Smart Farming - Ag Retail

Analysts Fear 2027 Could Be The Toughest Year Yet For Farm Margins

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 21:27:02 GMT

The most important tool on many U.S. farms this spring isn’t a tractor or a high-speed planter — it’s a pencil. Faced with climbing fertilizer costs, some growers are still hunched over spreadsheets and notepads as April shifts to May, trying to determine if corn or soybeans can pencil out.

Market analysts Naomi Blohm of Total Farm Marketing and Matt Bennett of AgMarket.net say they believe the current planting season remains in a state of flux as farmers’ input budgets are tightened to the breaking point.

According to a recent American Farm Bureau Federation survey, 48% of Midwest farmers say they cannot afford their full fertilizer needs for this season.

“Farmers who haven’t paid for fertilizer, are running behind, or are stuck out of the field due to weather are having to factor that into their decision-making,” Bennett says.

Blohm is seeing this reality play out in real-time with her clients. “Two of them openly shared this [past] week that they booked some fertilizer early and went with corn on those acres,” she reports. “But for the remaining acres, they had to stop and think it through and ultimately decided to switch to soybeans.”

Bennett notes that while soybean futures aren’t necessarily “explosive,” they could be a safer bet for cash-strapped operations. “If I’m a grower, and I’m sitting here trying to figure out whether I can make money putting $1,000, $1,100 [of nitrogen an acre] into this corn crop, I look over on the board on beans, and you’re looking at a price a lot of growers can make work just with average yields,” he says.

Blohm adds that what farmers decide to plant will be much clearer by USDA’s June 30 acreage report.

A Three-Year Financial Drain

The current financial stress isn’t happening in a vacuum. Bennett points out that consecutive years of financial pressure have taken their toll across the Midwest.

“The liquidity drain over the last three years has made it really tough for people, and we are even seeing an equity drain for some,” Bennett says. “When cash is this tight, it highlights why you might plant soybeans if you don’t have your anhydrous or urea on yet.”

The fertilizer crisis is fueled by global energy markets and geopolitical instability. Blohm points to India’s recent, aggressive moves to secure supply as a sign of things to come.

“I saw that India this week booked what they needed for fertilizer at double the cost,” she says. “But they don’t have a choice really, based on the amount of wheat that they grow in the world. They have to have a good wheat crop there, and they need that fertilizer.”

Bennett adds the issue isn’t just price — it’s access. “India bought 2.5 million tons of urea to front-run a potentially problematic situation,” he notes. “Disrupted natural gas facilities create a cascade effect that impacts anhydrous and urea production globally.”

2027: “It Scares the Daylights Out of Me”

While 2026 is beyond difficult, analysts are sounding the alarm for 2027. During an afternoon AgriTalk segment , host Michelle Rook asked if 2027 will be even worse.

“It scares the daylights out of me,” Bennett replied. “Projected cash flows and breakevens for 2027 don’t look good at all. Even if someone talks about $5 corn, you have to look at what you’ll have invested in it.”

Blohm agrees that the uncertainty is unprecedented. “Producers have to stay on their toes,” she says. “We don’t know if this shock will be a springboard for higher prices or if it will simply compress margins further.”

The Rotation Debate: Markets vs. Agronomics

How will crop rotations look by 2027? Farm Journal regularly reaches out to a vetted list of 80 ag economists from across the industry. Providing directional insights, the latest Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor shows almost half of the respondents (seven of 16) to the April survey expect soybeans to gain more acres due to renewable diesel demand.

Northeast Iowa farmer Tim Recker sees some potential for a shift. “Renewable diesel demand underpins my local market,” he says. “I see value in policies that turn surplus crops into fuel, but we have to remember that Brazil is still eating our lunch in the global market.”

Central Illinois grain producer and hog producer Chad Lehman has a more cautious outlook.

“Pigs need corn,” Lehman says. “There are real risks with bean-on-bean rotations, including yield penalties and agronomic challenges. Even with more crush capacity, soybean meal prices remain strong, which reinforces the need for steady corn production.”

University of Missouri Agricultural Economist Ben Brown suggests that while “swing acres” might lean toward soybeans next season, many farmers will stick with their rotations.

“I believe 85% of acreage is determined by rotation,” Brown says. “That leaves only 15% to be adjusted based on outside influences.”

Long-Term Risks Of Changing Rotations

Shifting rotations in 2027 can’t be a financial decision only; it carries long-term agronomic consequences. Connor Sible, associate professor and row-crop field researcher at the University of Illinois, cautions that fertilizer cuts made this season could contribute to nutrient depletion in soils.

“If we pull back on nutrients now, those minerals are going to have to come from somewhere — likely the soil supply,” Sible says. “We want to maintain a healthy system over time, so we can’t go too far with input pullbacks.”

For those farmers already eyeing a move to soybeans in 2027, Sible recommends starting the planning process now.

“Think about what herbicide programs you are putting out this summer,” he advises. “You need to account for potential carryover effects if you switch the rotation in a field that was planned for corn to go with soybeans.”

You can hear more from farmers Chad Lehman and Tim Recker and their thoughts on the year ahead in this discussion on AgriTalk, available at the link below:

Koch Launches Centuro A-PRO: Reducing Nitrogen Stabilizer Use Rates by 67%

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 19:22:36 GMT

Koch Agronomic Services expands its nitrogen stabilizer portfolio with Centuro A-Pro designed to stabilize anhydrous ammonia and UAN ensuring nitrogen stays in the ammonium form longer.

As Cody Hornaday, technical agronomist with Koch Agronomic Services, explains the development of Centuro A-Pro was rooted in customer feedback for a more concentrated formula that offers enhanced operational efficiency.

“Koch is big on customer voice,” he says. “We took feedback on Centuro, and basically concentrated the product down to a higher concentration of active ingredient. Therefore, we could then lower the use rate. We now have launched Centuro A-PRO.”

Representing approximately a 67% reduction in the volume of product handled, the lower use rate of Centuro A-Pro is 1.61 gallons per ton of anhydrous ammonia compared to 5 gallons per ton for the original Centuro formulation.

“It is a concentrated formulation of the original Centuro, we are maintaining the same amount of active ingredient per ton of nitrogen. Therefore we get a lower use rate, and we get much more efficiency by handling less volume,” he says. “You still get the same great nitrogen stabilization below ground against denitrification and leaching, but we handle a whole lot less product and get the same effect.”

For retailers, this means operational efficiency realized in less storage needed and improved inventory management due to the lower volume. And for farmers, this equates to faster turnaround times when filling tanks, allowing for more efficient application during tight application windows.

“It’s a win-win for retailers and growers alike,” Hornaday says.

KAS says early trials in corn have shown up to an 18 bu/ac increase versus untreated anhydrous ammonia applications at an application rate of 180 pounds of nitrogen per acre. The company plans to have its full product launch for the fall 2026 application season.

Strategic Fit in the Koch Portfolio

“Nitrogen stabilizers are a tool to ensure that a grower is using all of that nitrogen that they are applying,” Hornaday says. “We want to ensure that Mother Nature doesn’t take away any of that through volatilization or denitrification or leaching, because we know that it’s one of the most expensive inputs that a grower’s going to use for a corn crop.”

He continues, “We’re just looking at trying to be as efficient with the pounds that we’re putting on as we can. Losing any of the money that you put out on a crop that’s already at a tight margin is certainly not what anybody wants to do.”

Continued product development for nitrogen stabilizers underscores how the topic is important—and farmers seek to be efficient with the nitrogen they are buying and applying in any economic environment.

Here’s an outline of the KAS nitrogen stabilizer lineup:

Above-Ground Protection (Urease Inhibition):

Agrotain: The NBPT based product that KAS says set an industry standard for stabilization for urea and UAN.
Anvol: The current flagship product featuring the Duromide molecule, designed for a longer window of protection against volatilization.

Below-Ground Protection (Nitrification Inhibition):

Centuro (Original): The established product for anhydrous ammonia and UAN stabilization.
Centuro A-PRO: The high-efficiency evolution of the below-ground portfolio, specifically targeting growers and retailers who prioritize speed and reduced product handling.

How AI Insights are Reducing Manual Scouting for Midwest Retailers

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:15:12 GMT

Recently, Syngenta and Taranis declared their AI-backed partnership a winner as it combined their respective prowess in leading crop protection and AI crop intelligence for retailers and farmers in the Midwest.

Syngenta’s leadership pointed to AI as agriculture’s next major breakthrough, with early results from the 2025 collaboration demonstrating how pairing Taranis’ leaf-level AI Crop Intelligence with Syngenta’s portfolio helped create value for retailers and growers—momentum that the partnership is now positioned to scale.

“Over the past two years, we’ve been intentional about keeping a pulse on growers’ pain points and making practical improvements to enhance their experience,” says Paul Backman, Syngenta’s Head of North America Crop Protection Digital Agriculture & Sustainable Solutions. “With the help of AI, technical expertise, and strong partnerships, we are enabling growers to spot issues and respond with solutions faster than they have before.”

Ag Retailers: At the Frontline Connecting Growers to Solutions

As the new growing season kicks off for the Midwest, Syngenta’s teams say they are taking off the training wheels and anticipating the program’s success in the retail sector to be the foundation for its growth.

“We believe ag retailers play a critical role in bringing conservation solutions together for growers,” says Backman. “The powerful capabilities brought together through our partnership with Taranis put us in an excellent position to collaborate with retailers and create value for them as we deliver on this vision.”

Early insights from the field signal momentum. Retailer enrollment continues to accelerate, with participating acres expanding rapidly throughout the Midwest.

“We’ve worked to scale the partnership more broadly in our second year – this means connecting AI Crop Intelligence with our Crop Protection portfolio and bringing these solutions to more retailers,” he says. “The results from our first year together demonstrated a clear benefit for growers to be more targeted and to address field issues earlier – helping growers and retailers be more efficient in pinpointing challenges and the right solutions to address them.”

Now, the company says that the program is optimized with data-backed intelligence for corn and soybean producers, and in the early stages of exploring its applications in potato production as well.

A Win-Win to Unlock Conservation Opportunity

Geography and crops are not the only expansion on the table for 2026, Backman says. The partnership is working to help growers enhance profitability and access to conservation funding and technical assistance by matching farmers with public conservation programs and working collaboratively through the enrollment process.

“We know that turning a profit and having the funds to invest in new practices can be one of the biggest barriers growers face when deciding whether to adopt a new practice,” Backman says. “This, in essence, is what makes Syngenta’s partnership with Taranis a real game changer.”

Through the partnership, Taranis Technical Service Providers will identify opportunities to access funding through popular federal mechanisms like the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). “The Taranis Conservation Partnership solution is designed to help growers access USDA conservation funding and implement sustainable farming practices on their farms with minimum effort,” he says.

Backman also notes that smooth enrollment isn’t just a convenience – it’s key to enabling growers to access resources to invest in their operations and experiment with new practices that might otherwise be out of reach.

“We see it as a win-win for all parties involved,” he says.

Sustainability, Driven by Digital Tools

AI-powered intelligence from Taranis is the latest capability offered alongside Syngenta’s suite of digital tools that underpin its corporate sustainability strategy .

“Syngenta has a long history of supporting growers to help increase yields, and today we’re leaning into a broad portfolio of digital tools to meet that mission,” Backman says. “Over time, we’ve learned that leveraging crop protection and advancing sustainability can go forward together.”

This AI-backed partnership, along with digital sustainability tools such as the CropWise™ Sustainability App, are critical levers to achieving Syngenta’s overall sustainability goals – one of several reasons the company combined the two into a new Digital and Sustainable Solutions team.

Backman’s team is charged with finding solutions that work at the farmgate, but also help to manage productivity, profitability, and stewardship.

“A key to meeting these goals and scaling sustainable practices starts with solutions that truly work for farmers, which is why we’re embedding sustainability into our business strategy and operations and equipping our field teams with resources to communicate how our solutions support those efforts,” he says. “While technology has long helped farmers increase yields, today we’re combining it with sustainable practices to help achieve higher yields with lower impact.

“By improving soil health, protecting biodiversity and conserving natural resources, we can help create lasting value – ensuring that growers succeed today, and well into the future.”

Why Traceability is Table Stakes in the Grain Business

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:48:44 GMT

With recently announced guidance from the Department of the Treasury, to support the documentation of agricultural production required to participate for Section 45Z tax credits, Bushel and Verity have integrated their on-farm data, sustainability modeling and compliance platform. Kimberly Bowron, president of Verity, and Jake Joraanstad, CEO of Bushel, explain what’s next for traceability in the grain business.

Lessons From The Field

Bowron says the pilot project at Gevo’s ethanol facility in Richardton, North Dakota, helps to illustrate the opportunities that are unfolding and how it will effect the entire supply chain. Its “farm-to-flight” program included 500,000 acres being loaded into the program with the farm-level attributes.
When it comes to farmer engagement in programs, she says it really boils down to three things:

Eliminate Duplicate Paperwork: Streamlining the administrative burden.
Data Sovereignty: Ensuring data is protected and ownership remains with the farmer.
Economic Clarity: Providing a clear, transparent financial upside.

“We’re learning that workflow is everything. And so if it feels like there’s extra admin work and uncertain payoff, participation sort of slows down. But if we can be clear about all of those things, then growers are very engaged,” she says. “I think another takeaway is just trust. Farmers really want to know exactly who’s seeing their data, so we like to be transparent about how that’s being used. And that transparency isn’t really optional for us. We want to be clear about the economic opportunity and the adoption.”

Bowron shares the supply sheds around the biofuels producer will be driven by the evolution of these programs, the value presented to the farmers, and how market-based opportunities continue to expand including carbon intensity, scope 3 emissions and more. But the common undercurrent empowering the conversation of what’s possible is transparency.

Joraanstad says traceability was once a long time ‘scary’ word in the grain business because of the difficulty in delivering the full origination of a kernel of corn through the supply chain.

“It just wasn’t practical,” he says. “But if you’re a biofuels plant in the future, if you can’t do this then you’re going to be losing to those who can.”

It’s the intersection of the real dollars of cents potential of tax deducations such as 45Z plus the technology advancing the digitization of records putting this new mandate on how to stay competitive and profitable.

“This has been a long time coming,” Joraanstad says. “But the truth is that all of the previous discussion around what data is required, there was a lot of voluntary effort, and let’s call it the first version of all of this effort.”

For the biofuels producers, Bowron says the digitization not only provides participation for the carbon credits or tax deductions but also the specialized markets.

“Verity’s real role is to take all that farm-level data, translate that into a field CI (Carbon Intensity), and then take that CI and attach it to a gallon in an ethanol plant,” Bowron says. So that you have a CI that attaches to that gallon. We also think about this in terms of different attributes, like practice attributes. ‘This gallon can go to Canada because it’s got all those attributes; this gallon can go to California.’”

While the 45Z guidance is helping proving an outline for the potential, it’s a whole new chapter. And one that is still being written. The final rule isn’t expected to be released before June.

“We’re still wanting some better final answers as we’re going through this,” Jooranstad says. “But now all of us can act with some confidence that that’s true and this is a requirement and it’s not just a hope and a dream.”

Both industry leaders says it’s important to note how 45Z works, especially that it’s the biofuel producer receiving the tax credit.

“This isn’t like an EQIP program. There’s no direct USDA payments that are happening. And for an ethanol plant, it’s actually a lot of work,” Bowron says. “They can’t sell the value of that tax credit for the headline price.”

The ‘hidden costs’ for ethanol plants include:

Discounted Value: Credits are often sold at 90-95% of face value.
Overhead: Costs include broker fees, legal counsel, and insurance wraps for audit protection.
Delayed Realization: Benefits are filed with taxes and often not realized until a year later.

Hear more from these industry voices in the latest Scoop Podcast.

