Cotton

Wheat is strategically planted on the Rahn farm to provide opportunities for manure applications and tiling projects.

Rain makes grain, and two mid-August Department of Agriculture reports offered this year’s first in-the-field look at just how much corn, soybeans and wheat American farmers will grow this wet, grain-making year.

Agricultural conditions varied in tandem with sporadic droughts across the Federal Reserve districts, but concerns over crop price declines were common in all corners of the Corn Belt.

There has not been a major trait launched to manage soybean cyst nematodes in over six decades. Until now, that is.

We in agriculture have a long tradition of marketing our bounty by more pleasant, if not less-than-truthful, names in hopes that less-informed eaters buy the sizzle rather than the fact.

Agricultural reports across Federal Reserve Districts in the Corn Belt were mixed, as drought conditions eased in some districts, but farm finances and incomes remained a concern.

Budget constraints forced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service to eliminate four crop and livestock reports.

Bayer CropScience submitted an application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a new product containing dicamba herbicide that would remove an over-the-top application in soybeans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent trade mission to India was a success, including more than 500 business-to-business meetings between U.S. exporters and Indian businesses.

While overall economic activity expanded slightly since late February, ag sector concerns remain due to income prospects and weather.

The annual county crop and livestock estimates along with the July cattle report and cotton objective yield survey are now history after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the cancellation of those reports.

AMVAC Chemical Corporation, an American Vanguard Company, continues to launch new products for broadacre crops to meet growers’ needs.

Overall economic activity increased slightly since early January, with eight of the 12 Federal Reserve districts reporting slight to modest growth while ag conditions dipped, according to the latest Beige Book.

Agricultural conditions ranged from steady to slightly worse, according to the latest Federal Reserve Beige Book.

Growers faced unprecedented challenges in 2023, including weed control, drought pressure and more. As a leader in innovation, BASF Agricultural Solutions steps up to address these challenges head on, continuing to introduce new products and solutions for growers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that agricultural producers can now enroll in the Farm Service Agency’s Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs for the 2024 crop year.

The combination of high interest rates and a strong U.S. dollar is beginning to take a disproportionate toll on rural industries like agriculture, forest products, mining and manufacturing.

The impact of drought conditions across much of the Corn Belt on crops and water transportation were a common theme in the Federal Reserve’s recent survey.

Agricultural conditions were somewhat mixed, with drought conditions and lower commodity prices reported in parts of the Corn Belt, according to survey results in the Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book.”

When agriculture began at the end of the Stone Age, the world had approximately 5 million people to feed, and few, if any, farmers were feeding people beyond their extended family.

I sit down to pen this column having just finished packing my suitcase for the days I will spend at the Farm Progress Show. When you read my words, I will be headed home from this annual farm show.

A shortage of food and energy should be coming sooner than later. I fully expect the final quarter of this year and into late 2025 to be a period marked by rising prices for those two basic markets.

There was a time when the USDA's August Crop Production report was more feared by American farmers than any paste-colored Soviet leader with a shaky finger near the nuclear launch button.

A group of Brazilian agronomists, landowners and input industry representatives visited several locations in Illinois that included stops at the Illinois State University Farm, Bayer research facilities and John Deere.

After plowing through a new USDA report titled “Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness,” I asked an agronomist friend why it seemed that its writers used so much “hem-and-haw” language.

Agricultural conditions were reported to be stable to strong across the Corn Belt, according a survey of Federal Reserve districts.

Agriculture conditions were flat to slightly improved across Corn Belt Federal Reserve districts, the Beige Book reported. The survey-based Beige Book publication summarizes comments received from contacts outside the Federal Reserve System.

If there is a concept that we have talked about more than any other over the last 22 years, it is the idea that crop agriculture experiences long periods of low prices punctuated by short periods of high prices.

Farmers Business Network released its first Fertilizer Price Transparency Report, an in-depth examination of how rapidly increasing fertilizer prices will impact farmers’ application rates this fall and planting decisions next year.

The Federal Reserve is finding it harder to cool the economy than almost anyone expected. Most corners of the U.S. economy are performing very well considering the Fed has been aggressively raising rates for seven months.

The cotton harvest is about to get underway in the Texas High Plains, the windswept region that grows most of the crop in the nation’s top cotton-producing state. But Barry Evans, like many others, has already walked away from more than 2,000 acres of his bone-dry fields.

Adverse growing conditions are among the concerns noted in several Federal Reserve districts as reported in the latest Beige Book.

griculture conditions varied across the nation’s Corn Belt, led by weather concerns, reported across Federal Reserve districts.

The trend of slight to moderate economic growth continues across the Federal Reserve districts. Survey-based findings of the current economic temperature were reported in the Beige Book released on June 1, based on information collected on or before May 23.

Concerns over tighter margins despite higher crop prices were common across the Federal Reserve districts in the latest Beige Book survey.

The strength with most commodity markets early this week was wildly bullish. But the weakness seen with most of those same markets at the end of the week was bearish.

Researchers are developing dozens of agricultural innovations at Purdue University. Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization has more than 50 ag innovations available to license on its website.

American farmers are long familiar with acre wars. This regional, late-winter scrum is a showdown over how many acres of corn, soybeans, cotton and wheat acres farmers will plant mainly in the Midwest, Great Plains and South.

Record U.S. agriculture commodity exports are projected to continue this fiscal year, but face some headwinds.

Agriculture reports were somewhat mixed across Federal Reserve districts in the latest Beige Book report, as farmers look ahead to planting season.

Kinze Manufacturing will introduce its new 3505 True Speed high-speed planter for the 2023 season, providing advanced technology and improved productivity on smaller farms or small fields.

Crop insurance is a vital risk management tool that should be maintained and strengthened in the next farm bill, according to a panel of commodity growers, lenders and conservationists.

I’m a big believer in taking the high road. When media present inaccurate or incomplete portrayals of U.S. agriculture, my job and the job of Farm Bureau is to help them understand where they went wrong and to set the record straight.

Agriculture saw improved financial conditions overall and rising land values during October and early November, according to a Federal Reserve survey.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is in the process of issuing $1.8 billion in payments to agricultural producers who enrolled in the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs for the 2020 crop year.

Murphy’s Law is defined as, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” When it comes to markets — and, in particular, the commodity markets — prices that rise to unusually high levels or decline to humbly low levels happen because at some point “something went wrong” with supply or demand, or both. As a result, prices and values moved higher or lower accordingly.

A harvester rumbles through the fields in the early morning light, mowing down rows of corn and chopping up ears, husks and stalks into mulch for feed at a local dairy. The cows won’t get their salad next year, at least not from this farm. There won’t be enough water to plant the corn crop.

New seed innovation has long dominated the row crop landscape, but it’s not the only part of production Bayer Crop Science has its eyes on. Bayer has a history of leading innovations in crop protection and that commitment is still very real in today’s climate.