Successful Farming Magazine: History, Current Profile, Content and Staff
Profile updated November 2026
Successful Farming magazine is the oldest title in what became one of America's biggest publishing houses, and it is still one of the most widely read business magazines on U.S. farms. Launched in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1902, it grew alongside the Corn Belt itself, and today it reaches growers through a print magazine, the Agriculture.com website, newsletters and video.
| Founded | 1902, Des Moines, Iowa |
|---|---|
| Founder | Edwin T. (E.T.) Meredith, later U.S. Secretary of Agriculture |
| Publisher | People Inc., the company formerly called Dotdash Meredith |
| Audience | Commercial grain, livestock and diversified farm families across the U.S. |
| Digital home | Agriculture.com, launched in 1995 |
| Format | Print magazine, digital edition, website, e-newsletters and video |
| Official website | Agriculture.com |
History of Successful Farming
Edwin Thomas Meredith started Successful Farming in 1902 with the conviction that farm families deserved practical, business-minded reporting rather than folklore and patent-medicine advertising. The magazine was the first title of the Meredith Corporation, and its readership among Midwestern farm households became the springboard for everything that followed, including the 1922 launch of the homemaking magazine that became Better Homes and Gardens.
Meredith himself moved from publishing into national policy, serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Woodrow Wilson in 1920 and 1921. The magazine kept its Des Moines base through the Depression, two world wars and the mechanization boom; its own archive features revisit how the World Wars were drawn on its covers.
Successful Farming was early to the internet. Agriculture.com went live in 1995, making it one of the first agricultural websites in the country, and the brand later added a weekly machinery television program and a licensed national radio feature, Successful Farming Radio Magazine. After IAC's Dotdash bought Meredith in late 2021, the magazine became part of Dotdash Meredith, which renamed itself People Inc. in 2025.
Successful Farming Today
Successful Farming continues as a national farm business magazine with its editorial center in Des Moines. Library services such as OverDrive and EBSCO Flipster list current issues under People Inc., and the brand's daily news, markets and machinery coverage runs on Agriculture.com.
Historically the publisher has reported print circulation around 420,000 and readership above one million, which puts it among the largest general farm magazines in the United States. Its positioning has stayed consistent for more than a century: help farm families make money, save time and keep the operation in the family.
What Successful Farming Is Publishing Now
Farmland sales and markets
Recent issues track individual farmland auctions county by county, such as Iowa and Illinois tracts selling for well above $18,000 per acre, alongside grain marketing columns that ask whether last season's price patterns will repeat in 2026.
Machinery and shop ideas
Equipment coverage spans new releases like the John Deere V452M round baler and Fendt planters with Precision Planting technology, plus reader-built shop tools and repair tips, including how off-the-shelf AI tools can speed machinery fixes.
Agronomy and the farm family
Agronomy features cover planting-order research and yield-contest lessons, while the Family and Farmstead pages, Rural Route Ramble and legal columns handle estate planning, succession and life on the farm.
Successful Farming Editors and Staff
Successful Farming's editorial team works out of Des Moines and in the field. Names and titles below are drawn from published masthead and media-directory listings; mastheads change, so confirm a title on Agriculture.com before pitching.
- Jessie Scott - Editor in Chief
- Laurie Bedord - Executive Editor
- Lisa Foust Prater - Family and Farmstead Editor
- Cassidy Walter - Business Management Editor
- Chelsea Dinterman - Agronomy Editor
- Alex Gray - New Products Editor
Over the decades, Successful Farming alumni have staffed much of farm journalism; Farm Journal president Charlene Finck, for one, worked on the Successful Farming staff before moving to Farm Journal in 1989.
Who Reads Successful Farming
The core reader is a commercial grower or livestock producer who runs the farm as a business and wants profit-focused reporting. With U.S. farm numbers down 7% to 1.9 million in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, and average size up to 463 acres, the magazine's emphasis on scale, technology and succession matches where American agriculture is heading.
Not every page of rural reading has to be about basis and bushels. If the land-price charts in Successful Farming start to feel like a horror story, there is a lighter shelf: farm.FM serves up farm satire, farm humor and ranch humor written by people who know which end of the auger bites. Its farm jokes land best on readers who already get the inside references, and that is exactly the crowd that reads Successful Farming cover to cover.
Part newsroom, part radio dial, farm.FM bills itself as America's first satirical farm site and plays Tractor Tunes, its country music for farmers. Browse a farm.FM writer's back catalog to see the style.
Successful Farming Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- USDA NASS Census of Agriculture - the official count of U.S. farms and ranches behind the trends Successful Farming covers.
- USDA ERS Farm Income and Wealth Statistics - federal farm income and balance-sheet data used in farm business reporting.
- Agri-Marketing: Successful Farming brand licensing - trade report noting the 1902 founding and the 1995 launch of Agriculture.com.
- Agri-Marketing: About Successful Farming - background on Meredith's first magazine and its circulation.
- Farm Journal: Charlene Finck profile - an example of Successful Farming's influence on farm journalism careers.
Successful Farming FAQ
Who founded Successful Farming magazine?
Edwin T. Meredith founded Successful Farming in Des Moines in 1902. It was the first magazine of the Meredith Corporation, and Meredith later served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
Who owns Successful Farming today?
Successful Farming is published by People Inc., the media company previously known as Dotdash Meredith, which acquired Meredith in 2021.
What is the Successful Farming website?
The brand's digital home is Agriculture.com, which launched in 1995 and carries daily news, markets, machinery and agronomy content.
Who is the editor of Successful Farming?
Published directories list Jessie Scott as Editor in Chief, with Laurie Bedord as Executive Editor.
For more than 120 years, Successful Farming magazine has made the case that farming is a business worth reporting on seriously. From E.T. Meredith's Des Moines office to Agriculture.com, it remains a standard reference for farm families planning their next season.