — For decades, World War II veterans were the backbone of the American Legion. But that era of veterans are dying at a rate of a thousand a day, putting the organization that is approaching the century mark at a crossroads, s...

HOLCOMB, Kan. (AP) — On a 100-degree day in July, Dwane Roth could see his neighbors' irrigation pivots pumping water to the corn fields around him. A handful of years ago, he had the same mentality. In a climate where rain comes sparingly, he transl...

ST. JOHN, Kan. (AP) — In a large field of watermelons, Renae Doggett listens. Here in Stafford County, where the soil is sandy, there is one sound that matters. It's hard for her to explain it - the hollow tone she's discerning with every thump. I...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Last week, Hamilton County farmer Jason Ochs was already out in his sprayer, doing what he hopes others in the region are doing this time of year. He was taking care of his volunteer wheat. The Kansas wheat industry is e...

WILLOWDALE, Kan. (AP) — The few outsiders traveling down this two-lane Kingman Country road will happen upon a ghost town that has met the same fate as many that dot Kansas. The little community of 30-some residents — if that — no longer has a busin...

MEDICINE LODGE, Kan. (AP) — Don Gerstner saw it as a sign from God. At age 87, he considered retiring from his carpentry trade. He thought about it a few times before, but the phone always kept ringing. So when his home and barn burned to the g...

ASHLAND, Kan. (AP) — The pastures are eerily silent. Normally, there would be dozens of bawling new calves with their mamas grazing the rolling Clark County landscape. But on this July morning, Mark Gardiner gets out of his pickup and walks across a...

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The seat of his combine is a good place for Tom Giessel to reflect and ponder. He is cutting a bumper stand of wheat on the outskirts of Larned — a unique "sweet spot" in Kansas, he calls it. This parcel is located next to...

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Controlling wheat streak mosaic is a community issue, say Kansas agriculture officials. Kansas Wheat, along with the Kansas Department of Agriculture and Kansas State University, is launching a campaign to educate farmers abou...

GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) — A second-generation farmer on the Kansas plains, Pat Janssen is making it his business to be a steward of the land. It's not only good for the environment, but it makes economic sense, he said. And he is always trying to do a...

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — From the top of Norman Roth's combine, it looked like a crop of a lifetime. It's day two of the annual wheat harvest, The Hutchinson News (http://bit.ly/2sjZAdi ) reported. Rolling amber waves stretched for a mile across t...

GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) — A decade ago, the claim to fame in Greensburg, Kansas, was a really big hole in the ground. But these days, the little town that refused to vanish after an EF5 tornado is more than just a stop to see the world's largest hand-d...

GYP HILLS, Kan. (AP) — As his mud-covered pickup comes over a rise on a recent morning, mist blankets the horizon of Gyp Hills grass. Rancher Dave Johnson is out feeding his pregnant cows like he does several days a week during the winter. They f...

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — For 66 years, this acreage south of Hutchinson has been an outdoor classroom for farmers. Those first years, it was wheat and fertilizer research, along with studies on alfalfa, oats and sorghums — all in an effort to equ...

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Just like church folk, Mike Sherow lumbered up the stairs of Winter Livestock and found his usual seat — smack dab in the center of everything. Almost every Wednesday since the mid-1970s, the cattle buyer has found his spo...

MEADE, Kan. (AP) — Off a dirt road on an abandoned farmstead in Meade County, Rex Buchanan searched for a metal pipe hidden in tall weeds. Back a few decades ago, the search would have taken much longer - almost like finding a needle in a haystack. B...

HUTCHINSON, Kansas (AP, Aug. 28, 2016) – A 5-million-bushel mountain of wheat is growing on an old Naval runway near Yoder. At Minneola, a crew is bagging wheat to make room for corn harvest. And, at Oakley - already full of wheat - the c... Full story