Michigan Farm News: History, Archive, Content and Readers
Profile updated November 2026
Michigan Farm News is one of the oldest Farm Bureau publications in the country. It began in the early 1920s as the semi-monthly Michigan Farm Bureau News and has carried the Michigan Farm Bureau's policy, markets and member stories ever since. Michigan State University Libraries has digitized decades of back issues.
| Publisher | Michigan Farm Bureau, Lansing |
|---|---|
| Original title | Michigan Farm Bureau News |
| Early frequency | Semi-monthly; Vol. III in 1925 |
| 1985 format | Monthly, Vol. 64 |
| Federation founded | February 4, 1919, at Michigan Agricultural College |
| President | Ben LaCross, elected December 2024 |
| Official website | MichFB.com |
History of Michigan Farm News
Michigan Farm Bureau was founded on February 4, 1919, when county agents and farmers from 57 county Farm Bureaus met in the Horticultural Building at Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University. Berrien County farmer Roland Morrill was its first president. Its roots lay in the Extension system: Clark Brody led the first county Farm Bureau in St. Joseph County after a hog cholera outbreak. An early win shifted a road-improvement tax from landowners to gasoline buyers.
The federation's newspaper followed quickly. By February 1925 the Michigan Farm Bureau News was in its third volume, issued semi-monthly for members, printed in Charlotte with offices at state headquarters in Lansing. Front pages that year covered Secretary Brody's annual report, freight rates for hay and the Farm Bureau seed service.
By January 1985, Michigan Farm News was a monthly in its 64th volume, published by the Information and Public Relations Division under editor Connie Turbin, with a cover story on a membership goal of 85,553 farm families.
Michigan Farm News Today
Michigan Farm News remains part of the Michigan Farm Bureau Family of Companies alongside Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan, the Michigan Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Association and the Michigan Foundation for Agriculture. It covers the policy the federation's members set each year through county and state delegate meetings.
Michigan State University Libraries hosts a digital archive of the paper, making a century of Michigan farm history searchable for researchers and families.
What Michigan Farm News Is Publishing Now
Policy
State and national legislation, taxes, Right to Farm and the delegate process that sets Farm Bureau policy.
Markets and production
Commodity and production news for field crops, dairy, livestock, fruit and specialty crops.
Members and communities
County Farm Bureau activities, young farmers and the federation's work against childhood hunger in Michigan.
Michigan Farm News Editors and Staff
Michigan Farm Bureau leaders and Michigan Farm News contacts on record include:
- Ben LaCross - President, Michigan Farm Bureau
- Jeremy Nagel - Editorial contact
- Jon Adamy - Editorial contact
- Dennis Rudat - Editorial contact
- Connie Turbin - Former Editor (1980s)
- Roland Morrill - First President (1919)
Members belong to one of 67 independently operated county Farm Bureaus as regular or associate members.
Who Reads Michigan Farm News
Michigan Farm News readers farm in one of the most diverse agricultural states, from tart cherries and apples along Lake Michigan to dairy, sugar beets, dry beans, corn and soybeans, potatoes and greenhouse crops. Michigan county figures can be explored in USDA's Quick Stats.
Nationally, the 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 1.9 million farms, 95% of them family farms, and ERS reports dairy was a $41.8 billion sector in 2021, one of Michigan's largest.
Michigan Farm News readers have outlasted a century of lake-effect snow, cherry frosts and arguments over whose county grows the best beans. For a laugh between chores, farm.FM offers farm satire and farm humor about mitten-state farming, plus ranch humor for the beef herds up in the Thumb and beyond. Its farm jokes are fresher than a Traverse City cherry in July.
If the name is new to you, farm.FM is the nation's first satirical farm site, with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers on the side. One of its regular writers keeps a whole archive of stories like that.
Michigan Farm News Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Michigan Farm Bureau: Our history - founding and affiliates.
- Wikipedia: Michigan Farm Bureau - membership, governance and history.
- MSU Libraries: Michigan Farm Bureau News, February 1925 - an early issue.
- USDA NASS Quick Stats - Michigan crop and livestock statistics.
- USDA ERS: Dairy - U.S. dairy sector data.
Michigan Farm News FAQ
When did Michigan Farm News start?
It began in the early 1920s as Michigan Farm Bureau News; the February 1925 issue was Volume III.
Who publishes Michigan Farm News?
The Michigan Farm Bureau, headquartered in Lansing.
Are old issues of Michigan Farm News online?
Yes. Michigan State University Libraries hosts a digital archive of back issues.
Who is president of Michigan Farm Bureau?
Ben LaCross, elected in December 2024.
A century after its first semi-monthly editions, Michigan Farm News still chronicles Michigan agriculture for Farm Bureau members.