PHOTO GALLERY: Online tool helps young farmers

January 29, 2013 | 9:50 p.m. CST

An online tool developed at MU and a class at the university are helping students return to their family farms.

Scott Gerlt, programer of The Farm Cost and Return Tool, poses for a portrait at the MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute on Thursday. The Farm Cost and Return Tool is an online resource to help young farmers build projected budgets for their farming operations. | Ben Walton

Mark Novinger, left, Grant Novinger, top, and Jake Smith, right, unload dried distillers grain at MU junior Andrew Perry’s family farm in Kirksville. Perry said the farm is maintained by a combination of family and hired hands. | Courtesy of Andrew Perry

Andrew Perry unloads a hopper of soybeans with a John Deer tractor at his family farm last year. The drought of 2012 made growing a crop difficult, Perry said, and a full hopper of soybeans was rare. | Courtesy of Andrew Perry