Maryland Farmer Turns Stringent Fertilizer Restrictions Into An Opportunity To Innovate

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:15:34 GMT

On the Delmarva Peninsula, where every pound of fertilizer applied is regulated, Maryland farmer Temple Rhodes is rebuilding his corn production system from the ground up — literally.

“We are in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, so all eyes are on us,” Rhodes says. “I am 50 miles from Baltimore, 50 miles from D.C., 67 miles from Philadelphia. We are in a hotbed of regulation.”

For the past 25-plus years, Chestnut Manor Farms has operated under a state-mandated nutrient management plan that caps how much nitrogen and phosphorus can be applied. Rhodes says participating in the program is not voluntary.

“It is forced on us with no incentive. You just have to do it,” he says. “So, we have to reinvent ourselves. We have to start looking at other ways to do things.”

Rhodes grows corn, soybeans and wheat, along with a few acres of grain sorghum. He also runs a cow-calf operation and backgrounds a couple hundred head of steers each winter on cover crops. The diversity helps, but the real transformation is happening in how he feeds his 1,700-acre corn crop.

From Front-Loading To Spoon-Feeding

For years, the standard practice was to front-load fertilizer before planting and hope enough stayed in place through the growing season. Under tighter rules and scrutiny, Rhodes says that approach no longer works.

“We used to put 100% of our nitrogen up front, then plant a crop on it and expect it to be there all along,” he says. “That is where we find out we are making a mistake. We are limited in how much fertility we can put on, so we better get it on at the right time, in the right place, or we are going to run out.”

Today, Chestnut Manor relies on what Rhodes describes as a systematic, layered approach that can include planter-applied fertilizer (in-furrow and 2x2 programs), split in-season applications of nitrogen, extensive cover crops and biologicals.

“When you take a systematic approach to all these things, it becomes a different animal,” Rhodes says.

Most of his corn is grown using a strip-till system with strips built in the spring. State rules prevent him from applying fertilizer in the fall, so he must work ahead of the planter using modest rates of nitrogen and then follow up with in-season applications.

“My end goal is to grow 225 bushels per acre,” he says. “I am going to put about 0.7 pounds of nitrogen per bushel on my crop. I can get away with that if I spoon-feed it correctly. If I put it all down up front, I am going to need about 1.25 pounds. I’m saving a lot of fertility by doing it this way.”

Rhodes says Maryland’s regulatory framework ensures he stays within strict application limits. The state’s phosphorus usage tool combines soil samples, yield history, location and soil type into an algorithm that dictates what farmers can apply.

“You put your soil samples in, you put your yield goal in, and it spits out what you can put on,” Rhodes says. “If you say your yield goal is 250 bushels but your APH is only 180, that is not how it works. Your APH and your yield goal have to be very similar, or you are not going to get to put on what you want. They are going to tell you what you can put on. Period.”

A New Technology Takes Root

Working under those constraints, Rhodes has become aggressive about testing new technologies that promise better nutrient efficiency and stronger root systems. Not one to be painted into a corner, Rhodes stays open to all ideas of what could work within the state’s mandated parameters. One of those is a biostimuant from NewLeaf Symbiotics.

The product is a non-GMO, naturally occurring bacteria known as PPFMs (Pink-Pigmented Facultative Methylotrophs), often called “M-trophs”. The PPFM-powered biostimulant is designed to improve crop yield, nutrient uptake, and stress tolerance, according to NewLeaf.

In the process of trialing the product, Rhodes shared the technology with XtremeAg, a group of seven farmers across the country who rigorously test new technologies in different environments.

“If we can test a product at multiple locations — a guy from Iowa, a guy from Maryland, a guy down South — and it works across everybody, that is big,” Rhodes says. “It is huge, because what works for me might not work for the guy in the Midwest. It all goes back to soil type and environment.”

Rhodes says what he was looking for from the biostimulant was stress mitigation and nutrient scavenging that can improve his current foundation for the future.

“I need a massive root system that can go out and get more nutrients, because I am limited on how many nutrients I can put on,” he says. “If I build a plant that scavenges more, that is a home run for us.”

Cutting Irrigation And Boosting Biomass

Rhodes farms a mix of acres, with about 25% irrigated and 75% dryland. After the first year of trialing the NewLeaf technology he found he didn’t need to run his irrigation system as frequently.

“The root system and the plant that it makes, I do not have anywhere near the stress,” he says. “When it’s hot and dry we would normally run the irrigation system, but I found I do not need to put on as much water.”

With irrigation costing about $125 per acre, every pass he eliminates adds up to a significant savings.

“If I make 12 passes a year, I can save $10 an acre just by not turning it on one time,” he says.

Beyond water savings, Rhodes estimates he is getting 30% more biomass in the plants.

“We actually cut corn stalks off at the ground and weighed them. We did not even measure the roots — just the plant itself. Thirty percent more biomass than my grower standard practice,” he says.

The biomass offers a payoff for grain production and nutrients for his cattle operation.

“I chop silage, so if I can add 30% more, that is 30% fewer acres I need to chop,” he reports. “It costs me by the acre, so 30% less is massive. And the nutrients in that plant are higher than in my grower standard practice. It all follows each other.”

Learning Curve And Next Steps

While the product delivers more biomass and higher yields, it did create new management challenges. Rhodes discovered the downside of building a much bigger plant on a tight nitrogen budget.

“In my system, I put about 30% of my nitrogen needs down with my strip till. I plant on top of it, everything looks great, it makes this massive system — and then I end up running out of nitrogen later in the season,” he recalls.

He spotted the problem at harvest, with many ears showing considerable tip-back of an inch or two. Rhodes figures the crop just “outran” his nitrogen program. Even so, the fields containing the experimental treatment still out-yielded his standard fields by an average of 11 bushels per acre.

The experience pushed him to rethink nitrogen application timing and total rate.

“I’m pulling some of the front-end nitrogen out and putting it into reproduction, so I do not run out at the end,” he says. “Instead of 0.7 pounds per bushel, maybe I can go to 0.8 or 0.9, maybe even one-to-one, and still be efficient because of what this product is doing.”

The results from the past two years of field testing are strong enough that Rhodes is no longer treating the technology as a small trial.
“We plant about 1,700 acres of corn, so it’s going on every acre of corn,” he says.

On a tightly regulated farm in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Rhodes is betting that bigger roots, smarter fertilizer use and careful experimentation with nutrients will keep his operation profitable — all while staying within the rules.

Farmers Don’t Use AI for Answers — They Use It to Think Better

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:10:22 GMT

What you should know:

To use artificial intelligence in your business for a competitive advantage — not just a gimmick:

Ask better questions than most people
Combine AI with real-world experience
Execute on the answers

For Rachael Sharp, dry weather hasn’t made planting go any easier in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. And when a planter went down, the first thing she did was pull up Chat GPT.

“I pulled up the part number, and I saw that I’d actually entered in there last year. So it told me the date I changed it, and that was helpful, because I was trying to figure out why is this wearing out so quickly?” she says. “We’re in desperate need of rain, and we’re pulling in some pretty hard non-irrigated land right now. I logged that we changed the bearing again, and so next time, knock on wood, it hopefully doesn’t go out again, but if it does I can look and see I changed it twice in the last year.”

That’s just one of many examples of how Sharp is using ChatGPT to manage equipment, her time, and the farm business. She and her father, Don, are featured in an OpenAI commercial, which premiered during the Super Bowl.

And she’s in good company with other farmers in how to use the artificial intelligence platforms.

Marc Arnusch, the 2025 Top Producer of the Year, says ChatGPT is the most used app on his phone.

Jeremy Jack, leader of Silent Shade Planting Company the 2023 Top Producer of the Year, uses AI as his daily management teammate from agronomy and business decisions.

Here are the four ways these farmers use AI every day on the farm.

(Photo: Yvonne Min)

1. Make better decisions faster

Colorado farmer Arnusch uses ChatGPT and Grok to narrow down his consideration set when making decisions.

“It helps on the strategic side of things, and when making a decision, I’ll let it give the top four or five things to choose from, which helps when there’s a million choices,” he says. “It really is like my funnel. I’ll set up my phone on my dashboard and just dictate to it. Then when I’m back at the farm office, my wife Jill is relieved because I’ve already processed out loud with the AI tool.”

While most farms collect data, Jack uses AI to make decisions, particularly agronomic.

“I uploaded multiple years of soil data across our farms,” he says. “And we’ve found ways to manage fertilizer better, for example with sulfur.”

The data interpretation has shifted his thinking by connecting the yield zones with as-applied fertility and return on investment.

Jack is also using the technology to double check every spray application — from rates, to tank mix, to nozzle selection, to pressure optimization.

Sharp has also found AI helpful in managing chemical applications. She can remember chemical boxes marked up with her father’s calculations by hand.

“I tell the prompt what I’m spraying, where I’m spraying, how many acres, tank size, and then I let it tell me what to order,” she says. “Over time, it’s learned which products are liquid and which are dry flowables. And it’s helped me keep track of the inventory we have so we don’t end up with pallets of odds and ends.”

(Photo: OpenAI)

2. Be more efficient

When it comes to where to start with AI, Sharp has one piece of advice.

“Think of the task that you don’t like to do at the end of the day. For me, I didn’t want to do paperwork at the end of the day,” she says. “So I threw it over to ChatGPT, and I said, hey, this is what I planted today, this is the date, and I left it at that. I started really, really simple.”

Now, she’ll record things directly in the field or in the truck. She says it has helped with FSA 578 forms. And in day-to-day operations, she’s found benefits for time management and accuracy in all record keeping.

“We have seed samples that require a handwritten seed form that I turn in along with the sample, but I spoke into my phone and said, hey, Chat GPT, I need you to log that I sent this variety, this lot number, on this date, to the lab. And so, that’s probably one of 15 entries that I’ve made over the course of a month. And at the end when we finally turn in our last sample to the lab, I’ll ask it for a spreadsheet with all that listed,” she says.

(Photo: Sarah Green Photography)

3. Think more clearly about complex problems

Jeremy Jack often asks ChatGPT “What does this mean for my farm?” with current events.

“With the war in Iran, global fertilizer supply chain concerns, and even things like USDA reports, it’s given helpful perspective in how to think about what’s happening off the farm but impacts the farm.”

And he’s found success in using the platform to specifically think about the business strategy for his farm with vendors, including lenders, landowners and more.

4. Manage more professionally

Jack has been active with an advisory board for their farm, but AI has become like a boardroom in his pocket.

“I bounce ideas—pressure test if you will—before it costs me real money,” he says. “This includes input purchases, land agreements, and equipment purchases.”

He’s also come to use it in his external communications about the farm including his regular social media posts on LinkedIn.

When it comes to team management, Arnusch has input culture index results for vendors and employees, then the AI compares their individual characteristics with the job they are being asked to do.

“This has been a breakthrough,” he says. “It’s shown me that at no fault of their own, why some people fail at what they are being asked to do. It wasn’t because they weren’t working hard or doing the job. It was stretching them beyond what they can do.”

He gives the example of a farm foreman position on the farm, and how he used this process to match the candidate with the role.

(Sarah Green Photography)

Cut Through The Biological Noise To Find Real ROI

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:05:02 GMT

Biologicals are booming across the agricultural landscape, propelled by a surge of new products and high-octane promises. Yet, when the invoice arrives, farmers are often left with this nagging question: Did I actually need that?

University of Illinois field researcher and assistant professor Connor Sible is on a mission to provide clarity. Drawing on a decade-plus of in-field study in corn and soybean systems, Sible offers a farmer-first filter to cut through the marketing noise. His research is helping growers determine where these tools offer a reliable return on investment — and where they fall flat.

“Start with your agronomy, then decide if a biological adds value on top,” he advises. “They’re not a shortcut around good fundamentals.”

One of the key reasons why farmers struggle to cut through the noise and identify which biological products will work for them results from the shear number of biological products in the marketplace. Another challenge is what this class of products is called. Academia and regulators use the term biostimulants. Ag media, companies and most farmers increasingly use the broader term biologicals.

The 2025 crop biostimulant list was capped at 450 companies. Sible notes that most companies offer multiple products, so if the chart were redrawn by product labels instead of company logos, it would “get out of control pretty quickly.” In his own review of just row-crop (corn, wheat, soy) products, he examined 155 products and found 139 unique microbial species used as active ingredients.

(Connor Sible Presentation)

The Baseline: Deliver on Fundamentals

For all the excitement surrounding biologicals, Sible encourages farmers to focus on unglamorous agronomic foundations first. He describes biologicals as next-step inputs; they can sharpen a high-performing cropping system, but they will not rescue one built on outdated practices.

“I do not know of a biostimulant or biological today that will fix your pH,” Sible says. “If you’ve got a soil pH issue, fix that first. Same with drainage, and same with using the same hybrid you’ve used for six years just because it’s still available.”

The Logistics: Is it Dead or Alive?

Once the fundamentals are solid, Sible says a practical next step is to consider whether a product is living or non-living.

Beneficial microbes — such as nitrogen-fixers, phosphorus-solubilizers, residue degraders, and many seed-applied inoculants — are alive. Many biostimulants — including humic and fulvic acids, certain enzymes, and kelp- or marine-based formulations — are not.

That distinction isn’t just academic; it determines whether a product has any chance of working by the time it reaches your field.

“If you’re buying something living, you’re buying a responsibility,” Sible says. “You have to keep it alive from delivery to application.”

He urges farmers to evaluate their shop conditions: Can you provide temperature stability? Is the product sitting against an uninsulated exterior wall? If the logistics of babysitting a living organism do not fit your management style, Sible suggests using only non-living biostimulants.

Nutrient Efficiency: Boosting Nitrogen

Few biological categories have generated as much buzz as nitrogen fixers. Sible’s work suggests they can play a role — but not the one many farmers might first imagine.

For a typical corn crop, about half the nitrogen comes from applied fertilizer and about half from soil organic matter and mineralization.

Biological N fixers are best thought of as a third source of nitrogen, he says, helping to cover shortfalls when fertilizer is lost or tied up, or soil mineralization doesn’t keep pace with crop demand.

From his data on a 230-bushel corn crop, the key number is 7 pounds of nitrogen per acre per day. That’s how much the plant must take up every day for about three weeks at peak demand. At 300 bushels, that jumps to around 9 pounds per acre per day. One of the questions farmers need to ask their retailer on a nitrogen-fixing biological they’re considering is, how much will it help provide during the key periods of demand?

Corn requires significant amounts of nitrogen during key growth stages to deliver a 230-bushel corn crop. The demand makes it hugely challenging for a biological to deliver sufficient N as a standalone product.

(Connor Sible)

Sible makes two critical points:

Don’t cut N and expect a biological to fully replace it.
When growers drop early-season nitrogen in hopes that microbes will fill the gap, his team often sees corn respond by reducing kernel set. The yield ceiling falls before the biological has time to colonize and contribute.
Placement and mode of action matter.
Products marketed as N fixers don’t all work the same way. Some colonize roots externally, some live inside the plant as endophytes, and some may enhance N assimilation rather than truly fixing atmospheric N. That affects:
- Whether they’re best applied in-furrow, on-seed or foliar.
- What they can be tank-mixed with.
- When they’ll begin supplying nitrogen.

Farmers trialing N-fixing products this season should treat them as insurance or a supplement and not a license to slash N rates across the board, Sible advises.

Phosphorus-Solubilizing Microbes

Soils often hold a high volume of total phosphorus, but much of it is locked in forms plants cannot access. Certain microbes can free up this nutrient by secreting weak organic acids that chelate soil cations away from phosphate.

In field trials, the most consistent benefits occurred when microbes were supplied in-furrow or very near the roots and applied alongside phosphorus fertilizer. Using “difference methods” to track uptake, Sible reports that baseline efficiencies often sat between 4% and 7%. With a P-solubilizing product, that jumped to the 7% to 11% range in some environments.

