Sustainability

Farmers Emphasize Demand, Not Payments, Is The ‘Bridge To Better Times' For Agriculture

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:26:14 GMT

Two Midwest farmers are pinning their hopes for the future on stronger demand for corn and soybeans — especially the latter — as they navigate tight margins, high input costs, and an uncertain price outlook.

Northern Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick and south-central Iowa farmer Dennis Bogaards say they have exhausted most cost-cutting options for this season. They believe future profitability now rests on whether demand for both crops — particularly from domestic soybean crush and fuel markets — expands enough to support higher prices.

One silver lining currently, Pitstick says, is his relatively strong position on fertilizer heading into the 2026 planting season.

“We will do pretty much the dry spread program we always do,” he says. “We cut the rates a little bit on the phosphates just because of price. We booked our 32% in September, something we traditionally do. We have all the nitrogen bought, so I feel good about 2026 from that aspect.”

While he believes additional fertilizer is available, he notes it will likely be priced at a premium.

“I believe I can get more if I need it. I may not like the price, but I can get more,” he told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory during the weekly Farmer Forum segment.

Little To No Expansion On The Horizon

As the season begins, both farmers emphasize that the coming years will have farmers focusing on survival and strategic adjustments rather than acreage expansion.

One adjustment Bogaards is making is front-loading some of his nitrogen needs this season while leaving a portion open in case prices break.

“We booked anhydrous early on for this year, back in early fall, and got an OK price,” Bogaards says. “I have a little bit of sidedress that we do. We book about half of that, and I sit open on the rest of it. I’ll wait and see where it goes.”

Bogaards remains committed to sidedressing as long as product is available and prices do not continue ratcheting up. “If I can get it, I’ll put it on, unless it is a crazy, crazy price,” he says.

Like many U.S. growers, both Bogaards and Pitstick say there is virtually no room left to cut fertilizer use without risking yields.

“There is no place to cut back. We are being as efficient as we can be,” Pitstick says.

Bogaards agrees, noting that nitrogen is not the place to skimp. “Maybe a year or so, you can cut back on the P and K a little bit, but you do not want to get caught in three or four years of that.”

He also remains reluctant to drop fungicides. “Fungicides really pay off,” he says. “In the past, we did not use them, but the last few years they really paid, and I would hate to not spray them.”

Uncertainty About The 2027 Crop Mix

While the 2026 crop is largely “business as usual,” both farmers told Flory that 2027 brings real uncertainty—especially regarding nitrogen supplies. Pitstick is concerned about how global demand could impact costs for U.S. producers.

“I am worried about the price of the nitrogen,” he says. “It may not be an issue in the United States from a supply standpoint, but the rest of the world… could export our product because of opportunity cost, and that drives the price up. It is a total wait and see.”

Flory underscored how global trade flows directly shape what American farmers pay, noting that some fertilizer shipments originally destined for the U.S. were recently rerouted.

“Some boats are diverted from the U.S. to other countries,” Flory says. “If you want your share, you have to beat the next guy in line with the price.”

If nitrogen prices soar while corn prices stagnate, Pitstick says his rotation could shift. “That might change how we do things in 2027. We may have to go to more soybeans,” he says.

Bogaards also expects to alter his corn–soybean mix, given the potential demand from domestic crush and renewable fuels.

“In the past, we were probably 60% to 65% corn,” he says. “We have been backing off of that. I still do a little bit of corn-on-corn, but I might try to go to a 50–50 rotation.”

Flory believes this shift could help rebalance supplies and improve price prospects. “If we can pull some acres away from corn and get this thing rebalanced, maybe that is our bridge to a better time,” Flory says. “Our bridge to a better time is more demand across the board and crops competing for acres — not another payment.”

Bogaards says the shifting economics are already evident. “A couple of years ago, people said soybeans are a drag on our financial statements. It looks like almost the opposite right now.”

Even so, Bogaards is cautious about making long-term decisions based on short-term signals. “I can change acres right now, but by next fall, it might be the worst decision. I think you have to go with your rotation and stick with it.”

Pitstick links his long-term outlook to fuel sector growth, noting that both corn and soybeans increasingly function as energy crops.

“Some of the most profitable years of my career were when we had high fuel prices because we were also a fuel crop,” he says. “I have some optimism that these high fuel prices will cause some demand and increase our crop prices.”

For now, both farmers say their immediate job is to manage through 2026 while keeping their options open. With high costs for fertilizer, fuel, and machinery, they see expanded demand as the only realistic path forward.

“It is just survival at this point,” Bogaards says. “We just have to make sure we can survive and keep plugging through it.”

You can listen to the complete discussion between Bogaards, Pitstick and Flory on AgriTalk at the link below:

Bayer And Iowa State Partner On Seed Innovation Center

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:10:29 GMT

In the world of row-crop farming, a great-yielding seed product is the result of dozens of efforts in engineering and data. To ensure those victories keep coming, Bayer’s Crop Science division and Iowa State University (ISU) announce they have opened the doors to their new Seed Production Innovation (SPI) Innovation Center.

Located in heart of Ames at the ISU Research Park campus, the tactical hub is designed to help Bayer make seed production more efficient, more precise and more reliable for U.S. farmers, the partners say.

By placing Bayer’s innovation teams side-by-side with ISU faculty and students, the company anticipates shortening the distance between a “good idea” and a field-ready solution.

“Its location allows us to work side-by-side with Iowa State’s Digital Ag Innovation Lab,” says Amanuel Ghebretinsae, Bayer’s head of global innovations for seed production, in a press release. “We are accelerating the development of practical solutions that strengthen our seed production operations and support our farmer partners.”

What This Means For Your Farm

While the research and development will happen in Ames, the impact is designed to be felt at the farm gate. The partnership will focus on three key pillars, according to Bayer:

1. Maximizing Seed Quality: Using the latest in precision agriculture and automation to ensure the Bayer-branded seed in your shed meets the highest possible standards.

2. Digital Ag Advancements: By collaborating with ISU’s Digital Ag Innovation Lab, the center will push the envelope on data analytics and automation, aiming to take the guesswork out of seed production.

3. A Workforce Pipeline: The center serves as a training ground for students. For farmers, this means the next generation of agronomists and tech reps will hit the field with hands-on experience in some of the ag industry’s most advanced technology.

A Hub For Farmer Education

The facility is also set to become a destination for corn and soybean growers. Plans for the space include innovation workshops and producer education sessions, focusing on scientific and engineering solutions that provide “value-add” to the farm.

“Bayer’s investment underscores the Research Park’s mission to connect leading companies with Iowa State’s research strengths and talent pipeline,” says Rick Sanders, president of the ISU Research Park, in a press release. “Bayer’s presence enhances our innovation ecosystem and creates meaningful opportunities for collaboration with faculty, startups and students, particularly in digital and data enabled agriculture.”

Blake Vince Shares 1.7 Million Reasons To Stop Tilling Your Soil

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:54:51 GMT

Blake Vince says some of the most highly-valued help on his 1,200-acre Ontario, Canada, farm never show up on a payroll sheet.

They live under his boots.

“One day I went out with a shovel, flipped over a slice of soil about 12 inches by 12 inches, and I started counting earthworms,” Vince recalls. “I counted 40 in that one square.”

He quickly estimated how many earthworms likely live in one acre of his cropland: “Multiply that 40 by 43,560 [the square feet in one acre] and you get 1,742,400. That’s a hell of a lot of earthworms out there in my soil doing the work.”

For Vince, earthworms are more than a sign of good soil — they’re central characters in how he farms, evaluates risk and stays profitable. In a production system shaped by no-till, planting green and cover crops, he sees earthworms as the quiet workforce that’s helping hold the whole thing together, he recently told farmers attending the 2026 Soil Health Conference in Aberdeen, S.D.

(Blake Vince)

From Traditional Tillage To Tiny Tillers

Vince grew up believing that aggressive tillage comes at a cost. The renowned fifth-generation farmer from Merlin — a 750-person farming community in southwest Ontario — is considered a conservation farming pioneer in the region, having used no-till for over 40 years to protect soil structure.

“(I learned early) that tillage was eroding our largest capital investment, our soil. Soil is not an infinite resource. I can’t stress that enough,” he says.

Blake’s father and his brothers started to no-till in 1983 when he was just 11 years old.

“Our motive for what we do on our farm first and foremost is to remain financially viable,” he says. “And then what’s important is the fact that we’re protecting the environment.”

Those two goals continue today on the farm, which he operates with his father, Elwin. Together, they grow commercial corn, soybeans and winter wheat, and cover crop for seed on approximately 1,200 acres.

The father-son team seeds cash crops directly into living covers such as cereal rye to suppress weeds, protect soil and extend the period of living roots. Vince says they use planting green to cut passes, reduce herbicide pressure and boost resilience in dry spells, evaluating the benefits by agronomics and economics, not appearances.

Even with its proximity to the Great Lakes (see image below), the farm’s heavy Brookston clay operates within a moisture-strapped, 16-inch rainfall zone. In such an environment, soil disturbance is critical.

Blake Vince’s farm is based just north of Lake Erie and south of Lake Huron. But despite its proximity to the Great Lakes, the farm only sees about 16 inches of rain annually.

(Blake Vince)

Vince categorizes soils as either “defensive” or “offensive.” On offensive soils, he believes aggressive tillage can continue for years with little visible impact.

“You can till it with the most aggressive tillage passes, and you can still grow a crop… So the decline is gradual,” he contends, noting he believes much of the upper Midwest has offensive soils.

His own ground is the opposite, and he refers to his soils as being defensive. As a result, the wrong tillage pass at the wrong moisture level could smear the soil profile, seal off pores and restrict roots just when crops need water the most.

“We can’t go down into the depth of the soil to bring up the much-needed moisture during that critical period of year when it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside and the corn is trying to pollinate,” Vince says.

Betting On Biology Instead Of Iron

When Vince talks about earthworms, he sounds like a businessman who’s discovered an overlooked, underpaid labor force.

“When an earthworm poops, it’s pH neutral,” he says. “So it’s bringing all of those nutrients from depth, turning organic material — last year’s crop residue — into plant-available nutrients for subsequent crops that we grow.”

In other words: free nutrient cycling, free aggregation, free tillage.

A moment that cemented Vince’s faith in earthworms started with a disagreement. His independent agronomist, looking at soil test results, told him he needed to apply lime. Vince didn’t dispute that. The sticking point was how to use it.

“She suggested to me, ‘Blake, you need to add lime, which I agreed, but in order to use that lime and make it most effective, you need to till it in,’” he recalls. “And I said, ‘No. That’s where the buck stops. I am not interested in doing tillage. It costs time, it costs energy, it costs money — diesel fuel, depreciation, as we all know.’”

Vince’s answer sounded simple, almost unbelievable, even naive.

“I’ve got so many earthworms, they’ll do the work for me,” he told her.

Later, while installing tile drainage, he found the proof he’d been looking for. At the top of an earthworm midden — a vertical burrow —he saw a dusting of white on the soil surface.

