Nebraska

Soybean Gall Midge Emerges As Top-Tier Threat

Mon, 11 May 2026 20:19:27 GMT

Soybean gall midge is no longer just a curiosity or annoyance for many Midwest farmers. The pest is chewing into yield and profitability for soybean growers across parts of at least seven states – Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Iowa State University Entomologist Erin Hodgson reports the pest’s footprint is significant, present in at least 42% of the 45.4 million acres of soybeans farmers harvested across the seven states in 2025.

“At least 19 million soybean acres are potentially impacted by this pest,” Hodgson says, noting that the pest continues to spread. Eight new counties were confirmed in 2025, with five of those being in Iowa .

According to a recent farmer survey led by University of Nebraska Entomologist Doug Golick, the pest has become a major threat in parts of Nebraska. “In the last year or two, soybean gall midge is approaching as near high of concern as herbicide-resistant weeds for survey respondents,” Golick says.

Since 2018, the soybean gall midge has spread to 185 total counties in seven states, including five new counties in Iowa this past year, according to Erin Hodgson, Iowa State University Extension entomologist and professor.

(Erin Hodgson)

Look For Small Orange Or White Larvae

Damage from the insect starts at the base of the soybean plants, largely out of sight. Adult midges emerge from the ground in May and June, then seek out tiny fissures in young soybean plants near the soil line to lay eggs, according to Thales Rodrigues da Silva, a master’s student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

The larvae cause severe, localized yield losses from 20% to 100% loss along field edges and 17% to 50% reductions in entire fields average under heavy infestation, according to University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Extension. The larvae – small, orange worm-like pests – feed inside the base of the stem, causing plants to wither, die, and lodge (break), with damages sometimes extending 100+ feet into fields. Scouting for the pest should occur after the second trifoliate (V2) growth stage, according to the Crop Protection Network.

This damage in a soybean plant at the soil level shows the result of soybean gall midge larvae feeding.

(University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension)

Because the pest often feeds along field edges, the damage in affected plants is often mistaken for issues caused by compaction or herbicide injury, according to Stine Seed Company .

To confirm the pest’s presence, Stine agronomists recommend digging up compromised soybean plants and splitting open the stem. If white or orange larvae are found feeding within the inner layers, growers should check the Soybean Gall Midge Alert Network tracking system to determine whether the pest has been reported in their area. Next, they should contact their local Extension specialist to help confirm the diagnosis and report the finding if their county is not yet documented in their area.

Cultural Practices Show Promise

Unfortunately, there are few strategies to manage and control soybean gall midge, according to Tony Lenz, Stine technical agronomist.
With no labeled, consistently effective in-season insecticide program and no established treatment threshold, researchers are testing cultural and mechanical tactics that might give farmers at least partial relief.

Tillage ahead of planting — a tough sell in no-till systems — shows some promise in reducing early infestations in current-year soybean fields.

“Turns out that disking alone, at least in (our) study… did reduce infestation,” says Justin McMechan an entomologist and associate professor at UNL.

“There’s a significant reduction as we move from no-till to that… where it’s just disked and planted into, and then disking and hilling (a practice used in growing potatoes), which really is effective, because you’re covering up the infestation site,” McMechan adds.

He notes that even subtle changes in seedbed shape may help by covering fissures or altering microclimates at the stem base.

On planters running row cleaners, McMechan says adjustments at field edges might be one of the more accessible tools.

“There are not huge differences, but they are statistically significant,” he adds.

Field edge management has been another area of experimentation, including mowing or managing dense vegetation next to infested fields. Results are mixed, but McMechan says there are situations where mowing modestly cuts pressure.

“Nebraska saw on occasion where mowing would reduce infestation and lead to marginal yield benefit… we’re talking like 6-bushel differences,” he says, adding that weather and nearby corn canopy can override those gains.

There are no insecticides currently available to control soybean gall midge. A combination of cultural practices and mechanical efforts is likely the best option, for now, to stop or slow the pest.

(Justin McMechan)

Scientists Evaluate ‘Out-Of-The-Box’ Practices

Other work by researchers is pushing even further outside the box to find control measures. At UNL, graduate research assistant Kristin Heinrichs Stark is testing whether a biodegradable surface barrier called BioWrap can physically trap larvae in the soil and prevent emergence.

The work is early-stage and raises reasonable questions about cost and field-scale application rates, but it points to the kind of layered, non-chemical tactics Extension researchers say will likely be needed to address the pest.

Even as these cultural and physical strategies are developed, Hodgson reminds farmers that the ag industry still lacks any clear control option once larvae are inside the soybean stem.

“We really don’t have a treatment threshold, or a rescue treatment option at this time,” she says. “We know that the soybean gall midge certainly can cause yield losses, plant death, and that directly relates to yield. But we don’t really have great answers on like, how many plants does it take? How many larvae per plant (causes yield loss)?”

For now, farmers dealing with soybean gall midge are being asked to combine careful field scouting, crop rotation, and targeted cultural tactics to address the pest as the research community races to find answers and close those gaps.

Specialists from three Midwest universities provided the latest updates on soybean gall midge (SGM) this spring in a webinar, available at the link below:

Southern Rust Set To Take Big Bite Out Of Midwest Corn Crop?

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 21:56:59 GMT

If one picture is worth a thousand words, then the video Iowa farmer Dan Striegel shot last week must be worth thousands more. In the video, Striegel is shown harvesting a field of emerald-green corn enveloped in a cloud of orangish-red southern rust.

“We were just getting that field opened up, and I looked over and saw that dust boiling up out of the chopper, so I shot the video,” Striegel says.

Southern Rust? Never heard of her.
What Cheer, Iowa. USA. #pftour25 #harvest25 pic.twitter.com/tiIsUc2CHl
— Dan Striegel (@djsinseia) August 21, 2025

To date, Striegel’s video has garnered more than 48,000 views on X, formerly Twitter.

“We’re in southeast Iowa, Keokuk County, and I think the southern rust is as bad here as it is anywhere,” Striegel adds. “Every field you walk in, if you’re wearing a white T-shirt, you’ll come out of there red.”

A Red Path Of Disease Mars The Midwest

Expect to see more red T-shirt-clad farmers walking out of cornfields across the upper Midwest, based on what the Crop Protection Network (CPN) southern rust map is showing.

The CPN continually updates its online, interactive map showing the counties by state where southern rust infections are confirmed. Now, in late August, the counties look like red steppingstones. They form a checkered path from southwest Michigan through northern Illinois and Indiana, into southern Wisconsin, across all of Iowa and nearly two-thirds of the way across Nebraska. Eastern South Dakota is also lit up with a string of red counties, as are parts of southern to central Minnesota.

The amount of southern rust present in the upper Midwest is worrisome to Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. In severe cases, the disease can wipe out 45% of the yield potential in a field, according to the CPN.

“At most, one in 10 growers in northern Iowa and Minnesota have seen the kind of southern rust some of them are seeing this year,” says Ferrie, who was working last week with corn growers in both states.

“It was a problem in probably eight out of every 10 fields I was in, and they’d all been sprayed at least once,” he says. “Minnesota has a corn crop that’ll knock your socks off – yield potential of 250, 270. I encouraged every grower to spray their field a second time except for two fields. One had been knocked down by hail, and the other had a hybrid that was clean.”

I spoke with a good friend of mine from Iowa yesterday that is an agronomist and farmer. He said the southern rust in corn across Iowa and much of the Midwest will take 9 to 12 bushel/acre off corn yields on average from what his team and himself are seeing. pic.twitter.com/Ad1VJ9oQBg
— Captain Cornelius1 (@ISU145) August 26, 2025

Hybrids Have Little To No Resistance To Southern Rust

A combination of early-season moisture, heat and wind formed the perfect storm for southern rust this season, allowing the disease-causing fungal spores (Puccinia polysora) to move from southern climes up to the Midwest, according to Kurt Maertens, BASF technical service representative for eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

“We’ve seen it all – southern rust, tar spot, northern corn leaf blight, gray leaf spot. Our corn has been inundated with all these fungal diseases, and we started seeing them early,” says Maertens.

If there’s a silver lining to southern rust, it’s that it does not overwinter in corn residue like tar spot does. But like tar spot, southern rust takes advantage of hybrids that have no built-in resistance. For many growers, that was an Achilles heel this season.

“When you’re dealing with a 117-day hybrid like they grow in southern Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky, you don’t grow corn that doesn’t have good southern rust resistance, because they deal with it every year,” Ferrie notes. “When you move to Minnesota, and you’re planting 102- to 95-day corn, you’re probably not going to find hybrids with southern rust resistance.”

Striegel says that was true for his neighbor’s cornfield, which he custom chopped for silage. “That field had two hybrids in it, one was worse than the other, and the field had been sprayed with a fungicide,” he says.

He adds that he also sprayed his own cornfields with fungicide, but they are still inundated with southern rust.

“We’ve had southern rust before, and it’s not usually something we have to worry about, but this is really bad,” Striegel says. “I’m standing on my deck looking at the cornfield next to my house, and you know, all of the leaves from the ears down in that field are covered with it.”

Southern rust is real in eastern Nebraska. Fungicide 3 weeks ago, 2nd app today with some potassium acetate pic.twitter.com/WZubU6IBwz
— Trent Mastny (@TrentMastny) August 21, 2025

How Late Is A Fungicide Application Still Worthwhile?

Ferrie says the fields he scouted last week were at late R3 to early R4 and had already been sprayed with fungicide at least once, but the disease was rebuilding.

“Any field where farmers had sprayed two weeks previously, the southern rust and northern corn leaf blight, to a lesser degree, were coming back, especially the southern rust. It was resporating,” he says.

The intense disease pressure from southern rust, tar spot and others have kept fungicide use at high levels this season, despite poor commodity prices.

