captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> the impeachment inquiry into president trump began last week. >> i've answered everything. it's a whole hoax. and you know who is playing into if hoax? people like you and the fake news media. >> and questions remain about whether the white house will cooperate with the committee leading the investigation. what would you say to someone who says, look, we're 13 months away from the election. let the voters decide? >> when we are seeing the president already taking steps to undermine the 2020 election, i'm not sure we have that luxu. >> first thing i picked up on is how wicked smart he was.

>> smart? >> oh, like genius, absolutely. >> texas ranger james holland is talking about the most prolific seriilmerin history, samuel little. where did you kill the most? >> as you'll hear, the ranger is determined to solve the murders little committed in 19 states. >> she was laughing while i was killing her. >> yeah? >> with hours of conversation and works of art produced from a serial killer's photographic memory. >> the american farmer is suffering from president trump's tariffs and record-setting floods this spring. more than half operated in the red last year. can we touch? >> oh, yeah. >> but we met a c.e.o. named beth ford who may with their biggest advocate inch one way or another, her company affects 50% of all farmland in america and is introducing high-tech tools to help farmers survive.

>> we use a thing called computer vision or image recognition. the idea is can we actually use a camera and start to see if they're at the ideal weight or not. ( ticking ) >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more, tonight, on "60 minutes." ( ticking ) wit looks like jill heading offe on an adventure.

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whistleblower now, who is familiar with the phone call between president trump and volodymyr zelensky, the president of ukraine. that phone call came to light two weeks ago after a u.s. intelligence officer filed an official complaint alleging mr. trump solicited a foreign government to help his 2020 campaign. late friday, the white house received its first congressional subpoena for records. also last week, members of congress went home to hear from their constituents. we traveled with two members who are now facing some of the most consequential decisions of their careers. their congressional districts are 1,700 miles and worlds apart. new jersey's 11th congressional district is white, suburban and wealthy. texas' 23rd congressional district is wide open and 70% latino. the texas district is represented by a republican--

will hurd. >> will hurd: now, these are allegations that the whistleblower brought up. and we should be trying to understand what is true and what isn't. >> pelley: the representative for new jersey's 11th district is a democrat, mikie sherrill. many americans are saying," we just went through two years of this with the mueller report. and now we're going to do this again?" >> mikie sherrill: i think what i'm asking for from the american people is faith. faith in our democratic values. faith that we can do this, relatively quickly, and get to the bottom of this, and protect our democracy. there was no "bottom" last week, to the cascading events. thursday, the president's former point-man on ukraine, ambassador kurt volker, provided text messages to congress. among them was a text volker sent to his counterpart on president zelensky's staff in preparation for the phone call."

heard from white house," volker wrote, "assuming president z. convinces trump he will investigate/get to the bottom of what happened in 2016 we will nail down date for visit to washington this suggested zelensky would be invited to the oval office if he agreed to investigate a rumor that ukrainians helped democrats in 2016 and were hiding a democratic email server. there is no known evidence of this. last wednesday, mr. trump doubled down on what he said in the call. >> president trump: believe it or not, i watch my words very carefully. there are those that think i'm a very stable genius. okay? i watch my words very, very closely. >> pelley: the call with zelensky came in july, days after mr. trump suspended military sales to ukraine, which is fighting rebels backed by russia. in the official record,

president zelensky asked for javelin anti-tank missiles. president trump replied, "i would like you to do us a favor though." that's when he asked zelensky to investigate the rumor about 2016. what do you make of that? >> hurd: i wouldn't have handled the conversation that way. >> pelley: republican will hurd is on the committee leading the investigation. >> hurd: it is behavior that i wouldn't have done. >> pelley: is it improper? >> hurd: is it an impeachable offense? i don't think so. but that, in concert with some of the allegations made by the whistleblower, is why i think we should understand what actually happened, and the lead up to that phone call-- in my opinion is more-- is more important to understand, motivations and intentions by all the actors involved. >> pelley: new jersey democrat mikie sherrill is a former navy pilot, federal prosecutor, and military advisor on russia.

she opposed previous calls for an impeachment inquiry until the phone call. president zelensky says we are almost ready to buy more javelins from the united states for defense purposes, and president trump's immediate response is, "i'd like you to do us a favor though." >> sherrill: this is what's so critical. those javelins are pretty much what stands between western europe and russian tank forces. to put that security aid at risk because he wants to, not fulfill the duties of the president of the united states of america, but to, instead, serve his own personal self-interest, that, again, was the bright line. >> pelley: representative sherrill's new jersey district lies across the hudson from manhattan. last nemr,he became the first democrat to win the seat in 34 years. over coffee, we heard from her

constituents: republican karen arakelian; democrat brett wellman; and kathy abbott, who was a republican member of a town council. >> kathy abbott: well, i do think that a line was crossed. now he's meddling in foreign policy without understanding policy, and understanding that you cannot involve foreign governments in your reelection campaign. >> pelley: you've been a republican how long? >> abbott: about 25 years. >> karen arakelian: i disagree. i think this is something that has been being asked for since the day the man was elected. and they're just waiting and trying to find something, making many big things out of nothing. and this is another one. and i think the truth will come out. and i'm kind of glad that they're doing it, because what we heard of the conversation is basically a conversation between two leaders of countries and they want to get to the bottom of what happened.