“It’s still not great, but it nearly doubled our efficiency in some environments,” he says. However, he cautions that cutting fertilizer back significantly and expecting microbes to “mine” the difference is not a reliable strategy.

The Carbon Battle: Residue Management

Residue degradation is where Sible sees some of the strongest opportunities for biologicals, especially in high-yield or no-till systems.

Every 10 bushels of corn adds about 440 pounds of residue; over a decade, a yield gain of 25 bushels can mean an extra half-ton of residue per acre.

The challenge is the high carbon-to-sulfur ratio in corn stalks, which ties up nutrients. Sible’s research has found that biological degraders are inconsistent on their own but show significant synergy when paired with nitrogen and sulfur.

“If you’re going to use these, understand they’re fighting an uphill battle against carbon,” Sible says.

He also stresses application timing: “Spray on cloudy days or in the evening to take advantage of overnight dew. You have to set the product up to succeed.”

Carbon and Humic Products

When evaluating humic acids and molasses-type products (sugar), Sible notes a clear divide between crops. In soybeans, results have been largely inconsistent. In corn, however, in-furrow carbon and humic products produced small but consistent yield gains that held up under economic analysis.

Sible attributes this to crop physiology. Corn makes major yield decisions twice: during early vegetative stages (kernel potential) and at pollination (kernel retention). Supporting the plant during these specific windows has offered a measurable response.

Soybeans, by contrast, adjust yield daily from flowering through seed fill, making them a much harder target for a single application of a biostimulant.

Stress-Mitigating Products

Sible sees value in some stress-mitigating products — often kelp or marine extracts — that claim to help crops tolerate drought, heat or other abiotic stress. He notes these materials are often rich in metabolites that help plants survive extreme fluctuations in temperature, moisture and salinity.

When applied to crop leaves, these materials can trigger stress-defense pathways.But they only work if they’re applied before the stress hits.

“You have to be proactive, not reactive,” Sible says. “If the corn is already curled or the soybean leaves are flipped over, it’s too late for these products to do much.”

He tells farmers to watch their 7- to 10-day forecasts and time applications ahead of expected heat waves or dry spells, adding that these products are ineffective as rescue treatments.

From Products to Purpose

Across all categories of biological products, Sible’s advice remains the same: define your “why.” If a product doesn’t clearly fit a specific goal — such as improving N efficiency at peak uptake or accelerating residue breakdown — it may not be worth the investment.

“There are some really exciting tools out there,” Sible says. “But the value comes when you use them precisely, not when you expect them to fix everything.”

As farmers evaluate biological products, Sible notes there are about 10 frequently used types of “active ingredients” that are better-understood, likely credible and worth evaluating. They include:

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
Bacillus subtilis
Bradyrhizobium spp. (classic soybean inoculant – “the original biological”)
Azospirillum spp.
Trichoderma spp.
Azotobacter spp.
Several other Bacillus and related species are in the top-10 list, as well.

Sible’s framing of these for farmers’ consideration:
If a new product contains one or more of these top 10 species, it “fits the larger narrative of this market.”
If it has something totally different, it might be:
— a random/unproven one-off, or
— truly novel and promising – but in that case he suggests being more cautious and asking more questions.

How Growmark’s New AI Agronomy Agent Turns Data Overload into Field-Level Wins

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:21:16 GMT

“When we look at who we need to be for our farmer customers in 2035, technology has to be at the core,” says Brendan Bachman, FS agronomy director. “I don’t think we see it as an option. We have to embrace technology for who we need to become in the next 10 years.”

As such, Growmark is embedding AI into the myFS Agronomy platform. The “AI Agronomy Agent” is a specialized tool built on the Anthropic Claude model, customized with Growmark’s proprietary data and Intelinair’s interface.

The Data Inflection Point

Agriculture has moved from a lack of data to “paralysis by analysis.” Growmark is acting now to turn decades of raw data into “decision aids” to manage risk and associate value.

The AI Agronomy Agent is designed to act as a digital assistant for the crop specialist, and will be exclusively available to FS crop specialists for 2026.

“It doesn’t take out the art of agronomy. Because it allows the FS crop specialists to create their own ecosystem of tools and technology to apply the agronomic recommendations that they’ve seen justified,” Bachman says. “And we’re training our team to be cautionary about just taking what the AI tools as the gospel and applying that to a farmer’s field without any critical thought process from a professional agronomic lens.”

The technology supports, rather than replaces, human expertise.

Speed to Insight

The “why” is driven by efficiency. Processes that previously took hours or days of manual data cleaning now take minutes, allowing agronomists to spend more time on strategy and less on spreadsheets. The AI tool uses planting, weather, environmental models, as-applied information, in-season crop insights, yield information, soil test information, as well as many different source materials on management practices.

Benefits from the tool include:

Automated Decision Insights.
The AI replaces the need for “hard-coded” software. For example, it can recreate the “FS Profit Maximizer” break-even analysis on the fly in minutes using real-time data.
Gap Analysis & Hybrid Positioning
The tool uses millions of acres of spatial data to perform “gap analysis"—showing farmers not just what performed best on their farm, but which hybrids in the region would have outperformed their current top choices by 10+ bushels.

(Growmark)

This AI announced is on the heels of the app’s Yield Estimation Tool, which can help predict yield within 5% at the field level yield in July-August and was also the result of a partnership with Intelinair. Bachman says the team has seen great benefits provided to farmers with that tool because it gives farmers another month or two-and-a-half months in their marketing strategy based on its yield prediction on their total production.

(Growmark)

Viewing 2035 As the Goal

The MyFS Agronomy app was launched two years ago with now 98% of FS companies using the platform and more than 5,000 users.

To remain relevant to the next generation of farmers, Growmark believes they must “disrupt themselves” today to build the technology-core required for 2035.

“As I look forward, what excites me the most is for people to really start to embrace the change because we are at a point of inflection, and how we have historically done agronomy is not going to change. Good agronomy is always going to be good agronomy. But what data we use to inform the right decision on that farming acre, just got accelerated,” Bachman says. “And it’s no longer about hard-coding features and functionalities, it’s about feeding the AI the model and asking the question, and having it bring about the value outputs that matter to the individual user.”

Bachman says the team at Growmark believes in their tech-forward strategy not as an optional add-on, but as a fundamental requirement for the future of the cooperative system. And for the 2026 season, this advanced AI functionality is being included at no additional cost to FS member companies, framed as a “progressionary add” or standard upgrade to their existing cooperative technology suite.

‘Farmville for Real:’ How Autonomous Tech is Rebranding Tractor Drivers as Digital Operators

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:30:13 GMT

For George Grote, a typical day doesn’t involve a steering wheel or a dusty cab; instead, it looks like he’s glued to his phone or tablet. From the climate-controlled comfort of a pickup or while strolling between the crop rows, Grote monitors a fleet of autonomous tractors as they navigate with precision. It’s a scene that Agtonomy CEO Tim Bucher calls “Farmville for real,” where gripping the steering wheel is being replaced by the quick-twitch reflexes of the gaming generation.

As the agricultural industry grapples with a deepening labor crisis and an aging workforce, companies such as Agtonomy are betting that high-tech autonomy is the key to recruiting Gen Z. By rebranding traditional tractor driving as “digital operation,” the California-based startup is leveraging app-based interfaces to transform farming into a tech career.

Raised on a dairy farm, Bucher coupled his love of agriculture and machinery with a career in the tech field to create the prototype that would become the company’s first autonomous tractor. Today, as a farm owner and father of three, Bucher says it’s not likely his children will return to the farm. With this technology, he hopes to attract the next generation to his farm and the industry.

“The younger generation doesn’t want to be in the dirt and the dust because there are other opportunities for them,” he says.

(Photo provided by George Grote)

The Gaming Advantage: Why “Fast Hands” Matter in the Field

Grote, a 30-year-old field engineer with Agtonomy, does not have a farming background, but he always knew he wanted to work outdoors. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a degree in crop and fruit science and now works alongside Agtonomy customers. He says being able to process information on a screen while being fast with his hands is something he picked up from gaming.

“I can tell you [gaming] 100% helped me, being able to toggle between different features in the app and being quick with technology,” Grote says. “If you can play a video game, then you’re more than capable of running five, six, seven or eight tractors at once while sitting in your truck and watching them run autonomously.”

8.14.25_agtonomy-102

(Agtonomy)

Marc Di Pietra, regional service maintenance manager for Treasury Wine Estates , says the cutting-edge technology can help bridge the labor gap, provide upskilling opportunities and reduce physical demands.

“New technologies are making it incredibly dynamic and attractive for younger generations,” Di Pietra says. “With a younger workforce, I expect that evolution to accelerate. There’s a natural comfort with technology, and a willingness to challenge legacy processes, which is critical.”

Adding this technology has been game changing in the wine business, De Pietra says, and it can shape the rest of the agricultural industry as well.

“These technologies allow us to be more precise with our farming, winemaking techniques and sustainability efforts, effectively creating safer environments for our employees, reducing our emissions and producing better quality wines,” he explains.

Agtonomy_George Grote

(Agtonomy)

How Agtonomy Works

At this point, Agtonomy is being used on fruit and nut tree, grapevine, avocado and citrus operations. The company works with Bobcat , specifically the Doosan Bobcat CT 4045, for more versatile utility and maintenance tasks, and Kubota to automate narrow-track diesel tractors, such as the Kubota M5N series.

Agtonomy’s software is embedded into a tractor’s OEM control system at the factory. Outfitted with the technology, the machine can autonomously handle repetitive tasks, such as mowing, spraying and seeding. Using cameras and sensors, tractors can “see” their surroundings, allowing them to navigate rows and avoid obstacles. Sensors and data links also ensure that sprayers or mowers are working at the correct intensity and height. When an issue occurs, a notification is sent to a smartphone and/or tablet, complete with details to help the tractor decide what to do when it deviates from the original instructions.

Defend Every Bushel With A Proactive Disease Plan

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 17:36:22 GMT

Addressing corn disease pressure in-season is rarely a matter of “if” and more likely “when.” Coming off heavy disease pressure from 2025, now is the time to put your plan together for how you’ll address challenges like northern corn leaf blight, tar spot and others this season. Plan your moves with these five recommendations, so you are ready to take action when disease pressure hits:

1. Use A Proactive Scouting Plan.

Success begins with staying ahead of disease, according to high-yield corn grower David Hula. “You have to stay proactive with your scouting and willing to go with earlier fungicide or even multiple applications, depending on what shows up,” he says.

While planning, consider the following:

1. Know your potential threats. Depending on the disease, some pathogens survive the winter on previously infected crop residue (e.g., northern corn leaf blight, tar spot). Other diseases move into northern growing areas on winds from southern locations (e.g., southern corn rust). For a suitable environment, many foliar diseases need warm, humid, and wet conditions to propagate.

2. Have your budget in place. Be ready for at least one in-season fungicide application. Use tools like the Newly Designed Fungicide ROI Calculators to guide your investment in products and applications. By inputting costs, market prices, and disease severity, these calculators provide research-based estimates of net benefits and breakeven probabilities, helping you make a more informed decision.

3. Delegate the scouting job, if necessary. If you cannot scout personally, assign the task to a family member, employee, or employ a professional service.

“Lots of great pest managers work in retail,” says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. “Their success depends on you being successful also.”

2. Leverage Friends, Neighbors And Industry Expertise.

Don’t monitor disease pressure in a vacuum. Stay informed about what’s moving into your neighbors’ fields; track regional pressure by tapping into local agronomists and organizations like the Crop Protection Network.

Randy Dowdy, Hula’s partner in Total Acre, notes that in the Southeast, farmers are constantly receiving feedback from Extension and industry experts regarding southern rust.

Similarly, Elliott Henderson, who farms in Buchanan County, Iowa, has a group of farmers there that he connects with on a regular basis during the growing season.

“It’s a network of dozens of us farmers that call each other, bounce ideas off each other,” he says. “The things we’re talking about are often time-sensitive. It can be a daily thing.”

3. Select The Right Chemistry.

Applying the wrong product in the heat of battle with disease pressure is a common mistake. For aggressive diseases like tar spot or southern rust, Farm Journal Field Agronomist Missy Bauer recommends using “Cadillac” type chemistries — newer technologies that feature multiple modes of action.

To ensure you are using the right tool:

Consult Your Experts. Use the Crop Protection Network’s Fungicide Efficacy tables to see which products perform best against specific diseases.
Match Product to Problem. Ensure the product is labeled for your specific issue and is capable of handling high-pressure scenarios.

4. Optimize Applications for Maximum ROI.

If you need to apply a fungicide, make sure it delivers the results you need.

“It’s all about coverage,” Dowdy says. “Drone applications can be fine, but no matter what you do, if a guy is spraying two to three gallons, and you compare it to a ground rig spraying 15 to 25 gallons, I mean, there’s just no comparison in that coverage.”

Another aspect of coverage, Hula adds, is making sure the fungicide gets into the plant canopy far enough to have the desired effect. That becomes even more critical as the season advances.

“Fungicides have a tendency to work from the leaf they’ve come in contact with and move up,” Hula says. “So, if you’re trying to protect at least that ear leaf – and I like to protect the leaf opposite and below the ear – you’ve got to get penetration with that product.”

Hula says growers might have to spend a couple extra dollars to get sufficient volume for the product to get down below the canopy, if using a drone for application.

“If that’s what needs to be done, let’s do it,” he encourages. “If I’m spending $30 or more an acre, then I want to at least have the success that I’m paying for.”

5. Commit To Protecting Corn Through The Entire Season.

Modern corn genetics have significant “back-end” potential, enabling them to add yield through kernel fill late into the season. Hula and Dowdy advise against walking away from the crop early. They say evaluating fungicide applications during later reproductive stages can often yield a high return on investment.

D hybrids are of particular concern late-season, Ferrie says. These are hybrids that have kernel depth changes, positive or negative, based on populations and environmental conditions during the last 30 days of grain fill.

Missy Bauer, Farm Journal Field Agronomist in Michigan, zeros in on corn growth stage to guide uber-late-season fungicide applications.

“If I had a field that has no fungicide at all on it, and I had fairly heavy disease pressure from something like southern rust or tar spot, and I’m at early R4, I would still apply the fungicide,” she recommends.

End the Software Shuffle: How Razor Tracking is Driving Retail Efficiency

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:45:04 GMT

For ag retailers, time is the most valuable commodity. The recent integration between Razor Tracking and Agvance Dispatch is designed to give that time back by eliminating the “software shuffle.”

The Bottom Line: Efficiency Equals Dollars

In the heat of the season, every minute counts.

“Every bit of efficiency you can build, every time you can turn around anhydrous tank, every time you can get a new tender truck out with fertilizer quicker, that’s dollars to the bottom line,” says Eric Mauch with Razor Tracking.

By merging visibility of accounting, customer records, and fleet tracking into a single interface, retailers can:

Turn assets faster: Get anhydrous tanks and fertilizer trucks back in the field with less downtime.
Reduce “Tab Fatigue": Eliminate the need to jump between different programs to track an order versus a vehicle.

“We’ve had larger customers ask for this and so far the feedback has been fantastic,” Mauch says.

Key Takeaways for Your Team

Customized Views by Role: Your team sees only what they need. An order prepper stays in the Agvance screen, while a safety manager monitors the fleet in Razor Tracking—yet they are both looking at the same synchronized data.
A “Moat” of Alignment: Since 2020, Razor Tracking has moved away from closed systems. By partnering with John Deere, CNH, and now Agvance, they are creating a connected ecosystem rather than a digital silo.
AI-Driven Innovation: Razor Tracking is using AI to assist development times, reduce feature completion times and simplify the direct customer feedback to meet their needs faster.