“Because of that [amount of disease pressure], we have seen increased demand for our fungicides this year,” says Maertens, who encouraged customers to get applications made at the beginning of tassel.

Maertens says he has fielded a lot of questions this summer from farmers, asking how late they could go with a fungicide application and still benefit.

“Our recommendation is to get in front of disease,” he says. “Generally, we stop applications before we get to dent (R5). That’s not to say a later application can’t have some benefit, but our best results have been before infection was able to take place.”

Southern rust is a yield enemy farmers routinely face in the Southeast, reports corn yield champion Randy Dowdy, Valdosta, Ga. He participated in the Pro Farmer Crop Tour last week and said on U.S. Farm Report he believes many Midwest farmers still have time to address disease.

“We need to implore the fungicides, the technologies out there and get after it and protect this crop, especially that crop that still has not reached dent,” he says.

Farm Journal Field Agronomist Missy Bauer likes to see farmers complete their fungicide applications on the front side of dough (early R4). “Once we get to early dent, I think it’s a little more challenging to get the payback consistently, though we’ve applied at early dent (R5), and seen a nice response,” says Bauer, who is based in south-central Michigan.

Under the tough disease pressure farmers are facing this year, Bauer is telling growers to scout fields and evaluate what growth stage their crop is in before they walk away or pull the fungicide trigger one last time.

She adds that farmers need to check the label to make sure the product used is able to address southern rust effectively. She describes these as “Cadillac” products containing the newest chemistry.

“When it comes to some of these diseases, especially southern rust and tar spot, I do believe a little bit of a Hail Mary pass can be effective,” she says. “Will it be as effective as an application you could have made on a more timely basis? Well, no, you could have made more money doing it timely, but you’re still protecting bushels and gaining ROI at the end.”

Ferrie adds that farmers might want to do the late-season fungicide application to keep their corn crop standing until they can put their harvest plan in place.

“Be doing the push test to check stalk quality,” he advises.

Southern Rust/Silage Alert!!

Southern Rust has been aggressively advancing in many fields, especially those without a fungicide treatment. In some situations the plants are shutting down prematurely and plant material is senescing rapidly.

While we typically want to get down… pic.twitter.com/aK3hGgZE19
— Pioneer Troy (@deutmeyer_troy) August 26, 2025

Striegel says some of the farmers around him are heading to fields to harvest their silage corn sooner than later, because of standability concerns. “Some of this corn got planted early, and we had a lot of heat. The crop matured quickly, and the diseases are kind of shutting it down. It’s just dying out, and guys are going to go get it,” he explains.

That’s the strategy Ferrie encourages farmers to use in regular production corn, too.

“Harvest the fields most at risk first. But if a field of corn goes down, go combine the fields where the corn is still standing and come back to that one later,” he recommends.

The reasoning is you don’t want to risk more corn going down while you’re harvesting the field of corn that already has.

“While I was driving through Iowa last week, I kept thinking that if I built corn reels to pick up down corn I’d bulk up my inventory, because I know where they’re going to get used,” Ferrie says, only half joking. “Yes, harvesting corn at 25% moisture is expensive, but down corn will kick your butt.”

Your next read: Revenge Applications: Why They Don’t Work, Cost You Money and Bushels, and Are Frankly Illegal

Spray Drone Season Hits Full Throttle: 3 Service Providers Flying Acres and Boosting Yields

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 19:22:38 GMT

Nebraska native Andy Kreikemeier’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing all week, and it won’t go silent anytime soon.

That’s because his former hobby and volunteer side hustle, flying drones for the county emergency response team, transformed into a full-time gig as a spray drone operator. Kreikemeier is one-third of a team of spray drone pilots with business partners Brett Scheiding and Brad Eisenhauer. Together, the three local volunteer firefighters started Infinity Precision Ag, a custom drone application service provider in southeast Nebraska.

The Infinity team is in the crunch of the summer plant health application season, and farmers without access to a Hagie high-clearance sprayer or an aerial application service need the timely sprays these certified drone pilots provide to get their crop across the finish line and in good shape for fall harvest.

The trio is in their sophomore season offering per-acre spray drone application services to farmers, and the group learned “a ton” from last year’s rookie campaign.

“Spray drones are definitely a good tool because they can do a lot of specialized things, and it’s fun to see the old farmers come out and watch these things. They’ll tell me ‘Never in my day would I have thought this was something I’d be using’,” Kreikemeier says. “It’s a fun change, and it works. You can get more precise with your applications, and you get the stuff where you want it at all times.”

The team at Infinity exclusively flies Hylio spray drones, which are manufactured in Texas. Hylio was among the first U.S. service providers – Iowa-based Rantizo being one of the others – to receive FAA approval to swarm , or operate in concert, multiple spray drones in one flight mission. Swarming is exactly how Kreikemeier and his team prefer to operate the mostly automated quadcopters. By operating multiple spray drones together in a fleet, Infinity can cover more acres per hour.

Related: Trump Issues Executive Order Making Ag Drones More Efficient

Kreikemeier says the service requests from farmers this summer are “about 50-50” fungicide on corn applications and insecticide or foliar-applied biological sprays. There hasn’t been a lot of Tar Spot disease pressure in his area yet, but Gray Leaf Spot in corn is something farmers need to proactively spray for.

(Lindsey Pound)

While he won’t go as far as saying the drones are a superior application tool to a large ground rig or aerial application plane, he does see some advantages to using the technology.

“The drones can definitely get the products deeper into the plant canopy — at least that’s what I’m seeing right now,” Kreikemeier says, adding he’s also seeing improved application quality on end-rows and sensitive areas near buffers, streams and rural housing developments. An aerial applicator would usually have to pull up and gain altitude to avoid those obstacles, potentially leaving some spray to drift off-target. But an unmanned drone can stay low and keep blasting active ingredients directly into the canopy.

“Guys are definitely telling me they can see a difference between what the drones have done and what the planes have done,” he says.

From Photographer to Pilot-In-Charge

Drone shots of a drone spraying fungicide on corn field sprayer spray - By Lindsey Pound

(Lindsey Pound)

Over on the East Coast, Joshua Berry got his start in the drone world along the same lines as many early adopters: he built up a custom photography and videography business for years before making the decision to integrate aerial photography to stay relevant.

The first drone he purchased is widely considered one of the “OGs” in the drone world: DJI’s Phantom 1. Berry recalls his aerial photography service didn’t take off right away, but he always knew ag was an industry he wanted to join. The realization came fast and hard that he was facing an uphill battle to make that dream a reality, as his family didn’t own land or have a legacy in farming.

Berry’s big breakthrough came when he started using drones equipped with thermal cameras to help deer hunters locate fallen prey deep in the woods. The service gave him a foot in the door with local farmers – many of whom are avid hunters or at the very least friends with hunters – along Maryland’s specialty ag-rich Eastern Shore.

refilling drone spraying fungicide on corn field sprayer spray - By Lindsey Pound

(Lindsey Pound)

“A guy out in Ohio saw what I was doing and wanted to get into the deer recovery stuff, so he befriended me, and I helped teach him a couple things,” Berry says. “One day he calls me up and he’s like, ‘Yo, have you seen these agricultural drones?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I have my eye on it.’ And he tells me it’s going to be the next big thing.”

Berry started doing research and soon enough he agreed with his buddy in Ohio that spray drones would be his ticket to a career in farming. He ordered a pair of DJI Agras T-40 models and started working on getting licensed to legally apply chemicals.

That took him a few months (today the FAA licensing process has been streamlined), and he was able to start flying and applying midway through the 2024 growing season.

“I did a lot of research and networking before I flew a single acre, so I felt like I set myself up for success (early on),” Berry says. “Even though it was a dry year – dry and hot means there’s not a lot of pressure on farmers to spray – I ended the season with between 2,500 and 3,000 acres. For a guy in his first half of a season, I was happy with that.

Related: How Spray Drones Revolutionize Corn Farming, Make Farmers More Efficient and Sustainable

This year, Berry’s acreage will double to about 6,000-7,000. That’s an impressive figure, considering how fields are laid out on the East Coast. This isn’t Iowa, Berry says, where a drone operator can park at an intersection and knock out 300 acres of flat, continuous fields without having to move the truck and tender trailer.

As far as the job mix this summer, he is putting on a lot of single pass fungicide-insecticide-liquid fertilizer applications across a diverse mix of crops. Berry is also hearing some farmers in his area are buying drones themselves and skipping the whole FAA licensing process to spray their crops themselves.

“That’s going to hurt us as an industry, big time. And also, it’s going to hurt the farmers eventually. Even though the enforcement wing of the FAA is almost nonexistent, there is enforcement out there,” he says. “They may not have the manpower (now), but if that changes, you’re going to see these unlicensed guys really start to get dinged.”

Tendering for Spray Drones

The Mitten State is a good proving ground for spray drone applications, says Leon Thelen, agricultural drone application specialist, On Point Application Group (Battle Creek, Mich.).

For one, there aren’t many options for custom aerial application services available to growers like there are in the western Corn Belt. And Michigan farms are often broken into collections of smaller, oddly shaped fields with power lines, tree stands and residential developments nearby. That makes plane applications dicey.

And finally, the state has a diverse crop mix that features a lot of high-value, specialty crops like cranberries, cherries, potatoes and sugar beets. There are a lot of farmers looking to make applications without running over expensive plants with a ground rig.

Related: 7 Expert Tips To Maximize Spray Drone Efficiency

Thelen says On Point Application Group is doing a lot of field border insecticide applications, spot spraying tough weed escapes like water hemp, and putting out full field broadcast applications of fungicides with its XAG P140 spray drones.

