Oats

Farming the Frontier: Alaskan Farmer Awaits Arrival of No-Till Air Drill to Beat the Arctic Clock

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:00:00 GMT

Sixth-generation farmer Clayton Griffith is pioneering a new era in Delta Junction, Alaska, by introducing the state’s first John Deere 1890 no-till air drill . Moving from Kansas to the “Last Frontier” five years ago (because of his passion for fishing and hunting), he is transitioning to a no-till system to condense the planting window — a critical shift in a region where winter comes early.

As the equipment travels via a four-truck convoy through the U.S. and Canada, Griffith hopes to prove that modern conservation practices are the key to building a sustainable operation in one of the world’s most challenging environments.

“The idea is to get into the fields quicker, get the crop in the ground as soon as possible,” Griffith says.

How No-Till Can Transform Alaska’s Short Growing Season

In a conventional-till system, Griffith says planting takes three to four weeks. With a short growing season that lasts 90 to 110 days, every day counts for his barley, oats, hay and grass crops to thrive. Using the no-till air drill, he expects to plant 5,600 acres in approximately five days.

“Winter could come as early as September; you can’t predict the weather, so it’s crucial for us to expand the growing season,” he explains.

After an opportunity to locally source an air drill fell through, and with the clock ticking, Griffith reached out to Quality Drills based in Kansas.

“To be bringing something to [Alaska] that focuses on what I view as a really important cause is very rewarding,” says Stefan Alderson , CEO, in regard to helping Alaska agriculture and the people who call that state home.

The two drills along with two tractors headed to Griffith’s farm once belonged to Howard Turner Farm in Muskogee, Okla. After Turner passed away, Quality Drills was tasked with selling some of the farm’s estate.

“His machines and his legacy are going to be a part of something really big in Alaska, where hopefully it’ll live on for a good, long time,” Alderson says.

The convoy of four semi-trucks and a passenger vehicle is traveling from the U.S., through Canada into the Land of the Midnight Sun, where they are expected to arrive in three days.

On the Leading Edge of A No-Till Movement in Alaska

Griffith looks forward to getting to work once the equipment arrives and building soil health as he starts to plant on May 15.

“If you want to build a sustainable local food network, you have to be efficient,” Griffith says. “Using variable-rate applications is crucial to saving on fertilizer and herbicide costs.”

Due to his location, the only fertilizer Griffith can get in bulk is dry fertilizer, such as urea and phosphorus. Not to mention, fertilizer and herbicides are more expensive.

Eventually, he hopes his neighbors will be convinced to invest in no-till practices and equipment. He compares farming in Alaska to “farming on the moon” because the only equipment he has is what he brought with him.

“If we have the same kind of equipment, we can help out with parts, etc.,” Griffith explains.

In Alaska, there is heavy competition for the small labor pool. Between the pipeline, mining and Fort Greely , it can be hard to find good help. That is why no-till practices and machinery are crucial to farming.

“Having machines that can get the job done quicker, be more efficient, and save costs on fertilizer is a huge advantage,” Griffith says. “This has been a long time coming. It’s a great opportunity for the state of Alaska.”

Elevated Corn Rootworm Pressure Projected For The Midwest

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:51:42 GMT

The “billion-dollar bug” is sharpening its teeth for 2026. Bayer CropScience reports corn rootworm pressure could be significant this year across major corn growing areas.

Based on 2025 beetle capture data from 555 monitored fields, the company projects medium to high rootworm pressure for the upcoming growing season in much of the Midwest:

31% of the corn fields sampled in 2025 had counts exceeding the economic threshold of 2 beetles/trap/day, which was 2% higher than 2024 fields (29%), 22% less than 2023 and 2022 fields (53%), and 7% less than 2021 fields (38%).
46% of the continuous corn fields sampled in 2025 were above the economic threshold, which was up 3% from 2024 (43%), down 25% from 2023 (71%), down 28% from 2022 (74%), and down 6% from 2021 (52%).
17% of the first-year corn fields in 2025 were above the economic threshold, which was 1% higher than 2024 (16%), 3% higher than 2023 (14%), up 7% from 2022 (10%), and equal to 2021 (17%).