>> brett wellman: private conversations and leveraging the office of the presidency of the united states and federal funds are two very different things. >> arakelian: is that what you think happened? >> wellman: yes! >> arakelian: i don't think that's what happened at all. >> pelley: what would you say to someone who says, "look, we're 13 months away from the election. let the voters decide"? >> sherrill: when we are seeing the president already taking steps to undermine the 2020 elections, i'm not sure we have that luxury. >> pelley: will hurd's district stretches from san antonio to el paso. hurd is the only black republican in the house-- a former c.i.a. officer in afghanistan and pakistan. anybody talking to you about impeachment? >> hurd: no, when you look at the calls or the emails that we get into the office from constituents, it's no different. gun violence is still an issue in my district.

and still, we have a crisis going on along our border. >> pelley: in san antonio, we brought up impeachment with democrats jennifer falcon and trish mendoza, and republicans andres holliday and stephen pennington. >> jennifer falcon: i think we should have done it a long time ago. trump has incited violence and is a misogynist and has really fueled the fire of racism in america. >> pelley: andres, what do you see in the phone call? >> andres holliday: i see something that most likely happens on a day-to-day basis with leaders of nations. i mean, all the time there's going to be conversations of" how can we work together on things?" >> trish mendoza: i read the transcripts like probably all of us have, like a lot of people have, and what i read was sounded like our president pressuring the head of a foreign government to do him a favor, a political favor. >> stephen pennington: we'll have to see what comes out, because, i don't see anything

that would rise to high crimes and misdemeanors, an impeachable offense. i just don't see it. >> trump: and biden is not the brightest person. >> pelley: all week, mr. trump worked to shift attention to his reelection rival, former vice president joe biden. >> trump: if biden is corrupt, if his son is corrupt, when his son takes out billions of dollars-- billions-- when they do that, that's no good. >> pelley: biden is the focus of a conspiracy theory for which no evidence has been publicly produced. in the obama white house, biden worked with the european union to force out a ukrainian prosecutor who was considered weak on corruption. at the time, biden's son was on the board of a ukrainian gas company that had been investigated, but not charged. there is the appearance of a conflict of interest, but ukraine says neither biden was suspected of anything illegal. still, mr. trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, pushed a theory that biden must have forced the prosecutor out to protect his

son from something. on the call with zelensky, mr. trump says, "the other thing-- there's a lot of talk about biden's son, that biden stopped the prosecution. and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great." mr. trump was offering u.s. attorney general william barr to help a foreign government investigate one of his reelection opponents. barr denies being involved. >> trump: china should start an investigation into the bidens, because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with, with ukraine. >> pelley: mr. trump's surprising request to china, last week, for no stated reason, was an example of the president of the united states hurling indictments without facts. in a news conference with finland's president, reuters reporter jeff mason asked

mr. trump what he wanted zelensky to do in regard to the bidens. >> trump: look, biden and his son are stone-cold crooked. and you know it. his son walks out with millions of dollars. the kid knows nothing. you know it, and so do we. go ahead. ask a question now. >> mason: the question, sir, was what did you want president zelensky to do about vice president biden and his son, hunter? >> trump: are you talking to me? >> mason: it was a just a follow-up of what i just asked you, sir. >> trump: listen. listen. are you ready? we have the president of finland. ask him a question. >> mason: i have one for him. i just wanted to follow up on the one that i asked you, which was-- >> trump: did you hear me? >> mason: what did you want him to-- >> trump: did you hear me? >> mason: yes, sir. >> trump: ask him a question. >> mason: i will, but-- >> trump: i've given you a long answer. ask this gentleman a question. don't be rude. >> mason: no, sir. i don't want to be rude. i just wanted you to have a chance to answer the question that i asked you. >> trump: i've answered everything. it's a whole hoax. and you know who's playing into the hoax? people like you, and the fake news media that we have in this

country. and i say, in many cases, the" corrupt media," because you're corrupt. >> pelley: among those text messages given to congress, one seemed to clear the president's motives. the senior u.s. diplomat in ukraine complained, "i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." the u.s. ambassador to the european union replied, "the president has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo's of any kind." but that message was written days after the ukraine story had broken in public. a cbs news poll shows 55% of voters support the investigation. our restaurant poll found 100% agreement on how the political parties should proceed. you all believe that this should be top priority in washington today, and that the other things should wait? >> wellman: absolutely. >> abbott: unfortunately, yes. >> arakekian: let's get it done now at this point.