One critical aspect of the business Thelen and his team have sorted out over the past few months is tendering. He says the giant, bi-level prefab drone tender trailers you see around the Midwest are good for most operations, but a smaller footprint tender that can fit in the back of an extended pickup is ideal for the type of work he’s doing in Michigan.

“Being that I’ve backed a trailer into a lot of fields, I like lightweight equipment that’s nimble,” he says. “We’ve got a trailer with 1,000 gallons of water and a mix tank that we can leave at the field edge and unhook. Then we have this 200-gallon hot tank with our charging equipment , batteries and everything we can take into the field. This setup works well when you’re working off (irrigation) pivot lanes or back in behind the woods. I like to be close to the field.”

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Be Prepared: Intense Storm Cluster With 75+ MPH Winds Working Through Upper Midwest Monday Evening

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 19:57:58 GMT

A powerful cluster of storms is forming in the Upper Midwest with a chance for crop-damaging winds and potential tornados in central South and North Dakota as well as southwestern Minnesota, warns The National Weather Service and meteorologist Bret Walts with BAMWX.com.

Walts expects the cluster will release a lot of wind energy this afternoon and this evening as it gathers steam moving east through the upper Great Plains. It could even intensify into a rare derecho storm with hurricane force winds.

UPDATE: The Weather Channel is now reporting a “derecho is likely to strike the Northern Plains.”

“We’ve got a stronger (atmospheric) jet stream moving in with a lot of instability in place still with the heat and humidity across parts of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota,” he says.

Walts is paying close attention to how quickly the individual storm cells merge together. He says the faster that formation occurs the more intense the storm has the potential to become.

7/28/25: Intense severe storms are expected to form this afternoon in SD and spread southeastward into MN and IA through tonight. Swaths of damaging winds, potentially 75-90 mph, are the main concern. Be prepared to take action if watches and warnings are issued for your area. pic.twitter.com/wf2rH7eUdD
— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) July 28, 2025

Walts forecasts the timing as 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. CT for parts of South and North Dakota, while 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. would be the time frame for the most intense winds in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.

“If that initial cell to the north shoots out of a lot of boundaries it could lead to the setup becoming a little bit messier,” Walts says. “We’ll know by five or six o’clock that if this thing is not getting organized, then we have an idea it is not going to be that intense. But I don’t anticipate that happening because the environment is very, very unstable and there’s a lot of wind energy. That combination this time of the year normally is not a good thing.”

NOAA says it expects these storms will move very quickly, and it is important to take action when warnings are issued locally. Do not wait until you see or hear signs of a strong storm because by that time it might be too late.

Your Next Read: Insights From Seed Companies on Tackling Tassel Wrap Challenges

A Trio of CEO Announcements From Across Ag Retail Cooperatives

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 21:24:56 GMT

In late May, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) selected Duane Simpson as its next President and Chief Executive Officer. At the NCFC’s annual Washington Conference on July 143, Simpson will officially start the new role.

Simpson joins the association after 17 years at Bayer in government relations and was also previously the Chief Operating Officer of the Kansas Grain & Feed Association.

“I am humbled and honored for the opportunity to lead NCFC and to work alongside the dedicated professionals throughout the cooperative family,” said Simpson. “NCFC’s mission, to advance the business and policy interests of America’s cooperatives and other farmer-owned enterprises, is as vital today as it was when NCFC was founded nearly a century ago. I look forward to building upon the strong legacy of advocacy for agriculture that Chuck Conner has established.”

Earlier this week, CVA’s board announced it had named the cooperative’s next CEO, Nic McCarthy. In making the announcement, the board said: “This leadership change signals an exciting new chapter for CVA, reaffirming its dedication to serving the agricultural community with vision and purpose.”

McCarthy has held many different roles at the co-op: applicator, field sales agronomist, location manager, regional operation manager, and VP of operations.

Landus is officially opening a nationwide search for its next CEO with Medallion Partners. Interim CEO Sam Caton along with the board of directors have met with farmer-owners since April’s leadership change-up.

“Landus is at an important turning point,” says Matt Chambers, Board Chairman. “Sam’s leadership has given us a strong foundation to navigate this challenging transition and move forward with confidence. While our search for a CEO is nationwide, one thing is non-negotiable — the core of our business is here in Iowa, and the success of Landus’ farmers must be at the heart of cooperative decisions.”

From Omaha to Georgia: Inside the Farm Machinery Reshoring Boom

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:38:03 GMT

After releasing our “Where Farm Equipment Is Made” 2025 update in February , we circled back with farm equipment manufacturers to get a read on how tariffs will affect where machines are made.

Many companies across a wide range of industries are considering or even moving forward with plans to reshore production from overseas back into the United States. We’ve learned this process involves long-term, strategic investments in new facilities and/or expanding factories already established here in the States.

Although each manufacturer shared differing visions for how, when and where it plans to build out additional manufacturing capabilities in the years ahead, a common theme did emerge: farm equipment builders are investing big dollars into reshoring, and many have been for quite some time now.

Let’s hear what the machinery companies are planning:

AGCO Corp.

(AGCO Corp.)

The Duluth, Ga.-based equipment manufacturer says its dedication to American farmers and its own strategic investment plans are “key drivers of our overall growth strategy,” according to an AGCO spokesperson.

The rest of the statement from AGCO, which builds the Fendt and Massey Ferguson equipment brands along with its own AGCO machines, regarding U.S. expansion plans can be found below:

Since 2020, we have invested just under $3 billion in the U.S. across new and expanded manufacturing facilities, product innovations and the largest ag tech deal in the history of the industry. Our commitment has extended across our various brands, locations and Research & Development (R&D) efforts, including the notable 2024 joint venture establishing Colorado-based PTx Trimble, the inauguration of Fendt Lodge – the North American headquarters of Fendt – in Minnesota, a new precision ag production facility in Illinois, modernization of systems and technologies in one of our Kansas plants, and U.S.-based R&D for new sprayer and planter technology.

These investments, AGCO says, will not only enhance production at its U.S. facilities for years to come, but also ensure AGCO remains at the forefront of ag innovation around the world.

Claas

(Matthew J. Grassi)

Claas is still a somewhat fresh face to the North American farm equipment market, but the company has deep roots in Europe. It was founded over 100 years ago in a small German farming town, and today the company has global headquarters in Harsewinkel, Germany.

But you may not be aware that Claas has also built a significant manufacturing operation in America’s heartland. The company opened its Lexion combine production campus, located just south of downtown Omaha, Neb., in 1997. This year marks 10,000 Lexion combines rolling off the main production line inside the 120,000 sq. ft. facility.

(Photos: John Deere, Matthew J. Grassi, AGCO, Kubota)

Claas has significant expansion plans in place for its Omaha campus, including doubling its overall production footprint for the main manufacturing building as well as adding a new training and apprenticeship building.

Here is the statement Matthias Ristow, president & managing director of business administration – Claas Omaha, shared regarding the company’s expansion plans:

Claas is investing significantly in its production hub in the United States, and not only recently. Over the last five years, we have added to our production facility to provide a better location for our rework and reconfiguration areas, as well as a dedicated work area for our quality control department for the pre-delivery inspections each machine must go through before being shipped. This is part of our comprehensive quality assurance program.

We also have built a new service academy where we train all the technicians from our U.S. dealer network (we have a similar location in Canada) so we can keep their skills up to date and make sure they have the proper certifications to work on our machines. Technology updates and changes are trained there as well.

Furthermore, our new service academy houses our apprenticeship program where we train the future assembly technicians in a three-year rigorous training program, managed by the German Chamber of Commerce. The program has several advantages. Technicians receive a regular paycheck (“earn while you learn”), receive an associate’s degree from a community college we partner with, receive a certificate from the German Chamber and have a job when they graduate from the program debt free.

Farm Journal recently had the opportunity to tour Claas’ Omaha operation, where we learned the manufacturer is also expanding its partnerships with domestic material and component manufacturers. For example, it recently began working with a finished parts supplier local to Nebraska to fabricate the grain spout for each Lexion combine.

CNH Industrial (Case IH and New Holland)

(CNH Industrial)

Although short on specifics, CNH Industrial (Racine, Wisc.) confirms it plans to “continue to expand our footprint through capital investments in our U.S. facilities, partnerships with local suppliers and programs that strengthen the communities where we live and work.”

CNH adds it currently employs more than 9,000 people across 17 U.S. states, with 14 manufacturing facilities and 22 R&D centers active throughout North America.

And approximately 70% of the components used in CNH Industrial’s U.S. plants are sourced from domestic suppliers while 95% its steel is purchased from U.S.-based mills. It says this approach to domestic material sourcing supports thousands of suppliers’ jobs and reinforces its investment in American-made quality.

John Deere

(John Deere)

The farm equipment manufacturer with global headquarters in Moline, Ill., was first to share its future investment plans with Farm Journal. Back in May, the company announced a 10-year, $20 billion outlay plan for its U.S. production base. This year alone, Deere says it will pour $100 million into its U.S. operations.

John Deere says this initiative includes:

A 120,000 sq. ft. expansion of the company’s remanufacturing facility in Missouri.
Construction of a new excavator factory in Kernersville, N.C.
Expansion of its Greeneville, Tenn., turf equipment factory.
New assembly lines for 9RX high-horsepower tractor production in Waterloo, Iowa.

John Deere plans to invest a total of $22.5 billion into its U.S. manufacturing network once the 10-year project is complete.

Kubota North America

(Kubota North America)

Kubota Tractor Corporation (KTC) established its North America headquarters in Grapevine, TX., in 2017. The Japanese equipment manufacturer shared the following statement regarding U.S. expansion plans.

