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A handful of rain-free days were a perfect recipe for spring planting — and farmers took full advantage of the opportunity. This week’s USDA crop progress report puts corn and soybean acres just ahead of last year’s pace.
Growers are grappling with a second consecutive year of waning demand and no home for their grapes. The issue is complex with non-tariff trade barriers hitting the wine industry especially hard and a flood of imports that are creating cheap wine with which U.S. grape growers can’t compete.
Farmers can make a poor planting scenario better by teaching their planter how to dance across fields. The practice is particularly helpful in wet soils.
High winds have posed plenty of problems for farmers trying to spray, and even plant, this spring. NOAA says it’s one of the windiest starts to the season on record, but the bigger question is how long will it last?
Ocean shipping transports about 80% of global trade — from coal and corn to bananas and cement. The revisions tackle major concerns from the global maritime industry that feared virtually every cargo carrier could face steep, stacking fees.
“We’re only 15 days into this. It feels like a year, right?” says Matt Clark, senior rural economy analyst. “I catch myself feeling very overwhelmed by the news flow, a lot has happened in 15 days.”
Iowa farmers say a foliar fungicide application can add more bushels per acre by preventing losses to disease pressure and minimizing the impact of environmental factors, such as heat stress and drought.
David Cogen partnered with John Deere during the 2024 growing season to till, plant, spray and harvest a small field at Deere’s Boundurant, Iowa, test farm. In the process, he says he learned a lot about farming and how difficult it truly is.
On average, ag aviation makes at least one application to approximately 127 million crop acres, or one-third of the cropland in the U.S.
Maximizing ROI is Brian Scott’s No. 1 goal as he evaluates planting populations on his northwest Indiana farm. In 2024, the sweet spot was 100,000 seeds per acre, which cost $53 per acre in seed and yielded 76 bu. per acre.
Could 2025 set a new record for planting pace in Iowa? Ogden, Iowa farmers Ward and Bryant Hunter say they’ll finish planting corn on Thursday – marking the earliest finish ever on their farm.
Per CEO Bill Anderson in an interview this week, Bayer will have a decision in months — not years — about whether it will remain the only domestic producer of glyphosate in the U.S.
While relationships remain the foundation of the farmer business ecosystem, technology is bringing a new structure to how everyday business is done.
Farmers in the upper Plains, northern Plains and Northeast came up short on snow for the 2024/25 season. In some cases, they experienced the winter that wasn’t, now sitting 10" to 30" short on normal snowfall.
The initial round of ECAP payments will only amount to 85% of the per-acre payment to ensure enough funding is available for all farmers who sign up for the program.
One solution to low prices is producing more bushels. Take a minute to think through some of the best management practices outlined here that will help you accomplish that.
Here are three headlines from Nufarm, Bushel and HGS BioScience you won’t want to miss.
John Moriarity insists the state’s regulatory pursuit of his property is about asphalt—not water.
In the next two years, the actions you take in business will define what happens in the next 20 or 30 years. That’s the outlook from Ken Zuckerberg, director of global research for CHS Inc.
Randy Hughes is continually refining his fertility program and has seen yields improve 40 bu. to 50 bu. per acre over the past six years. Hughes chats with corn yield champs David Hula and Randy Dowdy about the importance of being a lifelong student of the crop.
As of April 13, USDA says 13 states have started planting corn and 10 are working on soybeans. The report calculates 4% of corn and 2% of soybeans are in the ground so far.
There is nothing new about Mexico being late on water deliveries, according to the 1944 treaty, and work on the problem runs deep.
On her list of issues to tackle, says Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, is deciding if farmers will need another round of assistance payments later this year and if USDA headquarters should be relocated.
Industry ambassador Tim McArdle and ARA CEO Daren Coppock share case studies in how ResponsibleAg is an asset for ag retailers in their everyday business across 2,356 locations.
The tit-for-tat on tariffs between the U.S. and China continues, with China announcing on Friday a new rate of 125%, which is up from the 84% announced earlier this week. That pushes the tariff on U.S. pork and pork variety meat to 172%. The new soybean tariff is more than 150%.
According to the National Weather Service, an April 2 series of storms moved through Indiana and brought 21 tornadoes across regions of the state.
Daren Coppock says: “Global supply chains cannot adjust overnight nor can they function in a tariff environment that is unpredictable.”
“The sourcing from international markets has become mandatory. It’s more likely that things will get expensive than change,” says Jim DiLisi of Fanwood Chemical.
Farmers who are seeing this issue show up in their seed sample test results might want to consider not using starter in-furrow this spring. There are good options off the seed, Ken Ferrie reports.
As the trade war heats up, the reality is China is still the top export destination for U.S. farmers, even if the country isn’t buying as many soybeans as 2018.