Kansas State University

search

Kansas Profile

Tag: farming

Ray Flickner, innovation farm

Eight people standing in front of tree, Ray Flickner family picture
Flickner Family

The scientists from NASA are studying the landscape closely. But they aren’t viewing a satellite image of the moon. This is a group of NASA earth scientists who are visiting a Kansas farm in person so as to better understand the challenges facing farmers in water resources.

The farm they are visiting is a leader in conservation practices.

Ray Flickner is the Kansas agriculturalist who met with the NASA scientists on his farm. He is the fifth generation to farm his family’s land. The Flickners’ base operation is an irrigated row crop operation that has been in his family since 1874.

Flickner grew up in Moundridge and studied agricultural education at Kansas State University before earning his master’s degree. He met and married Susan who also earned bachelors and masters degrees in education from K-State.

Susan became a family life and resource management teacher and served as executive director of the Kansas Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Ray Flickner taught college agriculture classes before pursuing a career in agricultural lending. He described education and finance as the first two phases of his life.

“In 2007, a couple of years after my father passed away, I made the decision to enter the third phase of my life and began tending the land full-time,” Flickner said. The current operation produces irrigated corn, soybeans, sorghum and wheat. Through it all, an important theme has been the importance of conservation.

Continue reading “Ray Flickner, innovation farm”

Kevin and Julie Kirkwood, Kirkwood Kreations

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Picture this: Imagine a series of gorgeous images depicting beautiful views of natural landscapes. Today we’ll meet a rural Kansas couple who specialize in producing photographs of beautiful landscapes in Kansas and beyond.

Kevin and Julie Kirkwood
Kevin and Julie Kirkwood

Kevin Kirkwood is the founder of Kirkwood Kreations Photography. Kevin grew up in eastern Kansas and studied farm and ranch management at Colby Community College. In 1996, his daughter was playing club volleyball. As a proud dad, Kevin took photos of her playing. The pictures were so excellent that other parents wanted them.

When it was time for his daughter’s senior pictures, Kevin took those too. They turned out so well that when she showed them to friends at school, her friends wanted Kevin to take their senior pictures as well. This became a side business for Kevin, as he did commercial and sports photography while working in agriculture.

“Rural agriculture has been part of my life for the last 30 years,” Kevin said. He is now plant manager for McGraw Fertilizer in Tonganoxie. His wife Julie grew up in Lawrence, raised her family in Manhattan, and now works at an insurance agency in Lawrence. They live outside Tonganoxie, a rural community of 5,583 people. Now, that’s rural. Continue reading “Kevin and Julie Kirkwood, Kirkwood Kreations”