North America is critical for Kubota, and the U.S. is our largest market. We firmly believe in local production for local consumption and have made more than $1 billion in U.S. infrastructure investments in the last couple years to meet the growing needs of our dealers and customers. For example, we recently announced the opening of a new loader facility in Gainesville, Ga., (invested $190 million), a new Western Distribution Center in California (invested $72 million), and an R&D facility (invested $100 million) that’s also in Georgia. We have other network investment announcements in the works, and we plan to continue to invest over the next five to 10 years as we respond to market demands. Today, we are more than 7,000 American workers strong who market and sell, and fabricate, weld and assemble equipment with domestic and global parts.

Want to learn more about where your favorite farm machines are made? Check out “From the Factory to Your Fields: Where Farm Equipment Is Made”.

Your Next Read: The 20 Embarrassing Problems that Make Your Farm Truck Unique

An Idea Out of This World: University of Nebraska Researchers Work to Launch Agriculture in Space

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 15:30:14 GMT

A team of University of Nebraska researchers have one major goal: to launch the first center for agriculture in space . Whether it’s Mars or the moon, if people will be there, they’ll have to eat, and so researchers are exploring how to take agriculture out of this world.

It may seem like a far-out idea, but it’s research with one burning question at its core.

“One of the thing we are looking at is how do we grow food in space,” says Santosh Pitla, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor of Advanced Machinery Systems who also leads Machine Automation and Agricultural Robotics (MAARS).

The team’s goal is to grow the first acre of corn on Mars’ soil, but today, the focus first is on growing leafy greens like lettuce. While the idea sounds like it’s worlds away, the work in the MAARS lab could revolutionize the future of agriculture.

Pitla has already cracked the ag engineering code on creating autonomous vehicles that can serve multiple purposes. One example is the creation of Flex-Ro, which is short for flexible robot. The autonomous Flex-Ro was built by UNL’s Biological Systems Engineering Department.

“When I say multi-purpose, our goal was to do planting and then spraying nitrogen application. And then we are looking at targeted weeding as well,” Pitla says.

It’s those creations that could level up what they’re trying to accomplish in space, revealing answers on earth that will then be transplanted in space.

“On Earth, we understand irrigation, but in space where there is zero gravity, we don’t know how irrigation works,” he says. “When the plant is deficient in, let’s say fertilizer, or it is stressed because of no water, we can do manual interventions here, but when you are on the surface of Mars or the Moon, it needs to happen robotically. So, it’s those types of scenarios we are envisioning and then trying to come up with this engineered system to address it.”

What started five years ago with Flex-Ro robot, is just starting to scratch the surface on what may be possible in space.

“In space, the environment is toxic. So, it takes a lot of effort for a person to go out and scout for resources, for example,” says Pitla “So then we can send these robots out, just like NASA has Rovers specifically aimed at looking for water and looking for other things. But what we can be looking at is what sort of resources can be reclaimed to support agriculture.”

One of the ways to unlock answers is with a small-scale version of a greenhouse. The researchers are looking into controlled environments as a way to grow food in space.

“We were thinking that in order to have some agriculture in the extreme environment of space, we need to provide an environment for plants so that they can grow in that condition. We have to provide that condition for them,” says Ehsan Fazayeli, a graduate research assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Once the team decided a controlled environment with indoor agriculture made the most sense, they then started exploring sensors that can monitor the plants needs and manage those resources.

“With multiple sensors, we can monitor the light. When there is no light on the surface of moon or mars, it is dark, so we can provide the light and monitor it,” says Fazayeli.

The team is exploring what’s possible with leafy plants today, as agriculture in space may be closer than you think.

“I believe some day we can have some perfect platform for the surface of the Moon and Mars to provide food for crew members without making them busy, so they can focus on their own task, and we will provide food for them,” says Fazayeli.

It may be one small step for researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but it’s one that could truly be a giant leap for mankind, and it’s all because the researchers are exploring and manufacturing tools that could create a new galaxy of possibilities.

“It is out of this world; it’s very exciting,” says Pitla. “I think it’s a very bold idea, but we know over the last decade we have done a lot of advancements in going into space and with large rocket launchings using reusable rockets. I see a day where we will have settlements on space, so I think it’s a very exciting.”

How Pro Farmer's 2024 Yield Estimates Compare to USDA Expectations

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 19:41:02 GMT

For four days this past week, more than 100 crop scouts sampled 2,000 to 3,000 fields in seven Midwest states as part of the one-of-a-kind Pro Farmer Crop Tour . Building on the boots-on-the-ground data and observations, Pro Farmer considers crop maturity and historical differences in Crop Tour data versus USDA’s final yields to release its national production estimates.

“One of the major questions heading into Crop Tour was whether the corn and soybean crops could live up to the lofty expectations,” says Brian Grete, editor for Pro Farmer. “Of the two crops, I was more impressed with soybeans than corn, and the corn crop is stellar.”

Here are the 2024 Pro Farmer National Production Estimates.

Corn Yield Estimates

“The first two days of the tour all we did was move bushels from South Dakota and Nebraska to Ohio and Indiana compared with USDA estimates,” says Chip Flory, host of “AgriTalk.” “We had laid the groundwork for a really good crop in Iowa, but in northwest Iowa, we ran into problems, which we anticipated after too much rain during the planting season. In our final day running the routes, we’ve got a nice crop in Iowa, but Minnesota is another story.”

On the eastern side of the Corn Belt, Grete and fellow scouts found a strong corn crop.

“USDA put a record yield on corn for five of the seven states,” he says. “Ohio isn’t one of those — but if we weren’t talking about last year’s record crop in Ohio, this year would be up there. This year is comparing to last year’s gold standard.”

Indiana: Trouble spots are few and far between. The corn crop posted higher numbers across the board for ear count, grain length and the number of kernels around the cob compared to the 2023 crop.

Illinois: While scouts saw variability in Illinois, the high-yielding fields far exceeded those that fell short, and the state is holding a big crop . Plant health looks good, and even the lower leaves are still green.

Iowa: Yield potential looks promising , especially in the southeast corner, the garden spot, of the state. The corn in east-central Iowa looks good, but the variability is more noticeable in the northeast.

Minnesota: The corn crop in Minnesota doesn’t look too good from the road, and it seems to have ran out of gas . Record rainfall during planting hurt the crop out of the gate, causing drowned out spots and yellow corn, followed by a dry summer.

Nebraska: Despite hail damage and fewer ears, the Nebraska corn crop looks promising with better numbers for grain length and kernels around the cob compared with 2023. Some dryland corn looks as good as irrigated acres thanks to cooperative weather.

Ohio: Despite drought conditions this year (59% of Ohio is currently seeing some level of dryness), the corn crop is proving to be resilient .

South Dakota: Historic flooding that occurred right after Father’s Day in the southeast part of the state left its mark. Scouts found fields with fewer ears , but grain length was up compared with 2023. It’s obvious the corn crop had two very different planting dates, so there’s two very different crops growing in the state.

Soybean Yield Estimates

“Soybeans could be spectacular as long as there isn’t a weather event that derails the crop ahead of harvest,” Grete says. “Typically, there’s some concern with either the corn crop, soybean crop or both coming out of Crop Tour. There aren’t concerns this year.”

Indiana: If soybeans can get a rain or two, yields should finish strong .

Illinois: Uniformity, heavily podded plants and good soil moisture — Illinois has all the ingredients for a big yield , which is a pleasant surprise. “For beans that don’t look that impressive, they certainly have a lot of pods on them,” says crop scout Mark Bernard.

Iowa: Soybean fields are consisten t and show minimal pest and weed pressure across the state, boasting big pod increases versus last year.

Minnesota: Soybeans seem to have handled the excess water better than the corn crop, but yield will be lucky to top 50 bu. per acre .

Nebraska: More pods and pods with three and four beans are good signs.

Ohio: The pod factory is still working. Plants are heavily podded and recent rains pumped moisture into the pods. The drought seems to have had little impact on yield potential.

South Dakota: Soybeans are inconsistent and could go either way this year. The crop is still filling out and has a ton of work to do to realize its potential, Flory says. If it doesn’t get it done, then it’s probably not going to be last year’s bean crop.

Tyne Morgan, host of “ U.S. Farm Report ,” sits down with Chip Flory and Brian Grete to recap the highlights and lowlights from the 32nd Pro Farmer Crop Tour.

Your Next Read — Take Our Poll: How Are Your Yields Shaping Up This Year?

Pro Farmer Crop Tour, Day 2: High-Yielding Indiana and Nebraska Crops Aim for State Records, Could Fall Short

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 01:21:04 GMT

As Day 2 of the 32nd Pro Farmer Crop Tour wrapped up on Tuesday, Indiana and Nebraska average corn and soybean yield estimates were coming in at higher levels than scouts saw in either state a year ago.

The results from day 2 were released Tuesday night . Scouts tapped the Indiana average corn yield estimate at 187.54 bu. per acre for the state, while Nebraska’s corn yield estimate was 173.25 bu. per acre.

Indiana’s Results

Pro Farmer Crop Tour estimates for Indiana corn crop.

(Lori Hays)

In Indiana, Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts found a corn crop that posted higher numbers across the board for ear count, grain length and the number of kernels around the cob, compared to the 2023 crop.

Indiana corn yield estimate: 187.54 bu. per acre, up 3.68% from 2023
Ear count: 102.77, up 1.51% from last year
Grain length: 6.84%, up 1.18% from 2023

Pro Farmer Crop Tour soybean yield estimate results.

(Lori Hays)

Indiana’s pod counts were 1,409.02 in a 3’x3' square, which is up 7.56% from 2023.

Nebraska’s Results

Pro Farmer Crop Tour yield estimates for the 2024 Nebraska corn crop.

(Lori Hays)

In Nebraska, Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts found corn fields had fewer ears, but the grain length and number of kernels around the cob were higher compared with the 2023 crop.