“As a business we are looking to serve the needs of existing and new customers. One way to do that is give them new reasons and showing a quick evolution in how we can take a customer request to a delivered product,” Mauch says.

The “So What?”

This isn’t just a software update; it’s a strategy for scalability. As software development moves 10x faster, retailers who adopt these integrated platforms will be able to respond to market demands and customer needs far quicker than those stuck using disconnected legacy systems.

Cultivating Trust: How the Agriculture Industry is Bridging the AI Adoption Gap

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:13:55 GMT

For California farmer Joe Del Bosque artificial intelligence was once a foreign concept. Today, he uses AI for autonomous weed control and water management.

According to McKinsey & Company analysis , AI can create economic value by improving labor and input costs as well as yield to the tune of $100 billion and by increasing sales and productivity by as much as $150 billion across the agriculture industry. However, most farmers continue to approach AI with a mixture of cautious optimism and skepticism.

“We have increasing costs all the time, we have challenges with pests and with the climate, so we’re looking for AI to help us,” says Del Bosque, who grows cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew and Galia melons on 2,000 acres.

It’s crucial for farmers and technology companies to come together to find solutions for some of agriculture’s most pressing concerns with AI, he adds.

Building Trust Through In-Field Results

In her work as chief product officer for Avalo, Inc , a crop development company creating climate-resilient crops, Rebecca White recognizes the investment price tag for technology is a significant barrier for producers. For example, autonomous and robotic systems can cost hundreds of thousands to a million dollars per unit, she says.

That financial scope can heighten caution around new technology – a point addressed at the recent World Agri-Tech event. As industry leaders emphasize, for trust to form, the technology must first prove its reliability in the field.

Bridging the Gap Between Data and Action

AI requires data – and lots of it. The council for Agricultural Science and Technology explains data is, “commonly fragmented, distributed, heterogeneous and incompatible,” which makes it challenging to use in a way that can be readily analyzed with AI.

The real value in data lies in how it’s returned to the producer, says Ryan Gilbert, a consultant with Deep Root Strategies LLC , a company that drives innovation in agriculture through adopting new forms of technology.

“The foundation [of success] is the data being generated by the companies selling the products and how they deliver that data to farmers to be able to use” Gilbert says. “The question is: What can AI do to actually increase the quality of the information and deliver it when the farmer wants it and in the format they want to achieve the outcomes they need to remain profitable?”

Unlocking AI’s Potential Through Teamwork

The next generation could play a role in building trust. At the Center for Digital Agriculture at the University of Illinois , Jessica Wedow says students are working on several projects that connect AI and agriculture. She says having one foot in each discipline could help form a stronger sense of trust.

If you’re able to involve students who have an understanding of the problems in agriculture and the need for the end users – the farmers and the growers – when building AI-enabled tools that’s a win-win, Wedow explains.

Fredy Diaz, deputy chief data officer for USDA, also believes collaboration, sharing research and insights, will strengthen the role of AI on the farm.

“It is all about teamwork; we’re really big on a partnership between government, industry and academia. It’s something we practice almost every day in my office,” Diaz says.

For example, USDA is working with students from various universities and Amazon Web Services to create technology that solves problems in real-world agriculture.

Making the Invisible Seen: How Artificial Intelligence is Unmasking Soybean Nematodes

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:21:03 GMT

Nematodes are nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, but their impact on soybean yields is about to come into clear focus. Thanks to a new digital tool from Syngenta called Nema Digital, the invisible is becoming visible.

The technology uses satellite imagery and artificial intelligence (AI) to scan soybean fields for crop stress that mimics nematode damage. According to Kirt L. Durand, PhD, Syngenta digital ag solutions R&D manager, the goal is to bridge the gap between what a farmer sees and what is actually happening in crops beneath the soil surface.

“Farmers might not even know that they’re losing yield due to this microscopic pest, and that’s what this technology is really all about – providing awareness,” he says.

How the Algorithm “Thinks”

Nema Digital is a satellite-based algorithm trained to distinguish nematode pressure from other common crop-production headaches like nutrient deficiencies, soil compaction, or simple field anomalies. By analyzing multiple years of historical satellite data, the system searches for specific patterns that match known nematode behavior and damage.

For farmers and retailers, the process is designed to be hands-off. Syngenta only needs basic information—field boundaries and crop history—much of which is already automated for those using the Syngenta Cropwise platform.

“Really, most of this is very automated at this point, very little input required from the farmer,” Durand says.

Once the data is incorporated, the AI filters out any visual noise.

“When we get done, it narrows it down and says, with high accuracy 90% of the time, this is going to be a problem caused by nematodes,” Durand says.

The Limits of the Soil Probe

While traditional soil sampling has been the standard tool to check for nematodes, Durand notes research shows how easy for a sample to miss them.

He points to research from Iowa State University nematologist Greg Tylka, which shows that nematode egg counts can vary wildly just a few feet apart. You could pull a core sample that looks clean, while two feet away, thousands of eggs are feeding on your profits.

“You can imagine that if you’ve been looking for nematodes simply by soil sampling, it’s not accurate enough,” Durand says.

Protecting the Bottom Line

The financial stakes of nematode pressure are high. Research from The SCN Coalition indicates that nematodes commonly cause a 25% yield loss in infected soybean fields, but in severe cases—or when multiple species like root-knot and soybean cyst nematode (SCN) team up—that loss can skyrocket past 70%.

“When you have multiple species of nematode present, the impact on soybeans tends to be even more severe than just SCN alone,” Durand says.

One way Durand says farmers and retailers will be able visualize that impact is to pair Nema Digital results with yield maps. By overlaying the nematode output on harvested yield, Durand says growers and retailers often can see a clear connection between areas flagged for nematode pressure and zones of lower yield.

“You can actually see in the field where we identify that you have a nematode problem, and if you put a yield map on it, we’ve seen that those areas tend to have lower yields versus the average yield for that entire field,” he says.

Commercial Launch In 2027

While Nema Digital is being piloted through select retail partners and their farmer customers in 2026, Syngenta expects a broad commercial launch next year.

For soybean growers wondering about the return on investment for the technology, Durand stops short of assigning a specific dollar figure. But he stresses that identifying nematode pressure is the first step to protecting yield with available tools, including Syngenta’s new broad-spectrum nematicide seed treatment, Victrato.

Ultimately, Durand’s message to growers is simple: don’t confuse “invisible” with “absent.”

“The issue is out there,” he says. “We want to help farmers be aware of it and what they’re losing.”

Beating Decision Fatigue: 3 Practical Applications for AI in Ag Retail

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:11:43 GMT

With stressed margins and an overwhelming amount of data, ag retail managers are looking for clarity. Ever.Ag’s Ben Sloan explains how to turn AI into a tool for protecting margins, reducing shrink, and driving real-world ROI.

“There’s so much coming at us. How do we know what the trusted partner or the best solution that’s part of that,” says Ben Sloan at Ever.Ag. “And there’s an opportunity to identify our biggest problems right now, and then which can be solved right now with AI.”

Sloan says the artificial intelligence (AI) tools are available, but first, the most important step in getting started is making sure businesses are asking the right questions—that’s what leads to the right answers. Here are some examples.

3 areas in the ag retail business where AI can be applied:

Showcase and share knowledge
Automate work
Identify gaps in the business

Spread Tribal Knowledge, Strengthen Teams

“I often hear, ‘John’s our guy at this location who takes care of us,’” Sloan says. “There’s immense benefits to share that tribal knowledge programmatically via these tools.”
As an example, new team members can use AI agents to upskill their knowledge faster. This helps flush out unwritten practices or insider, generational know-how.

A requirement to get there is capturing daily interactions of your team every day. This provides the repository to train the AI on and then build from.

Do More Value-Driven Work, Faster

“AI can automate the components of grunt work, or busy work, that is really about leveraging efficiency,” Sloan says. “It creates more capacity on a per-person basis because you can automate components.”

He adds Ever.Ag is promoting it’s retail customers keep humans ‘in the loop’ for now as they build these systems to ensure accuracy and is encouraging a crawl, walk, run approach.

Where You’re Missing Opportunities

With a handful of examples, Sloan says identifying gaps in the business and helping retailers address those is giving real-world ROI on investments in AI.

One is through an Inventory Insights product built for Merchant Ag ERP currently being piloted by five ag retail businesses.

“We looked at the problem of shrink, and if a standard U.S. business would have a shrink of 1-2% a year, if you’re a $100 million business, 1% shrink is $1 million. There’s a lot of juice to squeeze here as a result,” Sloan. “So we singularly apply an agent toward it,broke it down into three discrete problems, and then chained all those agents together to create a workflow for the user.”

This includes:

Demand forecasting
In-season management
Post-season inventories/end of season balances

“We can give the right insight for the type of problem we’re looking to build upon with a timeline for those items. So based on what you did in-season, it maybe changes the demand forecasting,” he says. “It’s how can we curate the right data based on the context to get to the agent to deliver an insight.”

That’s one example of how AI agents are informing workflows and giving customers actionable insights.

Another example is in Roger, Ever.Ag’s agribusiness logistics software. With repeatability in loads from week to week, AI can help simplify workloads by automating dispatches set to be confirmed by the human staff member.

“Just as simple as creating copies, it’s a 4x to 5x reduction in the time it takes to do the same task in the workflow,” he says.

For agronomics, Ever.Ag’s FieldAlytics is deploying AI to give prompts, apply standards, and output insights. And customers who use multiple Ever.Ag products can layer those applications.
“Take FieldAlytics and Merchant Ag, there’s new insights that we can generate because we can connect those two datasets for that customer if the appropriate permissions are defined,” Sloan says. “I very much believe in the capabilities that Agentic tools are presenting themselves near term.”

AI Provides Unique Insights to Individual Businesses

Building on the adage that “when you’ve seen one co-op, you’ve seen one co-op,” Sloan says it’s powerful when a retail business applies its own data in these case studies and applications of the tools available.

“Everyone is delivering fertilizer, selling seed, applying things, but we all do it just a little bit differently. And I believe integrating both the work aspect, but then the customer’s own internal SOPs will really bring value to the customer base,” he says.

How to Use AI for More Results and Less Busywork

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 15:01:07 GMT

Most leaders don’t have a time problem. They have a throughput problem.

And in ag retail, throughput isn’t just paperwork. It’s quoting, planning, advising, documenting, staffing, dispatching, explaining, following up and reconciling, while your customers are trying to farm smarter with tighter labor, tighter margins and higher expectations for speed and precision.

That’s why smart farming isn’t only about sensors, imagery and variable-rate scripts. It’s also about smart work, how quickly your retail team can turn data into decisions — and decisions into action.

Here’s a provocative thought: If you want to double white-collar productivity, you must IDEA 70% of your workflow. The same logic behind compounding in finance applies here: Real gains don’t come from heroics; they come from a repeatable operating system that moves work through your organization without dropped balls, confusion or rework.

And today, the “A” in IDEA, Automate, has a new horsepower behind it: artificial intelligence.

AI isn’t replacing agronomists, ops managers or account reps. It’s replacing the busywork that steals their best hours, drafting, summarizing, searching, reformatting, re-explaining, re-creating and re-keying. Done well, AI becomes the second set of hands every stretched team wishes they had. That’s a big deal for ag retail, and it’s why now is the time to embrace it.

The IDEA System (Now Supercharged by AI)

IDEA provides a simple operating system for leverage:

Innovate — improve the method
Delegate — move ownership to the right person
Eliminate — stop doing low-value work
Automate — let systems do repeatable tasks

Delegation is the hinge. Done right, it creates leverage. Done wrong, it creates delegation debt, which is your future self paying for today’s vagueness.

AI helps in a surprising way: It makes delegation clearer, faster and more consistent, because it can turn fuzzy thoughts into written outcomes, checklists, drafts and definition-of-done language in minutes.

The IDEA Delegation System (Simple. Written. Repeatable.)

Step 0: Run the Drucker Filter (60 seconds)

Before you delegate anything, ask:

What result am I responsible for? (not tasks, results)
Is this the highest-value use of my time?
Who is closest to the work and can own the outcome?

Where AI fits: Use it as a clarity engine. If you can’t state the outcome crisply, you can’t delegate it cleanly. Try prompts like: “Turn this goal into a clear outcome, definition of done, constraints and a three-step plan.” The value isn’t cool tech. The value is speed to clarity, and speed matters when customers want answers now.

Step 1: Delegate in writing (clarity beats charisma)

In a short message, include the outcome, why it matters, definition of done, constraints, due date, an interim check-in and authority level (decide/recommend/execute with approval). This prevents the No. 1 delegation failure: The leader thinks they delegated a result, but the teammate heard a vague suggestion.

Where AI fits: AI turns “tribal knowledge” into repeatable instructions. It can convert a customer call recap into a clean follow-up email and next steps, turn a product program into a one-page cheat sheet or generate consistent field-visit summaries across reps. That’s how you scale communication quality, not just volume.

Step 2: Confirm understanding verbally (tone tells the truth)

A two- to five-minute check-in saves a week of rework. Ask: “Tell me what success looks like,” “What could block you?” and “Confirm your first step.”

Where AI fits: Generate a fast alignment brief for the check-in — “List the top risks, missing inputs and decisions needed.” AI helps managers manage better, not just faster.

Step 3: Follow up before the due date (support plus subtle reminder)

Put a short check-in on the calendar before the deadline. Best question: “Any roadblocks? Do you need resources, access or a decision?” Then request a “progress artifact” (draft, outline, screenshot, three bullets). This removes friction (the real bottleneck) and brings the task back to top of mind without nagging.

Where AI fits: AI turns raw progress into usable artifacts, customer-ready summaries, pros/cons options or readable narratives from scattered inputs. Smart farming creates more data; data only matters when it becomes decisions.

Step 4: Reward completion (make wins visible)

Delegation scales when people feel ownership and appreciation. Offer public praise for outcomes, private thanks for effort and judgment and a quick “what worked/what to improve.”

Where AI fits: Capture the learning. Ask AI to create a short SOP from what you just did, steps, templates and common pitfalls. That’s institutional memory, and it stops you from reinventing the wheel every season.

Why Ag Retail Should Embrace AI Now

Smart farming is accelerating, and ag retail sits in the middle of the action, between products, practices, performance and proof. AI is a practical answer since it can:

compress cycle time (faster quotes, faster follow-ups, faster internal handoffs).
raise consistency (standardized communication, documentation, customer messaging).
expand capacity without immediately expanding headcount (workforce augmentation).

The organizations that win with AI will be the ones who build a simple operating system for how workflows, IDEA, then plug AI into the repeatable parts.

A Practical 90-Day AI Pilot for Ag Retail

If you want traction fast, don’t start with “AI strategy.” Start with three workflows that are high-volume, repeatable and annoying:

Customer communication: call recap → clean email → next steps → CRM note
Internal alignment: meeting notes → action list → owners → due dates → follow-up prompts
Agronomy/ops documents: program summary → one-page SOP → talk track → customer FAQ

Two rules: human-in-the-loop (AI drafts; your people decide) and data discipline (don’t paste sensitive customer data into unapproved tools).

The Payoff

In a smart-farming world, ag retail’s edge will come from speed, clarity and execution, not just products on a truck. AI is now the most practical lever to increase that edge, because it helps good teams act like great teams.

Heroes burn out. Systems scale. And the smartest systems are learning to work with AI.

Mark Faust (513-621-8000, mark@em1990.com) works with owners, CEOs and sales managers who want to grow their businesses. You can schedule a free profit improvement session with Mark by visiting calendly.com/markfaust . Read more ideas from him here .

