ROW CROPS

High Stakes: Trump-Xi Summit, WASDE and E15 Set Up Crucial Week for Ag Commodity Markets

Mon, 11 May 2026 10:48:18 GMT

A faltering spring rally for grains and the soy complex may hang in the balance as producers and traders prepare for a week jam-packed with potentially market-moving events.

On Tuesday, USDA will deliver its May World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, which will offer the department’s initial outlook for the new crop year.
On Wednesday, the House is slated to vote on long-sought legislation to green-light year-round sales of E15.
What is likely to be the main event, President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit China Thursday and Friday, where a meeting with leader Xi Jinping is hoped to bring affirmation that Beijing will follow through on commitments to buy U.S. soybeans and possibly other agricultural goods.

There’s also the Iran war, which in the past week overshadowed individual market fundamentals as a U.S. proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz and end the conflict sparked a crude selloff that dragged grain markets back from recent highs.

Let’s break down what’s at stake:

May WASDE

While the May outlook often sets the initial tone for the new crop year, the timing of the forecast during corn and soybean planting season leaves high potential for changes later in the year, with both acreage and yield still fluid.

Over the past 30 years, on average, USDA’s initial forecast for soybean ending stocks is 78 million bushels higher than the final estimate. For corn, that disparity is even wider at 129 million bushels higher than the initial forecast. With fuel and fertilizer prices rising sharply this spring, that further exacerbates the variability around potential yields as farmers may cut inputs to save costs.

Due to winter wheat already being planted and the agency including survey yield data in this report, the margin of error in ending stocks is smaller and averages 51 million bushels lower than the final.

The May WASDE is generally neutral in terms of the direction it moves the price of row crops based on these trends the past 30 years:

July HRW and SRW wheat futures ended the day of the WASDE release higher 14 times
December corn higher 16 times
November soybeans higher 12 times

In absolute values, the change in price is 11 3/4 cents for July HRW wheat, 10 1/4 cents for July SRW wheat, 7 cents for December corn and 11 1/4 cents for November soybeans. Still, outliers are possible. 2022’s initial forecast sent wheat futures soaring, with KC July wheat rising 69 1/2 cents following the release that compounded on worries of lower production from the Black Sea at that time.

E15

After being once again left on the cutting-room floor during legislative wrangling over the farm bill, E15 legislation is slated for a House vote. Following farm bill passage last month, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson said a vote on standalone legislation would take place on May 13 . High fuel prices driven by the Iran war have intensified bipartisan pressure to pass the bill before the midterm elections, though oil-state opposition remains a hurdle.

It isn’t yet clear a vote will take place. Full passage would bolster biofuel demand at the margin, while a successful House vote would perhaps provide a timely psychological lift for corn futures.

Trump-Xi Summit

The postponement of the Trump-Xi meeting in mid-March sent soybeans into a tailspin , underlining the stakes surrounding the rescheduled summit. Soybean producers want to hear affirmation – from Beijing – that China is prepared to follow through on what the White House has said is a commitment to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans per calendar year for the next three years. That’s less than what China was buying before Beijing’s boycott of U.S. purchases that undercut the market last year. China has yet to affirm specific targets.

Soybean exports picked up as China resumed purchases after Trump and Xi struck a one-year trade truce in October, but continue to run behind the pace necessary to hit USDA’s current marketing year projection of 1.54 million bushels.

(Pro Farmer)

The good news is that such a commitment may be low-hanging fruit. What’s more, reports have portrayed Chinese negotiators as open to purchases of an array of agricultural goods, including beef, poultry and non-soybean row crops – in addition to soybeans. Trade watchers say an agreement that would see China buy agricultural goods and aircraft alongside further tariff reductions may be the summit’s most likely outcome, with thornier issues kicked down the road.

A deal could trigger a relief rally, but risks remain. Friction over the Iran war, AI guardrails and Taiwan could make Xi reluctant to commit. Given how sensitive soybeans have been to China-related headlines, a disappointing outcome could quickly rattle the market.

The War and the Market

The nosedive by crude-oil futures this past week dragged corn, wheat and soybeans back from new highs, raising questions about the staying power of a budding spring rally that saw December corn briefly push above the $5 a bushel mark. The coming week will see market participants run a gauntlet of market-moving fundamental events that may end up setting near-term direction.

USDA Delivers Thousands of Bridge Payments In a Matter of Days

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 06:04:22 GMT

In an afternoon general session, adjusted to fit USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ schedule, the agency leader welcomed a record crowd of 12,000 to her home state of Texas as she stares down one of the most challenging moments in farming history. Farmers are facing high input costs, trade uncertainty and surging grain production.