On a broad scale, Bayer reports that rootworm larval populations — and consequently the risk potential from all CRW species this season — are likely to be elevated in fields in northern Illinois, south central Illinois, western Iowa, eastern, southeastern, and southwestern Nebraska, eastern and southeastern Wisconsin, and northern Colorado. Read the full report here .

Rootworm larvae feeding on corn roots compromise the plants’ structural integrity and can slice yields in affected fields by as much as 45%.

2026 corn rootworm pressure forecast based on 2025 beetle capture in 555 fields in CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI, and PA.

(Maps: Bayer, Beetle Monitoring Project from 2024 and 2025)

How Two CRW Variants Beat The Corn-Soybean Rotation

“CRW beetles are very, very adaptable to many of the things that we throw at them,” says Ashley Dean, Iowa State University Extension field crop entomologist.

She says CRW is forcing many row-crop growers to rewrite their management playbooks to address the pest better, especially variant populations.

Dean reports that the “variant” label describes two distinct genetic adaptations of corn rootworm:

Northern Corn Rootworm (Extended Diapause): These small green beetles have learned to hit the “snooze” button. Instead of hatching the following spring, their eggs remain dormant in the soil for two or more years—sometimes up to five. This allows larvae to emerge exactly when a field rotates back to corn.
Western Corn Rootworm (The Soybean Variant): These yellow-and-black striped beetles have developed a behavioral shift. Instead of staying in cornfields to lay eggs, females migrate to soybean fields to deposit them. When that field is planted to corn the next season, the larvae are already waiting in the soil. “These variants have essentially lost their fidelity to corn when they’re laying eggs,” Dean notes in a webinar.

These maps give approximate locations for western and northern corn rootworm variants.

(Iowa State University Extension)

A Multi-Pronged Management Strategy

Addressing corn rootworm effectively requires farmers use a localized, field-by-field strategy, says Jim Robinson, chief technology officer for Rob-See-Co. Because geography, soil, and history vary, growers should work with agronomists to tailor traits and stewardship practices to their specific acres rather than relying solely on regional forecasts, he advises.

Here are four additional recommendations Extension and industry advise farmers use in areas with expected high populations of CRW this season:

Make Root Scouting Non-Negotiable: Dig and rate roots in every field—continuous or rotated—to understand your baseline pressure. For assessing damage, use the interactive node-injury scale from Iowa State available here .
Consider Longer Rotations: In areas with heavy Northern corn rootworm extended diapause, adding a third crop like oats can break the cycle, Dean says.
Strategic Use of Bt and Insecticides: While Western corn rootworm has shown resistance to all four Bt traits in some areas, these tools still have a place. However, Iowa State suggests choosing either a Bt hybrid or a soil-applied insecticide rather than using both as “insurance” unless pressure is extreme.

To help farmers make informed decisions, Chris DiFonzo, professor & field crops entomologist at Michigan State University, provides the Handy Bt Trait Table for U.S. Corn Production , a valuable resource that outlines available Bt traits, their targets, and other key information.

Leave a Check Strip: When testing a new transgenic hybrid or insecticide in first-year corn, leave an untreated strip. This is the only way to verify if the treatment provided a return on investment.

Research to Results: Salin 247 Robot Advances Iowa Corn Strip Cropping Knowledge

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 18:58:14 GMT

A former Corteva Agriscience research scientist and the CEO and founder of Salin 247, an ag tech startup focused on autonomous planting and spraying equipment for corn and soybeans, have joined forces in Iowa to advance research on strip cropping corn and cover crops.

Using Salin 247’s four row, autonomous planting robot, Bob Gunzenhauser is planting strip crop test plots in a field near Corydon to evaluate the practice and collect data on its potential to boost corn yields.

