55 years ago
The Hancock County crop judging team from Hancock Central High School is composed of Don Webster, Chris Little, Jim Brodkins and Don Burnham. Leo Stevens is their coach. They will be competing in the district contest in Indianapolis next week.

1954 Chevrolet half-ton pickup truck with 12,000 miles, looks and drives like it did the day it was new, $1,195 at Morris Chevrolet in New Castle, Ind.
More than 155 million bushels of corn grown for grain were lost during 1955 because of the European corn borer, the USDA reports. Damage was estimated at $182 million.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for Alquina’s new consolidated school were held recently and plans are expected for the building to be ready for occupancy in the fall school program for September.

40 years ago
A new Extension Homemaker Club was organized in Hancock County. Mrs. Irwin  Barnes was elected president; Mrs. John Gilga, vice president; Mrs. Gerry Dillon, secretary-treasurer; and Mrs. Brad Russell, publicity chair. The group decided on the fourth Tuesday of each month for their meeting date.

Indiana Elevators, Inc., with grain elevators at Winchester, Frankton, Manson, Earl Park, Barnard and Reagan, has filed bankruptcy.

The Indiana State Duroc Breeders Assoc. will be holding a club pig sale of gilts and barrows at the new livestock building on the Greenfield Fairgrounds. Everett Forkner, Duroc breeder from Missouri, will judge the sale animals and Howard Parrish will be the auctioneer.

The sale committee is made up of Albert Arthur and Rex Burge of New Palestine, Bruce Lugar of Camby, Charles Pierson of Monrovia, Henry Hodenreider of Indianapolis and Merle Kemple of Arlington.

112-acre farm, 75 acres tillable, spring in pasture, eight-room house, semi modern with basement, $28,000 through D. W. Grossman, Realtor, in Knightstown, Ind.

25 years ago

Used farm equipment for sale: 1981 IH 1086 tractor, 1,600 hours, $16,500; IH 720 5- to 16-inch toggle plow, $2,950; IH 470 16-foot-3-inch folding with harrow disk, $3,150; IH #4500 26.5-foot field cult. (hyd. Fd), $4,250; IH 400 6- to 30-inch air, dry fert, $1,950, all at Hull Bros, Inc. of Ft. Recovery, Ohio.
Nationwide hog inventory is down 3 percent from the prior year, while Indiana’s hog inventory is up 1 percent up in the same time. Indiana ranks third in the nation in hog and pig numbers.

Estimates have been made that as many as six billion tons of U.S. farmland is lost each year to soil erosion, states Ted Napier, an Ohio State University rural sociologist.

Real estate for sale Northern Michigan: 860 acres of wooded land, lake stream, blacktop road, electric, $60 per acre; 60 acres of farmland, $7,000; 80-acre dairy farm, $33,000, all at McDonald Realty, Pickford, Mich.

10 years ago

Women are taking a greater role in operating a farm and managing more farms than ever before. Women are handling nearly all of the marketing side of farming and financial management of the family business.

Barns that once served as the centerpiece of the farmstead are slowly disappearing, or worse, falling into disrepair. This is according to Rudy Christian, a nationally known timber farmer, who spoke at the annual Ohio Barn Conference held at Wooster.

Rushville Stockyards open (formerly the Doc Meyer Sale Barn), buying cows, bulls, fat cattle, feeders, sows, boars and hogs – Rushville, Ind.
The Forest Albertson family of Nineveh Township in Trafalgar, Ind., was named Johnson County Farm Family of the Year by the Ag Day Committee.