“Between 2020 and last year when I spoke at this incredible event, fuel costs had increased 33%, seed costs had increased 19%, fertilizer prices had gone up 48%, labor up 44% and interest expenses up 71%,” said Rollins.

The frustration in the room was palpable following a year in 2025 where strong production was again unable to overcome swelling costs and expenses. Farmers here are now looking harder to Washington for answers as another season of negative margins stares them in the face.

“We’re seven years out from this last farm bill and all of this information that we’re trying to work with is so outdated, our costs are so different, we have to get something done,” said Jed Bower, the current president of the National Corn Growers Association and an Ohio farmer. “They have forgotten about rural America.”

Help is on the way

USDA did roll out an $11 billion rescue program called the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program as a way to help tide farmers over until safety net pricing adjustments kick in this fall. Those weren’t passed in a new Farm Bill but instead included in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed last year. Sign-ups for Bridge payments are currently underway with FSA even allowing Commodity Classic attendees to finalize their applications on the tradeshow floor. Some of those payments are already in farmers’ hands as Rollins told farmers help is on the way.

“I will not declare victory, we still have so much work to do, but I will declare that we have made great progress on the promises that were made,” said Rollins. “Since [the last time I was here] we have had 15 new trade deals and/or frameworks for US agriculture in key markets like the European Union, UK, Japan, Mexico and Southeast Asia.”

The secretary also pointing China’s return to the market and pending presidential meeting scheduled for later this month. Economists are forecasting the agricultural trade deficit to fall from $41.5 billion in 2025 to $35 billion this year. That shift is happening around a strong export year in 2025 for things like ethanol where exports were up 11%, dairy exports were up 15% and corn exports ending the year 29% higher.

Separately from trade, Rollins noting a litany of deregulation happening across agencies. In a post on X.com, the secretary listed a number of changes already underway. Rollins writing that to date the administration has cut 129 regulations for every new one, resulting in $211.8 billion in net cost savings. She says accomplishments in USDA deregulation agenda include:

Reversing the EPA endangerment finding impacting vehicle emissions standards
Raising poultry line speeds → ~16% lower chicken prices
Rescinding the Roadless Rule → opens 59M acres for timber
Cutting USDA NEPA regs by 66% (streamlining 7 rules into 1)
Reforming H-2A AEWR → saves farmers >$2B/year in labor costs
Clarifying WOTUS per recent Supreme Court ruling
Modernizing Forest Service oil/gas & minerals leasing rules

I’m in Floresville, TX today launching @USDA’s new Deregulatory Agenda for American Agriculture & Consumers! Thank you to the amazing Boening Family for welcoming us to your beautiful farm!!! The Trump Admin is cutting red tape to unleash innovation on farms & ranches while… pic.twitter.com/5NOdTT2dpX
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) February 26, 2026

USDA systems get an upgrade

While the world focuses on precision agriculture and technology adoption, the systems helping support American farmers has been embarrassingly slow to evolve.

“A GAO audit found that barely 15% of previous upgrades were delivered,” said Rollins. “We have been left with ancient technical architecture with 500 different custom-built systems and databases managed by over 1,000 different contractors that cost the taxpayer over $1 billion.”

The secretary announcing the ‘One Farmer, One File’ initiative as a way to streamline the data collection and services from USDA.

“This creates a single, streamlined record that follows you, the farmer, no matter where you go in USDA system,” explained Rollins. “When this initiative concludes, producers will be able to access their USDA data in a single, modern, secure system built to today’s cybersecurity standards.”

USDA Secretary Rollins watches as a producers enrolls at Commodity Classic

(USDA (X.com))

Rollins says it’s part of the administration’s broader vision of revamping how Americans interact with the government’s digital front door. She also made it clear that these new tools are optional.

“What does this mean? Do I have to do everything on a computer? No, these FSA offices will stay open. You will always have someone to walk into and sit down with to help with paper applications and traditional acreage reporting,” said Rollins. “This is not a mandate to digitize. We are not telling you we’re moving everything to your phone or your computer at home, but instead it is an expansion of options for our farmers.”

This is the first phase of a multi-year initiative. The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program is the very first program running fully on this new platform.

“After 72 hours we had over 30,000 applications go through the application process at login.gov” said Richard Fordyce, USDA undersecretary for farm production and conservation. “When the producer sees the form on their virtual device and hit sign here, that immediately goes to the county office. It’s then signed and certified and sent for payment, immediately.”