Why One California Farmer is Betting Big on Algae for Fertility

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 18:33:48 GMT

Rows of citrus trees stretch across the landscape under the California sun, their canopies forming neat green corridors between irrigation lines and tractor paths. Some trees are newly trimmed, others older and thicker from years of growth. It’s the kind of orchard scene that has long defined agriculture in this part of the state, where permanent crops dominate the landscape and generations of farmers have worked to coax productivity from difficult soils and an increasingly unpredictable water supply.

For fifth-generation farmer Justin Wylie , these groves are more than just another orchard to manage. They represent an opportunity to rethink how soil works on his farm and whether biology — specifically algae — can play a larger role in the future of California agriculture.

Wylie and his family farm roughly 4,000 acres across California’s Central Valley. Some of that land has been in the family for generations, while other acres are leased. Like many farms in the region, the operation produces permanent crops such as pistachios and citrus, commodities that require long-term planning and careful soil management.

“This is a long-term lease with an investment company partner,” Wylie says. “And we just entered into that lease last year. It’s a 15-year lease with a five-year extension.”

One of the ranches he’s currently working to improve came through a recent leasing agreement that gives the family time to invest in the land and experiment with new approaches. That time horizon matters. With permanent crops like oranges, orchard decisions can affect productivity for decades. The trees must be pruned, fertilized and irrigated carefully year after year, and the soil beneath them has to remain functional through increasingly hot and dry growing seasons.

When Wylie’s team first took over the ranch, some improvements were necessary before any new ideas could be tested.

“We were really lucky on this ranch,” Wylie says. “The previous guys, they did let some of the trees get overgrown, so we did have to come in and push a hedge and top and resize those trees.”

While the orchard needed structural work above ground, Wylie says the bigger opportunity lies beneath the surface. The ranch is now part of a broader effort on the farm to transition a portion of the acres toward organic and regenerative systems.

“For the majority of the ranch, as far as fertility, the soils, the condition of the ranch,” he says, “I think the big thing with this ranch is transitioning from a conventional model to an organic regenerative, which is part of our commitment in the lease. It’s part of the model of the lease here — that we transition the ranch from conventional to certified organic and regenerative.”

The transition is happening gradually. Wylie says roughly 25% of the farm’s acres are currently part of that shift, allowing the family to experiment with new soil-building practices without risking the entire operation.

But the push to explore regenerative systems didn’t begin with markets or policy. It started with a deeply personal experience.

A Personal Connection to Soil Health

Wylie says his interest in soil biology and regenerative farming took shape nearly a decade ago, around 2015 or 2016. At the time, his family was dealing with a serious health challenge involving his young son.

The experience pushed him to start researching nutrition, gut health and the human microbiome — topics that would eventually reshape how he thought about farming.

“[My son] was sick as a kid, and so we were doing everything we could to heal him,” Wylie says. “His gut ended up in the hospital a few times with an autism diagnosis.”

Doctors and therapists offered guidance, but the recommendations didn’t sit well with Wylie.

“And then at the time, the doctors and the therapist told us basically, ‘Practice acceptance,’” he says.

Instead, Wylie started searching for more information about gut health and what researchers were learning about the microbiome. Over time, he began seeing parallels between the human digestive system and the biological activity that happens in healthy soils.

“They started figuring out that autistic kids had very weak gut microbiomes,” Wylie says. “And so when you make that connection as a farmer and you start saying, ‘What are all the things I can do at home to not stress that?’”

That question eventually carried over into his work in the field. The farm’s first experiment with regenerative practices was modest.

“We started on 40 acres of pistachios, playing around with it,” he says. “What can we do here growing in a different system?”

At the same time, the regenerative agriculture movement was gaining momentum online, making it easier for farmers to explore new ideas.

“At the time, there were quite a few regenerative agronomists out there releasing podcasts and YouTube videos,” Wylie says. “So the information was there. It was never on my radar before. But once you join that community and industry, it’s pretty interesting.”

Building on What Came Before

Even as Wylie explores new biological tools, he says the farm’s current practices still build heavily on the work done by previous generations.

His father’s generation invested heavily in agronomy research and orchard management strategies, developing systems that helped the farm stay productive in California’s demanding growing environment. From pruning methods to fertilizer programs, many of those lessons still guide how the farm operates today.

Rather than abandoning those systems, Wylie says his goal is to refine them.

“It’s really a tweak,” he says. “In my mind it’s a slight change in the method, not a complete start over.”

The farm continues to rely on the knowledge accumulated through decades of conventional farming, while gradually introducing new practices aimed at improving soil biology.

“We’re just trying to make tweaks to the system that we’re already operating in on the other ranches to see if we can do this a different way,” Wylie says.

One of the biggest challenges in that transition is managing fertility.

California orchards have historically relied on precise fertilizer programs to keep trees productive. But moving toward organic or regenerative inputs can create a different nutrient dynamic, especially during the early years of transition.

Wylie says growers sometimes underestimate how sensitive orchards can be during that shift.

Managing the Transition Carefully

According to Wylie, one of the most common mistakes farmers make when transitioning to regenerative systems is reducing fertilizer too quickly.

He says orchards that have spent decades under conventional management are accustomed to intensive nutrient programs, and abruptly changing that system can cause yields to fall sharply.

On some ranches where regenerative practices have been in place for several years, Wylie says the difference in soil structure is already noticeable.

“There’s other ranches we’ve been farming regenerative for five years,” he says. “You can stick your hand in the soil and get your fingers down right there on the berms next to the trees — it’s chocolate cake.”

But he warns farmers shouldn’t assume that kind of soil health will appear immediately after switching systems.

“Until that day, do not pull back,” Wylie says.

He says the biggest mistake happens when growers assume they can immediately match their old fertility programs using organic inputs.

“That’s the mistake that growers make,” he says. “They think I’m going organic regenerative, I can match dollar for dollar, I can do the same thing I was doing conventionally.”

Instead, Wylie says the transition often produces what he calls a “J-curve.”

“You’re going to see that J-curve,” he says. “I mean, it’s going to tank.”

To avoid that, his farm relies heavily on testing.

“We pull a lot of sap samples, multiple tissues and soils per year,” Wylie says. “Kind of watching our fertility and making sure these trees are fed.”

He says growers must remember trees grown in conventional systems are used to consistent nutrient availability.

“The soil has been farmed a certain way,” he says. “These trees are used to being fed intensively in that conventional system.”

And organic fertilizers don’t always behave the same way.

“The organic fertilizers just don’t work as well,” Wylie says. “So you have to be careful.”

Introducing Algae Into the System

As Wylie searched for ways to accelerate soil improvement, one newer tool caught his attention: microalgae.

The technology comes from soil health company MyLand, which produces living algae on farms and distributes it through irrigation systems.

“We’re probably in our fourth or fifth season,” Wylie says.

The idea behind the system is relatively simple. Rather than applying microbes directly to the soil, the system produces algae that help stimulate microbial activity already present in the soil ecosystem.

Jeff Tuel says the technology centers around specialized tanks designed to grow algae on the farm itself.

“We call these APVs, algae producing vessels,” Tuel says. “And essentially, the sole purpose is to grow algae here.”

Water from the farm is stored inside the vessels, where conditions are controlled to encourage rapid algae growth.

“So for all intents and purposes, this is kind of like the algae producing container,” Tuel says.

From there, the algae are delivered through irrigation systems already used on the farm.

“And we try to keep that holding tank to a level where if the irrigator is irrigating a 12-hour set, 24, 36,” Tuel says. “Our main objective is for them to never run dry of algae.”

Production is adjusted to match the grower’s irrigation schedule.

“We harvest according to the grower’s irrigation schedule,” he says.

Another important step happens before the system is even installed. MyLand scientists collect algae samples from the farm itself, identifying native strains that are already adapted to the environment.

“The reason native is important is because it’s used to the pH, it’s used to the droughts, the floods, everything Mother Nature’s thrown at it,” Tuel says.

Because those organisms already exist in the local ecosystem, they are more likely to survive once applied to the soil.

“Its odds of surviving and actually making an impact in that ecosystem are far greater,” he says.

Microalgae also sits at the base of the soil’s microbial food web.

“Microalgae is actually the base of the microbial food chain,” Tuel says. “All the bugs and beneficials in the soil are feeding off of it.”

Rather than introducing microbes, the strategy is to stimulate the microbes already present.

“I like to say instead of a bug-and-a-jug approach, we are ringing the dinner bell for the microbes,” Tuel says. “It’s kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet for microbes to get them moving and active.”

Tackling Difficult Soils

For Wylie, improving soil biology could help solve one of the Central Valley’s most persistent challenges: poor soil structure.

Many orchard soils in the region contain very low levels of organic matter, which limits their ability to hold water and maintain structure through the growing season.

“We have about 0.5% soil organic matter,” Wylie says. “Our water holding capacity is very low.”

That lack of organic matter can cause irrigation problems later in the summer.

“A lot of times these soils as we’re irrigating during the season will lock up,” he says.

Early in the season, irrigation water infiltrates the soil fairly easily.

“You start with very good water infiltration in April, May, June,” Wylie says.

But conditions change as the summer progresses.

“By the time you get to July, August, when you really need it, it’s very difficult to push water down in the soil,” he says.

For farmers trying to manage water carefully in California’s dry climate, that creates a major challenge.

“These soils are not very functional for us as farmers,” Wylie says.

Tuel says stimulating microbial activity can gradually improve those conditions.

“When you get those microbes to start moving and firing, you’re going to start to build soil aggregate,” he says.

Better aggregation can help water move through the soil while also improving nutrient availability.

“If it’s a high-salt ground, we can start to leach out some of those salts,” Tuel says.

Algae may also influence soil chemistry.

“Algae is also going to help regulate the pH in the soil so we can start to free up some locked-up nutrients,” he says.

Thinking Long-Term

While installing an on-farm algae system requires investment, Wylie says he sees it as part of a long-term strategy for improving soil performance.

“In a biological system like MyLand, it’s about the same cost as a soil amendment program out here, depending on how much acreage you’re using,” Wylie says.

The difference is the system focuses on building biological activity rather than simply adding nutrients.

“But it’s a long-term solution,” he says. “It’s not going to work overnight.”

Instead, the goal is to strengthen the soil’s microbiome so it can better buffer environmental stresses.

“It’s actually creating a buffer by just supercharging the microbiome that’s in the soil,” Wylie says.

That biological activity may help address several common soil issues in California orchards.

“Everything feeds on it,” he says. “It’s overcoming high salt, high chlorides.”

Even trace mineral challenges may improve over time.

“In some cases in California, we have very high boron in some areas,” Wylie says.

He believes increased biological activity may help mitigate those problems faster than traditional soil-building methods alone.

“Microalgae being put into the system can actually overcome those salts that might take 10 or 15 years of compost and cover crops,” he says. “You can accomplish in a few years by using MyLand.”

The Pressure on California Farmers

The search for new tools is happening at a time when farming in California is becoming increasingly expensive.

Data from USDA shows the state continues to rank as the most expensive place in the country to grow crops, driven by high labor, energy and input costs.

Those economic pressures are compounded by growing regulatory expectations.

Wylie believes California farmers are already facing some of the strictest scrutiny in global agriculture.

“I think the state’s already looking at it very closely,” he says. “I think they’re going to put more pressure on farmers in California.”

Compared with other agricultural regions, he says California producers are operating under unique constraints.

“Other than the European Union, there is no one in the world that’s under as much pressure as a California farmer to change the way we do things,” Wylie says.

Because of that, he believes farmers must take the lead in finding workable solutions.

“We need to figure this out,” he says. “And I want to figure it out before the government gets involved and tries to tell me how to do it.”

Government incentive programs exist, but Wylie believes the real challenge is making soil health practices economically viable.

“They can offer me some incentives,” he says. “We have healthy soils out here. They give you a little compost and cover crop seed.”

Ultimately, though, growers need systems that work on their own.

“We need to figure this out and we need to make it economical and profitable before the state comes in,” Wylie says.

Because once regulations remove certain tools, farmers may have little room to adapt.

“Now you’re forced to figure it out with your back against the wall,” he says. “We don’t want that.”

For Wylie, the answer may lie beneath the soil surface where billions of microbes, fueled by algae, could quietly reshape how California farms grow their crops. And by doing so now, Wylie hopes he’s able to find ways to continue to grow productive crops in California, despite increased regulations.

The Technology Poised to Revolutionize Corn Yields — Just as Biotech Did in the 1980s

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:25:11 GMT

As Pioneer celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the company is looking both backward, measuring a century of yield progress, and forward. Looking ahead, Dean Podlich with Pioneer says one technology could revolutionize yield and corn production, almost as much as biotech did in the 1980s.

Gene editing, currently at the same inflection point where biotech traits once stood, is poised to revolutionize corn yields. While still early in development, the genetic engineering technique is poised to push the yield ceiling higher for farmers and influence productivity for decades.

A Century in Two Kernels of Corn

During a look back at 100 years of Pioneer at Commodity Classic this week, Podlich, who leads the digital seeds group within R&D at Corteva Agriscience, held up two types of kernels. One traced back to genetics from Raymond Baker that won the Banner Trophy, which was the state yield contest at the time, in 1927. The other was Pioneer P14-830, the hybrid grown by David Hula when he set a world corn yield record .

The 1927 genetics yielded 60 bu. per acre. The modern hybrid: 623 bu. per acre.

“You’re contrasting 100 years of progress between these two seeds,” Podlich says. “They basically look identical from the outside, but under the hood, these are very different genetics.”

To the naked eye, the two kernels appear to be the same. But when you think about the technology and innovation that helped drive a new world corn record, it’s complex.

“One has gone through 100 years of selection, 100 years of the breeding gauntlet, 100 years of drought selection, 100 years of improved agronomics,” Podlich says. One has some biotech traits to protect that yield. On the outside they look identical. Under the hood, in the DNA, this is what technology looks like from a seed industry standpoint. 60 bushels to 600 bushels through that technology.”

That radically different genetic makeup sets the stage for what Pioneer believes is next.

Gene Editing: The Next Big Yield Builder

Podlich draws a clear distinction between gene editing and the first generation of biotech traits.

“With biotech traits, we were bringing in DNA from another organism that helped protect that yield,” he says. “Gene editing is a native solution. It’s a modern breeding technique.”

Instead of introducing foreign DNA, gene editing works within the plant’s own genome. With tools such as CRISPR, breeders can make precise changes, edits that would have been technically impossible or extraordinarily slow using conventional breeding methods alone.

“By understanding the genome, we can start to bring together different genes in precise ways that we could never do before,” Podlich says. “Previously, genes were sort of scattered across the genome. We’re able to use some of the CRISPR technology to assemble them into a common region.”

He describes the concept as a multi-trait locus, essentially grouping valuable traits into one location in the genome.

“That simplifies the breeding process a lot more because we can stack them together and deliver them through the product,” he says.

Through this process, the company is combining resistance to multiple pathogens in one genetic package. The work is ongoing and early stage, but Podlich believes it represents the kind of step-change that could shape future yield protection.

“We’re very much at the early stages of this,” he says. “Where we are with gene editing today reminds me of where we were in 1980 with biotech. We know it’s going to be impactful. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to be used. But over the coming decades, it’s going to be a key part of how we get to that next level of productivity and protect that productivity moving forward.”

Five Minutes vs. a Full Year

The acceleration of genetic progress isn’t just about editing tools. It’s also about data.

Podlich points to the dramatic shift in sequencing and genotyping capacity over the past 25 years.

“In the late ’90s, we had what was quite a sophisticated molecular marker department,” he says. “But today, we can generate the same amount of genotyping data points every 5 minutes that we created in all of 1999.”

It’s that leap in speed that fundamentally changes breeding.

“It’s incredible how this technology has revolutionized what we can do in breeding and our understanding of the genome,” he says. “Sequencing technology has allowed us to generate so much more sequence data than we used to. And that allows us to really understand the interaction between the genome and the traits that farmers care about. It’s about how to increase yield and protect that yield.”