Nebraska corn yield estimate: 173.25 bu. per acre, up 3.61% from 2023
Ear count: 90.91, down 0.19% from last year
Grain length: 7.03, up 3.38% from 2023

Pro Farmer Crop Tour soybean yield estimates for the 2024 Nebraska soybean crop.

(Lori Hays)

Nebraska’s pod counts were 1,172.48 in a 3’x3' square, which is up 1.07% from 2023.

Nebraska Sees Corn And Soybean Yields Rebound From 2023

Just a year ago at this time, temperatures in parts of Nebraska were a withering 105 degrees F as Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts on the western leg of the event stopped for the night to regroup, compare data and chart their yield estimates.

This season, Mother Nature did a 180, delivering sunny weather and a mild temperature that barely topped 75 degrees on Tuesday in Nebraska City, Neb., as scouts pulled off for their evening report.

The 2024 weather and overall crop conditions were a much-welcomed change from last year, said Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk and leader of Pro Farmer Crop Tour’s western leg. Flory said his initial dryland corn yield estimates from the first five stops of the day were unexpected, coming in at a low of 107 bu. per acre and a high of 141 bu. per acre. As his team headed east, however, dryland yield estimates improved significantly.

“The corn really came around as we went along. I had dryland corn estimates go (in order) 149.9, 162, 231 and 197,” Flory said.

Heading across northeast Nebraska, Brent Judisch, an Iowa farmer and scout on the western leg of the tour, said he saw good dryland corn yields on Tuesday, ranging from 180 bu. per acre to 200 bu. per acre.

“As we went south, it was a bit drier but we still had some good dryland yields for both corn and soybeans,” Judish said. “For the most part, the crops I looked at there were consistent.”

Stop 7. Butter Co, NE. Ok, I’ve been seeing ear worms on almost every stop of the tour but they seem to be getting worse. The yield check on this field was 230.9 but I also calculated an average of 70 ear worms in a 30’ row. #pftour24 pic.twitter.com/6GVnVZh3E7
— Ted Seifried (@TheTedSpread) August 20, 2024

Nebraska Record Yield Potential Tripped Up By Hail, Pests?

Whether the Nebraska corn and soybean crops will reach USDA’s record yield projections of 194 bushels for corn and 59 bushels for soybeans, based on August 1 conditions, Flory said it’s probably not likely, given what scouts saw in fields on Tuesday.

One of Flory’s main concerns for corn is the amount of Western bean cutworm pressure he observed in fields.

“Of the five fields we looked at this morning first thing, four of them had it,” he said. “If you’re in Nebraska and have not been out to check for Western bean cutworm, you should probably go out and scout for it. You don’t want to be surprised by that pest this fall.”

Judisch’s one concern regarding both corn and soybean yield potential was an area in southern Nebraska with extensive hail damage.

“There’s probably a 9- or 10-mile long area where we saw hail damage and there was nothing to sample,” he said.

Kevin Keller, Pioneer field agronomist, added that south-central Nebraska corn has endured several rounds of hail damage this season. “When you look at some of the key corn-producing counties that were hit hard by hail, like Phelps County, that’s going to have a significant impact on the state’s final yield results.”

Tour scout Leon Dorn, who farms near Adams, Neb., said the soybean crop in his area looks good to excellent.

“We are definitely up from where we were last year with soybeans,” Dorn said. “We’re finding more pods, and the pods look like they have a lot of three and four beans in them. The crop is coming along really well. I think the 59 bushels USDA projected is possible, but we’ll have a better sense of that in the next month.”

Indiana Corn And Soybeans Yields Are Coming On Strong

Brian Grete did crop estimates in crop district 5 in central Indiana and crop district 4 in west-central Indiana on Tuesday. He said he found really strong corn and soybean yield potential along his route.

“Our average for the dryland corn yield along my route was 201.3 bu. per acre,” said Grete, editor of Pro Farmer and leader of the eastern leg of the Tour.

Soybean plants were heavily podded with beans, Grete added.

“They didn’t have as much topsoil moisture as what we saw in Ohio yesterday and in eastern Indiana, but it wasn’t dire by any means,” he said. “If the soybeans get a rain or maybe two – and they don’t have to be all that great of rains – they could finish really well.”

USDA currently has Indiana’s state-wide corn yield projected at 207 bu. per acre, which is up 2 percent over last year. USDA has the state’s soybean yield pegged for 62 bu. per acre, which is a 1.6 percent increase from 2023.

Grete said if the rest of this growing season continues as well as it has up to this point, those new records could potentially be realized though it would likely be a stretch.

Tour Scouts Are Upbeat About Indiana Crop Potential

Richard Guse, a Minnesota farmer who is a scout on the eastern leg of Crop Tour this year, agrees with Grete.

“When we got into Indiana, our soybean pod counts went way up Monday afternoon. Then, this morning we were getting really good pod counts,” Guse said. “If the trend continues, and the other routes see what we’re seeing, Indiana has the potential for a record soybean crop, the way it would appear to me.”

Lane Aker in the field on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour in Indiana, explaining how crop predictions are made. #pftour24 pic.twitter.com/ow18t0N5aX
— Farm Journal (@FarmJournal) August 20, 2024

It was a similar story in the corn fields that were on Guse’s route.

“The corn that we measured this morning has been really good,” Guse said. I would say the consistency on the routes I’ve been on in Indiana is what stood out. On the corn, it’s been pretty consistent.”

Tour scouts measure not just ear counts, but also grain length and they count kernels around the cob. Guse said ear counts and grain length were both up in the fields he was in.

“The three ears in this last field were between 8” and 9” in length, and it had really good ear count,” he said. “The one thing that’s going to hurt it a little bit is they were only 16 kernels in diameter.”

This estimate of 231 in Cass county, IN has James dropping ears 😂 #PFTour24 pic.twitter.com/tOC2uqy8MN
— Kristi Goedken (@KristiGoedken12) August 20, 2024

While this route did produce a couple anomalies with giant ragweed in a corn field, those trouble spots were few and far between.

Scouts saw the potential for a large crop, and if you ask local agronomists, the stage is set for this crop to top last year’s yields.

“I’d say we’re better off this year compared to last year because we had that extended period of dry weather last year where things were almost going to start dying in the field,” said Phil Brunner, a senior field agronomist for BASF.

Bruner lives just outside of Noblesville, Ind. He said the weather has simply been more favorable this year compared to what Mother Nature delivered in 2023.

“We kind of always wait for that one part where something bad happens, and we’re not to the finish line yet, but fingers crossed, things have looked really, really good,” he said.

Other than some high winds impacting small pockets of corn fields, and a few cases of white mold starting to creep in, Brunner said 2024 looks like a banner year for Indiana.

“Everything’s set up pretty dadgum good right now,” Brunner said. “I think it’s a bumper crop.”

See the Day 1 Results from the 2024 Pro Farmer Crop Tour:
Pro Farmer Crop Tour, Day 1: Higher Pod Counts in South Dakota, Lower Yield Estimates In Ohio Versus 2023

For more than 30 years, Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts have been providing the agriculture industry with insights into potential corn and soybean production, gathering scout reports from 2,000-plus fields across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota.

This year’s event takes place August 19-22. Register now to attend in-person or watch results live each night at 8 p.m. Central Standard Time.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
For exclusive access to professional grade news, analysis and advice, subscribe to Pro Farmer here .

AGI Standardizes Grain Bin Materials, Closes Nebraska Manufacturing Site

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 20:01:44 GMT

On Tuesday, AGI announced it is standardizing its North America grain bin materials, and therefore closing the Grand Island, Neb., manufacturing facility.

The Grand Island site was part of AGI’s acquisition of Global Industries in 2017, which included brands MFS, York, Brownie, and Stormor. It primarily manufactured 2.66” narrow corrugated bin walls as well as material handling and engineered structures.

Going forward, AGI is expanding its 4” corrugated material across the North America product line, which was previously offered in the northern states and Canada.
“Our bin standardization is driven by market demand,” says Scott McKernan, AGI Sr. Vice President of U.S. Farm. “This strengthens our position in the US market. We have manufacturing all over the Midwest. AGI is here to stay and grow. We’re in this for the long game.”

He says the change in material will not lead to any kind of price increase for AGI grain bins, and he adds it will increase efficiency for the company in how it supplies its dealer network and fills customer orders. According to McKernan, dealers have been very positive on the change.

The shutting down of the Grand Island manufacturing site will be a gradual process through the summer and fall.

“We are continuing to take orders through the summer, and we foresee a wind down of operations for our grain bin materials at the end of the summer, and by the early fall for our material handling and structure lines because those are engineered to order and take a bit longer to go through the system,” McKernan says.

AGI employs 114 individuals in Grand Island 100 of which are affected by this transition. AGI does have a warehouse across the street from its manufacturing, and that warehouse will remain in operation.

“Our focus right now is on our employees—having group meetings and one-on-one meetings this week. We are committed to host job fairs, facilitated job search training, as well as making them aware of other opportunities with AGI across the Midwest,” McKernan says.

AGI manufactures its 4” corrugated materials globally, and for the North American market most is sourced from its Winnipeg, Manitoba site.

McKernan says the company has a positive outlook for its storage business.

“We’re in the middle of the year, and we know our growers are faced with challenges. However, we believe storage could be strong in the second half of this year. Growers will be sitting on more crop at the end of the year and need a place to put it,” he says.

Regarding a longer-term outlook, McKernan says the great opportunities are on-farm storage and commercial.