it's happening. let's do it as quickly as possible, because there's a lot of really important issues that have to be addressed. >> pelley: these last two weeks have been pretty tough, and i wonder if any of you think that the rhetoric is already way too overheated? >> mendoza: i think it's been overheated for a while. the temperature needs to be cooled down significantly, so that people who are just regular citizens, voters like ourselves, can come together and actually have conversations about the way forward. >> holliday: i could- i could not agree with that-- that more. i think-- that-- >> mendoza: well, there you go. >> see, right there. >> pelley: there are not likely to be handshakes across the aisle of the house as the question of impeachment dominates the foreseeable future. >> sherrill: now that we've done it, i think we need to really make sure we're conveying to the american people how seriously we take this, how sober this is. this is not a happy time for us. >> hurd: there are many people

that look at the whistleblower complaint as an example of why there should be impeachment. and then the other side wants to look at this as exoneration of what the administration is doing. what i want to do is understand doing. what i want to do is understand the truth. ( ticking ) (bullhorn) roll up! roll up!. oh it's a work morning! breakfast in bed! all you have to do is add ground coffee for a carafe, or pop in a pod for a freshly brewed cup. so it does both! it's so good. it's smooth and rich. our carafe of dark roast. dad, that's your french vanilla! you're gonna be late for work, go! you forgot your lunchbox! you've got your carafe of medium roast. i've got my hazelnut. (sipping) that's too loud. just three adults, brewing the love. so much more than i could have imagined. my grandfather was born in a shack in pennsylvania, his father was a miner, they were immigrants from italy and somewhere along the way that man changed his name and transformed himself into a

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>> alfonsi: tonight, you're going to hear about the man the f.b.i. is now calling the most prolific serial killer in the history of the united states. his name is samuel little, and over the last year and a half, he has confessed to 93 murders. that's more than were committed by ted bundy and jeffrey dahmer combined. no one would have known the scale of little's crimes, if not for a texas ranger who had a hunch.

little had never confessed to anyone about anything, but over the course of 700 hours of interviews, ranger james holland coaxed the 79-year-old into revealing his life's work. the confessions have enabled investigators across the country to solve dozens of cold cases. but holland needs help to match up the rest. it's why the texas ranger is telling us the story of how he got america's deadliest serial killer to confess. with a swagger that would make john wayne envious, texas ranger james holland arrived this summer at the california state prison. he was escorted to the interview room for another round with samuel little, the killer who went undetected for nearly half a century. don't be fooled by his grandfatherly appearance. >> samuel little: i got away with numerous murders, of women, in my life, over the span of 50 years.

>> alfonsi: 93 murders in 19 states, from 1970 to 2005. now, near the end of his own life, and out of appeals, little has been spilling his secrets to ranger holland over the course of several interviews since may of last year. >> james holland: where did you kill the most? >> little: oh, that's easy. florida and california. >> holland: what city did you kill the most in? >> little: miami and los angeles. >> holland: and how many did you kill in los angeles? >> little: los angeles, approximately 20. >> alfonsi: so how did he skip by so long? >> holland: he was so good at what he did. you know, "how did you get away with it, sammy?" did the crime, left town. >> alfonsi: the drifter from ohio preyed upon the fringes of society-- prostitutes, drug addicts, women he believed the police wouldn't work too hard to find. the ranger says little was a cunning killer, who sized up his victims and his surroundings.

>> holland: the first thing i picked up on is how wicked smart he was. >> alfonsi: smart? >> holland: oh, like, genius. yes, absolutely. >> alfonsi: why? why do you say that? >> holland: oh, well, number one, you know, the photographic memory, his memory for details. you know, like, "sammy, tell me what's around her?" "there's three tombstones over there. there's a caliche road. drive down a quarter of a mile, there's a white baptist church that needs to be whitewashed." phenomenal. >> alfonsi: for example, little remembered unusual arches close to the spot where he killed a woman outside of miami. sure enough, when miami detectives investigated, they saw the arches. little had strangled miriam chapman near those arches in 1976. you've never felt like he sent you on some wild goose chase? >> holland: no. nothing he's ever said has been proven to be wrong or false. we've been able to prove up almost everything he said. >> judge: mr. little! >> alfonsi: because of little's confessions, judges and prosecutors nationwide have been able to close long-standing cases. >> judge: what iyour plea to