“So folks, this is an earthworm midden,” he told the audience as he showed the image (see below). “You can see at the top of the picture, that’s lime that’s been broadcast on the surface. That earthworm has crawled to the surface. It’s got its body coated in lime that we’ve spread just on the surface, and now it’s bringing it down in its middens, down in its vertical burrows.”

Earthworms help move lime below the soil’s surface.

(Blake Vince)

For most farmers, incorporating lime means fuel, wear on steel and the risk of compaction or smearing. For Vince, it meant waiting on the night shift.

“If we think back to that picture where I was standing there with those earthworm casts, how much horsepower would be required to do tillage at that depth?” he asked the audience. “More than I have.”

In his view, every pass he doesn’t make is one more way he can reduce costs and protect his bottom line.

The contributions of earthworms to global food development have been assessed by the National Institutes of Health . The agency reports earthworms contribute to roughly 6.5% of global grain (maize, rice, wheat, barley) production and 2.3% of legume production, equivalent to over 140 million metric tons annually.

The Unseen Economics Underfoot

Behind Vince’s enthusiasm for earthworms and farming green lies a hard-edged focus on economics. From a brief stint in financial services, he brought one non-negotiable rule home to the farm: pay yourself first.

“The number one rule of financial planning is what? Pay yourself first,” he says. “With that mentality, I started thinking: how do I do that here? I don’t control the price of seed, chemicals, fertilizer, diesel, or machinery. But I can control how I manage my soil.”

One of his major “pay yourself first” decisions a decade ago was switching to 100% non-GMO soybeans. Growing them allows him to brown bag his own seed without worrying about patent infringement, all while securing a market premium.

“I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now,” he says. “Mathematically, I figure I’m well over a million dollars ahead in net profit, simply because of my willingness to think differently.”

That thinking applies to earthworms, too. To Vince, every earthworm burrow is a tiny cost-saving device. Every casting is a granule of fertilizer he doesn’t have to buy or risk losing to runoff. Every year he skips deep tillage is a year he avoids burning diesel and breaking shear bolts.

“Doing nothing, in all actuality, is doing something,” he told the audience. By “nothing,” he doesn’t mean neglect; he means resisting the urge to disturb the natural infrastructure the worms are building for him.

More Than A Soil Test Number

Vince doesn’t romanticize his soils. He’s pragmatic, often blunt, about what’s at stake when farmers ignore the biology just beneath the surface.

“We abuse our land because we regard it as a commodity,” he says, quoting conservationist Aldo Leopold. Then he adds his own twist. “‘Dirt’ is a four-letter word I wish everybody in agriculture would remove from their vocabulary… It’s soil. It’s a collection of living, breathing organisms, and we need to treat it with respect.”

On his farm, that respect looks like cover crops to keep the soil armored, no-till to protect structure and planting green to keep living roots feeding the underground food web as long as possible. Earthworms are both beneficiaries and drivers of that system.

“My main focus is preparing our transfer of our farm to the next generation, regardless if they’re our kids, or they’re somebody else’s kids,” Vince says. “I want [the farm] to be as productive as possible, so they can be a success.”

As long as he keeps the soils covered and the roots living, he knows his million-man workforce underground will be clocking in for their shift every single day, helping the farm thrive.

Listen to Vince’s keynote presentation during the 2026 Soil Health Conference here .

Betting on Biomass: How Two Farmers Turn Cover Crops Into Weed Control

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:38:13 GMT

When herbicide-resistant waterhemp began rewriting the rules of weed control for farmers in Illinois, Frank Rademacher didn’t respond by using more products. Instead, he doubled down on no-till and cover crops, betting that a living carpet of rye and roots could do what herbicides alone no longer could.

Rademacher, who farms with his father in Champaign County, recalls the initial transition was a steep learning curve, complicated by making too many changes at one time.

“When we got into cover crops heavy, that was also basically the same year we switched everything over to no-till, and the same year we switched all of our crops to non-GMO,” he says. “Boy, that was a mistake on a lot of fronts, because your weed populations really shift in the process of switching to no-till, at least initially.”

Despite the early hurdles, cereal rye became the foundation of Rademacher’s weed-control program. On his east-central Illinois fields, drilled cereal rye—planted early at roughly 50 pounds per acre—has provided enough biomass to simplify herbicide programs in his non-GMO soybeans.

“There [have been] a lot of times where we have just done like a one-pass herbicide program, so no post spray, and that was in non-GMO beans, and they were really clean,” Rademacher says.

Match Cover Crop Species to Farm Goals

Hundreds of miles away in Virginia, Paul Davis follows a similar philosophy. No-tilling since 1999 and using covers since 2005, Davis views weed control as inseparable from soil health.

“They do so many things,” says Davis, who farms in New Kent County. “Providing erosion control, providing something growing all winter to scavenge any nutrients... making nitrogen, especially this year for my corn crop.”

While Rademacher leans on cereal rye for soybeans, Davis centers his program on a cereal rye-vetch system ahead of corn. Both farmers aim for enough biomass to smother weeds while keeping the cash crop competitive and thriving.

Managing the Fine Line Between Weed and Crop Control

The balance is delicate, particularly with corn. Rademacher warns: “As it relates to corn, the line between enough biomass to fight weeds all season long, and the line between that and having no crop at all can be a pretty fine line. It’s pretty easy to have really good weed control, but also really good crop control.”

To avoid tying up nitrogen, Rademacher opts to use wheat or barley ahead of corn rather than the more aggressive cereal rye.

Davis manages these tradeoffs by decoupling his grass and legumes in the spring. He kills the cereal rye early with a grass herbicide to prevent the Carbon-to-Nitrogen (C:N) ratio from becoming too high.

“I don’t want the cereal rye to go that long, because once it gets a hollow stem, it takes a lot of bacteria eating nitrogen to break that hollow stem down,” he explains.

By late March, Davis terminates the cereal rye but feeds the vetch, letting it grow until it blooms. By mid-May, the vetch forms a two-foot-tall mat that suppresses weeds and allows him to scale back on products.

“That’s really where I’ve cut my herbicide program back the most, in my corn rotation with the heavy vetch stand,” he says.

The Biomass Trap and Termination Timing

Both farmers emphasize that covers complement, rather than replace, good chemistry on their fields. Rademacher warns that a “middle ground” of biomass can actually be detrimental.

“There is kind of a point where you’ve got enough biomass that inhibits some of your herbicide from hitting the ground—too much residue, but not quite enough to get really good weed control to replace that impact,” he says.

He is also “hyper vigilant” about the weather during termination, noting that nighttime temperatures should be above 50°F to ensure the plants don’t shut down. He also cautions about the spray mix used. He sometimes sees termination failures when farmers add clay-based residuals like atrazine in poor temperature windows.

Davis scales his herbicide use based on biomass volume. “If you’re planting into [6,000 to 8,000 pounds], you definitely can reduce your herbicide program,” he says. However, “If you have a weak stand of rye... don’t plan on cutting your herbicide program back.”

On a related front, Davis and Rademacher have been able to reduce their insecticide use. After noticing spider webs in his fields 12 years ago, Davis stopped using them entirely. “I haven’t used an insecticide since—not on corn, beans, wheat, pumpkins, anything,” he says.

Rademacher reports that beneficial predators on his farm now control pests like slugs. “We’ve got such a huge beneficial population... because we haven’t used insecticides now on anything going on six or seven years,” he says.

Weed Control As Part Of A System

Both farmers say weed control is now the product of a broader system they’ve adopted: no-till, continuous roots, high-residue covers, and a more complex biological community above- and below-ground.

To get started with cover crops, Rademacher tells farmers to begin where he believes there’s room for error: with soybeans. “I would get cover crops to have soybeans figured out,” he says. “Just plant… whatever [your] local NRCS recommendations are for cereal rye rates.”

Davis would start out using covers ahead of corn, using a focused cereal rye–vetch program and learning to time termination for both weed control and nitrogen. He stresses growing enough biomass to matter, killing the cereal rye before it gets too lignified, and then letting vetch build the mat that suppresses weeds and feeds the crop.

His main advice to farmers is to think long-term. “It takes five or six years before you really start seeing the benefits,” he says. “God didn’t make Earth in one day, so don’t expect miracles in one day.”

Davis and Rademacher shared their experiences incorporating the use of cover crops on their farms during an online GROW farmer forum addressing the topic of using cover crop mixes for weed suppression. GROW stands for Getting Rid Of Weeds. The organization is a scientist-led network coordinating research to help farmers across the U.S. fight herbicide-resistance with a greater diversity of weed control strategies to complement chemical use.

Why Did McDonald’s USA Invest $200 Million in Regenerative Agriculture?

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:03:00 GMT

In September, McDonald’s USA unveiled its largest investment in regenerative agriculture to date with the launch of the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative . This public-private partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and key McDonald’s U.S. suppliers aims to scale regenerative grazing and conservation efforts across the U.S.

This initiative will invest more than $200 million over the next seven years to help promote and accelerate regenerative grazing practices, habitat restoration, water and wildlife conservation on cattle ranches spanning 4 million acres in up to 38 states.

“We know the natural resources that are required for the food system to thrive are under a lot of pressure, and so our desire to make our supply chain more resilient is really a business decision,” explains Audrey Leduc, McDonald’s U.S. sustainability director.

During the 2026 Top Producer Conference, Leduc shared McDonald’s has 13,000 U.S. restaurants that annually serve 90% of Americans. In 2024, McDonald’s bought 671 million pounds of beef in the U.S.

(McDonalds)

What Are the Core Objectives?

“There’s really two things that you need to think about when you’re thinking about a resilient supply chain,” Leduc says. “The first one is, you need to understand where are your vulnerabilities, and second, you need to understand where you’re having the most impact.”

The initiative is designed to bolster U.S. supply chain resilience while providing ranchers with the tools needed to:

Improve grazing management. Enhancing land productivity and soil health
Restore ecosystems. Protecting grasslands and wildlife habitats
Conserve water. Implementing practices that safeguard water resources
Upgrade infrastructure. Providing financial support for ranch improvements

Promoting and accelerating these practices benefits both the environment and ranchers and shows how large brands can help drive meaningful change in the food system.

“The benefits of grassland conservation are far-reaching,” says Jeff Trandahl, NFWF executive director and CEO. “When cattle are managed to optimize multiple ecological and economic values, the land holds more water, grows better grass and supports more wildlife. Conservation practices voluntarily adopted by ranchers can improve the productivity of grasslands, increase ranching profitability and strengthen the vitality of rural communities across the United States.”

What Are the Economic Incentives for Ranchers?

“We understand that the financial burden to move towards regenerative agriculture is often carried by the producer,” Leduc says. “And so how does big companies like McDonald’s get involved? Well, it’s with things like the grassland initiative.”

The initiative will help boost its U.S. supply chain resilience, including by providing participating ranchers economic returns such as incentive payments.

Participating ranchers will receive:

Incentive payments. Direct economic returns for adopting sustainable practices
Technical assistance. Access to resources for voluntary conservation efforts
Performance monitoring. Independent soil health quantification provided by Kateri and Carbon Yield

“We want to be good stewards of the land, and we’re putting money directly where our mouth is,” Leduc adds. “It’s a business decision to protect the beef supply chain, and we want to be accelerating and working alongside the producers.”