“The results have been stunning,” said Rollins. “In just the past few days, we have seen 50 times more producers sign up online than ECAP did over its entire five-month sign-up period last year. Adoption is up over 5,000% and several billion dollars have already been obligated. Many of you told me you’ve already had the check hit your bank account faster than any program ever before in the history of USDA.”

Rollins called it a new standard for the delivery of services. She says the IT and system upgrades are scheduled to be completed within the next 2 years.

Focus on 2026

Rollins laid out her priorities for the new year as farmers at Commodity Classic look for answers to the difficult balance sheet decisions awaiting their return to the farm. The top 5 boiled down to this:

Continue to deregulate
Strike new trade deals
Lower the cost of inputs
Expand markets at home with biofuels
Strengthen the farm safety net by passing a new Farm Bill

That will be easier said than done as each step comes with its own set of challenges. Rollins will be navigating closing Washington D.C. offices and moving staff to new regional hubs which she hopes to have done by the start of school next fall. Throw in global political uncertainty, stubborn inflation and stiff competition from Brazil, and the challenges are big.

“I want every American to understand that if we are not able to reverse the trend, the farm economy, the increase in inputs, the fewer markets around the world, protection from lawfare, if we’re not able to reverse that trend, then we not only will lose the greatest industry in American history, but we will also lose our country,” said Rollins. “There is no freedom unless we are able to feed and fuel ourselves.”

Georgia Watermelon Heist Explodes Into Epic Night of Pandemonium

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:37:10 GMT

“Son, you roll one more melon down that board and I’m gonna to shoot you.”

The bare-bones warning, delivered over a midnight hum of katydids and crickets, froze young Terry Nunn in mid theft, silhouetted against the glow of a fat Georgia moon. Staring at the double-barrel bores of a shotgun nestled capably in the arms of an old farmer, Nunn, 16, felt his mouth go to cotton.

Still as a statue behind a truck bed half-loaded with giant watermelons, Nunn had been minutes from a flawless, five-fingered heist. Instead, he was cold-busted and on the verge of frontier justice, alongside two confederates. Beyond surrender, the teen had one option: Run like hell.

With the turn of a heel in red dirt, Nunn bolted like a blind man escaping flames, and scrambled into the melon field, leaving behind a hail of blasts, buckshot, burning rubber, and buck-wild bedlam. The scheme descended into epic pandemonium.

“I’m sure not proud of what we did, but I still scratch my head at how crazy it was,” Nunn recalls. “No doubt, the whole deal still sticks close to my heart.”

Welcome to the night the lights almost went out in Georgia.

Black Diamonds
Pocked with a roadmap of dents and scratches, testament to horse hauling and cow wrangling, a 1969 F-100 bounced the backroads of Jackson County, roughly 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, on a sticky August morning with mercury bound for 100 degrees.

Windows rolled down in the green, two-tone truck, the price of a breeze was worth the taste of dust to three teenage boys sweltering in the cab, as Nunn rode passenger window, with his good buddy, Gene, behind the wheel, and lifetime friend, Rocky, wedged in the middle.

“It didn’t take long and we could see exactly where we were going and what we were doing,” Nunn remembers. “Big ole melons laying everywhere.”

(Photo public domain)

Elbow cocked over belt molding, Nunn watched the blur of pastures and woods. It was 1977 in rural Georgia: Young men riding the backroads could easily stray.

“It was almost natural for three teenagers to drift toward trouble in summertime,” explains Nunn, in a voice soaked in Southern honey. “It’s easy to stir up a mess out in the country, especially if you’re bored and ain’t got any money.”

Recounting the past comes natural to the 64-year-old—a master storyteller who paints in color, hangs on detail, and delivers tales on a loop with remarkable recall. Raised hardscrabble, Nunn never lacked for necessity, but he could see poverty from the bottom rung of working class. By 12, he worked full-time; by 14, he drove a tractor-trailer. By 16, “Big T” Nunn was stacked at 6’1”, 220 lb., and could blaze down the gridiron.

And on an otherwise ordinary dog day in 1977, Nunn’s young life almost doglegged as the Ford crossed north into Banks County. Beyond endless stretches of grain fields, the pickup slowed and eased to the shoulder, alongside a 50-acre patch dotted with massive chunks of oblong fruit.

Black Diamond watermelons. Deep, dark green in color, each easily exceeding 50 lb., the picture-book specimens were prime for picking.

Gene swept his finger across the field of dragon eggs, and turned to Rocky and Nunn: Y’all wanna make some money?