the charge of murder? >> little: guilty. >> alfonsi: here was little, via a video link from his prison in august, pleading guilty to two stranglings in cincinnati. in just over a year, 50 cold cases that had been dormant for decades have been solved, due to the detailed confessions little provided to the ranger. >> holland: tell me about north little rock. tell me what that girl looked like. >> little: had buck teeth. had a gap between her teeth, that's what it was. >> alfonsi: little grows disturbingly animated as he describes how he strangled his victims. >> little: you know that she's fighting for her life, and i'm fighting for my pleasure. >> alfonsi: so how do you reach a serial killer? how do you get them to talk? >> holland: you avoid the things that normally work for investigators. >> alfonsi: what do you mean by that? >> holland: you avoid things like remorse, and closure for the family. >> alfonsi: because they don't have remorse, and they don't care about closure? >> holland: no. no, it doesn't appeal to them at

all. i mean, you're asking them to open up their soul to the things that are more intimate to them than anything in life. why should they do that with you? and that's what you're working for. >> little: a little skinny black girl. real friendly. she was laughing while i was killing her. >> holland: with sammy, there's indications of visualization, of when he's thinking about a crime scene. he'll start stroking his face. and as he's starting to picture a victim, you'll see him look out and up. and you can tell he has this revolving carousel of victims, and it's just spinning, and he's waiting for it to stop at the one that he wants to talk about. >> alfonsi: investigators had discovered that little liked to sketch. ranger holland gave him art supplies, wondering if he might be able to use his remarkable memory to draw his victims. >> alfonsi: ( gasps ) and he has. wow. these are all of his drawings.

>> holland: these are all his. >> alfonsi: they're pretty detailed. is there one that you looked at and you knew right away, oh, that's... ? >> holland: there's a lot of them. >> alfonsi: really? >> holland: yeah, as soon as we matched it up. >> alfonsi: how many has he sketched? >> holland: i think there's somewhere around 50. >> alfonsi: the note on this one is super creepy. >> holland: "sam killed me, but i love him." he writes notes on some of the drawings. >> alfonsi: tall girl by the highway. girl in a strip joint. left in the woods. 1972? and it's so... >> holland: right, yes, and we've matched that one up. >> alfonsi: you have? >> holland: yes, that's a new orleans murder. >> alfonsi: i can't remember the person who checked me out of the hotel this morning. if someone gave me a million dollars to draw her face, i couldn't do it. the fact that he can still do this? >> holland: right. he basically takes a photograph in his mind of exactly what he sees as he leaves them. >> alfonsi: a year and a half ago, ranger holland had never heard of samuel little. little was rotting away in this prison at the edge of california's mojave desert, sentenced to three life terms in 2014 for strangling three women. in court, prosecutors had labeled little a sexual

predator. he denied everything, and was defiant to the end. but the f.b.i. noted that little had somehow skirted charges for violent crimes year after year, in state after state, in places where women disappeared, including texas. that drew the interest of ranger james holland, a skilled interviewer who says he's convinced dozens of killers to confess during his career. >> alfonsi: typically, when people want you involved in a case, they want you there because, why? >> holland: virtually every single case that i ever deal with, there's no d.n.a. evidence, there's no forensics, there's no nothing. >> alfonsi: and there was nothing linking samuel little to additional murders, just suspicions. the ranger was intrigued by a cold case in odessa, texas. denise brothers was a prostitute working on the wrong side of town. then she went missing in 1994. >> damien brothers: we looked everywhere. >> alfonsi: her son damien

remembers driving around odessa with his grandparents, looking for her. a month later, denise brothers' body was found at the back of an abandoned parking lot, dumped in brush. >> brothers: we were asked to come down and look at the body. >> alfonsi: you had to do that? >> brothers: yeah. >> alfonsi: how old were you? >> brothers: 14. >> alfonsi: that sticks with you. >> brothers: yeah. >> alfonsi: for 24 years, damien didn't know who killed his mother, or why. ranger holland learned denise brothers had been strangled, and that samuel little was in west texas at the time. >> holland: did sammy do it? i don't know, but i felt like there was a, you know, a reasonable probability that he did it. >> alfonsi: to find out if his instinct was right, the ranger went to california last year to interview little, who had always been hostile to law enforcement. >> holland: did i believe he was going to confess? ( laughs ) complete arrogance on my part. absolutely. >> alfonsi: and for the first couple of minutes, it really was going quite poorly.