Data Also at the Root of Yield Gains

For David Bowen, a data lead in the digital seeds group within R&D at Corteva Agriscience, the story of yield advancement is, at its core, a story about data.

“When we look at 60-bushel-per-acre corn 100 years ago and the possibility of 600-bushel corn today, data has absolutely played a role,” Bowen says.

He points back to one of agriculture’s early data champions, and the founder of Pioneer, Henry A. Wallace. Bowen says Wallace was a statistician, agronomist and politician, who understood the power of side-by-side comparisons long before “data-driven” became a buzzword.

Wallace insisted on entering his hybrid corn in yield contests across Iowa, not just for bragging rights, but for proof. By planting hybrids next to farmers’ traditional open-pollinated varieties, he created real-world comparisons that generated measurable results. Some years hybrids won; some years they didn’t. But over time, the data showed a clear trend: the best hybrids consistently outperformed conventional varieties.

“That ability to show value with replicated, side-by-side data was critical,” Bowen says.

A century later, the tools have changed dramatically, but the principle remains the same.

Most agronomic data still originates in the field: yield, plant height, stand counts and other observable traits. But today’s datasets stretch far beyond what Wallace could have imagined. Researchers now capture detailed genetic information at the molecular level. Drones sweep fields collecting high-resolution imagery. Satellites deliver in-season insights on crop health and variability. Sensors stream environmental data in real time.

The opportunity, and the challenge, is pulling those streams together into one.

“We have data coming from so many different sources,” Bowen says. “Now the challenge is aggregating that information so we can make effective decisions.”

From Wallace’s handwritten yield notes to today’s cloud-based analytics platforms, Bowen says one thing hasn’t changed: better data, consistently applied, drives better decisions. And those decisions continue to push the ceiling on what farmers can grow.

No Ceiling in Sight for Corn Yields

When asked about the top-end potential for corn yield, Podlich didn’t want to put a number on it. Instead, he referenced David Hula’s 623-bu. record with P14-830.

“Just 10 years ago, no one would have believed that we could get to 600 bushels,” Podlich adds. “I’m not a brave person who would predict how high we would get.”

Instead of naming a ceiling, he pointed to a symbol embedded in Pioneer’s logo, the infinity sign in the center of the trapezoid.

“That infinity symbol represents endless progress,” he says. “It was deliberate from our founders that we want to continue to drive that yield. We’ll sort of see where we get to. But as we continue to use these technologies, I’m sure it’s going to increase. Because genetic improvement and the interaction with management is not going to stop.”

He says improved genetics paired with improved management has defined the last century. The jump from roughly 25 bu. per acre 100 years ago to around 180 bushels on average today didn’t happen from genetics alone.

“You think of increased use of hybrids. You think about mechanization on the farm. You start to use synthetic nitrogen. You look at biotech traits and precision ag of today,” Podlich says. “All of those things cumulatively allow us to move from 25 bushels to 180.”

He says it’s improved genetics with improved management practices that have already led to and will continue to drive higher yields.

Exclusive: In the Eye of the Cycle, John Deere Charts a Path Through Ag’s Slump

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:25:39 GMT

After months of workforce reductions and sliding equipment sales, John Deere is reversing course, announcing it will bring 140 employees back to its Waterloo, Iowa, operations as demand ticks higher for its 8R and 9R tractors.

The recall comes even as Deere forecasts the North American ag equipment market will decline another 15% to 20% in 2026, underscoring the push-and-pull shaping today’s farm economy. Large equipment sales remain under pressure from lower commodity prices and tighter margins, yet pockets of global demand are forcing Deere to recalibrate production in real time.

In an exclusive interview with Farm Journal this week, Deere & Company President Deanna Kovar laid out how the company is navigating that tension: tightening its long-standing build-for-retail manufacturing model, adjusting output month to month and working to protect farmers’ equipment equity during a downturn.

At the same time, Deere is attacking costs where it can, reducing prices on 187,000 parts over the past two years and preparing to roll out a new lower-priced tier of replacement parts later this summer. The company is also testing a tractor powered by E-98 ethanol, technology that could eventually eliminate the need for Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) altogether while driving even more demand for the crops farmers already grow.

For Kovar, who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm before spending 26 years rising through Deere’s ranks, the stakes are personal. Now, just months into her role leading Deere’s Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, she is steering the company through one of the sharpest equipment pullbacks in recent memory, while positioning it for what comes next.

A Cyclical Business in a Prolonged Downturn

The ag equipment cycle has clearly turned. Industry data show steep drops in large equipment sales, and Deere’s internal outlook aligns with the broader trend.

“Deere is 188 years old, so we know we’re part of a cyclical business of ag equipment, but definitely we’re seeing similar numbers. Our expectations that we shared in our last quarterly earnings was that the North American equipment market would be down 15% to 20% again in 2026. We recognize the ag economy is in a tough spot at the moment, and we’re working hard to make sure we can help farmers become more productive and more profitable through using our equipment and technology solutions, but it’s tough out there.”

She says the Association of Equipment Manufacturers figures for 2025, which show sales of 4WD tractors fell nearly 42% and combine sales are down 36%, align with what Deere is seeing.

The significant slump in sales doesn’t come as a surprise to row crop farmers who’ve seen several consecutive years of declining net farm income following a record high in 2022. USDA’s first official forecast for 2026 suggests continued pressure and another year of declining net farm income, with not much relief on input prices and stagnant commodity prices. Kovar says Deere understands the financial strains producers are seeing.

“Overall, the outlook for 2026 is that farmers are going to continue to be under pressure from a commodity price standpoint,” she says. “We’re certainly seeing input costs somewhat flatten for producers, and, of course, many producers are grateful for the government payments that will help them start 2026 maybe in a better place than they would have without it. Certainly great yields last fall were a good positive thing for producers, but it’s still putting a lot of pressure on commodity prices today.”

For Deere, that pressure translates directly into lower equipment demand and tough decisions inside its factories.

Manufacturing Adjustments: Building for Retail in Real Time

Over the past year, Deere announced workforce reductions across multiple Midwestern facilities. Since 2024, it’s reported John Deere laid off over 2,000 employees in the U.S., with those jobs primarily located in Iowa and Illinois. Recently, it reversed course in a couple locations, announcing it would bring some of those employees back.

Back in January, Deere also announced it was returning 99 workers to the job in Iowa, impacting both its Davenport Works and Dubuque facilities. But Deere said this week it’s also bringing back jobs at its Waterloo facility.

“We’re constantly evaluating what we think the market will be. And it’s not an annual thing. It’s a month to month, a quarter-to-quarter opportunity. And yes, we just announced 140 workers to come back to our Waterloo operations. This is the operations where we make the drive trains for 8R tractors, where we pour the castings for the new high horsepower 9R tractors, where engines are made, and where we put tractors final assembly together. So we’re always happy when we can bring workers back into our factory. And it’s because we’re starting to see a little tick up in demand for those tractors,” she says.

Kovar says it’s not necessarily just a North American phenomenon. The uptick in demand is coming globally.

“We are seeing some signs that there could be some opportunities, but much of this is going to be iterative over time. It won’t be from a very low point to a very high point. We expect over time that we can start to see things normal,” she adds.

Kovar emphasizes Deere’s long-standing “build-for-retail” philosophy, avoiding overproduction that would flood dealer lots and depress used values.

“We’ve been in business for 188 years, so we’re always making sure that we’re being as efficient and effective as we can at building the quality products that farmers come to rely on. So we’re all always adjusting how we manufacture, how we make sure we have the quality checks and the automation to make sure we’re making every tractor as good as we can,” says Kovar.

She says the company is also working to forecast demand expectations and where that additional demand could surface. But she says for the past 25 years, the company has been focused on a build-to-order mentality, especially in the larger ag equipment space.

“We are a build for retail mentality,” says Kovar. “We don’t want to build it unless somebody wants it. So this has been something we’ve been working on for 20 years, and we will continue to be focused on really understanding the demand in the market and making sure we’re setting up schedules and plans to build for that amount.”

Equipment Prices: It’s About the Trade Differential

Few issues generate more coffee-shop debate than equipment prices. Farmers have seen machinery values dramatically climb over the past five years. Kovar points out that looking at sticker price alone misses the bigger financial picture.

“We’re always looking at making sure we’re delivering value for farmers when they buy our equipment, when they buy our technology,” Kovar says. “When we think about the price of equipment it’s really important we understand that farmers, when they buy a new piece of equipment, it’s really about the trade differential from the product they’re trading in to the one they’re buying, and if we were to lower the price of equipment, it would lower the trade-in value of their used equipment as well. We’re always very mindful of the equity farmers have in their equipment fleet and the fact it’s a huge part of their balance sheet.”

Not only does Deere need to be careful that changes don’t impact the trade differential, but she says the company is also focused on making sure there’s a balance between products being affordable and creating the value farmers expect.

That balance, of affordability versus protecting used values, according to Kovar, shapes Deere’s pricing philosophy in a down cycle.

Lowering the Cost of Technology and Parts

While base machine pricing remains complex, Deere is targeting affordability in other ways. The first, she says, is on the technology side, and lowering the upfront cost.

“We’re lowering the barrier to entry to amazing technologies like ExactShot fertilizer systems, See & Spray sprayer systems and a combine automation system so that more farmers can afford to get into the technology. These technologies are saving inputs, ensuring we’re getting all of the grain out of the field and increasing yields. That strategy to lower the upfront cost of those technologies, and help the customer pay for it as they get the value from it, is a huge step forward in allowing affordability of the technology.”

On repairs and parts, she points to self-service tools and direct price reductions. She says the company is constantly looking at the cost of parts for their equipment.

“Over the last two years, we’ve reduced the price on over 187,000 part numbers in the John Deere system. Later this summer, we’re going to be announcing a new tier of parts from John Deare that will allow us to give customers choice when they buy parts from us as to whether they want the traditional OEM, that likely has a longer life, or if they want to look at a lower cost option,” Kovar says.

Deciding between the two parts tiers depends on:

How much a farmer uses the machine
Equipment age
How long a farmer intends to keep that piece of equipment

Retrofit Kits: Precision Without the New Iron Price Tag

As new equipment sales slow and more farmers turn to the used market, Deere sees retrofit technology as a critical bridge, allowing producers to upgrade performance without taking on the cost of a brand-new machine.

Kovar says retrofit kits are designed to separate technology adoption from iron replacement.

“I think the beauty of retrofit kits is you don’t have to buy a brand new piece of equipment to get brand new technologies. Just last year we launched what we call our precision ag essentials kit, which is the foundation of our technology stack. It’s where farmers start to go from no precision to a more precision mentality, and this ability allows them to put a John Deere GPS receiver, a display and a modem on any piece of equipment, Deere or non Deere,” Kovar says.

The strategy fits squarely into Deere’s broader push to lower the barrier to entry for precision ag. By allowing a GPS receiver, display and modem to be installed on any brand of older equipment, the company is effectively expanding the addressable market for advanced automation and data tools.

“We’re seeing people put these kits on 20-year-old tractors and then being able to do things like AutoTrac, AutoPath and turn automation, section control, the things that can save 10% of inputs and make sure your stand is better in the spring and your weeds are deader during the season,” Kovar says. “This is a huge opportunity for every farmer to get more into precision. Once you get into that base of the technology stack, the sky’s the limit to be able to go to other products like ExactEmerge or See and Spray — these technologies that really drive savings to the bottom line for farmers.”

In a downturn defined by lower commodity prices and cautious equipment purchases, Deere is betting the future of precision ag won’t be limited to the newest machines on the lot, but will increasingly ride on tractors that have already been in the field for decades.

Right to Repair, EPA and DEF: Seeking Clarity

Right-to-repair and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) rules have been flash points between manufacturers and producers with two major announcements from EPA.

In early February 2026, EPA made a right-to-repair guidance announcement guidance and actions supporting the right to repair for farmers and equipment owners, specifically addressing issues with Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) systems and emission controls. The guidance clarifies the Clean Air Act allows for temporary overrides of emission systems during repairs, prohibits manufacturers from restricting access to tools or software, and enables repairs in the field.

The following day, EPA announced the agency is demanding detailed failure data from major diesel engine manufacturers as it considers additional rules aimed at reducing DEF-related shutdowns and derates that have plagued farmers, truckers and equipment operators for years.

“I think if you step back and think about what EPA’s done over about the last nine months, there’s been two important messages. One was last summer when they gave voluntary guidance that said we should extend the time from when a customer might have an issue with their DEF systems and not cause them to go into an inducement or a derate within two hours, which was the original rule. We’re very glad EPA has come out and said we can extend that time to give farmers more time to maybe finish the field, finish the day before they have to execute a derate or go through a regen on their DEF,” Kovar says.

She calls it a huge opportunity for Deere and one to which the company is already responding.

“We’re in the process of making sure we can extent that time on all the equipment we’re producing. We’ll do that over the coming months and years to help make sure we’re extending that time and not putting people in jeopardy of having a shutdown opportunity,” Kovar says.

On off-road right-to-repair clarity, Kovar says EPA’s right-to-repair guidance announced in February directly responds to a formal request the company made to the agency in June 2025 .

“[EPS] had already shared that on-road equipment didn’t have to go to the original equipment manufacturer or an authorized repair shop to turn your tractor or your truck back on after you had a deratement issue. We said, ‘Hey, we have tools that a farmer can do this on their own, but the way we read your rules, we believe we need you to tell us it’s OK.’ We’re grateful that last week EPA came out and said, yes, it is OK for off-road equipment for farmers to fix their own issues. We’re in the process of making sure John Deere Operations Center ProService, which is our self-repair tool any farmer can access, by early March, mid-March, we want to have the ability for a farmer to, if they run into a deratement issue on their tractor or combine or whatever, use Operation Center Pro Service to get their tractors back up.”

If DEF Goes Away, It’s Not a Quick Switch

With political discussions swirling around eliminating certain environmental regulations, and President Trump specifically stating he wants to see those regulations removed on equipment , some farmers wonder whether equipment could quickly be built without DEF systems.

When Trump was in a roundtable with farmers in December, he claimed removing those requirements on equipment would prevent breakdowns and make equipment cheaper. During the one-on-one interview with Kovar, Farm Journal asked if removing DEF on equipment would bring down prices.

“We have to really understand what they mean and how they want to go about it before we can really answer, does it make equipment cheaper? I think we’ve spent 15 years perfecting the system we have today, so we’ll have to continue to understand how far back do we think we’re going to go, how long would it take us, because we don’t have all of the technologies that don’t have DEF today,” Kovar explains. “If it were called tomorrow, we couldn’t start building tractors without it the next day.”

Removing DEF is not as simple as flipping a switch on the assembly line. Instead, she says Deere is focused on making sure farmers have the ability to repair their own equipment if it would go into derate. She thinks that’s a huge step forward in solving some of the issues that farmers have had with DEF.

Deere Tests an E-98 Ethanol Tractor

Even as debate continues in Washington over DEF requirements, Deere is exploring a future that could bypass the issue entirely.

While the company says it remains engaged with EPA on next steps surrounding DEF and emissions policy, Deere is also investing in an alternative fuel platform, an ethanol-powered tractor designed to run on E-98. The tractor will debut at Commodity Classic in two weeks.

“We’re not just thinking also about diesel, right, we also considering how might we fix this problem another way. And that’s an ethanol tractor we’ve been using across Iowa and other places. It’s early for us, but the idea that we could use E-98 to run a tractor, it’s so clean you don’t need diesel exhaust fluid to run it. We’re early in trying to pioneer what is an alternative to diesel that would allow a farmer to grow the fuel they put in their tractor to grow next year’s crop. It’s something we think we need to continue to talk about. There is a ton of infrastructure that would need to follow to allow an E-98-type fuel to flow and be on farm, but we think it’s an opportunity in the long run to help agriculture grow the fuel they use to grow the food we all eat.”