Lock, Stock, and Barrel
The plan was straightforward: Return to the field in the witching hour, fill the bed with booty, and sell the haul roadside on the edge of Atlanta the following day. Easy money, honey.

However, the property in the trio’s crosshairs was not easy pickings. By no means.

Months earlier, Nunn had snuck onto the same farm and rustled catfish a stone’s throw from the watermelon patch. He was caught red-handed by the shotgun-toting farmer-owner.

Apparently, the old man never slept.

“He nabbed me and another buddy holding a full 6’-string of fish that didn’t have room to slide another 2-pound channel cat on,” Nunn recollects. “He carried us back to his house and made us clean the fish right in front of him. We put them in gallon jugs, filled the jugs with water, stuck it all in the freezer, and then cleaned up everything. I thought he would call the law, but then he let us go.”

“Out of breath, alone in the dark, I was wishing I’d never have done something this crazy. But most of all, I was scared to death … I knew the old man was coming.”

(Photo courtesy of Cindy Nunn)

Only a few short months after the catfish fiasco, Nunn again was ready to roll the dice. Brimming with confidence, Nunn, Gene, and Rocky drove to a barn owned by Gene’s papaw, and prepared to execute. They padded the truck bed with a thick layer of hay and grabbed a scrap piece of plywood cut lengthways in half to deploy as a loading ramp.

At approximately 11:30 p.m., with temps still clinging tight to the low 80s, the teens rumbled back to Banks County. Gene drove just past the field entrance, turned off his headlights, cut the wheel, and backed down to an 8’ embankment below the melon field. Nunn and Rocky spilled out of the cab’s right side and moved toward the field, decked in standard summer fare: t-shirts, close-cropped jean shorts, and work boots. Gene, strapped in blue jeans and cowboy boots, crawled into the bed, and extended the plywood ramp to the embankment.

A snapshot in time, left to right, proprietor Charlie Brown; Terry Nunn’s father, W.T.; Terry Nunn; Ricky Hill; and Rocky Brown. Photo courtesy of Cindy Nunn

(Photo courtesy of Cindy Nunn)

Nunn and Rocky would cut vines, pick, haul the produce from field to truck, and roll melons down the ramp to Gene for stacking and packing. Lock, stock, and barrel.

Under a moon that wasn’t quite full, but plenty fat, the boys walked into the rows. “Our eyes got adjusted pretty fast. It didn’t take long and we could see exactly where we were going and what we were doing,” Nunn remembers. “Big ole melons laying everywhere.”

“Only problem was, the old man’s house was just a mile from that field.”

Every Man for Himself
Nunn and Rocky knelt and began harvesting. A flick of a Barlow knife, an upward hoist, and the deed was done. Operating in total silence and total darkness, with no risk of flashlight exposure, they carried the hefty melons to the descending ramp for release to Gene.

“You snipped the vine and toted off the melon, keeping the knife between your fingers,” Nunn describes. “We wasn’t playing around. I mean, these were Black Diamonds and we were both good-sized boys, so we toted them in pairs. We’d put’em on the ramp, one at a time, and roll’em down. Gene was stacking them in the bed.”

“I’m sure not proud of what we did, but I still scratch my head at how crazy it was,” Nunn recalls.

(Photo courtesy of Facebook, Miller Farms)

“I’m not sure how much time passed, but we were hard at it and covered an area about a quarter of a football field. By this time, maybe we had 40 or so melons loaded in the bed. It was getting about time to call it a night, but that ain’t what happened. We went back in for a few melons more.”

Cradling two more Black Diamonds under his arms, Nunn marched to the embankment and rolled the first down the plywood plank. He bent over, grabbed the second, and stopped cold. A voice with Old Testament wrath cut the night air.

Son, you roll one more melon down that board and I’m going to shoot you. If you don’t believe me, you just go ahead and roll another one.

Roughly 40’ to Nunn’s left stood the old man, wearing overalls and a crumpled ball hat that looked to have been run over by a tractor several times. Time stopped.

“He had a double-barrel shotgun in the crook of his arm and it looked like it was a part of him. You know how old men lay it in the bend of their arm and it looks natural? It looked like he’d been carrying his gun in that position his whole life,” Nunn exclaims.

“I didn’t have no idea where he’d come from or how he knew we were there. I ain’t got a clue. All I knew was he meant every word about shooting me. Evidently, somebody had been in that melon field before and he was keeping an eye on it because there was no reason for him to come down there at all.”

“The only thing in my favor was that in the dark, the old man didn’t recognize me as being the kid who stole his catfish. That might have saved me from getting shot on the spot.”

