Sara Schafer

Sara (Muri) Schafer, editor of Top Producer magazine, grew up on a family farm where they raised hogs and cattle, along with soybeans, corn, wheat, milo and hay. Since joining Farm Journal Media in 2008, she has covered a broad range of topics pivotal to the success of U.S. farmers. In addition to being an award-winning journalist, she has played several key roles with the transformative relaunch of AgWeb.com and spearheaded the Farm Journal Legacy Project expansion. Sara graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in agricultural journalism and a minor in agricultural economics. She resides in Columbia, Mo., with her husband and daughter.

Latest Stories
The seemingly endless argument between the American Soybean Association (ASA) and the United Soybean Board (USB) has escalated this morning. ASA has formally asked the Secretary of Agriculture to order the USDA Inspector General to open an investigation into “serious allegations of abuse, wasteful spending, and mismanagement” by USB.
You can create a comprehensive business plan with six simple stages, thanks to a software program developed by Purdue University. INVenture, free business-planning software, can help your agricultural business succeed by laying out the required steps.
Yes, there’s such thing as a good breakdown. Studies hint that shredding stalks may be the ticket to higher yields in continuous corn.
Poop. The latest ethanol aids are cropping up in some very surprising and smelly places.
Got the urge to strip and go native? Prairie grass may be just the ticket to reducing erosion.
If you’re new to towing you may fully understand the EZ Connector, a wonderful tool. If you are a trailer expert and spent time with that little screw driver redoing your trailer plugs after they pulled apart or using your knife to scrape corrosion off the trailer plug blades and off course using the straight edge screw driver to bend the blades so they will connect to the male plug, you’ll relate to a better way.
Payload and trailer tongue weight come from the same capacity limit. Which makes hard sided heavy truck campers difficult to use with trailers.
If the right side mirrors says “objects in mirror are closer than they appear” throw them away. When you’re backing up a trailer, you need to see the same distance view in booth your mirrors. Having good big towing mirrors with spotter mirrors makes towing, turning and backing safer.
Input costs, especially for fertilizer, have been all over the board this past year and don’t look like they’ll settle down anytime soon. Properly managing your fertilizer applications, amounts and options can definitely save you heartache and cash during next year’s growing season. Lloyd Murdock, extension soil specialist at the University of Kentucky, provides some advice on how not to make fertilizer mistakes.
In this machinery maker’s view, 2009 will bring a return to 2007 levels.