he's... ? >> holland: oh, horrible. >> alfonsi: he's raging. >> holland: oh, yes. >> alfonsi: little vented in the interview room for 30 minutes that he had been wrongly depicted as a rapist. >> holland: there was no doubt in my mind that samuel little was not a rapist. but i told him, he knew it, and i knew it, that he was a killer. and he stops, and he kind of looks at me for a second. and he didn't seem to mind it. and then you could see in his eyes as he's looking away, and he follows back as i say the word, "killer." and that appealed to him. that's how he defines himself. >> alfonsi: as a killer? >> holland: yes. >> alfonsi: was there a moment where you said, "i've got him?" >> holland: yeah, when he talked about there may be three victims in texas. >> alfonsi: three victims, and one of them was in odessa, texas. >> christie palazzolo: all of a sudden, we turned to each other. "oh my gosh, he's talking about odessa." and we grab our files and start going through and checking what he's talking about and verifying. >> alfonsi: christie palazzolo of the f.b.i. and angela williamson of the department of justice analyze violent crimes. they were listening to the

interview across the hall, and had access to the f.b.i. database and the denise brothers file. you've got the photos of the crime scene in front of you. did it match up right away? >> angela williamson: oh, yes. ( laughs ) >> palazzolo: yeah. >> alfonsi: and he had details. >> palazzolo: yes. >> alfonsi: that hadn't been reported? >> palazzolo: extreme details, yes. >> alfonsi: like what? >> williamson: in denise's case, he remembered that she wore a denture. >> alfonsi: the autopsy confirmed brothers did wear a denture. all the details matched. samuel little had killed denise brothers. ranger holland knew he was onto something big. he schemed to have little extradited to texas for a few months, so he could talk to him around the clock and extract more confessions. i would think texas, with the death penalty, is the last place a killer like sammy little wants to go. >> holland: basically, what i told him was, i can go to the district attorney and i can ask him to take the death penalty off the table. and, and i believe that he will do that. >> alfonsi: which was especially brazen, since ranger holland had never met the district attorney

in odessa, bobby bland. >> bobby bland: and he said, "i'd like a letter from you, on your letterhead, saying that you would waive the death penalty." and i said, "well, you know, that's a pretty tall order just to do blindly." >> alfonsi: so why? why did you do it? >> bland: there's a greater good. this strange ranger that was calling me from california, telling me he had a serial killer. i put my faith in him. >> alfonsi: the next morning, the letter waiving the death penalty was in samuel little's hands. last september, the rangers sent a plane to whisk little to texas, where he was housed in the wise county jail. for 48 straight days, for hours on end, the two men sat in a small room. during that time, little confessed to 65 of his murders. the ranger plied little with pizza and dr. pepper to keep the stories flowing. people will hear this and go, why were you treating a serial killer so well? >> holland: what do i say to that? i say that we can have one case, or we can have 93 cases.

>> alfonsi: it was in your best interest for him to be comfortable. >> holland: oh absolutely, yes, yes. >> alfonsi: so why you? why did he finally confess to you? >> holland: at the end of the day, maybe sammy just liked me. >> alfonsi: today, little is back at the california state prison. we wanted to interview him on camera, but state law won't allow it. so we asked him to call us. ( phone ringing ) he did, answering our questions for nearly an hour. we wondered why he decided to confess now. are you worried that there might be innocent people in jail for some of your crimes? >> little: probably be numerous people who are, been convicted and sent to penitentiary on my behalf. i say, "if i can help get somebody out of jail, you know, then god might smile a little bit more on me." >> alfonsi: for most of our call, little spoke of his victims. >> little: they was broke and homeless, and they walked right into my spider web.

>> alfonsi: it was uncomfortable to listen to his graphic stories. towards the end of the interview we asked him to reflect on the depths of his crimes. >> little: i don't think there was another person that did what i liked to do. i think i'm the only one in the world. that's not an honor. that's a curse. >> alfonsi: with little's old age, failing health, and a fear that his memory could slip, there is urgency to figure out who and where the rest of his victims are. >> holland: it's kind of like, never-ending. you have to continue. you have to finish it. >> alfonsi: ranger holland's been encouraging little to keep drawing. three new sketches arrived at the ranger's office just last week. three new faces, last seen in the mind of the most prolific serial killer in american history. ( ticking )

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( ticking ) >> stahl: american farmers are suffering, facing a pileup of misfortunes-- president trump's tariffs, record-setting floods during spring planting, and persistently low prices for their products. the trump administration has promised nearly $20 billion in financial aid, but so far, just a third of that has reached farmers, more than half of whom lost money last year. a woman named beth ford has emerged as the farmer's advocate. last year, she became the c.e.o. of land o'lakes.