Still as a stone, casting his eyes toward the field, Nunn caught a snapshot of Rocky, a sprinter on the high school track team, motoring toward liberty 40 yards into the field, fading into black. He gone.

Shifting his gaze back to the old man, Nunn mustered up a reply: “Yessir. I’m not going to roll another watermelon, and I’m sorry that I did.”

The gun remained level: “We fixin’ to call the law.”

Despite getting the drop on Nunn, the old man made one miscalculation. He assumed Nunn was the driver, i.e., he didn’t realize Gene was squatting in the bed.

“All of a sudden, Gene slipped or shifted in the truck, and the sound kinda startled the old man. He turned to the noise, and when he did, I took my chance.”

Sincerely. Every man for himself.

Melons at Midnight
Bat outta hell, Big T Nunn burst into the field, work boots cutting Georgia dirt. Behind him, complete chaos and 12-gauge thunder.

“I stretched out, hit full speed, and about right then I heard shots. At the same time, I heard Gene crank the truck and spin off with melons flying everywhere. I clearly heard the plywood hit the tailgate. And I’m running as fast as my legs will go.”

Pellets exploded all around Nunn. “The old man was reloading and firing steady. Birdshot popped all around, some of them hitting my arms and legs and head, and it stung. I don’t know if he was trying to kill me or just shooting overtop to scare me, but it worked either way. He shot about eight times or so.”

“It’s easy to stir up a mess out in the country, especially if you’re bored and ain’t got any money,” Nunn says.

(Photo courtesy of Cindy Nunn)

With no plan beyond immediate escape, Nunn kept running, aiming for a tree line on the far side of the field. But suddenly—thump, crash, and somersault. Nunn forgot he was running in a field full of melons at midnight.

“My right foot planted dead center of one and went right in, and down I went. Got up, ran a few yards, and hit another. It was like that the whole way across the field, but finally I dove into the tree line and found cover.”

“Out of breath, alone in the dark, I was wishing I’d never have done something this crazy. But most of all, I was scared to death, looking back out at the field. I knew the old man was coming.”

Bury the Body
Splattered in watermelon flesh, streaked in dirt, and skinned on elbows and knees, Nunn appeared to have wrestled a bear and lost.

Crouching in tree cover, unsure of what to do next, he was startled by the sound of leaves rustling to his rear. Rocky looked equally worse for wear.

“Terry, what do you think Gene is doing?”

“I know exactly what he’s doing,” Nunn replied. “He’s headed down the road wide open, and melons are tumbling all outta that bed. I promise you, if that old man thinks about it, he’ll be able to track Gene just by following the watermelons.”

Nunn and Rocky, unsure of how to get back to Jackson County, began moving down the tree line, stopping where the timber brushed the road. “We waited in the shadows, hoping maybe, just maybe, Gene would come back for us.”

An eternity later, Nunn saw headlights approaching. However, the lights didn’t belong to a 1969 F-100. “I knew who it was,” Nunn details. “Gene had gone home and switched out vehicles to his papaw’s truck. I hollered out and Gene slowed down, and we hopped in the bed while he was still moving.”

Forty miles south, the trio pulled up beside the barn, where Gene’s papaw was waiting: I know y’all have been up to no good. Don’t know what y’all been doing. Don’t want to know. Don’t tell me about it. Don’t wake me up no more. Put my truck back in the barn, and y’all behave.

Translated: Papaw knew how to bury a body.

Never Going Back
A heist turned debacle, the watermelon job mercifully ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. The take? Seven watermelons, all gashed and bruised, remained in the F-100’s bed.

The man of a thousand tales, Terry “Big T” Nunn, one of the finest raconteurs in the South.

(Photo courtesy of Cindy Nunn)

“We gave them away to family,” Nunn says. “Looking back, we were just kids in a rural county looking for a little bit of fun that stopped short of trouble.”

“The watermelon raid didn’t cure us from trouble, but it sure fixed us from bothering that old man,” Nunn concludes. “I didn’t ever wanna see him or his shotgun again. I reckon that’s why we never went back.”

(Almost 50 years later, Nunn is a walking library of a thousand stories, all pulled from rural life, agriculture, hunting, fishing, and all points in between. To hear Nunn’s tales and superb delivery, visit his TikTok channel: @terrynunn74 .)

For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer

Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust

Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing

Farmer Unearths Lost Treasure, Solves WW2 Mystery

Christmas Comes Early: Trump Administration Announces $12 Billion in Bridge Payments for Farmers

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 22:01:09 GMT

Help is on the way for farmers impacted by the Trump administration’s trade policies. The White House released some details of its long-anticipated trade aid package, totaling $12 billion .