McDonald’s USA suppliers, including Cargill, Golden State Foods, Lopez Foods, OSI and The Coca-Cola Company, will provide funds to NFWF alongside McDonald’s USA.

Audrey Leduc, U.S. sustainability director for McDonald’s, shares the stage at the 2026 Top Producer Summit with Angie Denton, Drovers editorial leader, to talk about McDonald’s commitment to working with beef producers to source responsible beef and prioritize natural resource stewardship.

(Farm Journal)

What is the Timeline?

NFWF will manage and invest conservation funding to advance ranchers in their voluntary conservation efforts. NFWF is collaborating with its conservation partners across America’s grasslands to identify impactful landscape-scale projects that will generate the greatest possible benefits to both wildlife populations and the productivity of vital U.S. ranch lands.

NFWF will independently award competitive grants to organizations that will assist participating ranchers in adopting practices that advance wildlife conservation and regenerative agriculture. The first round of competitive grant-making will culminate in the announcement of awards, which is expected soon.

“As a brand that serves more than 90% of Americans every year, we recognize the responsibility we have to help safeguard our food systems for long-term vitality,” says Cesar Piña, McDonald’s senior vice president and chief supply chain officer, North America. “Through our support of this initiative, McDonald’s USA is demonstrating the power of partnership between the public and private sectors and that feeding the population and stewarding our natural resources can coexist.”

For additional information about the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative, visit the NFWF website .

How Do Alternative Proteins Fit Into McDonald’s Plans?

“At McDonald’s, we are not pursuing alternative protein,” Leduc says. “That’s not our sustainability strategy. Our sustainability strategy is a resilient beef supply chain in the U.S.”

Black Soldier Fly Bioreactors Turn Food Waste into Plant Protection and Farm Resources

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:41:00 GMT

What if food waste wasn’t something to get rid of but a resource waiting to be tapped? Researchers at University of California, Riverside are exploring whether a small, insect-powered system could help growers close the loop, turning everyday scraps into new biological tools that support healthier plants, stronger soils and more self-reliant farms.

Black soldier fly bioreactors are gaining attention as a promising way to turn waste into resources, creating feed for poultry and fish, while also producing frass that could help strengthen plant defenses. For specialty crop growers and urban farmers, the research carries particular relevance.

Professor Kerry Mauck has been studying how black soldier fly systems influence plants, and one of the most intriguing concepts is what she describes as a “vaccine-like” effect. Insects, fungi and other organisms that commonly interact with plants contain chitin, a structural polymer. When tiny fragments of chitin from the insects’ exoskeletons show up in soil, plants recognize the signal.

Mauck explains that the bits of chitin become “a molecular signature of something that the plant might want to ramp up its defenses to fight off.” Because frass contains both chitin and microbes that help break it down into smaller pieces, plants can respond as if they are preparing for attack, thus switching on natural defense systems before any threat arrives.

“It’s like activating those defenses without the attack that comes right after,” Mauck says. “If something else does come in, the plant is ready for it.”

Black soldier fly adults sunning themselves on the walls of the greenhouse housing the bioreactor.

(Photo courtesy of Mauck Lab BSF Team)

Built With Small and Specialty Growers in Mind

While large commercial systems exist, Mauck’s team intentionally designed a small, adaptable setup.

“Ours is one of the first that’s been tested and published that would operate on a small scale,” she says. The goal was to make it feasible for small and medium-sized farms and growers with limited space. The main requirement is an enclosed area with some temperature control — such as a greenhouse or a simple building with windows.

The footprint can be as modest as a single bin, roughly a meter and a half square, but growers can add additional bins in a row as their operation grows. Importantly, most of the materials are common agricultural supplies.

“The bins are like bins you might use to harvest fruit,” she says, noting buckets, shovels and hardware-store materials made up most of the system’s needs.

Urban farmers might find the flexibility attractive, although Mauck cautions that community gardens could face coordination challenges around who maintains the system week-to-week. In the university trial, undergraduate workers were able to keep the system running with about five to 10 hours per week of labor.

BSF larvae eating food waste from the UCR dining hall.

(Photo courtesy of Mauck Lab BSF Team)

Beyond Feed: Soil Biology and Plant Resilience

Beyond producing feed for poultry and fish, Mauck sees some of the greatest potential benefits happening underground.

The chitin and organic matter appear to encourage beneficial bacteria that help keep soil-borne pathogens in check.

“The other great thing about the materials that are in the frass … is that a lot of microbes that are beneficial, that can actually suppress diseases in the soil, thrive on these materials,” she says.

Her team is now exploring whether even small doses of frass could build healthier soil ecosystems while keeping application costs low.

“We’re trying to see what’s the smallest dose … that can still be effective,” Mauck says.

For specialty crop farms, the research suggests several takeaways:

Closed-loop opportunity: Waste streams can become feed and soil amendments instead of disposal costs
Plant-defense potential: Frass might “prime” crops to better respond to pests and disease
Scalable design: Systems can start small and expand
Labor remains a factor: Clear responsibilities and training are essential, especially in shared garden settings

As scientists learn more about how frass shapes soil biology and plant defenses, this insect-powered approach could become one of the simplest ways to close the loop on nutrients.

Why it's Never Too Late to Grow

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 20:04:43 GMT

When Steve Hackett retired in 2020, he had no idea he was about to discover a new calling as a farmer. As he began tending to his gardens and orchards, his journey resonated with a global audience and transformed him into FarmerSteve727, an accidental TikTok sensation to tens of thousands.

At 60, Hackett and his wife bought five acres in northern Connecticut and gave new life to a neglected former horse farm that had gone wild after two decades of little care. Instead of seeing an overwhelming mess, Hackett says he saw possibility. Followers on TikTok saw the same, and his account eventually grew to 67,000 followers.

“I never did gardening before or anything,” he says. “But I always wanted to have fruit trees … so I said, I’m going to put a little orchard in, and I’m going to start gardening.”

Hackett dived into research on food forests and permaculture, determined to grow as much food as possible, while making it as visually appealing as possible. Over time, he planted about 30 fruit trees, mostly peaches, apples and pears, along with a few cherries. Planted in 2022, the trees are finally starting to reward his patience, especially the peaches, which have become a household staple.

The work started simply with clearing brush, pulling poison ivy and imagining what the land could become. Curious neighbors watched from lawn chairs as he slowly carved out garden beds and experimented with raised beds, vegetables, pumpkins and, eventually, towering sunflowers. These same 12-to-14-foot sunflowers led to Hackett’s first viral video.

Today, the harvests are far beyond the “two or three tomatoes” he once celebrated. He cans, freezes and shares generously. “I give a lot away … the senior center gets bags every week,” he says.

Screenshot from FarmerSteve727’s TikTok account.

(Courtesy of FarmerSteve727 via TikTok)

TikTok wasn’t part of the original plan. It started as a family suggestion, sort of a joke, he says, until his first videos suddenly drew an audience. Overnight, FarmerSteve727 found 1,000 followers; within a year, he had 8,000. Then came the idea that changed everything: a sunflower “room” beside his koi pond.

He planted the structure of sunflowers in a semi-circle, illuminated it with lights, added chairs and waited. Hackett says he filmed the progress as the sunflower room came to life.

That first video of the sunflowers is when his followers started to increase exponentially.

“I put a video on in June, and overnight, I got 17,000 more followers. I think the original video got 2.5 million views, and then I put a second one on, and that one got like 1.8 million views, and then it took off from there.”

By that time, Hackett says he was up to about 34,000 followers within a couple of weeks, and the growth just continued, he says.

People connected with the creativity, but also the message, realizing that if he could do it, maybe they could, too.

Despite his online popularity, Hackett doesn’t see himself as an expert. He sees himself as a student who happens to share the journey.

He’s learned what many lifelong growers eventually do: The garden runs on patience.

“It isn’t instant,” he says. “Once you plant something, everything in the world is going to try to eat it. It’s a challenge, but I really enjoy it.”

He’s also found unexpected joy in foods he never thought he’d love, particularly squash and zucchini, and in the simple rhythm of tending, harvesting, cooking and preserving.

This year, after undergoing surgery and scaling back pumpkins, he focused instead on expanding a sunflower maze and thinking about what’s next. Part of that future involves rebuilding much of the garden so he can film clearer how-to videos and talk more directly to the camera.

TikTok viewers might soon see “Cooking with Farmer Steve,” along with new raised beds, longer-form storytelling and more behind-the-scenes glimpses into the work.

“I want to rebuild it and make better videos of how I did it,” Hackett says. “And I’m going to add something special to the sunflower maze.”

What started as a retirement project has become an orchard, a garden, a creative playground and a source of encouragement to thousands of people who dream of growing something themselves.

Maybe that’s why Hackett resonates with his followers. He didn’t start farming at 20 or 40. He began at 60 with curiosity, time and the willingness to learn out loud.

And standing inside a glowing room of sunflowers taller than he ever imagined, Farmer Steve says he’s still just getting started.

USDA Launches New $700 Million Regenerative Ag Pilot Program

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:33:18 GMT

USDA wants farmers to focus on soil health and producing more nutritious food. To that end, Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins, along with Robert “F” Kennedy Jr., Health Secretary, and Doctor Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, announced a $700 million pilot program aimed at supporting regenerative farming. USDA says the Regenerative Pilot Program’s goal is to help American farmers adopt practices focused on improving soil health, water quality and boost long-term productivity.

“We are committed to restoring America’s natural strength by empowering producers with simple outcome-based tools,” Rollins says. “Producers at every stage, from beginners just starting with cover crops to advanced operators with years of conservation experience, many of those are represented by our farmers today, will find a pathway through this pilot.”

Rollins says the program will be funded through existing programs at USDA and allow farmers to pursue “whole-farm planning” instead of a piecemeal approach. The pilot will be administered through the agency’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

“Each producer’s results will be measured and credited back to the farmer through an outcomes report, recognizing and rewarding improvements they achieve on their own land,” Rollins says. “This initiative puts American farmers first as part of the solution to make America healthy again.”

Building Off MAHA

The announcement follows the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy released in September.

Kennedy said the initiative promises farmers an “off-ramp” to transition away from chemical fertilizer inputs, “to a model that emphasizes soil health, and with soil health comes nutrient density through voluntary action.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also investing in research on the connection between regenerative agriculture and public health, as well as developing public health messaging explaining this connection.

“We cannot truly be a wealthy nation if we are not also a healthy nation. Access to wholesome, nutritious and affordable foods is a key tenet of the Make America Healthy Again agenda, which President Trump has directed this administration to execute across all government agencies,” Oz says. “I commend Secretary Rollins and Secretary Kennedy for today’s efforts to strengthen our nation’s food supply.”

“This is another initiative driven by President Trump’s mission to Make America Healthy Again,” Rollins adds. “Alongside Secretary Kennedy, we have made great strides to ensure the safe, nutritious, and affordable food our great farmers produce make it to dinner tables across this great country.”

How Does it Work?

USDA released details about the program in a release. It says the program will be administered by NRCS, allowing producers to bundle multiple regenerative practices into a single application, saying it will both streamline the process and allow for operator flexibility.