you're thinking, that's the butter company, and it is. but, it's also a multi-billion dollar agricultural conglomerate that in one way or another affects half of all the farmland in america. beth ford spends a lot of her time lobbying in washington, and this spring, she wrote a op-ed piece titled "farmers are in crisis, and america isn't paying attention." >> beth ford: you've got trade issues and tariff issues. you've got a changing consumer and what they want. i mean, there are so many variables right now, pressuring farmers. and this year, right now, the central issue for farmers is weather. >> stahl: it's a bad time. >> ford: it's a challenging time. >> stahl: beth ford's company, land o'lakes, is in the fortune 500, with $15 billion in annual revenue. its butter and cheese dominate the dairy case, and its purina

division feeds 100 million farm and zoo animals every day. but it is still an old-fashioned farmers' cooperative, founded almost 100 years ago. so, rather than answering to wall street analysts, she reports to 4,000 farmers. >> ford: most people don't realize that we're farmer-owned, that we really, literally, go back to the farm, and then all the way to the retail shelf. >> stahl: right. so you work for the farmers.>> d >> stahl: you own them. >> dave estrem: yes. >> stahl: dave estrem is one of the farmers beth ford works for. >> stahl: you're her boss. >> estrem: well, i'm proud of it. i'm her boss, yeah. well, i really don't want to say it that way, but... ( laughs ) >> stahl: but it's the truth. >> estrem: it is. estrem grows corn and soybeans on the 4,000-acre minnesota farm that's been in his family for 75 years. right now, he's struggling to sell what's in his silos. >> estrem: we have two of them dedicated to soybeans this year. this one's full of soybeans.

and then, the other one at the far side of this is full of soybeans. >> stahl: soybeans have been going to china. >> estrem: they used to. >> stahl: they used to. in the tariff tit-for-tat, china has dramatically reduced purchases of u.s. soybeans, and threatened to cut off all farm imports. how bad is the hit from all these tariffs that are coming your way? >> estrem: we're feeling it. it-- it's-- it's very difficult. >> stahl: is it dramatic? >> estrem: it is. >> ford: yeah, i think the export markets have been central to profitability for agriculture. the loss of those markets has hit prices hard. soybeans are now selling for around $9 a bushel. >> ford: normally, you would want $10 or $11 per bushel. so-- >> stahl: that's a big hit. >> ford: that's a very low price. that means many farmers are losing money. >> stahl: are people in this area-- this is supposedly trump's base. is it beginning to hurt him at all? >> ford: more frustration is

present because a number of people are going to lose their businesses. they're going to lose farms that they've had in their families for generations. >> stahl: so you think there may be a little softening? >> estrem: a little bit, yeah. >> stahl: adding to the economic woes, dave estrem, and farmers all across the midwest, suffered through the wettest, worst spring planting season on record. >> moo! >> stahl: dairy farmers are suffering, too. less from bad weather, than from trade tensions with mexico and canada and historically low prices. beth ford took us to a land o'lakes dairy farm in pennsylvania run by sisters candice white and amanda condo. >> amanda condo: a lot of times, our cost of production is higher than what we're getting paid for our product. so it's-- it's been a few years of losing money. >> stahl: actually losing money? >> condo: yes. >> ford: i think there used to be 92,000 dairy producers in the country. and now, the last-- the number i saw was in the 50,000 level, so 40% reduction. >> stahl: land o'lakes farmers

are able to hang on because they share in the co-op's overall profits. that butter you buy at the grocery store provides some of those profits, of course, but the co-op's most profitable division specializes in something called "ag tech," and beth ford says that is going to be the key to farmers long-term survival. >> ford: we use satellite technology. we use predictive models. we use all of the things that probably other businesses use, but that people are unfamiliar with, in terms of utilization in agriculture. >> stahl: so up on your screen, is this dave'sarm? >> teddy bekele: so this is dave's farm. this is where we were yesterday. >> stahl: teddy bekele is land o'lakes' chief technology officer. >> bekele: that's a picture from a satellite. >> stahl: the satellite can tell how well the field is doing. >> bekele: that's exactly right. >> stahl: the satellite images are matched with a computer algorithm that feeds off of ten years worth of data from dave estrem's fields, to create color-coded "prescriptions" for