Deere confirms the early results are promising.

According to Deere, the limiting factor isn’t the engine technology itself, it’s the infrastructure needed to support it.

“Do we have the fuels available? Do we have the on-farm ability? Are the fuel companies ready to deliver it to the farm? At this point, there is a much bigger system challenge that will have to work,” Kovar says.

Advocating for Demand: Ethanol, Exports and E-15

Turning the ag economy around, in Kovar’s view, is about demand, both domestic and global. Not only is Deere working on equipment that could run with higher blends of ethanol, but Deere is also advocating for more demand.

“Certainly, we’re focused on helping farmers grow more with less. At the same time, we’re focused on helping to make sure there are markets for the crops our producers sell. We certainly spend a lot of time advocating for agriculture and for producers to have access to markets. We’re grateful for all of the trade deals that have happened here recently. We’re hopeful they start to materialize, and we see more and more grains flowing outside of the U.S. in exports. We also know we’ve got a huge opportunity here in the U.S. to drive ethanol and renewable fuels,” Kovar says. “We’re focused on making sure we’re using our voice at Deere to advocate for agriculture to not only feed the world, but fuel it. It starts with E-15, which we are hopeful we can get across the finish line at some point very soon. But it can’t end there. We have to continue to advocate for renewable diesels and an ethanol future, so we have to make sure farmers can sell their grains at a price that’s profitable, and it’s all about creating demand.”

The Next Five Years: From Data Collection to Real-Time Decisions

For Deere, which sees itself as a technology company, Kovar says she also sees Deere as a smart industrial company. With a focus on technology, she thinks the future isn’t about a single breakthrough machine, but rather about what happens behind the scenes in the data.

When asked what the biggest shift will be over the next five years, Kovar points to the evolution of information rooted in data.

“I think if you look back over those 25 years of technology, data has been such an important part of it. It started with yield maps, yield monitoring and binders on a shelf and has evolved over time to a cloud-based system. Everything’s connected. With Deere, it’s about John Deere Operation Center and how farmers can leverage that data, share it with partners, with their seed dealer, with their ag retailer, with the banker and with their landlords and have this really cohesive opportunity to bring all of the data they have in agriculture into one place,” Kovar says.

Personally, she sees the next step involving Deere helping farmers move beyond timely insights to timely decision-making.

“How do we help [farmers] get insights, timely information, that helps them make the best decision they can make in that moment on their unique piece of land in the middle of wherever they are farming and really give them confidence the data can help them drive to even better decisions,” she adds. “If we’re going to help them be more productive and be more profitable, it really starts with all the decisions they make. I think this next three to five years is a huge opportunity for us to make sure we are connecting all of their data in one place and helping them make really important decisions in real time that help them become more.”

Instead of one sweeping, industry-altering change, Kovar sees steady gains driven by machine learning, automation and in-the-moment decision-making, sometimes by the operator and sometimes by the equipment itself.

“I think that’s a huge part of the next three to five years, and those decisions happen because they’ve consciously made them or the machines are making them. If you think about See and Spray, it is deciding whether that’s a weed or a plant and only spraying the weed to save 50% to 60% of the herbicides,” Kovar says. “Those kind of in-the-moment decisions are a huge opportunity over the next 3 to 5 years as computer vision and machine learning compute and all of these things continue to accelerate at a pace that is very hard to keep up with.”

For Deere, the future isn’t just bigger iron or even more automation, it’s about connecting every data point on the farm and turning it into actionable insight, fast enough to matter in the field.

Watch the full interview here:

Rethinking Nitrogen for Short-Stature Corn

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:44:51 GMT

Since its debut, the buzz around short-stature corn has often focused on standability—the promise of a crop that won’t fold like a lawn chair when a July windstorm sweeps across the field. But as these hybrids increasingly move from company test plots into real-world acres, farmers are discovering that standability is only one piece of the story.

In a recent deep dive into the technology, University of Minnesota Extension agronomist Jeff Coulter urged growers to look past the “miniature” aesthetic of short-stature hybrids, which are usually 7-feet tall or less (traditional hybrids are typically 9 to 12 feet).

Instead, he believes the way these new hybrids access and use nitrogen (N), other nutrients and moisture could be the key to their long-term fit on your farm.

A Different Architecture Below Ground

The most significant changes in short-stature hybrids happen where you can’t see them. Coulter says research from Purdue University found that these hybrids often feature dramatically larger and deeper root systems than traditional corn.

“[One] study found that the short-stature hybrids had 35% to 42% greater total root biomass and a deeper root system than the standard stature hybrids,” Coulter reports.

This expanded root zone acts like a web, allowing short-stature hybrids to capture more nutrients and water throughout the growing season.

Tactical Nitrogen Use

Farmers often ask Coulter if the smaller plants have lower nutrient requirements. He says the data suggests otherwise. While yields remain competitive with traditional hybrids, short-stature plants are more “tactical” with their nitrogen use.

Key research findings include:

Higher Nitrogen Harvest Index: Short-stature corn shows a 3.5% greater N harvest index, meaning more nitrogen ends up in the grain rather than in the stalks and leaves.
Late-Season Uptake: These hybrids show a 20% greater total above-ground N uptake from silking to maturity, as compared to most traditional hybrids.
Better Efficiency: Research indicates an 18.5% greater recovery efficiency of applied N fertilizer.

“If you have greater N uptake, that means potentially less residual nitrogen in the soil will be lost,” Coulter notes. This efficiency helps protect the environment by reducing nitrate leaching post-harvest.

Application Timing Is Important

Research across Illinois and Indiana suggests that short-stature hybrids respond exceptionally well to split nutrient applications.

“Compared to applying all of the N near planting, researchers found that splitting the application with half of the N at the V6 stage increased yield in 60% of the trials for the short-stature corn,” says Coulter.

Delaying that second application to V12 was less consistent, showing yield benefits in only about a quarter of the trials.

For upper Midwest corn growers, a base nutrient rate at planting followed by a substantial in-season application around V6 appears to be the strongest strategy.

Despite the smaller stature of these new hybrids, Coulter warns against cutting nutrient rates, especially N. Total nutrient demand is driven by plant population and yield, not just height. Because short-stature corn is usually planted at higher populations (40,000 to 50,000-plus plants per acre), the total N, phosphorus, and potassium needs may actually be slightly higher than in traditional systems.

Three Tips for Managing Short-Stature Corn

Maintain Your Rates: Do not reduce N applications based on plant size; short-stature hybrids’ larger root systems and higher populations require full fertility.
Prioritize V6: Use some base level of nutrients at or around planting. Aim for an in-season application around the V6 growth stage to maximize yield response.
Run Strip Trials: Use the crop’s shorter height to your advantage by running ground-based trials to compare different rates and timings on your own fields.

Coulter stresses that short-stature corn is still in the early stages of use and needs more research. That future work includes refining economic optimum nitrogen rates for short-stature hybrids at different populations and row spacings, understanding their response to starter fertilizers, and quantifying phosphorus and potassium use in the new architecture.

In the meantime, short-stature corn offers farmers a compelling combination: strong yield potential, improved standability, a more efficient root system, and the management flexibility to deliver nitrogen later and in ways that can benefit both profitability and environmental stewardship.

Coulter addressed the nutrient needs of short-stature corn, along with other agronomic insights, during the 18th Annual Nutrient Management Conference in Mankato, Minn. You can watch his presentation via YouTube here .

Agri Spray Drones and WinField United Partner to Scale Aerial Application

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:03:41 GMT

A new dynamic duo has been announced to further expand the use of drones in aerial application as preferred vendors. Agri Spray Drones, a leading provider of agricultural spray drone systems, training, and support, is working with WinField United to collaborate and promote their complementary technologies.

The National Agricultural Aviation Association estimates about 1% of all aerially applied acres are done with an uncrewed aircraft.

While Agri Spray Drones focuses on training, technology, and service support, WinField United is promoting the use of its crop input products and adjuvants to expand drone application through its network of retailers, agronomists, service providers, and end users.

“This collaboration helps accelerate how drone application integrates with proven crop input technologies,” said Agri Spray Drones founder and CEO Taylor Moreland in a news release. “Working with WinField United gives our network access to trusted agronomic resources and research-based product knowledge that elevates drone application as a dependable and scalable solution for growers.”

Six core facets of the partnership include:

• Coordinated presence at key agriculture industry events

• Joint training opportunities for drone operators, distributors, and agronomists

• Field demonstrations, Answer Plot activities, and comparative trials

• Co-developed marketing and educational materials

• Shared data insights and best practices from research and performance testing

• Increased visibility for both companies across each other’s networks

“WinField United is committed to advancing application technology that helps drive efficiency, consistency, and agronomic performance,” said Joe Vaillancourt, adjuvants marketing manager at WinField United, in the news release. “Collaborating with Agri Spray Drones allows us to better understand how our adjuvant technologies perform under drone application and share those insights with the industry.”

Double Take On Biologicals: How A Yield Champ Found An Application That Redeemed A Product Category

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:15:02 GMT

Indiana farmer Kevin Kalb leans into learning opportunities.

For 20 years, he’s entered high yield corn contests, and he actively uses those contest acres to apply to the rest of his production. In 2025, Kalb won a non-irrigated class for NCGA with 425 bu./acre.

“We’ve been in this high-yield game for a long time,” he says. “One year, we made 30+ trips in our contest field—but we find out a lot of products don’t work—it’s just a sales gimmick.”
Before the 2025 growing season, he says he’s tried more than 30 biological products. And he had all but written off the entire product category.

“It started five years ago. We had people coming up to ask us to try all these new biologicals, and we’d test strips every year, and we’d never see a benefit,” he says.

Unbeknownst to him, that was going to change after he gave the category one last shot.

“Then, NewLeaf called me and they went through what it does, and that did intrigue me. So, we took out a strip down in one of our contest fields with some of the best ground that we’ve got, and lo and behold.”

Lessons Learned, Lessons Applied

Where four out of five years Kalb is used to tackling tar spot a new disease has emerged as a yield robber—southern rust.

In 2016, he had his first run in with southern rust. In the most severe cases across his farm, yield was docked 100 bu.

“That hit us extremely hard. At the time, our program was one aerial application of fungicide, and we thought we were good,” he says. “This year, those farmers in Iowa had their first experience with Southern Rust. And it’s ugly.”

With the influx of southern rust in 2025, the new tool in his toolbox for this past growing season was a sample of NewLeaf’s TS601 biofungicide and Terrasym 450, which he applied in-furrow at the time of planting.

“Around the 4th of July, we really didn’t see much rust yet. But already in the season what we saw from the 601 was great big stalks–probably a quarter the size bigger than what our other ones were,” Kalb says.

That was his first evidence in how his perception of biologicals may be turning around. However, what came next flipped him 180 degrees.

“Then, southern rust came in. Compared to our normal fungicide application protocol, the biofungicide and biostimulant showed a 6 bu. increase,” Kalb says. “But the kicker is, it would have saved us almost $70 an acre. That was eye-opening, the input cost was so much cheaper with that product—it preserved yield and cut inputs.”

Kalb is convinced. So much so he’s planning to put TS601 and Terrasym 450 across all his acres.

“Normally, we test everything 3 years before we move it over into all of our production acres,” he says. “These are the first products that we’ve ever used that we switched to 100% of our acres for next year.”

What Does He Credit The Transformation In His Experience?

“I think everybody should have 10, 20, 30 acres on their farm where they sit there and play with different rates and this and that,” Kalb says. “And you can’t do it just one year. You’ve got to have several years.”

That’s how he’s translated high yield lessons to the rest of his production.

Kalb credits his focus on soil health, specifically soil microbes, that took his yield plateau from 350 bu. to bumping above 425 bu.

“We started cutting back on synthetic fertilizers and building out a low-salt crop fertility program,” he says.

He says his below-ground balance of bacteria and fungi populations may have actually hindered the performance of some previous biologicals he’s tried. But for TS601 and Terrasym 450, which colonizes around the roots and grows as the plant grows, it was a match.

“Like anything else, I think biologicals have had the benefit of improving with time—they’ve come a long way. I see now how they can not only bring yields up, but cut inputs down. The biggest question is the same question there’s been—finding the ones that work,” Kalb says.

Companies Team Up To Accelerate Ag Innovation With Artificial Intelligence

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:20:35 GMT

SAP SE and Syngenta have announced a multi-year strategic technology partnership designed to bring AI-driven innovation directly to the agricultural sector. For farmers, this means a more modern, data-driven approach to the products and services they rely on daily, from manufacturing and supply chain management to field-level support.

As farmers navigate the complexities of climate variability and global market uncertainty, the partnership aims to bolster the tools available to meet the challenge of feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050, Syngenta reports. By integrating AI across Syngenta’s operations, the collaboration is positioned to unlock faster innovation and stronger operational resilience that scales to meet the needs of agricultural producers.

“AI is the catalyst for agricultural transformation and has quickly become a core competitive edge for Syngenta,” said Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer, Syngenta Group, in a prepared statement. “Our partnership with SAP is transforming how we run the enterprise, modernizing core operations and unlocking new ways to work — a testament to our commitment to becoming an agriculture company with AI at its core.”

“Syngenta’s transformation sets a benchmark for digital innovation in agriculture,” said Philipp Herzig, chief technology officer at SAP SE, in a statement. “Together, we’re demonstrating how cloud and AI technologies can drive sustainable growth and efficiency in one of the world’s most critical industries. This partnership will help Syngenta future-proof its operations to feed the world responsibly.”

The transformation begins with SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions, modernizing Syngenta’s value chain to ensure the company remains agile and responsive to market shifts. For U.S. farmers, this translates to a more reliable partner capable of weathering volatility and delivering consistent results, Syngenta says.

Through the SAP Business Data Cloud, Syngenta is establishing a unified and secure data foundation essential for real-time decision-making. Combined with SAP Business AI and tools like the Joule Copilot , the company intends to drive operational efficiency and accelerate the development of new technologies. Importantly, this initiative focuses on delivering superior products and services while ensuring farmers maintain control and privacy over their proprietary information.

Closing the Transparency Gap: Ag Data Group Updates Its Model Agreement

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:20:43 GMT

Technology moves fast. For example, five years ago, we were just seeing commercially available selective spraying machines in the U.S., now a handful of companies have hundreds of machines across the country.

Changes in the industry were recognized by Ag Data Transparent, an industry group founded 10 years ago with the goal of bringing greater transparency for farmers and the industry in how data is used, collected and stored.

As such, five years after ADT wrote and distributed its first Model Ag Data Use Agreement, they updated it late in 2025. It’s now available on their website for no fee.

“A lot of companies would come to us and say: ‘We want to do things right, how do we do it? What’s the best way to go about collecting data from farmers?’” says Todd Janzen, administrator for the Ag Data Transparent project. “We created this model agreement that they could use as their primary contract with farmers.”

He says in the past five years, it’s been downloaded hundreds of times.

The committee that recently worked to update it included:

a new category for sustainability data (carbon, conservation programs, and climate data)
a new category for usage data and how a farmer is using a platform
addressing artificial intelligence, adding derived data, which would be new data sets that are created based upon use of the ag data itself

“The agreement tries to be much more specific than others you see outside our industry,” Janzen says. “Also, it starts with a basic framework that a farmer owns the data.”

Reflecting on the origin of the model agreement, Janzen remembers a time with many ag startups all collecting data individually. Since then, there’s been a shift, mostly due to consolidation but also businesses closing, where there are fewer players today.

“Ag Data Transparent was created to first establish a set of core principles around what are the best practices for how data should be collected from farms,” Janzen says. “And then secondly, to do a certification or verification of which companies were adhering to those principles, by going through this voluntary certification process.”