In FY2026, USDA is dedicating $400 million through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and $300 million through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to fund the first year of regenerative agriculture projects.

USDA says farmers and ranchers interested in regenerative agriculture are encouraged to apply through their local NRCS Service Center by their state’s ranking dates for consideration in FY2026 funding. Applications for both EQIP and CSP can now be submitted under the new single regenerative application process.

Regenerative Reaction

Farm groups and outside influencers are weighing in on the new pilot program announcement. Farm Bureau and President Zippy Duvall welcomed the approach while pointing out its still light on details.

“We value USDA’s acknowledgement that farmers have long practiced regenerative agriculture on their farms, both through federal conservation programs and on their own,” Duvall says. “Building on these efforts by leveraging existing voluntary and incentive-based programs to advance additional regenerative goals sounds like smart government to me, especially when farmers remain in the driver’s seat.”

The Scoop Podcast: How Illinois Retailers Are Focusing on Nutrient Stewardship

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:43:12 GMT

Going on year four, the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association has sought out to update information on how retailers across the state are putting effort into reducing nutrient loss and enhance water quality. This has become the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, which is an in-depth look at the practices, products and processes retailers and farmers are using.

IFCA President KJ Johnson says the Illinois study was based on the similar effort in Iowa.
“We teamed up with our sister organization, the Iowa Agribusiness Association, to bring that over here to Illinois,” Johnson says. “We go ask those retailers what 10 different farmers are doing on their fields to get a great representation of what Illinois agriculture is doing on the nutrient loss—38 questions in all.”

He says it includes nitrogen, phosphates, tillage, cover crops and more.

Tracking the trends over time, Johnson says Illinois has been inclined to apply more anhydrous ammonia in the fall. The trend has been toward more spring applied nitrogen, and lower fall applied rates.

“Only about 16% of farmers are applying a full rate in the fall currently,” he says. “96% of responses say farmers are using an inhibitor with their fall application.”

Johnson says the trend of more split application is just one example of heightened stewardship to adjust the timing of application for greater plant uptake, and less environmental loss risk.

Hear more on the latest episode of The Scoop Podcast:

Q&A With a Soil Health Steward

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 14:59:36 GMT

What has the term soil health come to mean?
Soil health is really about how well the soil is functioning compared to how well it could function. Some of those functions include cycling water, cycling carbon, cycling nutrients, and growing crops. For example, after a heavy rain, does the water infiltrate into the soil or does it run off? If it infiltrates into the soil, then the soil is replenished with moisture so more water is available for crops when the next dry period comes along. However, if that water runs off the soil, then it is not functioning as well. Our great opportunity is that we can improve how well that soil is functioning through management.

How do you describe soil health?
Again, I describe soil health as how well a soil is functioning compared to how well it could function. It follows that we assess soil health by taking certain measurements to tell us how well it is functioning (for example, storing water).

Where do soil health and regenerative agriculture intersect?
It is widely agreed that soil health is the number one outcome of regenerative agriculture. That is why we say that soil health is the foundation for regenerative agriculture. When we improve soil health, that is exactly what we are doing – we are regenerating the soil.And because regenerative agriculture also considers effects on water quality, biodiversity, and economics, then that brings the concept of soil health even closer to regenerative agriculture because practices that improve soil health also benefit water quality, biodiversity, and economics.

How can you demonstrate what’s possible beyond status quo or current production practices? If farmers are making a decent profit and getting a decent yield they may not realize how much healthier their soil can become, because unfortunately, many of our agricultural soils are degraded. At the Soil Health Institute, we’ve established Soil Health Benchmarks to show farmers how healthy their soils are and how much healthier they could become. . That also means how much more water they could store, so now farmers can start thinking about building drought resilience, achieving more stable yields, and becoming more efficient with inputs. We’ve now done this on over 19 million acres and generated soil health reports for about 500 farmers.

What are some of the winning practices to increase soil health?
It’s pretty clear that no-tillage is one of those practices that, for decades now, has shown we can increase carbon storage in the soil, which benefits water holding capacity, aggregate stability, and other attributes. Now when you get a heavy rain, water can infiltrate more, because you get more pore space, and the roots can penetrate to pick up water and nutrients easier, and it’s less erosive. There are various forms of conservation tillage, too, that are not quite no-tillage, but that can also be beneficial.

What about cover crops?
Generally about 10% or less of farms are using cover crops. And for those focused on soil health, they are a great tool. However, this is an example where the benefit is less about the practice, but more about how well that practice is implemented. In one example, you can plant a cover crop 2 weeks before frost and terminate it early the next spring, when the cover crops is only an inch or two high. In a second example, you can seed your cover crop in between the rows of your grain, then when you harvest your grain the cover crop is already well established, is now released to sunlight, and can grow a foot or two high (or higher). In both cases, you’re checking the box that you used a cover crop practice. However, you’re having a very different benefit on soil health. So that’s why I say it is less about the ‘practice’ and more about how well that practice is actually implemented.

What do you share about a long-term view for soil health to become a focus?
Where I really feel like we need to go is to help people realize they are a soil health manager. They’re not just a corn grower, or a potato grower. They are a soil health manager. When you start to realize you are a soil health manager, then you start to challenge yourself by asking “What is this practice doing to the health of my soil?What practice can I adopt to improve soil health?” And when you start to focus on being a soil health manager, then many benefits fall into place, like building drought resilience, yield stability, profitability, reducing inputs, reducing erosion, and others.

What’s a milestone you’re proud to have achieved with the team at SHI?
The one that stands out the most is identifying an essential suite of soil health measurements, or indicators, that is widely applicable. And when I say widely applicable, we developed it by evaluating over 30 different soil health measurements across the U.S, Canada, and Mexico. So that means we evaluated each measurement across wide ranges in soil types, climates, production systems, and management practices. We found that many of the 30 were effective, but we wanted to develop a standard that everyone can use, so we then analyzed them through an additional filter to identify which ones are cost-effective, are available at any lab and not just one lab, and which measurements are not redundant with another measurement. This allowed us to boil it down to just recommending a minimal suite or essential suite of four soil health indicators, and because of the scientific rigor we used to assess those measurements, USDA-NRCS now provides financial assistance to farmers for using that essential suite in all 50 states.

What’s the business case for soil health?
Anytime we talk about improving soil health, the first question we always used to get was, “what’s the business case for doing it?” Sure, farmers and ranchers are in business, right? And so they need to know that. Our challenge was that there’s just very, very little information available from actual working farms. So we hired an ag economist early on, and in our first big economics project we interviewed 100 farmers across 9 states. We were amazed to find that 85% of them increased net income by using these soil health improving practices. We then developed state-by-state reports and held state level webinars to get this locally-relevant information into the hands of farmers to benefit them and to assist with their management decisions.

How can soil health demonstrate sustainability?
There are many forces outside of a farmer’s control – things like extreme weather, market fluctuations, and disease and insect pressures. Improving soil health can help farmers build resilience to many of these factors, making them more sustainable year after year.

What’s the vision for the SHI?
Our vision is a world where farmers and ranchers grow quality food, fiber, and fuel using soil health systems that sustain farms and rural communities, promote a stable climate and clean environment, and improve human health and well-being.

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.”

Crop Fertility Products Thread the Needle of Efficiency and Environmental Demands

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:09:09 GMT

Galynn Beer, vice president of global sales for Tidal Grow, says the current dynamics in agriculture bring opportunity to think about fertilizer differently. Tidal Grow is bringing crop fertility products to the market to elevate yields and solve for environmental loss and sustainability.

“At Tidal Grow, we recognize the ag economy is ever-changing, and it’s always going to have its up and down cycles,” Beer says . “But one thing we always want to do is provide the growers with tools to help navigate whatever climate we’re in.”

He says in this current downturn, Tidal Grow is launching a product to help achieve that goal, particularly when it comes to nitrogen. Tidal Grow alignN 18-0-0 is an encapsulated urea nitrogen product. It’s formulated with the company’s align Technology, which uses intelligent leaf delivery technology.

“This makes it more effective to get into the leaf, and it makes it more effective once it’s in that leaf,” Beer says.

This foliar applied nitrogen is marketed to supplement a farmer’s nitrogen program and be a tool for when environmental and growing conditions develop through the season. Beer says this product is a fit for farmers who want to give a crop a strong finish.

“You don’t really know what’s Mother Nature going to throw at us over the course of the season,” Beer says. “So as that farmer steps through the season, he can see what the crop looks like it, how Mother Nature has been treating the crop, and he can hold some of that expense, or hold some of his cards until he gets even all the way to tasseling. And then he can say, ‘I love how the season has played out, I love how it’s ending here, I’m going to push that crop to the end.’ And that’s the tool that we’re bringing to the grower.”

Beer says the efficient delivery of the nitrogen into the plant is a hallmark of the align technology. And he says in today’s economic equation for inputs, farmers know it’s paramount to stay focused on nutrient use efficiency.

Beer talks about application details and how crop fertility products are finding ways to fit into normal production practices in The Scoop Podcast:

Tiny Tech, Big Impact: Purdue Researchers Harness Nanotechnology to Transform Farming

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:01:41 GMT

At Purdue University, researchers are working at the tiniest scale to tackle some of agriculture’s biggest challenges. While their innovations may be microscopic, their impact could transform how the world grows its food.

Unlocking the Power of Nanoparticles in the Field

Tucked away in a quiet upstairs lab, scientists are developing “nanocarriers"— ultra-tiny particles designed to deliver pesticides, fungicides and herbicides more precisely to plants.

“We work with agrochemicals from insecticides to fungicides and [are] even starting to work with herbicides now,” says Caleb Fretz, a Purdue PhD student. “The goal is to try to increase the delivery efficiency of those active ingredients using nano delivery as a way of getting them to their biological targets.”

Currently, less than 0.1% of pesticides actually reach their intended targets. Purdue’s team hopes to boost that to 1% or more — a tenfold leap that could revolutionize efficiency and cut costs for farmers.

“If we can get even 1% of our pesticide to its target, that’s a huge leap in efficiency,” adds Luke Johnson, a fellow PhD student in Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

Assistant professor Kurt Ristroph , who leads related nanotechnology work at Purdue, highlights the broader vision.

“Our team’s focus on nanocarriers could make crop agriculture more sustainable and climate-resilient,” he says.

Precision Targeting: How Nano-Encapsulation Works

These particles, often organic and built with a protective shell, are engineered to shield and deliver their active ingredients exactly where crops need them most. The nano-shells allow them to travel through a plant’s leaf, stem and roots to get closer to the target.

Citrus Greening, a disease currently devastating orange trees in Florida, often takes up residence in the tree’s phloem. That area is traditionally a hard-to-access region where pests and diseases hide.

“We can tune what we put on the surface and the size [of the particle] to better reach those targets,” Johnson says.

They’re also able to engineer surface charges and add biomolecules, like sugars, in order to direct treatments to precise locations inside plants.

“If we can translocate our nanopesticide through the leaf, stem and down to the roots where pests lay eggs, we can dramatically reduce the amount of chemicals needed,” explains fellow researcher Bilal Ahmed.

Tracking these particles is also crucial as the technology prepares to undergo regulatory approval.

