Latest News From Clinton Griffiths

Drag the planters out of the shed, fire up the seed tenders, update the field maps and start your engines. This season, as you enjoy your packed lunch at 10 a.m., ponder the lessons learned from the hardwoods.

After a 30-year career, her advice to someone just getting started is to be an effective communicator, which includes developing listening skills, and invite people to the table to take in different perspectives.

Researchers and agronomists are using a creative way to study corn plant root structures and hope it will lead to a new understanding of how below-ground root systems can impact yields and plant stress.

Whether it's planting, spraying, soil sampling or harvesting, new tools are turning the information you collect into actionable insights.

Working and training with her mother, in 2019 Hallie Shoffner took the lead as CEO and continues to focus on growing the business, searching for opportunities in specialty crops and value-added production.

What’s the most challenging thing about running a legacy brand? “The biggest challenge is being pigeonholed. Everyone expects us to recreate the past, but the future doesn’t look like what we were," Lamar says.

A few decades back, stopping at a Stuckey's during a holiday road trip wasn't uncommon. Today the company is eyeing a business comeback by focusing on its farming roots and leveraging quality Georgia pecans.

The flow of ag commodities around the world is changing demand for mechanization. The latest innovations to do more with less were on display in Hanover, Germany.

At 96 years young, Paul Dotterer still runs the chopper during harvest season on his family's dairy farm - and he enjoys every minute of it.

North Dakota auction company announces new record-high land sale for cropland in the northeast corner of the state at $17,500 per acre, while in Iowa farmland sales are starting to cool off.

Now's the time to start making notes of tar spot pressure, field by field and hybrid by hybrid, says Missy Bauer, Farm Journal field agronomist.

Remember: Weeds that never emerge have no impact on yield.

While farmers find the technology useful, especially for spot spraying and targeting fields in less-than-ideal conditions, weed scientists are buzzing with more caution.

What weeds do you hate and why? As a native of New Mexico, Clinton Griffiths spent hours alongside his dad, a hoe and bucket in hand, ridding their property of goatheads, a prickly plant with no proven useful purpose.

Experts agree there’s potential in the jug if used correctly and under the right expectations. Here are eight tips experts say can maximize your ROI of biologicals this growing season.  

“When Ukraine fails, in terms of their ability to produce agricultural products, the world becomes less safe,” says Howard Buffett, global philanthropist and Illinois farmer.

AI is not our buddy at the coffee shop who thinks he knows more than he does. Computer AI sophistication is advancing rapidly and will no doubt arrive at the farm gate in short order. 

It didn’t start with the swing of an ax in the Amazon or by an explosion in Kiev. Both contributed, but the shifts in global grain flows is a multifaceted prism through which the future is continuing to evolve.

As La-Niña ends, meteorologists say the next two months could determine whether we see a drought like 2012 or a return of regular rains across the lower 48.

The outlook for 2023 grain prices is difficult to pin down given a host of unknown global outcomes. Economists say the new year could bring major moves in either direction, including higher prices.

For years farmers have focused on banding starter fertilizer 2x2 at planting — 2" over and 2" below the seed. While the process works, delivering nutrition to a plant’s roots sooner might be worth the effort. 

Damage remains along the tornado's 220-mile path nearly a year after the deadly tornado tore through Mayfield, Kentucky. Farmers and ag businesses are still working to restore their operations.

Nitrogen might be the king of yield, but if a corn plant is sulfur deficient, it won’t reach its maximum potential.

If you are adding a new farm for next season, take a hard look at soil health. Missy Bauer, Farm Journal Field Agronomist, says start with the canvas rather than the paint.

You could "lose the farm" because of an unforeseen cyberattack. Here's how to understand your risk and protect your farm.

Be it technology or agronomic practices, it tends to evolve over time into tangible results that slowly tug yields higher. Here are ways your corn fields will likely be pulled in upcoming years.

Learn how to create a groundwork for high yields and profitability.

No-till and cover crops provide safety and habitat for a common field pest known as the vole. Farmers are trying some simple, natural solutions to fight back before resorting to tillage.

USDA scientists are testing new cloud seeding technology to help fight drought by unlocking more rain from clouds. The key ingredients are tap water and a small electrical charge.

Out-of-stock rates improve but baby formula supplies remain limited in many locations even as FDA works to provide market access for foreign formula makers. The dairy industry says there needs to be more communication.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict threatens to upend world trade.

When farmers or ranchers in the U.S. face tragedy others in the industry are quick to help. That same mentality, of farmers helping farmers, has reached Ukraine as support rolls in from across the globe.

Post-emergent herbicide supplies can be hard to find this year. To overcome this challenge, make a plan and consider a new approach to weed management.

Historic prices of fertilizer have farmers looking for alternative solutions in 2022. Here are four possibilities that one day may change the way agriculture thinks about N.

Farm lender Farm Credit Mid-America giving $210 million back to customers per cooperative patronage.

Machinery drives input efficiency

Rural communities are likely to see an outbreak of the COVID-19 variant omicron later than big cities but Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci says the pandemic will eventually end.

Small, rural hospitals are struggling to keep, find or hire staff as the omicron variant begins its push across rural America. Rural healthcare advocates say it's already creating an unsafe situation.

This past year is one many of us would sooner forget than remember.

The FSA administrator dives into farmer financing, programs, vaccine rates and more.

USDA’s Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation talks carbon and goals.

As harvest wraps up preparations for next season, and the drive to Win the Furrow, are already underway. Fall strip-till is happening and getting it done right is important for stand counts and yields next season.

Iowa farmer Jim Yenter served his country for a decade. And now the U.S. veteran is a first-generation farmer who's determined to share his love for farming and the business he's built with the next generation.

A good strip starts with the combine.

Take the time to evaluate ear counts, size and stand performance this fall to better inform agronomic decisions for the 2022 growing season. 

Scientists advance corn genome sequencing at a frenzied pace as now 26 different lines have been mapped.

Creating an ideal seed bed and soil conditions can help offset the uncertainty and unpredictability of climate and weather.

Leaders the world’s largest input companies report material and freight costs continue to be high and farmers should expect prices to be up in 2022. 

Weeds cost farmers money in ways such as yield loss, contamination, harboring insects or disease or even wear and tear on equipment.

The lessons of perseverance, hard work, repetition and team-focused collaboration all started and have since been honed into a sharpened point, in part, thanks to my time in FFA.