Recent university studies find that corn kernels usually hold their weight through the dry-down process while pinpointing the operational realities that lead to missing grain.

Iowa State’s Meaghan Anderson walks central Iowa cornfields turning up a resurgence of crown rot after years of drought, plus wildly variable stands from early-season rain. Is a big Iowa corn crop still in reach?

Planting soybeans months before wheat harvest sounds risky. But farmers Brian Tanner and Jason Mauck find it dries wet fields faster, cuts input costs and gives wheat a profitable place back in Corn Belt rotations.

A survey of 5,500 farmers found the influence of nontechnical sales reps down 17 points in North America while agronomists held flat. The difference isn’t who calls on the grower. It’s what they bring when they get there.

“I’ve spent less than 35% of normal chemical costs so far this year,” Orin Romine says. “It’s not complicated. On my operation, the math works.”

Researchers say a simple combine tweak gives farmers a way to concentrate up to 95% of their toughest weed seeds into just 5% of a field.

The answers to which hybrids, products and practices paid off may already be in your fields. The trick is stopping long enough to find them, say David Hula and Randy Dowdy.

The Agricultural Retailers Association’s policy team joined the Scoop Podcast to lay out what’s still in play this fall — a stalled Senate farm bill, a disaster aid package hung up over its price tag, a labor rule sent back to the drawing board, and a rail merger they say will cost ag shippers competition.