Up to $11 billion will go toward a newly designed “Farmer Bridge Assistance” program targeted toward row crop farmers hit hardest by trade disruptions. Those payments will be sent by the end of February, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. The remaining $1 billion will be set aside and is designated for other crops affected by the ongoing disputes.

President Donald Trump announced the package Monday, joined by Rollins, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and several growers. Trump said during the roundtable that tariffs will be used to fund the payments, while a release from USDA says the bulk of the funding will run through a new Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and funded under the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).

Rollins framed the package as near-term help while trade and farm-safety-net updates ramp up. She made comments during the roundtable on Monday, surrounded by farmers.

“President Trump will not let our farmers be left behind, so he directed our team to build a bridge program to see quick relief while the president’s dozens of new trade deals and new market access take effect,” Rollins says. “The plan we are announcing today ensures American farmers can continue to plan for the next crop year … it will allow farmers to leverage strengthened price protection risk management tools and the reliability of fair trade deals so they do not have to depend on large ad hoc assistance packages from the government.”

FARMER VERY GRATEFUL TO @POTUS: "YOU BROUGHT CHRISTMAS TO FARMERS"

Cordt Holub, Corn and Soybean Farmer from Iowa: What you're doing here in D.C. is working... I'll be able to potentially pass on a farm to my children because of you. pic.twitter.com/E3vq6jsTMM
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) December 8, 2025

When Are Farmer Assistance Payments Expected?

Based on information released from USDA on Monday, the timing of the payments are as follows:

Dec. 19, 2025 (5 p.m. ET): Deadline for producers to make sure 2025 acreage reporting is accurate.
End of December 2025: USDA expects to release commodity-specific payment rates.
By Feb. 28, 2026: USDA says eligible FBA payments should be released.
Oct. 1, 2026: USDA points to farm bill-related improvements in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), including higher statutory reference prices for major commodities, reaching eligible farmers starting on this date.

What Farmers Need to Know

Here’s how the new tariff-funded aid package breaks down and what producers can expect it to mean for their operations.

$12 billion total in one-time assistance tied to 2025 conditions, framed as a short-term bridge while new trade access and longer-term safety net changes take effect.
Up to $11 billion is slated for the FBA Program focused on row crops, using a “simple, proportional” national formula intended to cover a portion of modeled 2025 crop-year losses.
$1 billion is reserved for commodities not covered by FBA, including items such as specialty crops and sugar, but USDA says details and timelines are still being developed.
No crop insurance link required to receive FBA payments, though USDA is urging producers to use OBBBA risk management tools going forward.

Which Crops Are Covered Under the New FBA?

USDA says FBA applies to producers of a broad list of row crops and oilseeds, including:

Barley
Corn
Cotton
Peanuts
Oats
Rice
Sorghum
Soybeans
Wheat
Plus crops such as canola, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower, among others.

Is $12 Billion Enough?

The administration had been expected to roll out as much as $15 billion in aid back in October, but Rollins said the 43-day federal government shutdown pushed back the timeline.

During his first term, Trump directed about $23 billion in aid to farmers. Reuters reports producers this year were already on track to receive nearly $40 billion in ad-hoc disaster and economic assistance.

The new trade aid package is widely welcomed, but many U.S. farmers say the damage from the trade war, and China’s boycott of U.S. soybeans through harvest, has already taken its toll. Billions of dollars in lost soybean sales pushed China toward South American suppliers, creating long-term financial and market consequences.

While USDA finally unveiled its long-needed trade aid package, delayed by the 43-day government shutdown, many question whether it’s sufficient. Ed Elfman, senior vice president of agriculture and rural banking policy at the American Bankers Association, says the support will help but won’t fix structural issues.

“Any aid will help,” Elfman says. “It’ll help make cash flow work a little better. It’ll make the margins look a little better. Profitability will go up, but at the end of the day, it’s just a Band-Aid. It’s not a long-term solution.”

For some farmers already in financial distress, the relief comes too late.

“A financial bridge is vital for keeping many of our farmers in business going into 2026,” says Caleb Ragland, president, American Soybean Association. “There are some deep losses that have been incurred, and it’s been piling up over a two- or three-year period.”

Northwest Corn Belt Saw Wide Basis

In the northwest Corn Belt, the trade truce and renewed Chinese soybean purchases were too late to prevent wide basis levels and a storage crunch during harvest.