Nebraska Farmer Distills His Love For The Midwest Into Flyover Whiskey

Wed, 22 May 2024 14:16:22 GMT

Feeling that America’s “flyover states” deserve more love than they usually get from the rest of the country, Nebraska row crop grower and beef producer Joe Knobbe decided to do something about it. According to his website: “We started Flyover Whiskey to showcase the generations of Midwest farmers who make the Heartland such an amazing place to live.”

As he explains on the latest episode of Grow Getters , a new podcast from Farm Journal Studios, when he’s not growing corn and soybeans or feeding roughly 1,500 head of cattle, Knobbe is working at his small distillery, a converted farrowing barn on the family property. This creative side hustle takes a unique approach to selling whiskey in that he’s not making it available to the general public.

Instead, his customers are fellow corn growers. They place their order for a six-bottle batch of whiskey by shipping 20 pounds of their corn to Knobbe. He and two staff members use the corn to make whiskey, and they also create a custom name and label for each bottle in the batch.

“People want to share what they produce with family and friends,” Knobbe says on the podcast. “You want something to share, to say, ‘I grew this’ and be proud of yourself.” Many corn growers sell their crop for use as livestock feed and for ethanol, as does Knobbe. On Grow Getters, he tells host Davis Michaelsen that growers want to taste the results of their work and Flyover Whiskey provides that opportunity.

“It’s not about the whiskey,” he explains. “It’s about farming and having pride in what you raised. Every batch is special.”

Read the full story about Flyover Whiskey.

Each episode of Grow Getters explores an inventive side hustle that an agricultural producer has created to add a new — and often fun — revenue stream to their operation. By plugging into their passions and often into new technology, these grow getters are redefining what it means to be a farmer.

Through profits from his Flyover Whiskey distillery, Knobbe was able to hire a good friend as a full-time worker on the farm, giving himself a little more time to spend with his young family. Even better, he adds, “It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

Watch more episodes of Grow Getters!

The Scoop Podcast: Corral The Controllables In Agronomy

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 11:00:00 GMT

As an agronomist and crop consultant with Nutrien Ag Solutions, Jeff Kloucek says working out in the field is where he enjoys his job the most. While the weather was the biggest challenge last year, Kloucek doesn’t expect too much of a reprieve from that unknown this year.

However, he and the team in Nebraska and South Dakota are focusing on what they can control. And shares more in The Scoop Podcast:

“When we can figure something out, come up with a solution, and then see it works with real yield data to show our decision made us money and we fixed an issue—that’s when it’s fun,” he says.

In soil fertility, they are taking a new look at the whole system and how nutrients interact with each other.

“With some of our theories on fertility we’re really switching gears and going a different direction,” he says. “And we’re looking the whole balance of the soil and how different nutrients work together or work against each other.”

And for weed control, Kloucek has two pieces of advice: “Don’t cut the rates. And adjuvants are just as important as the herbicides you put in the tank.”
Even though they can’t control the weather, Kloucek and his team tested a new irrigation sensor last year to refine their water management, and they are fully deploying those this year.

As an agronomy leader eager to try new things and improve each year, Kloucek encourages others in the industry to develop in their careers.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions and find a good mentor,” he says. “One of the greatest mentors I had was another applicator when I first started. He took me under his wing, and I learned a lot from him. He told me what I needed to know and where I should go look to learn more and was very instrumental in my career.”

Hear more from Kloucek in The Scoop Podcast.

Nebraska Scientists Study Temperature Stress In Corn With New Model

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 23:03:47 GMT

As the number of extreme weather events increases, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have developed a corn model to help them study the effects of temperature on corn plants at a faster rate.

This is a continuation of a previous project where the team used a model of corn roots to study the plant’s nitrogen-use efficiency under stress. While the previous model specifically focused on the roots, the new model comprises the entire plant and is the largest-ever metabolic model of corn.

Rajib Saha, University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Richard L. and Carol S. McNell associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and principal investigator, says this allows the research team to take a holistic, plant-wide approach to find how the plant’s metabolism can be adjusted to counteract stress.

One of the doctoral students working with Saha, Niaz Dahar Chowdhury, adds that it can also help field researchers using corn plants conduct their experiments more efficiently.

The Research
The study’s team has found inputting excessive heat and cold data into their model slowed plant growth, though the heat proved to be a larger issue for the plant.

“There is a pressing need to develop high-yielding maize genotypes capable of withstanding temperature stress,” Saha said.

While one way to solve the issue is to develop corn hybrids that are more tolerant to heat, Saha notes the process is very long. He shares another route scientists could take is to inoculate corn roots with Rhizophagus irregularis, a fungus commonly used as a soil inoculant, which has been found to successfully increase plant growth rates under heat and cold stress conditions.

For other researchers looking to study stress on corn, Saha and Chowdhury say the new model will be made available.

Wildfire Burns 71,000 Acres in Central Nebraska

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:31:51 GMT

A wildfire northeast of North Platte, Neb., burned 110 square miles earlier this week, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency reported.

First reported Monday morning, the Betty’s Way fire was ignited by sparks from a mower and burned a swath of grassland through Lincoln and Custer counties. The fire destroyed one home, damaged another and burned about five outbuildings, but no injuries were reported.

Officials said 10 to 20 homes were evacuated. The area burned was said to be roughly the size of Omaha, the state’s largest city.

Like other states in the Central Plains, Nebraska was under red flag warning and fire danger alerts as high winds over 40 mph combined with unseasonably warm temperatures, low humidity and dry winter vegetation to increase the threat of wildfires.

By late Monday, Gov. Jim Pillen declared a state disaster, which provided additional help from the state Forest Service, Fire Marshal, emergency management agency and other cooperating agencies.

Concept AgriTek Expands with New District Sales Manager

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 21:28:10 GMT

Concept AgriTek is expanding their sales team with Ethan Jones, who will serve as district sales manager for customers and dealers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and the northwest corner of Iowa.

Jones has a degree in precision technology from Lake Area Technical College in Watertown, S.D., and has served in sales and agronomy roles for agriculture and seed companies throughout the region.

“I’m working to learn Concept AgriTek’s extensive product portfolio and be able to apply the Concept AgriTek “A,B,C’s,” Jones says. “I thought that I knew agronomy, but I have realized in these past few weeks that I have a lot to learn. Concept AgriTek has opened my eyes to assessing agronomy, biology, and chemistry; how important it is to start off knowing what a plant or the soil actually needs and using all of that information to help the grower. It isn’t just selling a product.”

After nearly a decade of experience, Jones shares he is excited for the challenge ahead - as is the rest of the Concept AgriTek team.

“We’re as excited as Ethan is to have him on the team,” says Daniel Hensley, Concept AgriTek president. “We grew significantly in 2023 and we have plans to continue that growth in 2024. But we aren’t growing faster than we can manage. Qualifications add up to more than experience and background, our team is cohesive and wants to learn, that’s what it takes to serve the growers we work with. We hire people who truly want to be a part of something that’s a different approach to agronomic sales. Ethan has that drive and is already a valuable member of our team.”

Three Midwestern Farm Credit Associations Announce Collaboration

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 15:26:50 GMT

AgCountry Farm Credit Services, Frontier Farm Credit and Farm Credit Services of America announced they have signed a collaboration contract. The three boards will share leadership, planning and technology responsibilities, while local boards, offices and programs will be retained.

“Continual improvement is vital to the long-term success of any farm or ranch,” said Shane Tiffany, chair of the Frontier Farm Credit board. “Our financial cooperatives are no different. As agriculture gets more complicated and our risks and costs as producers increase, we need to know we can count on our lender. This collaboration better positions us for the future.”

Combined, the organizations have a reach of over 85,000 producers in eight states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

“There are many examples of successful collaborations in the Farm Credit System,” said Nick Jorgensen, chair of the FCSAmerica Board. “This one is unique in allowing each association to share functions where it makes sense, yet retain the local experience we all have come to value from our individual cooperatives and financial teams.”

At the end of 2022, AgCountry, based in Fargo, ND, had a reported loan volume of $11.6 billion. Frontier Farm Credit, based in Manhattan, Kan., had a volume of $2.6 billion and FCS America, based in Omaha, Neb., reported $38.3 billion.

“Our three boards are comprised mostly of farmers and ranchers. We were elected by our fellow member-owners to make decisions ensuring our associations fulfill their mission to current and future producers,” said Lynn Pietig, chair of AgCountry’s board of directors. “Each association enters this collaboration in a financially strong position. By working together, we can achieve benefits of scale that make us even stronger.”

The collaboration is expected to take effect no later than April 1, 2024.

Here’s How Pro Farmer's 2023 Yield Estimates Stack Up to USDA Expectations

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 22:17:31 GMT

It’s Friday in Pro Farmer Crop Tour week, which means the highly anticipated production estimates for the 2023 U.S. corn and soybean crops are now available.

These estimates are based on Crop Tour data and observations collected this past week by more than 100 crop scouts who sampled 3,000+ fields spanning Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.

Corn yield estimates

“We built record corn yields ahead of these extreme heat-indexed days. That’s the key point as we looked across the Corn Belt as a whole this week—we got ahead on yield early-on in order to hit average after the losses to heat,” Brian Grete of Pro Farmer says.

Indiana: Corn plants in Indiana look good , but kernel counts around will take a bite out of yield. With incidences of tar spot popping up all over the state, the yield could quickly change. Without tar spot, Indiana could hit yield average.

Illinois: Wildfire smoke and overnight temperatures won’t stop Illinois corn from hitting average yield. Tar spot, however, could blow up in pockets in coming weeks, which would pack a punch in the kernels’ starch and test weights.

Iowa: Five days with 103° heat index equated to five weeks of stress on corn crops in Iowa. The crops clearly ran out of energy and will see a just-below-average yield.

Minnesota: Burn is eating up the state’s corn crop up to one leaf below the ear . Kernel depth will push the crop below average yields.