each section of each plot. in the red zones, we're going to do 28,000 seeds per acre. in the yellow zones, we'll do 32,000 seeds per acre. in the green zones, we'll do 38,000 seeds per acre. you take this prescription and you put it into the planter, and it plants it according to this prescription. >> estrem: on the acres that we plant, it's all on the-- the computer or the tractor that runs the planter. >> stahl: wait, the-- wait. the computer runs the planter? >> estrem: absolutely. the computer runs the corn planter or bean planter, and it tells it how many seeds to drop per acre. >> stahl: dave estrem will tell you that getting that right matters, because the cost of seed can make the difference between profit or loss. as those seeds sprout and grow, the satellites continue to monitor dave's fields, and thousands of others. >> bekele: so these images are taken every five to seven days. so there's an image that comes in, and you can see the different colors here. and that gives us an idea of, "okay, this field is trending down, so let's go out there and

take a sample." that's what we would do. so what we could see from this sample is that the nitrogen and potassium are okay. nitrogen's pretty good. but the boron is, is struggling a little bit. so... >> stahl: my, my, my. it is really micro, micro, micro-farming. micro-managing. >> bekele: micro-managing it, absolutely. absolutely. >> stahl: that kind of detail allows farmers like dave estrem to use only as much fertilizer and pesticide as is absolutely necessary. land o'lakes says that saves farmers money and is better for the environment. the company also plants hundreds of test fields using every conceivable combination of seed, fertilizer, weed and pest control, to show farmers what'll work best on their fields. is this an agricultural co-op or a tech company? ( laughter ) i'm serious. >> ford: it's exciting. it really is. and i think most people don't understand that agriculture is so tech-forward, and it is. >> stahl: and land o'lakes dairy

farmers are just as tech-savvy. >> bekele: so, number one, we use this thing called computer vision, or image recognition. >> stahl: he's talking about-- i kid you not-- facial recognition for cows. >> bekele: so the machine now is using the technology, and we're starting to see, "okay, this cow is at ideal," and as you can see i just recognized the cow. it says, "is it ideal, is it over, or is it thin?" so those are the types of things we can-- >> stahl: and this machine would look at each and every cow in the herd? >> bekele: that's right. >> candice white: we work very closely with a nutritionist, and he... >> stahl: candice white and amanda condo don't yet have that tool on their farm. but they can run the whole place from their smart phones. >> white: we have this dairy dashboard. >> stahl: okay. >> white: you know, today, we're milking 1,051 cows. >> stahl: and how do they keep track of them? >> white: if you see on their front leg, they have that little tag? >> stahl: oh, yeah! >> white: that is their fitbit. >> stahl: oh my goodness, look at that. you are monitoring each cow

separately. >> yes. uh-huh. >> stahl: and you can go out and say, "3079, right over here, isn't eating enough." >> white: uh-huh. >> stahl: "let's go over there and find out what's wrong." >> yes. uh-huh. >> white: that will track her milk production also in the milking parlor. >> stahl: everything. >> white: yes. >> ford: i think people have this old-school view of farming as slower than, less than, smaller than. >> stahl: hayseed. >> ford: yeah. and they're not. they're very sophisticated business-people. they are very tech-savvy. they have to be, to withstand this kind of market pressure. >> stahl: can we touch her? >> condo: oh yeah. >> white: absolutely. >> stahl: as beth ford visits her co-op's farms, she's finding that more and more of them are being run by women. don't you think it's an assumption, when people meet you and you say, "i'm running a farm," don't people think, "well, their husbands are really doing it?" >> condo: yeah, because, i mean, that's the typical stereotype, right? it's the man.

the man is the farmer. and, you know... >> stahl: can i be honest? i actually thought that. >> condo: yeah. >> one, two... one, two, three, go. >> stahl: just after ford became c.e.o., land o'lakes released a music video featuring amanda and candice to highlight the fact that one-third of american farmers these days are women. >> maggie rose: old macdonald had a daughter, she-i-e-i-o. look what she does with what he taught her, she-i-e-i-o. >> stahl: at 55, ford is in a very small club of women running fortune 500 companies. >> ford: innovation is our advantage at land o'lakes. >> stahl: but she stands alone as the only female c.e.o. of a big company who's openly gay. tell us about how it was discussed that you were going to be the first gay female c.e.o. >> ford: it wasn't. the announcement was simply that i was going to be named as c.e.o., gave my background, and then it simply just said in the last line of the announcement

that i live in minneapolis with my wife, jill, and our three teenage children. that was it. matter-of-fact. a single line. >> stahl: but tell me about the reaction? because it was explosive, in a way. >> ford: it was a bit overwhelming and emotional for me. and you know where most of that emotion comes from? it comes from parents. it comes from parents, you know, "thank you for being"-- >> stahl: of gay children. >> ford: yeah. their children-- "thank you. my daughter has come out to me and she's 13. and i can share this with her. and thank you because now we can have a conversation about her life." >> stahl: aren't you lucky that you live now? >> ford: i am. >> stahl: i'm sure you think of that all the time. >> ford: let's be very honest. i mean, that is absolutely true. >> stahl: but when she began her business career more than 30 years ago, she felt she had to keep it hidden. mobil oil hired her right out of college. any problems at work? >> ford: no, because i wasn't-- >> stahl: you kept it secret. >> ford: well, i did, through my early 30s. and i was working in line