“I am developing ways to track these particles using metals, tagging them with different receptors,” Fretz says. “That way, we know exactly where they go — whether to the roots, inside the phloem or elsewhere.”

Collaboration and the Road to Sustainable Agriculture

This research is part of a larger collaboration across academia, industry and government.

Ristroph recently organized a major symposium on nanotechnology for plant drug delivery, with findings published in Nature Nanotechnology.

“The precise delivery enabled by nanotechnology could revolutionize agriculture,” notes Professor Greg Lowry from Carnegie Mellon University, a co-author of the study. “But, there are still technical challenges we must address.”

For Purdue’s team, practical application is just as important as scientific discovery.

“It needs to be something you can load in your sprayer and apply just like current formulations,” Fretz says.

The aim is to make the transition seamless for farmers, enabling quick adoption and scaling.

As agriculture faces rising costs, climate variability, and a need to limit environmental impact, this nano-scale innovation offers hope.

“We want to apply less pesticide, less often —improving farmers’ bottom lines and reducing chemicals in the environment,” Johnson says.

It’s a tiny idea with the potential for a giant leap in global farming — one that could make agriculture more efficient, affordable and sustainable for generations to come.

Planting Big Dreams: America’s Youngest Farmer Growing More Than Produce

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 19:01:54 GMT

At just 10 years old, Kendall Rae Johnson is the youngest certified farmer in the U.S., and her hard work has already earned her a full scholarship to South Carolina State University.

Johnson’s journey started in her family’s backyard in Georgia when her great-grandmother taught her to grow collard greens from clippings. That simple tradition sparked a love of farming that quickly grew into something bigger.

Johnson’s accomplishments grew quickly, and by the time she was 6, she was recognized as the youngest certified farmer in the U.S. At 9, she received a full-ride scholarship in agriculture from South Carolina State University — the youngest to receive this honor as well. She’s gone on speaking tours, written a book and is about to publish an accompanying workbook, launched a marinara sauce and plans to create a natural skincare line. Then in 2023, a Georgia resolution declared that March 23 would be recognized as Kendall Rae Johnson Day. All by the ripe old age of 10.

When asked how it felt to receive the news of the scholarship, Johnson says, “Well, I just felt happy and excited that someone believed in me enough to give me a full-ride scholarship to college at only 10 years old.”

As a USDA National Urban Agriculture Youth Ambassador, Johnson says she wants to share her experience to help other youth achieve their dreams.

“I want them to know they can dream big and with the right tools and support, we can make those dreams come true,” Johnson says.

Kendall Rae Johnson’s journey is proof that age isn’t a barrier in agriculture. With vision, passion and help from parents and community, you can plant seeds of change — and watch them bloom.

Your Next Read: How the Youngest Certified Farmer in the U.S. Earned Her Full Scholarship

Fresh Produce Growers Focus on Water for Sustainability

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:23:01 GMT

When asked what top three words came to mind when thinking about sustainability, respondents to The Packer’s 2025 Sustainability Insights Survey overwhelmingly responded with “water.”

Every year, The Packer conducts three Sustainability Insights surveys — one each for produce growers, retailers and consumers — on their perceptions and opinions related to sustainability in fresh produce. In this year’s survey, 74 fresh produce growers representing 29 states responded. Though the response rate means the results are not necessarily widely applicable to growers across the country, they represent a good snapshot.

Generally speaking, water-related concerns were very important to produce growers when it comes to sustainability.

One respondent from California defined it as “taking care of our resources so as to not waste them or use them up without renewing.” A Virginia-based respondent defined it as a “long-term business plan that addresses local scarcities of energy, labor, water or other inputs.”

Growers consistently ranked water among the top three issues depending on context. Precision irrigation is high on the list of sustainability investments growers are making, and the focus on water issues in the sustainability conversation seems to be increasing. Unfortunately, so too is uncertainty over the availability of water in the future.

Prioritizing Water in Sustainability

When asked to rank the importance of various sustainability practices for their impact, grower respondents overwhelmingly crowned water management efforts as the most important.

All told, 73 of the 74 total respondents listed water use management practices as being important, very important or extremely important for their impact on the sustainability of their operation. No respondent said it wasn’t important, and almost a third of respondents (31%) ranked it extremely important, which far outstripped the next most important category of biological inputs at 19%.

“Water use management practices” was an option for the first time in the 2025 Sustainability Insights Grower survey and topped the priority list.

(Chart courtesy of Prime46)

There have been some wording changes in survey questions between 2024 and 2025. This year was the first year that “water use management practices” was offered as an option in questions about sustainability impacts. In 2024’s survey, where there was no specific option for water practices in the comparable question, the top-ranked sustainability practice was “precision ag practices.” The same option was also available in 2025’s question, but only 18% of respondents listed it as “extremely important,” ranking it third in importance in 2025.

This suggests precision water use practices have been and continue to be top of mind for sustainability impact for growers for a while.

Unsurprisingly, those in the arid West ranked water use management practices as having a big impact on their operations’ sustainability. All 18 of the survey’s respondents from California ranked the option as either extremely important or very important (nine each), for example. Similarly, four out of the five respondents from Montana ranked it as extremely important, and both of the Texas respondents ranked it very important.

Precision Irrigation and Water Uncertainty

When it comes to putting those water sustainable priorities into action, over half of the survey’s respondents (51%) reported having implemented some form of water management improvements in their operation. It was the second-most common sustainability practice reported after soil testing (65%) and tied with crop rotation.

When asked about specific tech investments, 38% of respondents reported using precision irrigation tools on their operation. This was the single-most common tech investment reported.

Precision irrigation was the single most common sustainability tech investment reported by respondents to The Packer’s 2025 Grower Sustainability Insights survey.

(Graphic courtesy of Prime46)

This need for precision irrigation tools will likely increase as respondents overwhelming reported turning to precision irrigation to address water availability worries. While overall respondent concern about water availability fell — with 29% reporting being very or extremely concerned in 2025 compared to 49% last year — grower uncertainty about when negative impacts of lack of water will hit their operation jumped from 25% in 2024 to 39% in 2025.

However, when asked how well irrigation service providers are meeting their needs for sustainable agricultural supplies, a whopping 49% of respondents said providers were only somewhat meeting their needs. Only a quarter of respondents said irrigation service providers were completely meeting their needs. This suggests there is considerable room for improvement among companies supplying precision irrigation tools for produce growers.

Survey Says: Smart Farming Has Big Impact On U.S. Farms, And There’s Room for More

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:27:29 GMT

Smart farming technologies, like smart irrigation and targeted spraying systems, are helping farms reduce water use, burn less fuel and optimize fertilizer and pesticide applications. Those gains have led to a 5% increase in overall crop production in the U.S. in just the last five years.

That’s all according to newly released data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturer’s (AEM) “The Benefits of Precision Ag In The U.S.” report. You can read the full white paper study here .

“The overarching message is precision ag enables farmers to maximize use of their inputs,” says Austin Gellings, senior director of agricultural services, AEM. “We’re maximizing every drop of what we’re putting on our crops and on our soil, and I think that’s a very powerful message.”

Gellings found two specific aspects of the study results most compelling:

(Lori Hays)

U.S. farms have achieved an overall 5% reduction in annual water usage by adopting smart farming technologies like smart irrigation systems and soil moisture sensors. Gellings says the savings equates to about 824,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of fresh water saved. It takes about 5 million standard 16 oz. bottled waters to fill just one Olympic-size swimming pool, he adds.

(Lori Hays)

Farmers who adopt targeted smart spraying application systems, like John Deere’s See & Spray and CNH Industrial’s SenseApply, can reduce America’s overall annual herbicide usage up to 55% if full adoption of the technology is achieved. The study defines full adoption as 90% of the total number of active farms in the U.S.

“We also found potential for an additional 6% increase in annual crop production with higher precision technology adoption rates,” he says. “It’s clear these technologies show almost unlimited potential in reducing inputs while increasing our output.

“[Technology is] a tool in the toolbox that helps our farmers step up to the challenges they face every single day, like they’ve always done. Our farmers always find a way to meet the challenge at hand. They are always going to innovate and find a way.”

The next big thing?

For Gellings, who grew up on the family farm in Wisconsin, daydreaming about the next big technology breakthrough for ag — something truly revolutionary along the lines of how smart spraying has impacted pesticide applications — gets him fired up. He says he can only imagine what his grandfather would say if he knew you could put a camera on a spray boom and only target the weeds as you drove 15 mph through the field.

“In 5 years, will there be a new technology like that, that revolutionizes the way we’re doing things and in a way that we never thought possible? That’s what’s exciting when I think about all the innovation that’s happening in agriculture,” he says. “We’re in this technology boom, and I can almost guarantee there will be another groundbreaking technology that don’t exist today that will come along and fundamentally change the way we farm.”

The updated study findings (the original study data was published back in 2020) were released in collaboration with the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, CropLife America and National Corn Growers Association. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, had a team of project management professionals and subject matter experts to assist AEM in executing the study update.

The full study is available now on AEM’s Insights page at www.aem.org/insights .

Your next read: Illinois Farmer’s Grain Bin Entrapment Turns Fatal, Son Shares Tragic Story to Save Lives

Land O’ Lakes Restructures Truterra, Reduces Team

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 22:18:02 GMT

Earlier this week, Truterra employees were notified of a reduction in force. This announcement was part of parent company Land O’ Lakes restructuring the business.

In a statement a company spokesperson said: “Land O’Lakes, Inc. is shifting its approach with Truterra from operating a stand-alone business to embedding the work within our three core business units. This shift strengthens alignment between each business unit’s priorities and the work that drives customer value and growth. This integration reflects our belief that this work isn’t a separate initiative, but a core capability that supports every part of our business.”

According to social media posts, dozens of employees were part of the reduction in force.
In its first three years of offering a carbon market enablement program, Truterra facilitated payments of over $21 million in total to farmers.

Last fall, the company announced a partnership with Indigo Ag, with a focus for the companies to further enable sustainable incentive programs to farmers.

“These are new products and new markets,” says Eric Gibson, a sustainability analyst with Rabobank. “Just like the economies that farmers and ranchers are operating in, these sustainability economies are cyclical. Now, what’s different about a lot of these carbon products and opportunities is they’re new cycles that they’re beginning. So, will they mirror and mimic what a lot of the ag economy looks like? We really don’t know. I think many of us will project that, hey, even if some of these carbon opportunities go away today, will they resurface in 3, 5, 8 years?”

From Brew to Moo: The Sustainable Dairy Practices at Ayers Farm

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 13:45:53 GMT

A good brew isn’t just for humans — it’s on the menu for the Holstein cows at Ayers Farm in Perryville, Ohio, too. This unique twist in cattle feed comes from an unexpected source: the Budweiser plant in Columbus. At Ayers Farm, home to more than 600 Holstein cows, this innovative use of brewer’s mash, a byproduct of the beer-making process, has become an integral part of their operation.

(Ayers Farm)

A Sustainable Diet
At Ayers Farm, sustainability is a key focus. The herd’s nutritionist orchestrates a delicate balance of crops and upcycled food byproducts to ensure the cows’ diet is both nutritious and environmentally conscious. Kathy Davis, a seventh-generation dairy farmer at Ayers Farms, emphasizes the importance of this approach.