“A lot of producers were forced to sell that crop early, maybe earlier than what they wanted to,” says Kevin Deinert, president, South Dakota Soybean Association. “Given that we had some very depressed prices at that beginning October time frame before any trade deals were announced, some farmers are still reeling from that.”

Elfman says the financial strain is uneven across the country.

“One thing we’re learning from bankers, it’s creeping into the upper Midwest. The ‘I states’ are starting to feel it more and more, but really the mid-South to the South has been feeling it for three or four years now,” Elfman notes.

And while the aid helps slow the losses, he warns it doesn’t erase them.

“We are seeing with our surveys when we talk to bankers right now that they believe 50% of their producers will not be profitable next year,” Elfman says.

Ragland adds that soybean producers appreciate the lifeline but ultimately want reliable markets.

“We do not want to be dependent on the next aid program or financial bridge to stay in business,” he notes. “We need opportunities within the market.”

Meanwhile, trade negotiations with China continue. China’s Vice Premier held a video call Friday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Reports say both sides engaged in an in-depth and constructive exchange on implementing the consensus reached in an October meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi.

Under that agreement, the U.S. committed to trimming tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on illicit fentanyl trafficking, resuming U.S. soybean purchases and maintaining rare earth exports.

Senators React, Thank Trump For Having Farmers’ Backs

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., praised the White House’s newly announced farm assistance package, calling it a bridge to help producers until the benefits of recent trade deals and the “One Big Beautiful Bill” show up in farm country.

In a statement, Boozman said farm families share Trump’s goal of expanding market access and that delivering the assistance will bridge the gap until farmers see gains from the new trade agreements and added certainty from the legislation. He added the announcement provides “much needed relief to rural America” and said the Senate Agriculture Committee is prepared to pursue additional steps to support farm families.

Boozman attended the White House roundtable for the announcement alongside Trump, Rollins, Bessent and farmers from across the country.

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was also in attendance on Monday. She praised the USDA farm assistance package announced by Trump during a White House agriculture roundtable on Monday.

“Today’s farm assistance package is welcome news as we work to get the farm economy back on track,” Fischer said. She credited Trump and Rollins for stepping up to support producers and said she looks forward to working with the administration to expand trade opportunities and strengthen markets for Nebraska agricultural products.

AgZen, Corteva Team up on AI-Powered, Retrofit Sprayer Tech

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:08:46 GMT

AgZen announces an agreement with Corteva to further “explore the commercial potential” of AgZen’s AI-powered crop spraying optimization technology, RealCoverage.

The news comes on the heels of Corteva’s big announcement on Oct. 1 , detailing the crop protection multinational’s plan to split its crop protection and seeds businesses.

AgZen, a tech startup spun out of MIT, is making a name for itself by pioneering feedback optimization for spray applications — a new approach the company thinks has potential to improve farmer outcomes and reduce crop input costs.

(AgZen)

AgZen’s first product, RealCoverage, is a retrofit kit that can be bolted onto any sprayer to measure and optimize the number of drops of agrochemicals applied to crops. The system features a boom-mounted sensor that analyzes the coverage and quality of spray applications in real-time, displaying actionable data to a tablet mounted in the cab. Farmers can use the data to optimize the physical settings on spray rigs, both self-propelled and pull-behind, to increase coverage.

The startup says its system works by leveraging AI and cutting-edge computer vision, and customers have used RealCoverage to save 30% to 50% on input costs.

Farmer Feedback

(AgZen)

Northwest Indiana farmer Bryan Brost slapped a RealCoverage system onto his Hagie STS 16 high-clearance sprayer to use on his waxy corn and soybean crops. He says it has helped boost his spray program efficiency overall by reducing application rates while maintaining optimal coverage throughout his 12,000-acre operation.

“The payback came in the first year,” he tells Farm Journal via text message. “We have increased our acres [covered] per day with less hours on the machine, the operator and the nurse tanks supplying product [to the sprayer].”

Corey McIntosh set the technology loose across his 4,000 acre spread in Missouri Valley, Iowa. He is looking forward to using the data to improve his application efficiency across the board. He’s also letting his neighbors and local retailer in on the secret.

“I was getting a chem shuttle refilled at [the] co-op, these guys have always been complimentary of our weed control, I asked them: ‘What percentage of leaf surface area do you think you are covering with your sprayers?’ One of their best operators said he thought 50% coverage. The salesman next to him said it would definitely be more than 60%,” McIntosh says.

“They were shocked when I told them we were at 9% to 10%, but nobody has had ever had a way to quantify this before,” he adds. “We are really looking forward to making improvements.”