operations, working in tanker and barge docks, trucking facilities, manufacturing facilities. it wasn't really until my 30s that, you know, where i met jill, who's my wife, my spouse, that i thought, you know, "okay, we're just moving on." >> stahl: ford's wife, jill shurtz, is a west point grad and lawyer. when did you get married? >> ford: when it was allowed. but, you know, we've been together for 26-- now this is our 27th year. >> stahl: oh, my. >> ford: i have a daughter who's 17, and then twin boys. >> stahl: who are, what? >> ford: who are 14. and so, yes, we're in the middle of making the sausage. we're doing our best, like every other family. that's why i love it when i'm with our members and they're talking about their family and then they're talking about their grandbabies or about their children. it's a joy. she's a good girl. good to see you. >> stahl: ford didn't grow up on a farm, but she did grow up in farm country, sioux city, iowa, the fifth in a family of eight children. her first job was de-tasseling corn at age 12, and she's been

working ever since. >> ford: i was a janitor. i cleaned toilets. i-- >> stahl: you cleaned toilets? >> ford: yes. so, i had a variety of jobs. and again, this is no different than our members. you know, three in the morning, the pump in the manure pit's broken. they're out there in the freezing snow. this is why i admire our members, and why i feel connected to them, because they're willing to do the hard work. and i, i think that's terrific. ( ticking ) >> cbs sports hq is presented by progressive insurance. i'm james brown with the scores from the n.f.l. today. cliff kingsbury gets his first win with arizona. four touchdown passes leads new orleans to its third straight win. philly records ten sacks to ground the jets. denver gets its first win. christian mccaffrey totals 247 yards to lead carolina.

for more scores, go to yards to lead carolina. for more scores, go to cbssports.com. sandra, are you in school? yes, i'm in art school. oh, wow. so have you thought about how you're gonna make money? at least we're learning some new things. we bundled our home and auto with progressive, saved a bunch. oh, we got a wobbler. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. that's what the extra menu's for. when you bundle with us. (man, shouting) boy, these (woman, shouting) uh huh!ing. (man, shouting) they must be coming from this tree up here. ♪ all i have to do is dream (everly brothers throughout) (man in background) chicken's almost done, folks! (indistinct cheering and laughing in the background.) that was a funny one! she's the funny one! ♪ (man) my mother was so wrong about you. (man, shouting) honey what are you doing? (woman, shouting) let's have a harvest party!? (man, shouting) i'll invite my mom! (man) nice! (woman) yeah, we need that. (man) definitely! ♪ all i have to do is dream

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aaddiction. how juuline hooked kids and ignited an public health crisis." other news outlets report- juul took $12.8 billion from big tobacco. markets e-cigarettes with kid friendly flavors and uses

nicotine to addict them. 5 million kids use e-cigarettes. juul is "following big tobacco's playbook." and now, juul is pushing prop c to overturn e-cigarette protections. vote no on juul. no on big tobacco. no on prop c. >> stahl: next sunday on

"60 minutes:" holly williams reports from hong kong, where months of pro-democracy demonstrations have turned increasingly violent, and beijing's tolerance of the former british colony's special status is near the breaking point. >> williams: the protestors say they won't leave the streets until their demands are met. but, the hong kong authorities don't want to give in. this is a stalemate, and it's only the chinese government in beijing that can break it. >> stahl: i'm lesley stahl. we will be back next week with that and more, on another edition of "60 minutes." that and more, on another edition of "60 minutes." ( ticking ) i mean, wow. that and more, on another edition of "60 minutes." ( ticking ) ♪ the surface is a tool that helps me realize beautiful ideas. ♪

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captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org not you.estion, - i have a daughter. i gave her up for adoption. - if you're writing a book about simon hayes, we have nothing to talk about. he ruined my life. - and because of me, she's never worked as a journalist again. - so i'm moving to paris, then. - cara what i'm trying to say-- - please don't say it. i won't be able to get on that plane. simon, i don't think i'm here just to write your book. i think the god account wants me here for something bigger. - "follow the lady. find your path." - i don't think the god account is done with you just yet. [upbeat music] ♪ - ♪ where do i, i belong - "follow the lady. find your path." that's right, the "millennial prophet" is back with a brand-new mystery.