“By using a byproduct from another process, we prevent it from ending up in a trash pile,” she says, underscoring their commitment to sustainable practices and innovative feed solutions that benefit their cows and the broader agricultural community.

Davis says they have been feeding distillers grains ever since she was in high school in the late ‘80s. She says farmers are the ultimate recyclers, adding they also include corn gluten, soybean meal and cottonseed to their cows’ diets.

“It was close by, and we could incorporate into the ration what would be beneficial,” she says, noting that prior to feeding distillers grains, the farm used potato waste from a nearby Frito Lay plant. “That is when we were feeding out steers. The potato starch content didn’t make it a good fit to feed our cows, but we’re always looking for benefits, and the distiller grain is economical, and our nutritionist was really excited about the possible benefits for it.”

(Ayers Farm)

Behind the Scenes
Ayers Farm isn’t just feeding its cows better — it’s also incorporating technology to enhance the health and productivity of their herd. From GEA activity monitors on breeding-age heifers, as well as lactating and dry cows to integrated feeding programs, plus DeLaval cameras in the maternity pens, the farm is leveraging tech to stay ahead. These systems provide valuable data that helps manage everything from health indicators to milk production metrics, ensuring issues are flagged before they become problems.

“It’s not just about milk production; it’s about having a good workforce and external partners, such as nutritionists and veterinarians, that help us achieve a sustainable, rewarding livelihood,” Davis shares. “Ultimately, it has to return a good livelihood to us and for our employees, so that our work-to-life balance is good, and we feel like we’re accomplishing something when we come to work every day.”

In addition to the cows, the Ayers have an equal number of replacement heifers and farm 1,500 acres. A total of 25 people work on their farm, which also includes owner-operators.

Challenges and the Future
Despite their advancements, like many farms, Ayers Farm faces challenges, particularly concerning labor and logistical hurdles in milk hauling. Yet, they are adapting, trying innovative solutions such as breeding and beef-on-dairy strategies to improve margins.

Looking ahead, steady communication and strategic planning are crucial for Ayers Farm, especially with generational transitions on the horizon. Davis’ father and uncle are in their ‘70s, while she and her cousin continue to accumulate more responsibilities. Succession planning not only involves the transfer of assets but also adapting the day-to-day share of operation responsibilities to ensure smooth management handoffs.

Ayers Farm is a testament to how traditional farming values can coexist with innovative practices. By incorporating distillers grains, optimizing feed through technology and planning for future generations, Ayers Farm continues to thrive in an ever-evolving agricultural landscape.

Your Next Read:
The Strategy Behind an Eight-Generation Dairy Legacy

New Tool Helps Farmers, Ranchers Identify Conservation Incentive Programs

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:49:38 GMT

Conservation incentive programs that fit your farm and specific agronomic practices and/or livestock are not always easy to identify and sign up for online.

But those hurdles could soon be problems in the past, thanks to a new online platform, the Conservation Connector, which was just launched this week by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC)

The new tool allows farmers, ranchers, and farm advisers to easily evaluate conservation incentive programs and connect with technical support at one online site, according to Ryan Heiniger, CTIC executive director.

As a fourth-generation farmer, Heiniger says he knows firsthand how challenging it can be to identify programs, companies and the individuals in charge of them who can provide more details in a phone call or an email.

“You might visit four or five government offices and a dozen websites, only to collect bits and pieces of information on those programs that would be a good fit for you. Our goal with the Conservation Connector is to bring all of that under one roof, so to speak, to help farmers, ranchers and advisers more easily find what is available in their area and fits with their needs,” Heiniger says.

The platform currently has around 500 programs and service providers in the Midwest that are participating, Heiniger says. He notes the tool is continually updated with the latest program offerings from trusted agencies, organizations and conservation partners. In addition, Connector.ag has no associated costs for farmers, ranchers and advisers to use.

“I want to underscore that it’s free for farmers; none of the information is behind any kind of paywall,” he says. “It’s also free for people who want to create a listing.”

The Conservation Connector is easy to navigate – it’s searchable by geography, commodity, incentive type, and/or management practice.

“We’ve made it easy for people who are on a specific mission to filter through,” Heiniger says. “You might be in New York looking for help with pasture renovation, and you don’t want or need to see what programs are available in Iowa. So, you can default right to New York. Or, you can default to a specific crop. The filters can help you ratchet down to the specific information you want to dive deeper into.”

Heiniger says the idea for Conservation Connector originated from Houston Engineering, the Nature Conservancy, and Open Team, and the CTIC invested the past 18 months in developing it.

CTIC invites farmers, ranchers, technical service providers, and conservation partners across the country to explore the platform at Connector.ag . You can provide feedback about your experience to help inform future iterations of the platform here .

John Deere Teams Up With the Reservoir

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 18:10:37 GMT

John Deere says in a press release that it has started a strategic collaboration with The Reserovir, an on-farm incubator platform .

John Deere says this partnership connects its agricultural technology, equipment and deep grower relationships with The Reservoir’s startup residents, field testing platforms and commercialization support.

“At The Reservoir, we’re focused on accelerating innovation for high-value crops and the long-term sustainability of California agriculture,” says Danny Bernstein, CEO of The Reservoir, in the news release. “John Deere brings trusted technology, technical expertise and a real commitment to grower support and strength. This partnership strengthens the foundation we’re building and helps unlock the next generation of ag technology in service of our food system.”

Through the agreement, John Deere will become the exclusive original equipment manufacturer to The Reservoir, with branding opportunities across the Reservoir’s Salinas facility and future locations. John Deere will also have access to early-stage startups, co-developed research and development programs and curated field days for technology demonstrations.

“We view high-value crops as an important growth area for agriculture, and an area where innovation is needed and can have a direct, measurable impact on growers’ resilience and productivity,” says Sean Sundberg, business integration manager at John Deere, in the release. “This partnership gives us a front-row seat to the next generation of agricultural technology, and an opportunity to work alongside growers and entrepreneurs to ensure future solutions are practical, scalable and built to last.”

John Deere says this partnership with The Reservoir aims to help specialty crop growers adopt new solutions by addressing labor shortages, increasing efficiency and improving long-term sustainability.

John Deere says the collaboration creates a powerful platform for developing, testing and scaling solutions that address the most pressing challenges in specialty crops. The company says this collaboration unites innovation infrastructure with a thriving network of founders, growers and ag labor innovators, signaling a shared long-term commitment to strengthening the productivity, efficiency and sustainability of high-value crop production in California and beyond.

“John Deere’s investment in The Reservoir is a vital strategic step toward making sure specialty crop growers have a fighting chance amid our industry’s labor shortage,” says Walt Duflock, senior vice president of innovation at Western Growers. “The California agricultural technology landscape will thrive thanks to this kind of collaborative effort.”

A Robot on a Sweet Corn Label? How One Farm Showcases Agtech to Consumers

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:58:31 GMT

A new label appearing on Sunrise Select sweet corn in select Whole Foods stores shows a Greenfield Robotics’ machine at work in a cornfield. And that little detail carries a much broader message about the robotic weeding technology’s role in regenerative agriculture.

Fifth-generation grower Bill Kercher says adding the label to the produce his family grows on about 600 acres was a no-brainer. His family operates a U-pick farm and grows sweet corn, cabbage, summer squash, winter squash, apples, ornamental pumpkins, jack-o'-lantern pumpkins and painted pumpkins. His family also sells its produce through its Sunrise Produce brand.

Kercher says highlighting robotic weeding to reduce herbicide sprays is just part of a bigger focus on regenerative agriculture practices. He says he hopes using the robotic weeder will help increase his family farm’s soil microbiome with good microbes that will in turn feed the crops they grow.

“We’re doing everything we can to maximize the other kind of pillars of what regenerative ag is and to help improve our soil health on our farm,” he says.

Corn grown by the Kercher family and packaged under Sunrise Produce highlights how robotic weeding is used in farm’s production.

(Photo via Greenfield Robotics LinkedIn page)

Adding the label

Kercher says his family started kicking around the idea of adding a “Robot-Weeded” label to its sweet corn over the winter. He says this is the first produce commodity that has used Greenfield’s technology, so his farm was the first foray into a truly consumer-facing product.

He says the family worked with the Greenfield Robotics team to create the label, which reads “Robot-Weeded — Our farm uses autonomous robots from Greenfield Robotics to remove weeds for a cleaner, smarter way to farm.” The label comes with a QR code leading consumers to a webpage that discusses the benefits of robotic weeding on the Kerchers’ sweet corn, squash and pumpkins — less chemicals, healthier soil and fewer weeds.

Kercher says he notified certain retailers about the ability to add this label and promote the use of robotic weeders in the family’s sweet corn in lieu of herbicide applications, as well as to help promote Greenfield Robotics’ mission. He says he received many positive comments from retailers about the addition.

“They were ecstatic that we would be willing to do that,” he says. “We came up with a label, and the rest is history. We just decided to put it on the tray pack with that label, and it’s gotten a lot of very good reactions from both retailer partners and consumers.”

Kercher says the label’s QR code also allows consumers to submit questions and comments.

“Probably the biggest thing we’ve heard, and I quote from quite a few consumers — we’ve had many just reply with one word, and they’ll say ‘awesome,’” he says.

Kercher has also had consumers reach out who are investors in Greenfield Robotics and were happy to see the company’s logo on the sweet corn tray pack.

“To connect with consumers on the basis that they’ve invested in this company, and they’re seeing their investment come to fruition through the product that we’re putting on the shelf by using what they’ve invested in, is a pretty cool full circle for us and for Greenfield,” he says.

Bill Kercher says he’s seen yield increases and better quality sweet corn through the use of Greenfield Robotics’ robotic weeders.

(Photo courtesy of Bill Kercher)

Regenerative Focus

Kercher says regenerative agriculture started with his father, who wanted to reduce soil erosion and promote the overall health of the soil and the farm. His family plants cover crops on about 90% of its acreage, he adds, and that includes pollinator blends as well as ryegrass, tillage radishes and more.

“We’ve seen a lot of improvement in organic matter in our soils,” he says. “For anyone that’s planting cover crops, it’s a very long process, and it takes many years to improve the organic matter, but we are seeing a lot of improvements in the living soil characteristics.”

This includes a greater presence of earthworms, an increase in soil microbiome and more.

“Our soil is ultimately able to feed the plants better, and we can hopefully begin to reduce fertilizer applications as well,” he says.

Kercher says he’s seen a significant benefit from reducing his inputs this year through using the robotic weeders.

“It’s increased our yields,” he says. “It’s increased the quality of the sweet corn that we’ve gotten. We are learning every day about what we can do to reduce those chemicals, and it’s very encouraging to us that there’s a tool like Greenfield’s robots that will allow us to do that.”

He says adding the robotic weeding will play into his family’s plans to reduce tillage and increase the farm’s healthy soil.

Kercher says he sees a future where more consumers learn about and understand what regenerative ag means.