The concept is rather interesting, especially if you’re farming corn and raising livestock: corn is planted in strips at two different seeding rates with cover crops interseeded in opposite strips, and then the plan is to push fertility via in-season nitrogen application at V4-V6 with drop nozzles.

In a real world scenario, a farmer could harvest the corn and leave the cover crops and corn stalks behind to graze livestock on. Soil health would be one ancillary benefit, as would reduced compaction via the lightweight, battery-powered robotic planter.

Here are some videos of the Salin 247 robotic planter Gunzenhauser shared:

Small plots with varying seeding rates and shut offs for alleyways built in thru the prescription, cruising along at 2 MPH. @ptx_trimble pic.twitter.com/emAgf7T0WE
— Bob Gunzenhauser (@BobGunzy) April 16, 2025

Salin247 autonomous running a test plot outside of Corydon, IA today. Including corn/cover strips and Nitrogen x Seeding Rate small plots. @jasonmauck1 @zebulousprime @PfanstielJunior pic.twitter.com/MdWLY4eR9w
— Bob Gunzenhauser (@BobGunzy) April 16, 2025

Gunzenhauser says the trial will also variable rate apply zero to 240 lb. of nitrogen per acre and three different seeding rates to demonstrate the Salin 247 autonomous planting technology and how it can enable small plot research. The data will also be used to build economic, optimum nitrogen rate response data for south-central Iowa farmers, he adds.

“Mainly I think Bob is doing this to get the data and to show the value of strip cropping, which is increasing corn yield because of the sunlight effect,” says Dave Krog, CEO and founder, Salin 247. “There’s data out there that shows generally the outside two rows of a corn strip benefit from extra sunlight, but we want to advance this research.”

In 2023, Salin 247 commissioned a similar experiment on its own test plots, and the total average yield on the check rows came in at 235 bu. per acre. The corn strips ended up yielding just over 300 bu. per acre, and Krog says August was very dry that year, so theoretically the plot could have had higher yields if it were irrigated.

(@BobGunzy/X.com)

Gunzenhauser also invited some students from the local Mormon Trail high school ag program, he has a connection with the student’s teacher, to show them how applied research is conducted in field trials. He is also hoping to enlist their help in harvesting the small plots this fall.

While a small, robotic Salin 247 planter was showcased in planting this trial, Krog says his system has applications beyond small plot seed sowing.

“Strip cropping is just one example of something unique you can do with small, autonomous equipment,” he says. “Our platform, we’ve built a small, autonomous toolbar. We can take the planter off and put a liquid or dry system on, we have a cultivator for the organic guys, and we’re working with Yetter on a strip-till pressure study.”

Gunzenhauser and Krog will lean on the local cooperative to deliver some mid-season sprays for the plots, and then return in the fall with the high school students to harvest the plots and calculate the yields. He says he plans to keep us updated on the results.

Your Next Read: Elevate Your Corn Planting Game Instantly With 7 Proven Tips

Time Is Running Out, But Boozman Says Passing Emergency Relief for Farmers Is a Priority

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 01:50:10 GMT

It’s a dire situation in farm country, according to Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), ranking member of the Senate Ag Committee. Just this week, he was on Capitol Hill urging legislators to help producers offset some of their losses with emergency relief .

“It’s clear the pain our farm families are living through,” Boozman said on the Senate floor . “For some producers, this is the second or third consecutive year of negative cash flow. This means many farm families are ending 2024 in the red, unable to pay off this year’s operating loan, unable to get the loan to farm in 2025 and facing the reality of being the generation to have lost the family farm due to extreme market conditions beyond their control.”

Lower commodity prices and increases in input costs are creating tight margins for row crop producers. Without a new farm bill this year, Boozman is exploring ways to provide 2024 economic assistance and certainty for 2025 through an improved farm safety net.

