Latest News From Chris Bennett

It’s not sharks, wolves, or bears that kill the most people—it’s wild pigs, and the numbers are trending up.

Government officials claim power over entrance, searches, and surveillance on private land with no restrictions.

Jeremy Bennett was prosecuted for denying the state entry to his private business.

Judge for yourself: Travis McCormick’s DOES IT PAY fungicide trial reaped a major yield increase.

Roger Reaves forged the most astounding farm life of modern times. Row crops to moonshine to marijuana to cocaine, he was the highest paid narco-pilot in history.

To go truly big-time, John Deere needed an unfettered pipeline to a particular resource: steel.

Sold: Integrity for the price of 12 cedars and a single oak in farm country.

William Christman, 19, saved his family’s farm and paid with his life.

Lust or greed, trespassers are drawn to farmland by deer sheds. Private property is no barrier to a shed thief.

Crackle, whine, beep, and buzz, Andy Thaxton metal detects farmland, hunting coins, keys, bullets, bells—and one more holy grail.

You break, you pay. Fighting to save his farmland, Marvin Houin proved the government destroyed his yields.

“I’m shooting for consistent averages around 75 or 80 bushels without stacking inputs,” says Matt Griggs. “ROI don’t lie.”

The government seized control of John Yearwood’s ranchland in the name of a tiny bug. “There is no shame in Washington,” he says.

Welcome to a $9 million orgy of crop insurance fraud by an unassuming farm couple.

After Kevin Whitney’s iPhone fell into 220,000 bushels of grain, the device made a 20,000-mile roundtrip across the globe before returning to its stunned owner.

After a year-long wait, Grant Hilbert and his company, SquadBuilt, released American Farming on Nov. 24, 2023. Here's a look back at his journey to become a gamer, social media influencer and farmer. 

When a Tennessee farming family decided to build a small rice mill, they triggered a suburban uproar and social media war.

Tom Askjem disappears under farmland, descends to depths of 13’-plus, and returns to the surface with treasure—bottles and glassware from agriculture’s past.

In 2023, John Smith planted cluster corn, James Hitchcock tried wide row corn and Bill Jones targeted a triple crop. How did each farmer fare?

Here's how and why you need to clean your combine after harvest and before you park it for the winter.

When Max Miller opened the Pig Motel and charged 2 cents for room and board, the venture was about more than math.

“The public doesn’t realize what these animals are capable of,” says wildlife trapper James Dean. “Unfortunately, you’re going to see more and more reports of people getting hurt in wild pig encounters.”

In a property rights ruling, a court noted the government’s absolute power to “roam private land without consent, warrants, or probable cause.”

When the IRS audited the Hajda farm, an agent arrived at the property, sat inside the farmhouse kitchen, and pored over the family’s finances.

A pair of plows crafted by the hands of John Deere, and possibly the first to break dirt west of the Mississippi, rest on an Iowa farm.

Todd Westerfeld says five technologies, from pocketknife to section control, are invaluable across his farm on a day-to-day basis.

Matt Griggs faces a government ban on chicken litter: “What about my right to farm?”

Bitter blossoms sweet at Miles Farms. From father to son to brother to grandson, an annual sweet corn field has produced 1 million ears for the public.

American farmers beaten, tear-gassed, herded and imprisoned by their own government for daring to protest authority? Welcome to agricultural revolt.

In the name of regulation, can the government override the 4th Amendment? Yes, say Kansas ag officials. No, counters property owner Scott Johnson: “The government thinks it isn’t accountable, but we’re taking a stand.”

Mike Yoder says he has the constitutional right to use drones to find downed deer, but the government says the practice is illegal on private and public land.

Georgia farmer Alex Harrell just grew the highest yielding soybeans in agriculture history — 206.7997 bushels per acre.

State regulations, insists Steven Slonaker, can be more burdensome than federal oversight to farmers and private landowners.

The unlikely 100-year survival of an immaculate 9-X tractor despite thievery, rust, weeds, and skeletonization is a tale of predestination.

A boy’s intentional burial beneath Illinois farm dirt is a bizarre, standalone tale in the annals of grim agriculture incidents.

Nonconformity is nature in Bill Jones’ triple-cropping world. “This is about ROI, hitting yield averages, and taking care of my soil,” says Jones. “Home runs are fine, but they’re for somebody else to chase.”

In Bob Lindeman’s soybean rows, planting populations are on a general decline, and the reduction is not about saving dollars up front, but on combatting mold and rot.

John Smith is growing 137 acres of wide-row cluster corn planted directly over his water source. Essentially, he is taking his corn to the well.

American farms are flavored by every fiber and frailty known to mankind—and each tale needs protection. Enter Vance Crowe and a unique preservation project.

Can skip row corn add bushels to the bin? James Hitchcock wants the answers from one trusted source—his own fields.

Thomas Villegas says the administrative state operates a fixed game. His lawsuit contends private landowners are accused, judged, and sentenced by the same set of unelected government employees.

An intrepid Kansas mother and her Johnny-on-the-spot son found one of the most stunning Indian artifacts of recent history. Welcome to the impossible tale of the Oehm Blade.

Three game wardens entered Josh Highlander’s private land, proceeded to his food plot, and stole his game camera without warrant or consent. He is fighting back via a major constitutional lawsuit.

Chevron deference, one of the most frustrating legal doctrines faced by farmers and private landowners, may be on the brink.

Three under-30 producers from Illinois, Ohio and Mississippi sound off on the struggles, pressures and hopes of farming’s next generation.

Richie Devillier is fighting back after the government twice flooded his 900-acre farm and home, killed his cattle, ran his family through emotional hell—and insisted he foot the entire bill.

Agriculture’s closet is filled with fake news, but the outrageous claim of trained monkeys working on American farms is a hoax for the ages.

Illinois’ Jack Shissler hit major dryland corn yields in 2022: “Boiled down, my yields were about choosing the right variety and applying fungicide. Variety and fungicide—that’s where it was at.”

Judas goats? One of history’s last slaughterhouse witnesses to the bizarre Judas goat spectacle recalls the death parade to the killing floor.

Wil Wilkins was stunned to read a freshly erected federal sign adjoining his land: PUBLIC ACCESS THRU PRIVATE LANDS. In a flash, every citizen of the U.S. had crossing rights on his private ground.