“When they see a farm engaging in regenerative practices, I think they’ll understand what that means for the soil on the farm,” he says. “They might understand what it means for the rivers, the reduced erosion of topsoil, the health of the surrounding ecological system, just due to the diversity of the plants that are growing in a regenerative system. And then, ultimately, they’ll begin to understand that it might mean more nutrient-dense food for them and their families.”

And he says that will encourage more growers to adopt regenerative practices.

“What we want retailers and consumers both to know is that we have a long-term vision for our farm and how it affects not just our family who lives on the farm, who works on the farm, but the broader community in which we live and those consumers who consume the produce we grow,” he says. “We want them to know that we’re doing everything we can to innovate with an eye toward regenerating the soil we’ve farmed for over 100 years, and this should be seen as our family trying every day to grow the best food that we can for ourselves and for those consumers who put our produce on their table.”

Next steps

Kercher says he plans to add some type of “Robotic Weeded” label to his family’s ornamental pumpkins this fall. While there’s not a lot of space on those labels, he says he’d like to drive consumers to learn more on the website.

His family will continue its partnership with Greenfield Robotics, he says, adding that he also plans to trial some of the company’s new technology next year.

“We are planning to work with Greenfield again, absolutely,” he says.

Farming Doesn’t Follow All the Business Models, Unique Opportunity for Startups

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:26:51 GMT

It could be said success in business is driven by timing and people. And AgLaunch provides agricultural startups with the nexus of both.

With its AgLaunch365 accelerator, early-stage startups have programming paired with the coast to coast network of AgLaunch farmers.

It’s a story Michael Rhys and the team at Barnwell Bio experienced firsthand. Their company spun out of the same technology platform used for municipal waste monitoring during COVID-19, except they are applying it to biosecurity and animal welfare.

Rhys says there is no other program like AgLaunch in existence.

“The farmer buy-in was really important to us along with the product feedback and guidance farmers can give us on the feature roadmap we want to add to Barnwell,” he says. “What’s great about the AgLaunch network is the level of inclusion along the way and the how the farmer network shares their feedback in real time and we’re able to iterate with them quickly because of their candid insights.”

Barnwell Bio collects aggregate samples from animal byproducts, analyzes them for a broad array of pathogens and then shares the assessment of potential health risks with farmers and their veterinarians.

“We see an opportunity to change the sentiment in animal health from being reactive to proactive,” Rhys says.

Michael Rhys, CEO, Barnwell Bio

(Ashley Benham)

Two-Way Street

Just as the startups receive benefits from the AgLaunch programming, as do the farmers. Fundamental to its approach it getting startups on farms in field trials, the farmers who take part in those field trials can earn an equity stake in the companies.

One of the original farmer members to the AgLaunch network is Grant Norwood, a Tennessee row crop farmer. He was part of the farmer network who proved the concept of Aglaunch earlier this year and cashed out an early investment in an irrigation technology startup.

“Farming is a business that doesn’t follow all the business models,” Norwood says. “And if you are coming from non-ag background, the farmer is your insight early on to how to best finish development and finish designing the product. We share knowledge to how ag markets work and to purchasing models. For a startup company it can be a big jump ahead to have that insight that would otherwise take them several years on their own.

Norwood has done field trials with sensors, hardware, and biological startups. And he’s proud to be part of the network he says is “where inventors meet farmers to solve agriculture’s problems.”

While the group started in Tennessee, it has since expanded into the midwest and pacific northwest.

“We’re a diverse group growing a lot of different crops and raising a lot of different livestock. But we are like-minded in helping startup companies bring their ideas to agriculture,” Norwood says.

AgLaunch has officially opened applications for the 2026 AgLaunch365 Accelerator. Applications are due by September 15, 2025.

AgLaunch365 aims to provide the proving ground startups need to help reshape how food is grown, animal are raises and land is stewarded.

For founders who would like to learn more, AgLaunch is hosting short Q&A webinars:

• August 4, 1-2pm CT: Registration link.

• August 14, 12-1pm CT: Registration link.

• August 25, 12-1pm CT: Registration link.

Fusing The Best of Regenerative Ag and Smart Farming: Senator Marshall’s Take on MAHA

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 14:22:11 GMT

Having grown up as a Kansas fifth generation farm kid and spending many years as a physician, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kan., views the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda through a different lens than many of his Beltway colleagues.

“I delivered a baby every day for some 25 years in my hometown,” Marshall says. “And certainly, diet and nutrition are so, so, so important. When I came to Congress, this was one of the things I wanted to address. And I want to start by saying there’s no MAHA without American agriculture leadership.”

RELATED: MAHA Report’s Surprising Stance on Glyphosate, Atrazine Explained

While much of the recent reporting around MAHA focuses on unpacking the movement’s outwardly anti-pesticide bent , Marshall has fashioned his own, more conventional ag-friendly version covering four distinct pillars:

Increase American agricultural efficiency
Grow healthier, nutrient rich food
Unlock affordable health care access for millions of Americans
Focus on health care resources to combat the mental health epidemic

“I believe soil health leads to healthy food, which leads to healthy people,” Marshall says. “I hear the MAHA group and I hear the ag folks. I have a foot in each of those worlds, and I am trying to bring them together. Because guess what? American agriculture wants healthy children just as much as anybody.”

RELATED: Decode MAHA’s Potential Effect on the Agriculture Sector

Marshall believes MAHA can achieve that goal by embracing some – but not all – of the regenerative ag principles Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., espoused on the campaign trail. American farmers are already reducing chemical use with tools like selective spraying systems and mechanical weeding implements, but the senator knows there’s still meat on that bone. He views it less as a return to “40 acres and a mule” and more as a combination of pieces and parts from the regenerative ag playbook with precision ag technology generously sprinkled into the mix.

“Regenerative ag should be centered around precision ag and growing more with less,” he says. “We’re already using 60% less fertilizers and less pesticides. I think we must continue to decrease the amount of fertilizers and pesticides, so there’s less residue on that loaf of bread in the grocery store.”

Marshall is currently rallying Congressional support for the bipartisan Plant Biostimulant Act. This yet-to-be-ratified farm policy would streamline the FDA approval process under FIFRA for new, novel and natural modes of action. But the senator emphasizes the program must remain voluntary.

“About 5% of the farm bill is conservation practices,” he says. “So, I would streamline the FDA process and allow these biostimulants to be one of the options. It’s not a subsidy, though. I just want to make the regulatory process easier. And that’s going to make it more affordable, as well.”

More MAHA: 250-Plus Ag Groups Ask Trump Administration To ‘Correct’ MAHA Commission’s ‘Activities’

Another goal is for the American producer to embrace best-in-class crop production and sustainability practices. The Kansas senator points to one example from his home state as the creative and nimble thinking he wants to see American farmers embrace.

“We have a group of sorghum growers that have their own mill,” Marshall says. “And they’re selling that flour directly to the infant formula (companies) as well as to European markets. The EU has higher standards, so to speak, than America does, and so be it. I don’t know if they’re necessary, but I don’t make the rules. These Kansas farmers have cracked the code and they’re getting a premium for their sorghum right now, and all it takes is a little extra effort.”

Your Next Read: Can Pulse Crops Double Acreage by 2030? The Push to Include More Pulses in the MAHA Movement

New Regenerative Standard Aims at Flexibility

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 22:08:28 GMT

While interest in regenerative agricultural practices is growing, getting a handle on what it is, let alone how to do it is a challenge. But there are some guides out there.

On July 14, the Soil & Climate Initiative released the third version of its Soil & Climate Health Commitment & Verification Standard . This new version of the standard is more streamlined, according to the group, with increased flexibility and practical benchmarking for participating operations.

“Version 3.0 simplifies requirements while maintaining scientific rigor, making regenerative agriculture accessible to diverse production systems while giving consumers confidence in their food choices,” says Kristen Efurd, SCI’s verification director.

V3 focuses heavily on SCI’s seven pillars of regenerative agriculture:

Minimizing soil disturbance
Maintaining living roots in the ground year-round
Keeping year-round soil coverage
Maximizing diversity above and below ground
Reducing synthetic inputs
Continuous learning
Appropriate integration of livestock

A summary of the new standards

The seven pillars have always been core to SCI’s definition of regenerative agriculture, Efurd says.

“But what V3 represents is their maturation,” she continues. “What we’ve done now is we’ve detailed how farms can operationalize the pillars through what we call the pillar engagement levels.”

The pillar engagement levels replace earlier standards’ levels of verification. These levels are I through IV. Each pillar has its own engagement levels with benchmarked requirements, and these can differ as appropriate based on operation type. For example, within the “Maintaining living roots in the ground year-round” pillar as it applies to perennial crops and orchards, the engagement levels are:

Middle-row vegetation must be maintained during the growing season
Middle-row vegetation must be maintained year-round
Middle-row vegetation must be maintained year-round and must include a mix of grasses, forbs and legumes during the growing season
Middle-row vegetation must be a diverse mix of grasses, forbs and legumes that is maintained year-round

“The biggest change is going to be moving from the broad verification levels that we had to these more specific pillar engagement levels that are detailed with measurable requirements,” Efurd says. “[Participants] now have clear benchmarks to hit.”

Participating growers, farmers and ranchers are required to progressively advance their practices every three years within the program, “acknowledging regenerative agriculture as a journey of continuous improvement rather than a fixed destination,” SCI says.

Taylor Herren, Farm Program Manager at SCI, says the new standard is “an on-ramp” that provides for the wide differences in what regenerative agriculture looks like on a veteran operation versus one just starting the transition.

“The new standards acknowledges those differences while also still welcoming people who are at the beginning of that progress,” she says.

Variety of operations means flexibility is a must

Not only does regenerative ag look different across experience levels, but also across crops, operation systems and regions. All of this requires not only flexibility in the standards but also in the very definition.

“We at SCI, rather than having a rigid definition of regenerative agriculture, we’ve chosen to use more contextually based guiding principles that help farmers adapt practices and implement changes on their farm that makes sense for their specific region and their land and their goals on their farm and their operating systems,” explains Megan Tymesko, SCI’s senior manager of partner engagement. “Every operational region is so different, so our framework is built on the seven pillars of regenerative agriculture. It allows the farmers the flexibility to choose which practices make sense on their farms.”

Herren explains that when definitions of regenerative agriculture get too prescriptive — “It has to be no-till,” or “You must have cover crops,” for example — they stop working for all operations, let alone being scalable.

“The purpose of this work is to scale across landscapes, and that scaling is only as good as farmers actually being able to do it,” she says. “So, the seven pillars do define regenerative agriculture, they just define it loosely and fluidly, and that is the key to actually getting farmer adoption. And that is the path to impact and doing what we want to do on the land.”

For the regenerative-curious

Google Trends search timeline for “regenerative agriculture” over the past 20 years.

(Screencapture of Google Trends search response)

Interest in regenerative agriculture is growing.

For regenerative-curious growers, there are many potential entry points or on-ramps onto the change. Speaking in the language of the seven pillars, Efurd highlights maintaining living roots in the ground year-round through cover cropping, or keeping year-round soil coverage as low-hanging fruit to regenerative ag benefits.

“These practices are relatively straightforward and easier to implement. They provide immediate benefits for soil biology and structure,” she says. “A lot of times, from my perspective, both growers and grazers can often show quick economic return through reduced input costs and improved soil structure.”