Nebraska: The Nebraska corn fields had plenty of ear s, but they are already hanging. Irrigated acres will hit average, but non-irrigated will take a hit.

Ohio: A surge of moisture saved the crop this week. Despite being behind on growing degree days, the crop is more consistent than 2022 and looks to yield above average.

South Dakota: Rain in many regions of South Dakota resulted in a 180° from 2022’s crop. There’s no tip back in the Southeast corn for the state, yet. Final weeks of the season could shrink grain depth, but with little effect.

Soybean yield estimates

“We saw extremely stressful conditions this week. Thanks to the management put on the crop, hybrid and varieties available, the ability of both the corn and soybean crops to build a yield in these conditions has been unbelievable,” Chip Flory, AgriTalk host says. “The question now is whether or not they can hold on to it.”

Indiana: Moisture deficiencies are playing out heavily in Indiana ’s soybeans. However, the plant is proving resilient with high pod and seed counts. The state will yield higher than last year.

Illinois: Months-long drought followed by a derecho caused whiplash in Illinois soybeans. But the storm caused more good than bad, resulting in short nodes and short beans, with high pod counts. The state will see slightly above-average harvest numbers.

Iowa: Dry conditions produced yellow-green marbled fields . Despite dry conditions, pod counts in Iowa will trump Illinois. But seed size and count will cause a yield penalty.

Minnesota: Heat stress and drought are throwing punches at soybean yield in Minnesota. The state is patchy, with two-bean pods spotted in the state’s Southwestern corridor while other areas will have an average-yielding crop.

Nebraska: The bean crop appeared to be dying out instead of drying out. With no chance of rain in the forecast, the crops won’t have a chance to fill.

Ohio: Rains this week in Ohio greened-up crops at a pivotal growth stage. The state’s soybean crop won’t be better than 2021, but it will be better than 2022.

South Dakota: Pod counts are above normal for what scouts would usually see in the state, thanks to late-season moisture. Yield will likely come out average, or slightly above.

Pro Farmer Crop Tour, Day 2: Drought in Nebraska, Tar Spot in Indiana

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 22:22:13 GMT

Extreme heat rolled down Midwestern highways on Tuesday, along Pro Farmer’s Crop Tour scouts as they made their Day 2 journey.

This heat has been lingering in Nebraska for quite some time, based on the scouts’ findings. Here’s what they saw on Tuesday.

Western leg: Grand Island, Neb. to Nebraska City, Neb.

As scouts made their way to the eastern portion of Nebraska, the state’s extreme-to-exceptional drought conditions (15%) were obvious in corn. The region’s crops are likely to yield higher than 2022, thanks — in most part — to record amounts of irrigation, according to Maverick Widdowson, a Shelkon Neb. farmer.

“It’s been nonstop since we planted. A lot of pre-watering early on, and we’ve had to keep pumping as much as we can, even into September,” Widdowson says.

Calvin Rupe, Pioneer field agronomist, says the lack of moisture will be measured in corn’s test weight in non-irrigated corn. He anticipates an average-yielding year for irrigated corn stands, however.

Beans at my last stop in Otoe Co NE (not pictured) were beautiful - 1250 pod count. Beans in picture from Gage Co had a 1411 pod count and won’t yield as well as last stop. Beans in Gage had some twisted pods and very little fill. #PFTour23 pic.twitter.com/4EqOINjRK4
— Chip Flory (@ChipFlory) August 22, 2023

Prior to the heat wave that cast a wide net over the Midwest two weeks ago, some eastern Nebraskans thought the non-irrigated soybean crop would come in above APH. Now, some, including Pro Farmer Crop Tour scout Brent Judisch, aren’t convinced.

“In the fields I’m seeing, they’re going to lose that top cluster. They’ll lose 10% to 12% minimum because they won’t have a chance to fill due to lack of rain in the forecast,” Judisch says.

Eastern leg: Noblesville, Ind. to Bloomington, Ill.

Scouts in the east saw more of a mixed bag for corn on Tuesday compared with the first day of Crop Tour. Scout Mark Bernard says he was more impressed by Monday’s fields in Ohio.

“The first sample out of the chute today looked really good, but it was only 14 kernels around. Those numbers will take a bite out of your yield,” Bernard says.

Bernard says his corn counts on Tuesday were in the 190-bu. range, which he doesn’t think is disappointing, but it’s below what he had expected.

Bushels counts could quickly change in coming weeks with the threat of tar spot on the horizon, according to Brian Shrader, Pioneer agronomist who covers northeast Indiana.

“We’ve seen tar spot move further south and east earlier this year than we ever have in my geography,” Shrader says. “I’m seeing it at significantly higher levels than what I’ve seen in past years.”

Stop 5 Jasper County, Indiana. Corn will probably be used for silage (Fair Oaks) Drought stressed. 129 bu appraised.

Same stop. Bean pod count is 528. Lots of 2 bean pods (see photo). pic.twitter.com/sX5IziAkli
— Bruce Lantzky (@Lantzkyfarms) August 22, 2023

With a mid-to-late May planting date, followed by a dry spell in June, moisture deficiencies are playing out heavily in Indiana’s soybeans.

“We’re seeing very deeply rooted plants in general on Crop Tour, including in Ohio. That means the plants are breaking off at the stem instead of coming out by the roots — something unusual,” Bernard says.

Due to the plant’s root change, Bernard says the soybean crop will be more resilient, especially in this week’s heat.

For exclusive access to professional grade news, analysis and advice, subscribe to Pro Farmer here .

Drought Eases Slightly but Still Grips Corn Belt: Nebraska Farmers Face Second Year of Dryness and Yield Loss

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 14:22:03 GMT

Despite rains the last couple of weeks in parts of the Corn Belt the latest drought monitor shows drought continues to grip a huge part of the Midwest. 64% of corn and 57% of the soybean crop is in D1 to D4 drought, just a slight improvement from week. And that same trend is true in Nebraska where some farmers say the ongoing drought is shaping up to be worse than the one they faced a decade ago.

“There ain’t much for moisture here.” This is the second drought Ryan Ueberrhein has seen in his farming career. The first was in 2012 but he says this year has been tougher with the lack of subsoil moisture this spring. The farmer from Valley, Nebraska says, “This was worse than that year. I mean, when we were planting this year, we struggled just to find moisture.”

Bart Ruth farms in central Nebraska, the epicenter of the drought near Rising City. “This year is by far the driest in my career. There’s no moisture over winter. No moisture this spring.”

In fact, many Nebraskans are facing year number two of drought.

Brian Fuchs is a climatologist, with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, “I nto central Nebraska, most of that part of the state is under severe drought. And the further east you go, basically we’re seeing almost all of the Eastern one-third of Nebraska in extreme to exceptional drought, and that have slowly been increasing in spatial coverage over the last couple months.”

And the onset came earlier than last year or 2012, so irrigation pivots have been running for several weeks.

Ruth says, “We started mid-May and we’re like path number six on quarter ends. So we’re expecting twice as much water supply during the growing season this year as the average year.

Recent rains in some areas of Nebraska have improved overall crop conditions but farmers tell me they have already lost the top end yield potential on irrigated acres and the rain came too late for dryland crops, especially corn.

Ueberrhein says the stress is visible, “You get a hot 90-degree day. In the afternoon you look at that corn it’s all pineapples up looking, you know not good at all. So, I’m the top end yield is gone for sure. gone there. I would say at least 25%, 30% somewhere in there.”

Ruth says, “So I mean, there’s plants out there four inches tall, and first of July that won’t amount to anything. So you know we’ll have acres that will be zeroed out. Once a crops dead you can’t revive it not matter how much water you put on it.”

And the latest drought monitor still shows 86% of corn and 93% of soybeans in Nebraska are in D1 to D4 level drought, so production potential has been compromised.

Fuchs says, “Even with regular rainfall dryland crops you’re going to have a have a tough go of it. They started off with very little to no moisture in the soil profile this growing season and that means there’s not a lot of moisture for those crops as the season progresses.”

The exceptional dryness has also hurt this year’s forage crops and pasture conditions.

Dave Zies, farms and ranches near Valley, NE. “I was hoping for a bale per acre and a half of that we’re getting we normally get three and a half or they operate around here. So our our grass you know our hay crops just, you know next to nothing right now. So, we’re going to be in a bind here for a feed.”

And so he’s been forced to cull even more cattle from his herd. “We cut back from 100 cows down to below 80. And I’ve gotten rid of another 10 now and now we got to go back through and look again at any cow that looks cross eyed it’s out of here.”

And Nebraska isn’t alone. Nearly 64% of the Midwest is also in D1 to D4 level drought, up slightly from the previous week. So, the recent rains in those areas have not been drought busting.

Drew Lerner, Ag Meteorologist, with World Weather Inc. says, “I don’t think that the rain in some of those areas was greater than usual. So, the bottom line is that we are still looking at an environment here that is not real conducive for serious relief to the drought.”

Lerner says there’s already been yield loss and the forecast for the balance of the growing season may not reverse the damage. “We’ll have some timely rain, but not necessarily normal rain until rather late in season, which suggests that we may have a problem with getting the largest kernel sizes on these ears. And we may still have a risk of not completely filling some of ears in the dryer bias area.”

So, while USDA lowered national corn yield by four bushels per acre in the July report, there may be further cuts ahead.

Nebraska Farmers Harvest Disappointing Crop in a Season Plagued by Drought

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:00:07 GMT

Harvest results in Nebraska are understandably disappointing with some of the driest conditions during the season since the drought of 2012.

