Farmers 65 and older made up about 41% of Macon County's agricultural producers in the most recent Census of Agriculture, up from 35% five years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The number of producers 65 and older rose 37%, from 677 in 2017 to 928 in 2022, according to county profiles published by the department's National Agricultural Statistics Service. The county's total number of producers rose 18% over the same five years, to 2,282.

The census counts up to four producers on each farm, so the figures count people who help run farms, not farms themselves. The census is taken every five years, and the 2022 count is the latest available.

Among age groups, the oldest grew…

The National Weather Service has issued a frost advisory for Macon County from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday, warning that temperatures as low as 32 degrees will bring frost.

The advisory was issued at 1:51 a.m. Friday by the weather service office in Pleasant Hill. It also covers neighboring Adair, Linn, Chariton, and Randolph counties, along with parts of central, northern, and western Missouri and eastern Kansas.

"Frost could harm sensitive outdoor vegetation. Sensitive outdoor plants may be killed if left uncovered," according to the advisory, which tells residents to take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold.

The weather service forecast for Macon calls for a low around 34 Friday night, with areas of frost after…

Macon County cattle producers turning herds onto rain-revived pastures this fall should watch for prussic acid poisoning in Johnsongrass and other sorghum species, University of Missouri Extension specialists warn.

Rain after drought can trigger new growth in those plants, and the young shoots, especially the leaves, may hold high concentrations of the compounds that form prussic acid, also called hydrocyanic acid or hydrogen cyanide, according to MU Extension livestock specialist Gene Schmitz.

Frost does not end the risk right away. The National Weather Service has a frost advisory for Macon County from 1 to 9 a.m. Saturday. According to the Extension release, cyanide generally dissipates by gassing off 10 to 14 days after a frost or during the hay curing…

Residential assessed values in Macon County rose nearly half over the past decade while agricultural assessed values rose about 9%, shifting a larger share of the real-property tax base onto homes, according to Missouri State Tax Commission county tables for tax years 2015 and 2025.

Residential assessed valuation, combining rural and town lots, climbed from $81.0 million in 2015 to $118.9 million in 2025, a 46.8% increase, the commission's Table III reports show. Agricultural assessed valuation rose from $19.8 million to $21.5 million, or 9.0%.

Residential property's share of the county's locally assessed real property grew from 64.6% in 2015 to 66.3% in 2025. Agriculture's share fell from 15.8% to 12.0%. Total locally assessed real property rose from $125.5 million…