Herren, herself a farmer in Cotton Plant, Ark., recognizes that it’s a really hard time financially to farm right now. She also recognizes how big a deal it is to change how someone farms, because that is ultimately what deciding to take steps toward regenerative agriculture is, she says.

“But I do say, genuinely, this can be a much better way to farm — much better for you financially,” she says.

Aligning Inputs with People, Planet and Productivity

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 13:51:44 GMT

This article is published as part of America’s Conservation Ag Movement , which supports farmers and ranchers in building profitable, resilient futures for their operations.

As the challenges facing agriculture grow more complex – from climate variability to shifting market dynamics – growers are increasingly looking for crop inputs that help produce abundant, healthy crops while safeguarding the land they steward.

Valent U.S.A. recently unveiled a new tool to help growers ensure that the inputs they are using to protect their crops act like silver bullets rather than shotguns. Through the Sustainable Solutions Portfolio, Valent has centered 47 broad-spectrum products that make up convention biorational and botanical products that cover both conventional and organic agriculture.

Validated by a third-party, the Sustainable Solutions Criteria aligns the company’s products with Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations in 2000, specifically around impacts to people, planet and productivity.

“Our parent company, Sumitomo Chemical, was one of the first companies globally to partner with the UN to support the SDGs and we have embraced five of those for our businesses in the U.S.,” says Matt Plitt, President & CEO.

Doubling Down on Sustainability

In January, Tiffany Dean joined Valent as vice-president of sustainable solutions, a move aimed at further threading this focus throughout the business.

While Dean has a large focus for the organization, for her, it all begins on the farm, where she says the organization is hyper-focused.

“Growers want to do right by their farms, by their soil and by their ecosystem,” she says. “They also want to make sure they’re maximizing profitability and productivity at the end of the day.”

Listening to growers and the organization’s channel partners in the retail space is how the company keeps that focus.

Tiffany Dean leads Valent U.S.A.'s Sustainable Solutions Team, which focuses on grower support in driving their Sustainable Solutions portfolio innovation and implementation at the farm-gate.

(Provided by Valent U.S.A.)

“We are hyper-engaged with growers because we know that they have a lot of challenges and opportunities to address,” Dean says. “We want to make sure that the solutions that we have today and the solutions that we have tomorrow are going to bring them value, so they can maximize inputs and ensure that that soil is going to be productive today and tomorrow.”

Innovation Through Sustainability

Over the next decade, Dean expects that the company will roll 20 new products into the market, the result of an arduous decades-long process to develop and gain registration for new agriculture inputs.

She says that the company’s “North Star” in that process is also the same one they use for their entire business – sustainability.

“We want to bring products into the market that are going to be the most beneficial to the grower and to the environment,” she says, adding that the majority of those new products are going be around the company’s plant growth regulator platform, but will also include seed treatments and herbicides.

“We have much innovation, investment and excitement around the Sustainable Solutions Portfolio,” she says. “But we need to make sure that we are using the grower as the voice of how we drive our business moving forward.”

Betting On Sustainable Productivity

Valent’s Sustainable Solutions Criteria ends with productivity and Dean says it is not lost on her how critical it is right now for America’s working lands to be working both at peak capacity and peak efficiency. The team is working to ensure that products in the Portfolio are optimized as well.

“Input costs are under an extreme amount of pressure right now, and so we want to make sure that growers are maximizing those input costs and gaining the benefit of everything that they are purchasing,” she says. “Through our biorational, our biological and our conventional portfolio we’re able to bring products that allows the grower to maximize their productivity while also not sacrificing the environmental aspects as well.”

In the short term, Dean says she is focused on listening so that she can build strategy for innovation that takes all of these factors into account for conservation at the farm-gate.

“We need to continue engaging with our customers and our partners to understand what is needed from growers, what’s needed from the value chain, and what’s needed at the end of the day to make sure that producers are continuing to maximize their productivity and profitability and are able to use our products to benefit them in many ways possible,” she says.

America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers across the country where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers. Learn more at americasconservationagmovement.com .

Why Keystone Cooperative is Investing in the Stock Show Industry

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 15:56:11 GMT

When it comes to hiring employees, Keystone Cooperative, Inc., looks for three core competencies: customer focus, drive for results and teamwork. The company says it is finding its next generation of employees within organizations like the National Junior Swine Association (NJSA).

“We talk a lot at Keystone about these core competencies, and you definitely must have all three if you’re going to be successful in the show ring,” says Nathan Hedden, vice president of swine and animal nutrition at Keystone. “You have to work hard at home and that will end up bringing the other three competencies along.”

Keystone is a farmer-owned cooperative with roots that go back to 1927, Hedden explains. Based in Indianapolis, Ind., the company operates in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan.

“We have 2,000 employees at Keystone across four different divisions: agronomy, energy, grain, swine and animal nutrition,” Hedden says. “It really made sense for us to partner with NJSA. When we think about talent, we want to be the employer of choice in the Midwest, not just in agriculture, but across all different industries. We see this as the next talent pool to continue to grow Keystone.”

(Legacy Livestock Imaging)

During the National Junior Summer Spectacular in Louisville, Ky., Keystone representatives were on site watching the show and meeting young people from all over the country.

More than 600 exhibitors from 28 states brought 1,324 pigs to the event, says Clay Zwilling, CEO of the National Swine Registry.

“One of the things that was the most exciting for me was asking how many of new families were in the crowd at our opening ceremonies,” Zwilling says. “Probably a third of the crowd raised their hands. It really heeds to the passion people have for this industry and the excitement of the long-term engagement and sustainability of our side of the business for young families that are coming in and getting engaged.”

(Jennifer Shike)

Molding Leaders
NJSA is focused on developing the next generation of leaders for the pork industry, Zwilling says.

“It’s been really exciting to watch this grow and blossom and be able to connect really talented young people back into the pork industry,” Zwilling says. “The number of new employees and tenured employees at Keystone that have come through the junior livestock project, and specifically NJSA, is incredible.”

The core competencies that Hedden looks for align with NJSA’s focus, he adds.

“It’s incredible to watch little kids that we’ve got to encourage to break out of their shell go on to have success in the show ring and ultimately come back to the industry as talented leaders,” Zwilling says. “I think this alignment makes a ton of sense. I’m very excited about the future and appreciate the support of people willing to help invest in these kids.”

It’s A Big Industry
The stockmanship skills youth learn raising and showing pigs is another reason Keystone was drawn to support this youth swine program.

“We have 282 sites across the Midwest where we raise pigs today, working with an independent farmer who is actually taking care of those pigs,” Hedden explains. “Well, as those farms have grown, we’ve seen a lot of those operations that haven’t had pigs or maybe haven’t had pigs for a while and haven’t kept up with the technology that’s available today, want to raise pigs again. If you can find employees with stockmanship skills that can stand in the gap and help them learn and develop that, that creates a huge competitive advantage for us.”

The pork industry is full of opportunities, Hedden adds. He’s committed to helping youth see that there is more waiting for them after they finish showing pigs.

“It doesn’t end at the end of your show career,” he says. “Find people that you can talk to, maybe even ride along with, to better understand what they do. That may help you find your passion for what you want to do next.”

Precision Spray Drones: The Future of Invasive Species Control

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 18:14:46 GMT

While addressing weed control and pressing agronomic issues is a farmers’ priority during the growing season, ensuring adjacent wetlands and riparian buffer zones within crop fields are healthy and free of invasive species is imperative, too.

Today, there is novel research from the University of Waterloo showing a single, targeted herbicide application from a spray drone can suppress common invasive reed species with more than 99% effectiveness. The outcome is among many research findings recently published online in a Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) research journal.

If you’d really like to get into the weeds, you can review the full scientific study results here.

“The 99% reduction in live common reed stems observed with drone-based herbicide application demonstrates its capacity to suppress invasive common reed effectively,” says Rebecca Rooney, Ph.D., the University of Waterloo. Rooney is also a professor in the school’s biology department and the study’s corresponding author.

Rooney says the drone application method “matched or exceeded the efficacy of conventional helicopter and backpack applications.”

That’s a key aspect of the study findings because, as any farmer knows, managing invasive weeds in wetlands or buffer strips can pose significant challenges, due to limited access via hand weeding crews and ground rigs.

Spray drone applications allow for smaller spray widths and lower flight heights compared to manned helicopters, Rooney says, and the study results also show a reduction in off-target impacts and spray drift.

“This approach also holds promise for accelerating ecological recovery in wetland habitats,” says Rooney, adding that future research efforts around spray drone application in wetland settings should focus on long-term native vegetation recovery and quantify the accuracy of herbicide applications to minimize off-target damage to native vegetation in wetlands.”

Here’s a video from nuWay Ag showing the process of spray drone application in an Ohio wetland:

Your Next Read: County Shuts Down 15-Year-Old’s Bait Stand on Family Farm, Threatens Daily Fines

Where Can Farmers Expect the Next Level-Up Technology in Biologicals?

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:04:48 GMT

With a 70-year track record of use, are crop biologicals poised for a parabolic growth spurt? Or have sales plateaued?

According to Dunham Trimmer analysis, the global biologicals market could reach $19.6 billion by 2027. Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights shares his own analysis that biological sales could equal synthetic crop protection by 2043.

So what is required for those projections to come true?

Pam Marrone, co-founder of Invasive Species Corp. and previous founder of two additional biological businesses, dove deeper into the topic with certified crop advisers during a recent webinar hosted by the Science Societies.

She points to more than a handful of drivers for biological sales growth:

Improved grower ROI
Soil health benefits
Reduction of carbon dioxide
Ramped up scientific developments for efficacy and scale
Biodiversity
Labor safety and flexibility
Lower development costs and time frames (less than $5 million and three years to develop)
No pesticide residues
No resistance

“It’s important to keep in mind, with biologicals, their best use is in integrated programs with conventional crop chemistries,” she says. “More and more growers are seeing that when you incorporate biologicals into programs, you can get a higher return on investment. More than 70% of biologicals are used by conventional growers.”

Biologicals can be divided into three categories:

Biopesticides, biocontrols, bioprotections ($9 billion in global sales)
Biostimulants ($5 billion in global sales)
Biofertilizers/bionutrients ($2.5 billion in global sales)

There are up to 80 new biological active ingredients at the EPA, so what kind of new products — or biological breakthroughs — can farmers expect?

Marrone points to peptides, proteins, pheromones, and RNA interference.

One category she’s optimistic about but with a farther out horizon is bioherbicides, with product introductions expected a few years away.

“Herbicides are a tough one for biologicals. Why are there fewer companies? Why is this harder?” she says. “Well, broad-spectrum herbicides are cheap, even though there’s a lot of weed resistance.”

She points to the need for new modes of action encouraging more work and investment.

Another front she is watching is the predictability and measurability of biological use on soil health.

“It’s going to be important to look at the intersection of crop microbiomes and soil health. Microbes and plants signal each other,” she says. “We know plants recruit microorganisms to their rhizosphere (rootzone) from the pool of microbes available in the soil. So, let’s measure how adding microorganisms to the soil can help reduce time to become regenerative.”