“We simply have to come up with a package that helps [farmers] get through this year,” Boozman said. “The last two years, as I mentioned earlier, were the worst ever as far as decrease in income. Going forward, if we don’t modernize the farm bill, if we don’t get risk management tools adjusted for inflation, then bankers aren’t going to have certainty [farmers’] risks are going to lessen, and it’s going to be difficult for a lot of farmers to get the financing they need.”

Whether it’s ag lenders, economists or farmers, Boozman said everyone is saying: It’s a dire picture in farm country and help is needed.

FARM Act

Another possible way for farmers to see some economic relief is through the Farm Assistance and Revenue Mitigation (FARM) Act. The bill was authored by Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) on the House Ag Committee. It would offer payment assistance to eligible farmers.

Congress is in session through Dec. 20, so Boozman and others are working diligently to secure enough support and votes to pass the FARM Act. While it’s unclear how Congress will push through the FARM Act, it’s likely going to be via the Continuing Resolution (CR).

“We’re working literally as we speak to get the language together and to get agreement from both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, to move forward,” Boozman said. “I can’t tell you for sure it’s going to get passed, but I understand how important it is as far as where it would be attached, which is probably to the continuing resolution.”

What payment might farmers receive through the FARM Act? According to one economist, the current payment calculation is: (USDA’s Projected Cost of the Crop – National Projected Returns) x Eligible Acres x 60% = Total Payment.

When you take into consideration the new WASDE prices and cost of production released each month, here’s how those payments could look per acre:

Corn: $101
Soybeans: $53
Wheat: $73
Cotton: $195
Rice: $84
Sorghum: $97
Oats: $177
Barley: $0

It’s important to note these payment estimates could change with the updated WASDE report next week. One economist told Farm Journal the 60% figure is a moving target that’s currently being debated on the Hill.

Steep Losses for 2024
The Senate Ag Committee recently released 2024 total farm income losses at $29.3 billion. At the top was corn, with losses of $11.59 billion, followed by soybeans and then wheat. However, almost every crop is facing steep financial challenges, including sorghum, oats, rice and peanuts.

Sen. Boozman (R-Ark.)

Now the question is, will the proposed relief in the FARM Act be enough to help stop the bleeding on row crop farms? Boozman hopes so.

“I understand how difficult it is — and for ag, I can’t imagine not describing it as a recession. When you look at the numbers recorded by USDA, I think they’re actually undervalued. We simply have to come up with a package that helps [farmers] get through this year,” Boozman said. “It’s not only what economists are telling us, it’s not only farmers and landowners — it’s all lenders and everyone involved in agriculture painting a very dire picture.”

As farm-focused senators are working to get the FARM Act passed, Boozman said the proposed legislation is facing some unexpected challenges, specifically in regard to cost.

“It’s just going to cost some money to get it done, and we’re working really hard to explain the need for that,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what [the FARM Act] will look like in the end, but we’ve got a lot of good people working on it. Senator Hoeven is working really hard on the Senate side. A lot is going to go through the Appropriations Committee in the Senate, and I’m on that committee as well as several others. Cindy Hyde-Smith has been active, John Thune and all of the people on the ag committee have done a great job of trying to come up with a package that will be enough to make a real difference for people to get through this year.”

Looking Ahead

Boozman recently met with Brooke Rollins, president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture. It was his first meeting with her, and he said he was very pleased, saying: “She’s very close to the president, which is so important in these cabinet positions that she’s got his ear...I’m looking forward to getting her confirmed as quickly as possible and working with her in the future.”

What will Rollins’ priorities be if she’s confirmed once Trump is sworn into office? And will he support Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services? Watch the full conversation here.

Your Next Read: Everything Farmers Need to Know About The FARM Act in Congress

Granola Lovers Beware: Oat Costs Jump as Canada Output Drops

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:57:41 GMT

Granola and oatmeal lovers in the U.S. may need to prepare for some sticker shock.