Nevertheless, tools to help farmers ensure transparency are important, he says.

“What I understand, there still is a great deal of concern from farmers about what happens to all this data, and with advent of AI it started to reinvigorate a lot of these discussions about data and what does it mean for these AI models to use data, to train themselves,” Janzen explains.

US Bars Imports of New Models of DJI, All Other Foreign Drones

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:37:42 GMT

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Monday it is barring imports of all new models of foreign-made drones and critical components including from China’s DJI and Autel, saying they pose unacceptable risks to U.S. national security.

The addition to the FCC’s “Covered List” means that DJI, Autel and other foreign drone companies will not be able to obtain the necessary FCC approval to sell new models of drones or critical components in the U.S.

In December 2024 Congress had ordered DJI and Autel added to the list within one year unless a security review deemed it appropriate to continue sales.

The move is a significant escalation in Washington’s battles to crack down on Chinese-made drones in recent years. In September, the Commerce Department said it plans to issue rules to restrict Chinese drone imports that could go beyond the FCC action.

The FCC designation does not prohibit import, sale or use of any existing device models the telecom regulator previously authorized, and does not impact any previously purchased drones, the FCC said. It added that consumers can continue to use any drones they previously purchased legally.

DJI, the world’s largest dronemaker, said it was disappointed by the decision to add foreign-made drones to the Covered List. “While DJI was not singled out, no information has been released regarding what information was used by the Executive Branch in reaching its determination,” the company said.

DJI previously said that being added to the Covered List would effectively ban it from offering new drone models in the United States. The company sells more than half of U.S. commercial drones.

China Condemns the Move

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said on Tuesday that China opposed the U.S.’ “overly broad interpretation of the concept of national security” and the setting up of “discriminatory” lists. He urged Washington to “correct its wrong practices” and provide a fair environment for Chinese companies.

A spokesperson for China’s Commerce ministry also expressed “strong opposition” on Tuesday, saying in a statement that China will take “necessary measures” to safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises if the U.S. insists on its way.

The FCC said it received the results of a White House-convened, executive-branch interagency review of the risks of foreign drones on Sunday, which found that imported drones and components pose security risks “given the threats from unauthorized surveillance, sensitive data exfiltration, supply chain vulnerabilities, and other potential threats to the homeland.”

The review said the Pentagon could make future determinations that specific drones or classes of drone do not pose risks and remove them from the restrictions.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June that aims to reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese drone companies.

Sebastian Gorka, senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, said the action was part of ensuring that drones are made in the United States. “Drones are a large part of America’s future security. They must be made in the USA,” he wrote on X on Monday.

DJI said earlier this month that “more than 80% of the nation’s 1,800+ state and local law enforcement and emergency response agencies that operate drone programs use DJI technology; these programs will be at immediate risk if they no longer have access to the most cost effective and efficient drone technology available.”

Trump and the FCC both cited the upcoming Olympics and the World Cup and concerns about drone misuse.

Republican Representative Rick Crawford praised the decision, saying “the use of Chinese-made drones, with widespread access over the U.S. airspace, has been a counterintelligence nightmare for years ... we cannot compromise our national security in exchange for cheap goods intended to flood the U.S. market.”

Chinese manufacturer Hikvision filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this month, challenging the FCC decision to block new approvals for devices with parts from companies on its Covered List and let the agency bar previously approved equipment in some instances.

In September, a U.S. judge rejected a bid by DJI to be removed from the U.S. Defense Department’s list of companies allegedly working with Beijing’s military.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by Chris Reese, Matthew Lewis, Kate Mayberry and Frances Kerry)

How Does Autonomous Machinery Stack Up Against Labor Costs on Midwest Row Crop Farms?

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:32:13 GMT

A first-of-its-kind academic analysis looks at labor rates and current autonomous solutions to spur a discussion on the tipping point for when the technology pays. Published by Chad Feichter, ag economist at Purdue, and PhD student Josh Strine, the recently released study looks at large-scale autonomous farming equipment and a Midwestern 50-50 corn/soybean farm.

“We were puzzled by what could potentially be the returns to these large autonomous machines because it seems that’s at least the trend of where we’re going,” Feichter says. “Also the idea there’s a labor shortage seems to be what’s motivating the conversation.”

The economists started with an economic farm-planning model originally developed at Purdue 60 years ago, updated it and plugged in a series of factors:

Labor rates
Production costs
Field size
Machinery/subscription costs
Equipment efficiency

The takeaway: Comparatively, autonomy is still an expensive alternative to average farm labor rates. Per the analysis, autonomy pays off when the labor rate is greater than $44 per hour.

“Currently, with where labor rates are, the autonomy solution across the board isn’t probably what we need in the immediate term, based on what we understand about how autonomy works and the productivity of autonomy,” Feichter says. “But if there’s a farmer who cannot find labor, autonomous machines will allow those acres to be farmed.”

Feichter says the current technology platforms installed on large-scale machines aren’t a one-for-one substitute for a human operator for a few reasons.

Profitability of autonomy hinges on three things:

the cost of autonomy subscriptions
the field efficiency of the machines
how much human supervision they still require

Co-author Strine says the ROI of autonomy is operation-specific to how the efficiencies of autonomy are realized. Their analysis included wide ranges in the variables to explore likely scenarios with today’s technology so as efficiencies improve there can be a comparison.

“Right now, the efficiency of the autonomy isn’t an advantage versus humans,” Strine says. “Maybe they will quickly get to 100% human efficiency, and it’s possible that it will surpass just having somebody driving that tractor. However, right now, oversight hours are required and the on-road transport is required.”

Where could autonomy pay off the soonest—Fiechter says it’s where high value tasks, in field efficiency and tightness in labor intersect.

“There are really high-value tasks, where you could potentially alleviate the labor challenge in the short run,” Fiechter says. “Maybe harvest is one of those where we would really see a benefit of having autonomous machines, whereas in planting time, it may not be quite as important.”

Manufacturers Report No Humans Have Been Displaced by Autonomous Tractors

Craig Rupp founded Sabanto, which sells autonomy systems to be outfitted on mid-range hp tractors.

“I had an epiphany after 50 systems,” Rupp says. “I’m not solving the labor problem. Farmers may buy as if we’re replacing labor, but they keep the labor, and it’s about quality of life. It’s about not spending 12 to 16 hours a day when they get behind or have to work weekends. And they are using autonomy to scale their operation—they are taking on more acres.”

Earlier this year Sabanto published a case study looking at seeding 10,000 acres with a traditional 4WD high-horsepower set up versus running three Sabanto outfitted tractors. The company’s analysis did not include labor costs, but evaluating the investment and operational costs, Sabanto says a traditional setup costs $18.88/acre the three Sabanto equipped machines cost $6.27/acre. You can read the whole report here.

His company has sold more than 200 systems in the past two years.

“We’ve put no people out of work,” Rupp says. “Farmers will adopt autonomy for labor when it’s the last choice they have.”

Michael Porter, large tractor marketing manager at John Deere, shares an anecdote from a customer over the Thanksgiving weekend.

“A great example this year is we had two machines running on Thanksgiving, and they literally ran while the farmers had their Thanksgiving dinner,” Porter says. “And the next day, when they got back out there, they had a couple hundreds acres already tilled so they can continue moving on with that fall field work.”

The quality of life autonomy adds to as well as the agronomic value of timely field work are added values manufacturers point to for being benefits of adopting these systems.

“That’s something that’s hard to quantify, football games on Friday nights, dinner with the family, all those things that’s a big part of it. Those quality of life things, they’re really hard to quantify, but people experience them, and once they experience them, they don’t want to go back,” Porter says.

John Deere autonomous systems cost between $40,000 and $45,000 for the kit, plus dealership install and yearly subscription fee, which is $10,000 for unlimited acres for tillage, for example.

Dinen Subramaniam, product launch manager for Outrun at PTx Trimble, has lead their team to deploy autonomous grain cart systems and tillage systems in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Georgia.

He shares a story from a customer in Nebraska who it’s a father-son farming duo, and the OutRun grain cart allows the father to truck grain while the son harvests supported by the autonomous grain cart. That 3,500 acre farm has been able to finish harvest in 20% to 25% less time.

“It’s really about the flexibility of the deployment of labor that autonomy gives you,” Subramaniam says. “Like having a grain truck driver rather than a grain cart driver, or having someone who can take a five hour break during tillage and let the autonomous system run.”

AGCO’s PTx OutRun tillage solution is $44,000 for hardware plus a $9,000 annual cost. OutRun’s modular model also includes autonomous grain cart operations, with additional tasks in development. A combined tillage/grain cart setup costs $55,000 for hardware and $15,000 annually.

Subramaniam also highlights agronomic benefits for fall field work getting done timelier when autonomous systems are used.

“Instead of straining into December with harvest trying to get that crop off the ground, autonomy can help reduce late harvest yield loss, which can be a 3% to 5% reduction,” he says. “We talk about an ideal harvest season, but the reality is there are always weather delays, mechanical delays, and more.”

There’s a trickle down effect of timely harvest, fall tillage and fall application.

“From a tillage point of view, we’ve also learned that there’s other benefits as well from better incorporation of crop residue, getting to tillage sooner so that that crop residue can break down,” he says.

The Purdue economists agree this is a space to watch as what’s possible with technology and the escalating labor issues intersect.

Why the Northern Lights Are More Like Caution Lights to Farmers

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:55:59 GMT

This week, from Minnesota to Florida, the Aurora Borelias, or the northern lights have been observed.

Space weather forecasters at NOAA are expecting a strong magnetic field from the sun through 4 pm eastern on Wednesday, while also anticipating an extension of those alerts as a third flare approaches Earth and its strength and path can be confirmed. These current geomagnetic storms are categorized as G4, or severe, and the magnetic force has been 8x stronger than normal.

Why should farmers be aware?

Dr. Terry Griffin, precision ag economist at Kansas State University, says these severe events can interrupt high frequency radio waves, communications for the airline industry, and for agriculture–GPS, including RTK.

(@braunfarm / X)

He says this week’s storm has interrupted field activities such as strip-till, fertilizer application, and more. While it’s presumed (because USDA hasn’t published harvest data due to the shut down), most of regular harvest activities are wrapped up, but some key research fields or test plots may not be.

“My concern as a data person is not being able to log yield data to make the maps we use for on-farm experimentation in particular,” he says. “We put in this effort through the growing season, and a day comes to harvest that field, well if GPS isn’t working, we can still harvest but we’re not able to log that data.”

As for why space weather and it’s effects on Earth activities has come into focus recently, Griffin says solar cycles are roughly 11 years, and we’re entering the 11th year of the current cycle.

“It could tame down next year,” he says.

Updates are available at SpaceWeather.gov and anyone can sign up for alerts to stay up-to-date on posted notices for space weather.

New High-Yield, High-Protein Winter Wheat Variety Set for Farms in the Northern Plains

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:55:00 GMT

Winter wheat harvest — with its amber waves and sun-bleached grains — is a fixture in the Plains states of America. That iconic activity may peak as the combines pass each summer, but the work for big yields began a decade ago.

“Every variety that is made, this is the place where it starts from,” explains Sunish Sehgal , a professor and winter wheat breeder at South Dakota State University, as he points to parent wheat plants growing in a campus greenhouse. “To develop a new variety, we start by crossing two parents.”

Winter Wheat breeder Sunish Seghal checks a field of SD Vivian.

(Clinton Griffiths)

For the last decade, Sehgal has been working to launch next-generation winter wheat varieties for South Dakota farmers. Whether in the greenhouse or in the field, he makes 800 of these genetic crosses every year — hoping to make elite varieties even better.

“We have to continuously make new varieties in order to increase the profitability of our farmers and also to meet the challenges the farmer faces in today’s environment,” Sehgal says.

A Challenging Environment

In South Dakota’s temperamental weather, those challenges are seemingly endless. Sehgal points to new races of stripe rust constantly emerging, issues with head blight, tan spot and insect pressure like hessian fly — just to name a few. Add a variable climate on top, and it makes for a difficult puzzle to solve.

“We face drought every four out of five years,” Sehgal adds. “I need to look at all of these aspects to identify an individual [variety] which will actually survive in this environment, and thrive in this environment, while being profitable for the producers.”

After testing thousands of varieties and a decade of trials, a new variety is on its way. Next season, in 2026, South Dakota producers will be able to plant SD Vivan – a high-yielding, high-protein winter wheat with strong resistance to the state’s agronomic challenges.

“Usually, when the varieties are high-yielding, they tend to have lower protein,” Sehgal explains. “The unique thing about SD Vivian is that it is able to maintain its protein content, even at a higher yield.”

Growing the Future

He made his first crosses for this variety back in the greenhouse in 2015. Today, he’s investigating how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning might speed up his variety selection process. Until then, it’s a labor of love and determination to make a difference for farmers.

Sehgal makes 800 crosses a year in this greenhouse on SDSU campus.

(Clinton Griffiths)

“I’m honored to be able to be the part of the story where farmers, through their checkoff, fund the wheat breeding program,” Sehgal explains. “I am able to contribute and return them something back in the form of advanced genetics, which will make their farm more profitable and more sustainable.”

3 Ways To Protect Your Ag Business from Cybersecurity Threats

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:57:59 GMT

Agriculture is in the bull’s-eye for threat actors trying to access business information. But as Chris Sherman says: “Our keys in the visor mentality” has many farmers trusting too much and putting too much at risk.

Sherman is the founder of Tech Support Farm, an IT and cybersecurity consulting business who works with farmers, co-ops, custom harvesters and more ag businesses to shore up their systems, lock down their sensitive information and stay attuned to emerging risks.

The FBI has listed agriculture as a critical infrastructure for cybersecurity.

So where do most farmers leave themselves vulnerable to hackers? Sherman shares these:

1. Email

Sherman points to email as the No. 1 priority for farmers on where to start in taking cybersecurity seriously.

“The amount of information and data we are sending via email leaves every farmer at risk — from our FSA staff, agronomists, banks and more,” he says. “Emails can be intercepted, all contents can be exposed, and no one is the wiser. It would be like a rural mail carrier, and when he drops the mail someone stands there opening it, reading it and closing the envelope and putting it back in the mailbox. Foolhardy to be using the free email services such as Gmail, Yahoo and others.”

Here are four steps to shore up your email:

Get a domain
Get a commercial email provider
Get a filtration software (which monitors what comes in)
Get a DMARC compliance service (which manages outbound emails, so no one spoofs you and encryption is done properly)

As an example of why this should be prioritized, Sherman tells the story of a farm business working on a land deal.

“A dad and son were just about ready to sign, and the dad got an email from the bank, at least it appeared to be from the bank, but it was a spoof encouraging them to e-sign,” he says. “And everyone signed, and it drained the bank accounts and blew up the deal.”

2. Be aware of your personal information shared, and embrace “herd immunity”

All to often, farmers don’t have passcodes on their phones.

“That’s like leaving your credit card at the bar,” Sherman says. “For some reason in agriculture we are running multimillion dollar businesses on residential-grade infrastructure.”

He says by the nature of the business, enrolling in government programs, immigration workforce programs (such as H-2A) and more, make your address, phone number and email readily accessible.

“It’s a wealth of opportunity for threat actors. We can’t leave our doors and windows open,” Sherman says. “So you have to protect yourself, and encourage your friends, neighbors and business partners to do the same. If we are all reducing our individual risk, we are reducing the overall risk.”

3. Use high-quality passwords

Sherman says good passwords are must-have on all your accounts, including your Wi-Fi.

“Too often, farmers have their password just be a duplicate of the network name. Or if a farmer’s favorite tractor is a John Deere 4450, 4450 is his pin for everything,” he says. “When we are on the internet, it’s like being in the big city, and you have to act accordingly.”