Mike Korth farms in one of the driest parts of the state and received less than 6 inches of rain since January 1. He says it isn’t as dry as 2012 but close. He says, “In Nebraska the driest part of the state is right what we’re sitting it. This is what they call an exceptional drought. And there’s a pretty good chunk of red here that covers about 4 counties. "

It wasn’t just the lack of moisture, but the heat that pulled irrigated soybean yields down by 10 to 15% from normal and dryland yields were much worse. Korth says, “They’re probably down about 25% and even more on an extremely dry area its worse than that, about 50%. So it’s a little disappointing.”

Irrigated corn yields are also about 10% below his APH and dryland production is a near disaster on some fields with lighter soil. Korth says, “They are probably down 50% to 60%. I mean one did not register hardly. I did another field that made in the 40s, did one in the 60s and one that did 120.

Craig Ebberson farms near Belden, Nebraska and picked up a few more rains late in the season to help dryland soybeans and irrigated won’t be far off farm averages. “We’ve got some beans that, irrigated beans are in the 70s. Some dryland beans we’ve had some in the 50s and some in the 40-range.”

His dryland corn is a disaster, but irrigated corn is only off about 20-bushels from last year. Ebberson says, “Our irrigated corn we’re getting some 250s, 260s on the irrigated corn. Some of our dryland on good farms is yielding well into the 100s. Some of the dryland that we cut early for silage is pretty poor, probably 40-50 bushel corn.”

Test weights on corn are running in the upper 50s and the corn has been drying down fast with the continued warm, dry harvest weather. Ebberson says, “Hopefully we won’t have to dry any corn that’s our hope anyway.

Ebberson says with crop insurance and higher prices he’ll still have a pretty good year, but for the state 2022 will go down as one of the worst in recent memory. “I’m sure the state will be considerably lower than last year for sure. At once I thought the yields on dryland would be 50 bushels behind last year average and I think that’s probably a fairly close guess.”

How To Address Fertility Concerns from 2019 Flooding

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:19:51 GMT

John Wilson, extension educator in Burt County, Nebraska , and Certified Crop Adviser, shared his experiences in recovering from the 2011 flooding in Nebraska to assist those who are bringing flooded ground from this year back into production in 2020.

“We had more ground under water than any other in the state,” he says regarding Burt County in 2011.

In the webinar, Farming After The Flood , Wilson provided details from a 2012 study he helped conduct that included corn and soybeans to learn in an agronomic perspective what role the flooding from the previous year played in the following crop year.

Knowing previous soil test data is key to understanding how flooding may have changed your field’s conditions.

“Overall, we were surprised that the flooding hadn’t caused more of a change to our fertility and that the baseline fertility levels were still there. The grower compared the 2012 soil test results to his past soil tests, and there wasn’t a significant change,” Wilson says.

Additionally, he said the test site was flooded—without experiencing severe erosion or sediment deposits, which likely would have had different results.

He shares seven takeaways from the study:

Some sulfur levels were high–across the entire area
Wilson reports he had a number of growers tell him they also saw higher sulfur levels after the flood.
The nitrogen levels were normal in the soil tests
The crew received soil tests showing relatively normal N levels in the soil both in the top 8” and then 8” to 16.” Wilson says they anticipated low nitrogen levels from leaching and/or denitrification.
Other nutrient levels were also in the normal ranges
One note, organic matter after the flooding was probably about a half a percent lower than it was before the flooding.
Water infiltration was reduced–this was what we observed not measured
The test plots were located on Hayne silt loam and Modale silt loam, which are medium soils with good infiltration.
Corn responded to nitrogen but not to phosphorus.
Wilson explains, these soils have 9 ppm in the top soil and 4 ppm in the second 8”. The rates applied via broadcast and banded did not match expectations
The corn responded to the cover crops but the soybeans didn’t (at least the soybeans, which had to be replanted due to hail damage didn’t)
The site had heavy winds with blowing sand and sediment, which the cover crops did a good job of trapping—up to 4” deep. In some areas, the corn planted after cover crops yielded up to 30 bu. better than areas without a cover crop.
The soybeans didn’t respond to inoculate, which we think was due to the residual nitrogen in the soil.

Here’s a timeline of the 2012 study, which should fill in some of the details of his above observations:
• March 26 to 27: Fertilizer applied
• March 27: Cover crops planted
• May 9: Corn planted
• May 10 to 11: Soybeans planted
• May 12: Glyphosate burndown application
• May 23: Hailstorm
• June 4: Soybeans replanted
• July 2: Glyphosate postemergence

One important note, he said the hail storm on May 23 really threw a curveball, but he thinks the observations they saw are of value.

Wilson says this study was done with the support of Lee Valley Farms, the Howard Buffett Foundation, Syngenta and Monsanto.

The webinar is available on playback from the American Society of Agronomy

That is a bulldozer filling in the eroded areas where 7 earth movers and/or box scrapers were dumping sediment (for about 1 month) from other parts of the field. About half the length of the eroded area has already been filled in the above image.

The red X in the image is where the image with the ISU Extension staff was taken (in the image at the top of this article). The red O is about where the pickup in the image below was sitting when it was taken.

Another Farmer Pleads Guilty in $142 Million Organic Grain Fraud

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:16:09 GMT

A farmer in Missouri is the fifth person to plead guilty in a case that involves fraudulent marketing of organic grain that netted at least $142 million in sales.

According to a press release from the U.S. Justice Department , John Burton, age 52, from Clarksdale, Missouri, entered his plea on May 10 at a federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Burton was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He admitted that in the conspiracy grain was grown on non-organic fields, then marketed and sold as organic while unapproved substances were used on fields certified as organic.

The guilty plea is part of a wider case involving a brokerage company owned and operated by Randy Constant in Ossian, Iowa, known as Jericho Solutions. Constant, age 61, from Chillicothe, Missouri, had pled guilty on December 20, 2018, to being involved in the organic grain fraud scheme. At least $142 million worth of grain sales were made with majority of sales being fraudulent, and they had been made through Jericho Solutions. As part of Constant’s plea he agreed to forfeit $128,190,128 in proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.

Three other farmers – Tom Brennan, age 70; James Brennan, age 40; and Mike Potter, age 41 – all from Overton, Nebraska, all pled guilty to selling fraudulently marketed organic grain in the scheme . The trio of Nebraska farmers entered their pleas October 12, 2018. During each of their respective hearings, the men all admitted to growing non-organic grain from 2010 to 2017. They admitted to knowing it was being marketed and sold as organic despite being grown using non-organic practices. The three Nebraska farmers are alleged to have received more than $2.5 million each for grain marketed as organic.

Sentencing is scheduled on August 16, 2019, for Randy Constant, Tom Brennan, James Brennan, and Mike Potter. They will appear before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams at the United States Courthouse in Cedar Rapids. All four face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, at least a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

Sentencing will be scheduled for Burton after a presentence report is prepared. Burton is currently free on bond. Burton could face a maximum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment, a fine of at least $250,000, and 3 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jake Schunk and Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture – Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

For more on this case read the following stories from AgWeb:

Henderson Co-Op Merges With Central Valley Ag

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:15:37 GMT

In mid-April, it was announced that Henderson Co-Op membership approved unification with Central Valley Ag (CVA). Henderson Co-op has two locations in Henderson, Neb. providing a full line of agricultural products that include fertilizers, chemicals, seed, fuels, tires, automobile service, on farm tire service, and lubricants.

“The focus of the cooperative has always been serving our farmer patrons and the greater area with service that allows them to be profitable and successful,” Grant Schmidt, Henderson Co-op Board Chairman said in a news release. “The merger with CVA allows us to continue providing that commitment into the future.”

Conducted by a mail-in ballot, the owners of Henderson Co-op approved the merger with CVA by a majority vote of 91.3%. Henderson Co-op will officially join CVA July 1, 2019.

“We are pleased that Henderson Co-op members have voted to unify the two cooperatives. Both Boards feel strongly that this unification will bring additional value to our members,” Dave Beckman, CVA Board Chairman said in a news release. “Central Valley Ag has a proud history on which the foundation has been laid for building a promising future of service to its members in agriculture.”

Central Valley Ag is a farmer-owned cooperative headquartered in York, Neb. CVA has locations in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. CVA is an innovative leader providing products and services in grain, agronomy, feed, and energy.

Read more about Central Valley Ag and other recent mergers here.

Wilbur-Ellis Acquires Wiles Brothers Fertilizer, Inc.

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:15:00 GMT

Wilbur-Ellis Company LLC, announced in February it acquired the assets of Wiles Brothers Fertilizer, Inc., one of the top independent agriculture retailers in the state of Nebraska. As of February 13, 2019, Wiles Brothers Fertilizer employees and assets became part of Wilbur-Ellis Company

Family-owned and operated since 1976, Wiles Brothers Fertilizer has been a highly successful, independent ag retailer, providing its customers with fertilizer, crop protection, seed products and application services.

“After nearly 50 years in business, we are excited about the opportunity to become a part of Wilbur-Ellis Company,” said Wiles Brothers Fertilizer founder Marvin Wiles. “As we’ve gotten to know Wilbur-Ellis, we have found that their commitment to integrity and excellence is consistent with our own values. The customers we have served for years will see real benefits from a continued association with Wilbur-Ellis for both the near- and long-term future.”

This purchase expands the Wilbur-Ellis footprint firmly into the highly productive crop areas of Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa. The Wiles Brothers business and location will serve as a major platform from which to test and launch a collection of agronomic advisory services and cutting-edge technologies.

“We are proud to announce the addition of Wiles Brothers Fertilizer to Wilbur-Ellis,” said Wilbur-Ellis Company Central Midwest Area Manager Eric Lacey. “This is a strategic addition in a geography where we don’t have a presence. The team at Wiles has a great reputation in the ag retail industry and are known as progressive growers with a long track record of winning state and national yield contests. We look to continue and build upon their strong presence and talent as we launch unique value propositions in the market.”