Oat production in Canada, the world’s biggest exporter, is set to plunge after rain and snow delayed harvests across the Prairie Provinces. Because the crop spent too much time in wet fields, grain quality declined, which means more will end up as livestock feed and less will be suitable for making food products like Cheerios breakfast cereal.

Since the end of September, when the extent of the damage began to emerge, prices have rebounded from a seven-year low, staging the biggest harvest-season rally in a decade. More than 90 percent of Canada’s oat exports are sent to the U.S., where companies including General Mills Inc. and Quaker Oats Co. use them in everything from snack bars to cereals.

“You can’t make a Cheerio out of barley,” said Randy Strychar, the president of Oatinformation.com, an industry researcher based in Vancouver. “It’s going to be tight.”

Production will drop 13 percent to 2.976 million metric tons after lingering harvest delays, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Nov. 17. Strychar says the decline may be as 20 percent because farmers were so far behind the normal pace of harvesting.

As of Nov. 21, farmers in Saskatchewan still hadn’t collected 6 percent of their crop, according to the province’s agriculture ministry. Alberta had 27 percent unharvested as of Nov. 15, data from the provincial government show. A year earlier, the oat harvest was mostly completed by early November.

Oat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were up 25 percent from the end of September through Nov. 24, the biggest rally for the period since 2006. Before the harvest delays, prices on Sept. 13 touched $1.71 a bushel, the lowest since February 2009. The most active futures contract closed Wednesday at $2.23 1/4.

Canada oat exports will drop to a four-year low of 1.5 million tons in the year that began Oct. 1, down from 1.6 million tons a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. American food processors are dependent upon Canadian supply because U.S. farmers don’t grow enough, which means they import about 57 percent of what they use.

General Mills, the Minneapolis-based company that makes products including Nature Valley granola bars and Cheerios cereal, declined to comment. Chicago-based Quaker Oats, a unit of PepsiCo Inc. that produces its eponymous hot cereals and granola bars, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Quality Issues

Even if farmers managed to complete the harvest this week, the grain won’t be usable for foodmakers. The U.S. may have to import more from northern Europe and draw down existing inventories to manage the supply rout, according to Strychar at oatinformation.com.

It may take a few months before oat buyers start to see higher costs because supplies had been ample from earlier harvests and prices were low, said Dave Sanders, a Vancouver, Washington-based vice president for Cereal Byproducts Co. The company, which gets about 80 percent of its oats from Canada, markets 10,000 tons annually for use by food makers and producers of pet food.

“After the first of the year, we’ll start seeing some increases,” Sanders said. “It will be a significant change in the market. There is still a lot of oats being stored on-farm from last year’s crop. That will temper the price a little bit.”

While oat inventories in the U.S. Midwest may be as high as 21 million bushels -- enough to last five months -- not all of it is food-grade quality, so millers may try to purchase more to make sure they don’t run out, said Ryan McKnight, a merchandising manager at Linear Grain Inc., a Carman, Manitoba-based company that originates, stores and transports crops.

“Mills ran out in 2014, and they don’t want that to happen again,” McKnight said.

Price Volatility

Ceres Global Ag Corp., a Toronto-based owner of agricultural assets, said Nov. 9 that the harvest delays created “significant quality issues” and price volatility. The company, in an earnings statement, said it will focus on increasing the volume of grain sold.

In the U.S., the oat crop was collected earlier and generally had better quality, said Frayne Olson, an agricultural economist at North Dakota State University in Fargo. Still, because American food makers rely more on imports than domestic supply, getting quality oats may fetch a premium, he said.

It’s not clear how much of the Canadian crop will be usable in food, the USDA said in a Nov. 2 report. The department lowered its forecast for Canadian oat inventories in 2016-17 to 765,000 tons from 795,000 tons, according to the report.

Canada’s crop will be key for American food companies because most other oat-producing countries consume most of what they grow, said Tregg Cronin, a South Dakota-based analyst for Halo Commodity Co. Food and seed demand, accounting for about half of U.S. use, is “inelastic,” he said. And makers of horse feed, another big source of demand, aren’t likely to switch to other grains.

