Latest News From Crops

It’s been estimated that agriculture could account for 80% of the commercial drone market, according to the Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVIS).

The company says it has three-fold benefits: long-lasting yield protection, premium disease control, and effective resistance management. 

According to USDA’s crop progress report, 45% of corn and 62% of soybeans have been harvested so far this year.

Ken Ferrie offers five practical agronomic tips you can use during harvest this fall. These practices can help you improve corn performance and yield outcomes across your farm.

If your combine monitor is showing a wide range of yields in the field, Ken Ferrie says to investigate. Evaluate soybean stand, pod set and bean size while there’s agronomic evidence.

Maverick can be used to control problematic weeds such as waterhemp, Palmer amaranth, annual grasses, and more.

Even though USDA slightly adjusted yields lower in the October report, the agency also cut demand, which one extension agribusiness specialist says indicates there may not be much motivation for prices to move much.

Weather woes took a huge bite out of corn yield potential this season, especially in northeast Iowa and parts of western Illinois. Where farmers got timely rains, the yield reports coming in are not as wide-ranging.

Could new incentives be the tipping point to adoption?

The online tool from the SCN Coalition is free and easy to use. It’s backed by research done on more than 25,000 university soybean research plots across the U.S.

The 2023 harvest could be one of the fastest ever for some farmers in Illinois with the late dryness. Despite growing conditions that mirrored past drought years like 2012, many say the crop is better than expected.

Findings from CoBank's new quarterly report provides updates on the U.S. economy and agricultural markets.

The Ag Economists' Monthly Monitor show economists expect USDA to make additional cuts to its yield estimates, but one economist thinks weather worries in South America could be an even bigger story than U.S. yields.

Harvest progress on soybeans nearly doubled from last week and corn progress is ahead of the five-year average.

From the roots up, Beck’s Hybrids and AgriGold promise new ways to talk about how to grow corn.

The answer could be from the students participating in the Wilbur-Ellis Innovation Award, who are exploring innovative ideas for feeding a growing world.

The historically low water levels on the Mississippi River have caused a trifecta in the soybean market.  Its increased freight weights, slammed basis levels and taken a real toll on exports.

Harvest is rolling along in Nebraska with 22% of the corn combined and 29% of the soybeans out of the field.  Early harvest results are variable as you might expect in a year of drought.  

What is vertical farming and how can it set you up for future government incentives? Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal field agronomist, explains it often requires mixing and matching tools for primary and secondary tillage.

Iowa farmers, get out your toenail clippers! Anna Proctor, a University of Iowa Ph.D. student, is collecting samples for a study she will conduct later this year using Iowa farmers’ toenails to assess chemical exposure.

USDA's latest insights show the two companies dominated U.S. retail seed sales for the three crops from 2018 through 2020. That is the most recent period for which market estimates are available.

Nearly a quarter of corn and soybeans have been harvested for 2023.

Researchers from UNL, Iowa State University and the China Agricultural University have done what seemed impossible a decade ago: they finished sequencing the entire corn genome, a major breakthrough for yield.

Misinformation about nitrogen stabilizers could be limiting the return on your fertilizer investment. So we’re separating fact from fiction to help you maximize nutrient use efficiency on your corn acres in 2024.

As Congress drew closer to a government shutdown, the news pressured commodity prices. The drop in commodity prices happened despite what some viewed as a fairly bullish September Grains Stocks report for corn. 

A calibrated monitor usually does a good job of telling you where yield is changing in a field within a hybrid, but it may not tell you exactly how one hybrid is yielding against another.

Wilbur-Ellis Announces Student Teams Honored in the Second Annual Wilbur-Ellis Innovation Award

Roughly 60% of work-related deaths on ATVs involve agriculture. This harvest season, as teams gopher from one field to the next, here are some safety considerations to help stay off the incident report.

Corn harvest in Missouri is at 28% complete, with soybean harvest at only 4%. While Missouri was hit by drought this year which will cut yield average, some areas are bucking that trend.

Fall is a great time for farmers to plant cover crops to improve soil health.

With crops slowly coming in off the fields, now is a good time to start thinking about soil testing. Here are five reasons why fall testing may be more ideal than spring.

Lack of genetic diversity in crops may lead to an outcome worse than COVID-19.

USDA's weekly crop progress report shows harvest progress slightly behind average for corn and soybeans.

Specialists from Bane-Welker Equipment and Co-Alliance share adjustments to make during harvest to set up for a successful planting season.

Yields can take a 5-bu.-per-acre hit as a result of the sickle running so high on stems it cuts off branches and allows them to fall below the deck. Losses can be reduced to 1 bu. per acre with header adjustments.

Now's the time to start making notes of tar spot pressure, field by field and hybrid by hybrid, says Missy Bauer, Farm Journal field agronomist.

Kansas faced drought again in 2023 but as the combines roll there are some farmers that are still finding some pleasant surprises.

FMC's At-Plant product platform provides a way for growers to get the most out of every acre.

Todd Westerfeld says five technologies, from pocketknife to section control, are invaluable across his farm on a day-to-day basis.

Farmers have learned to live by one of life’s biggest lessons – always expect the unexpected. But sometimes even the unexpected can still cause us to pause and scratch our heads.

The data collected by the FS agronomists, including estimated yield and number of locations sampled, is uploaded to the FS Agronomy Yield Analyzer.

Ken Ferrie expects yields to climb as Illinois farmers start harvesting more of their May-planted corn. Looking ahead, he says farmers will see some challenges from herbicide carryover in 2024.

Both Dan Basse and Chip Nellinger say considering how dry it’s been, crop yields could be falling, and USDA may be forced to make more cuts to the national yield forecasts in upcoming reports.  

Water levels on the Mississippi River haven’t hit the historic lows of October 2022 yet, but readings in some areas are already lower than at the same time last year.  This is a real concern heading into harvest.

Matt Griggs faces a government ban on chicken litter: “What about my right to farm?”

Bitter blossoms sweet at Miles Farms. From father to son to brother to grandson, an annual sweet corn field has produced 1 million ears for the public.

On Sunday evening at approximately 7:11 p.m. there was an explosion within ADM’s Decatur, Ill., processing complex. This is ADM’s largest facility globally.

The only way to increase bushels per ear is to document results in the fall and make changes next season, which involves scouting before and during harvest, analyzing results and drafting your plan.

The SCN Coalition’s new SCN Profit Checker tool allows growers and their crop advisors to estimate the financial toll of soybean cyst nematode in each field.

Mizzou's Ben Brown says the 81.2 million bushels new crop export sale marks the largest week of sales for the 2023/24 marketing year to date and double the previous record weekly volume for the year set last week.