Illinois agriculture, week by working week.
Best of RFD is a weekly collection of agriculture reporting from the RFD radio network, centered on farmers and rural Illinois. Its conversations move from legislation and ethanol policy to auctions, crop insurance, soil practices, health, and tributes.
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Best of RFD is a weekly farm-radio recap built around Illinois agriculture. It pulls together conversations, interviews, and reported moments from RFD radio programming. The format is straightforward. A segment begins with a local hook, then lets a farmer, official, advocate, or community figure explain what is happening and why it matters. Much of the show is rooted in policy. Recent episodes have followed wetlands legislation, year-round E15, crop insurance deadlines, Farm Bill movement, trade talk, diesel emissions policy, and programs affecting farmers through FSA and other agencies. The show does not treat those issues as abstractions. It keeps returning to demand for corn, fuel costs, paperwork, field decisions, equipment expense, and the pressure farmers feel when the economy tightens. There is practical production talk, too. Conversations about non-GMO seed, no-till systems, cover crops, livestock nutrient cycling, herbicide rates, fertilizer prices, and planter decisions sit beside market and policy coverage. The scope is wider than crops. Best of RFD also makes room for rural life, including live equipment auctions, youth fishing, student ag marketing competitions, sun exposure and skin cancer prevention, and tributes to figures such as Orion Samuelson. Its strongest moments sound like informed neighbors comparing notes after a long week. The pace is measured. The questions are direct, and the answers often run long enough to preserve useful detail. That gives the show a civic quality as much as a market-news one. It is built for people who care about what happens in Springfield, Washington, county sale barns, dealership lots, and fields across Illinois. Best of RFD stands out because it keeps agriculture news attached to real people and real consequences.
Made for: Best of RFD is for farmers, rural Illinois listeners, agribusiness professionals, and anyone tracking how policy, markets, and community events affect agriculture on the ground.
What sets it apart: The show combines state-level farm reporting with local voices and practical consequences, moving easily from legislation and agency programs to auctions, conservation practices, health, and remembrance.
As another busy week in Illinois agriculture wraps up, join RFD Radio hosts Rita Frazer, DeLoss Jahnke and Jim Taylor as they reflect on the industry’s biggest stories of the week.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Best of RFD turns Illinois farm policy, input costs and production choices into practical accounts of how agricultural businesses operate.
Best of RFD follows agricultural decisions from the statehouse to the farm gate. Rita Frazer, DeLoss Jahnke and Jim Taylor assemble conversations from RFD Radio broadcasts, letting farmers, officials and industry figures explain how policy, prices and operating choices land in…
Wetlands bills meet ice fishing here, so your rural-news appetite never gets stuck behind a desk.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical rural Illinois week-in-review connecting wetlands policy, farm health, and student agriculture.
Best of RFD brings rural Illinois policy, public health, and agricultural education into one compact week-in-review, opening with wetlands regulations and the farm-level concerns around House Bill 3596.
A grounded rural Illinois roundup spanning a Master Farmer honor, ice fishing, social media, and fertilizer prices.
Best of RFD moves across rural Illinois with a grounded feel for what matters day to day: agriculture news, a Prairie Farmer Master Farmer ceremony in Bloomington, year-round fishing, and fertilizer costs.
RFD links county fair season with rural Illinois service, farm life, and invention.
Best of RFD turns a week of Illinois agricultural radio into a grounded portrait of rural life, moving from county fair season into service, farm work, and practical invention.
Illinois agriculture interviews cover local beef sales, meat shopping habits, and classroom projects.
This week's Illinois agriculture roundup starts with a practical question for beef producers: how to sell closer to home. At the Illinois Beef Association meeting, Dr.
Farm business talk with coffee-shop honesty.
This episode of 'Best of RFD' compiles key agriculture stories from Illinois for the week.
A recap of the week's agriculture news and a conversation with auctioneer Hayden Geisler about a special estate auction.
A compilation of the best interviews and news stories from the RFD radio network covering agriculture news affecting farmers and rural Illinois, including a feature on a movie about a farmer's daughter.
A recap of the week's agriculture news on RFD radio, featuring a firsthand account of a White House event with the president and agricultural leaders.
Best of RFD July 13, 2024 moves from Morgan County Fair coverage in Jacksonville to a Mercer County Farm Bureau remembrance and an Evergreen FS AI patent interview.
Illinois ag education reached 42,469 students across 404 programs, growing by more than 9,000 students over five years.
House Bill 3596 leads the show, with Kevin Simlow explaining why Illinois Farm Bureau wants farmers calling state legislators about statewide wetlands rules.
Illinois Director of Agriculture Jerry Costello argues that year-round E15 could add demand for about 1.5 billion bushels of corn and 4.5 billion gallons of ethanol, while also saying E15 is 10 to 40 cents cheaper than gasoline.
Illinois Farm Bureau President Phillip Nelson discusses his experience at a White House celebration of agriculture, highlighting the President's support for trade deals and E15 year-round.
A recap of the week's agriculture news and a special auction of a father-in-law's equipment estate.
A tribute to Orion Samuelson, the father of farm broadcasting, through a conversation with Illinois Farm Bureau President Phillip Nelson about his impact.
Best of RFD features Mark Gebhardt receiving the Prairie Farmer Master Farmer Award in Bloomington, where he calls the honor “Illinois Agriculture’s Hall of Fame” and reflects on a career that included the national soybean checkoff, Illinois Pork Producers, and Farm Bureau policy work.
Best of RFD March 07, 2026 moves between Illinois ag policy and a country-music milestone, with Phillip Nelson discussing the Farm Bill, E15, Proposition 12, and low Mississippi River levels.