“We rely on them for so much of our imports,” Cronin said of Canadian farmers. “That’s what makes this such a big problem.”

Quaker Sued by Consumers for Not Flagging Glyphosate in Oatmeal

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:57:15 GMT

Consumers in New York and California sued PepsiCo Inc.’s Quaker Oats for false advertising over claims that the brand’s signature product contains a possible carcinogen that is not listed as an ingredient.

In court documents, the consumers claim that the company’s oatmeal contains glyphosate, an herbicide the World Health Organization declared a probable carcinogen last year, although an Environmental Protection Agency committee disagreed. They say that oat farmers use the chemical as a weed killer and a drying agent that is sprayed before harvest.

While the suit says there is nothing illegal about the company’s use of glyphosate, the consumers say the product’s “100 Percent Natural” promise and its label, which lists natural whole-grain rolled oats as the main ingredient, are misleading.

“Quaker knows that consumers seek out and wish to purchase whole, natural foods that do not contain chemicals, and that consumers will pay more for foods that they believe to be natural,” lawyers for the New York consumers wrote in a complaint. “By deceiving consumers about the nature, quality, and/or ingredients of its Quaker Oats, Quaker is able to sell a greater volume of Quaker Oats, to charge higher prices for Quaker Oats, and to take away market share from competing products.”

The consumers, whose suits in federal courts in New York and California see class-action status, are seeking damages and refunds. The company did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Oats Drop to Lowest Price in More Than Two Years

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:55:45 GMT

Prices for oats traded in Chicago fell to the lowest in more than two years amid signs of ample supplies of the breakfast staple.

Stockpiles of the grain approved for delivery against futures have more than doubled from a year earlier, exchange data show. Prices plunged as much as 41 percent since touching a record in March, signaling reduced costs for the Quaker Oats division of PepsiCo Inc. and for farmers who use the grain in livestock feed.

Futures slumped as railroads cleared backlogs that had slowed shipments from Canada, the world’s biggest exporter. At the same time, flooding across the nation’s Prairies and delayed U.S. planting reduced the quality of grain supplies now filling warehouses. That’s encouraging investors to sell long positions, said Dan Anderson, a grain broker and analyst for ED&F Mann Capital Markets Inc.

“Hedge funds are realizing they do not want to take delivery of lower-quality oats that no one wants,” Anderson said in a telephone interview from Chicago. “People have been building stocks all summer, and the majority are feed quality and not food quality.”

Oat futures for delivery in March fell 1 percent to close at $3.09 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, capping an eighth straight drop and the longest slide in a year. Earlier, prices touched $2.9825, the lowest for a most-active contract since June 2012. The December contract fell 2.1 percent to $2.99 a bushel.

Hedge funds increased their net-bullish wagers to 1,945 futures and options in the week ended Nov. 18, almost four times higher than a year earlier. On Nov. 21, open interest in futures reached the highest since February. The contracts outstanding fell by 745 yesterday, the biggest drop in a year. The declines could signal an unwinding of long positions.

Rail Jam

Prices rose to a record $5.045 in March after record grain and oilseed crops in Canada overwhelmed the country’s rail system, creating a shortage of grain cars and slowing oats shipments. The U.S. imported 56 percent of the oats it consumed in the 12 months that ended May 31.

Canadian government mandates that imposed grain-shipping requirements helped to ease the backlog. The orders could be suspended once they expire at the end of the month because of improved shipments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report this month.

Domestic oat production rose 7.7 percent to 70 million bushels this season from a year earlier, the USDA said Nov. 10. About 12.2 million bushels of the grain were in deliverable locations as of Nov. 14, up from 4.02 million a year earlier, CBOT data show.

“The main problem last year was transportation, not supply,” Anderson said. “The market is much better prepared for any Canadian rail slowdown this year.