Since launching on the market in 2024, AgZen says it covered more than 970,000 commercial acres of application across the U.S. on row crops and specialty crops.

Your Next Read: Breakthrough Fungicide Delivers White Mold Disease Control in Key Crops

Blood on the Farm: Booth, Lincoln, and 13 Days of Civil War Insanity

Tue, 05 May 2026 22:07:21 GMT

Bullet to the brain, from one farm boy to another.

When John Wilkes Booth fired a .44 lead ball into Abraham Lincoln’s head, the murder shook a nation to its core and led to 13 days of bedlam rivaling any stretch on U.S. record. Manhunts, scoundrels, eunuchs, and mass death followed, all tied by a common thread—agriculture.

Farming is not merely woven into the fabric of America, rather, it is the fabric. All of U.S. history is rooted in soil, no period arguably more so than the last gasp of Civil War carnage carried out by a surreal cast of characters, almost all pulled from agriculture’s stage.

Welcome to a bizarre tale bouncing from deranged assassins to scissored castration to a burning barn to lunatic asylums to the cruel deaths of over 1,000 emaciated soldiers, all soaked in the blood of American farming.

One Night, Four Corpses
Almost everyone. In 1775, of approximately 3.5 million people spread over 13 colonies, roughly 90% grew crops. Fast forward 85 years to the Civil War’s eve in 1860, and the ag flavor remained stout: Approximately 40% of Americans in the North and 80% of Americans in the South worked in dirt.

Roughly half of Union soldiers in the Civil War came directly off the farm.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

In 1861, as Blue versus Gray exploded into four years of hell, well over half of soldiers, 48% of the Union and almost 70% of the Confederacy, spilled straight from farmland onto battlefields. Simply, Billy Yank and Johnny Reb grew corn and cotton. The majority of 700,000 Civil War dead, North and South, came from farm families. Lincoln, in the closing month of the conflict, April 1865, recognized the agricultural origins of U.S. soldiers and the dire need to return them to row cropping, stating his intention “…get the men composing the Confederate armies back to their homes, at work at their farms and in their shops.”

Approximately 70% of Confederate soldiers entered the Civil War from Southern farms.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered in the McLean home at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. (Lee lost his 1,000-acre farm in 1861 to Union troops who later turned the property into Arlington National Cemetery.) Following the Confederacy’s capitulation, Northern cities erupted in spontaneous celebration with torchlight parades, fireworks, bands, and bonfires, but lost in the revelry, a dashing 26-year-old Marylander with a wavy shock of jet-black hair turned the crank on a wicked plot.

John Wilkes Booth, in league with a cabal of conspirators , aimed to murder the four highest U.S. holders of office or position in synchronized assassinations: President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William Seward, and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Ulysses S. Grant.

One night and four farmer corpses at the hand of a farm boy turned actor.

Kidnap or Kill
Killing presidents was in the DNA.

Twenty-seven miles north of Baltimore, in 1838, Booth was born on a 170-acre farm in a two-story, whitewashed log cabin, as the fourth son and ninth of 10 children of Mary Ann Holmes and Junius Brutus Booth, a famed stage performer, chronic alcoholic, notorious bigamist, and headbanger touched with a dose of insanity. Junius was a walking contradiction, equally comfortable quoting Shakespeare in tights under the limelight or raising livestock in isolation on the farm.

Junius Booth, left, built Tudor Hall on the family farm, but died just before it was completed. John Wilkes Booth lived in the house from 1852 to 1856.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

In a nutshell, Junius was buck-wild. Shot a man in the face, tried to stab another, assaulted multiple people, and was jailed on a loop. In 1835, he wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson, threatening to kill the commander in chief.

You damn’d old Scoundrel … I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping … look out or damn you I’ll have you burnt at the Stake in the City of Washington.

Your Master, Junius Brutus Booth. You know me! Look out!

At Junius’ death in 1852, John Wilkes Booth, a mere 15 years young, took the reins of the farm and made a go at raising crops on 80 arable acres. Booth’s ag effort fell short and he later followed the family path to the stage, acquiring national fame, alongside his brothers, as a renowned actor.

However, mirroring his father, Booth’s skin was as hard as bark, far from a soft-handed thespian dandy. His Southern sympathies boiled over at Lee’s surrender in 1865. Kidnap or kill, Booth was hellbent on action.

Tattooed Assassin
Seeded at least as early as 1864 and fueled by a motley crew of anti-Unionists and Confederate Secret Service players, Booth’s conspiracy petered out with the South’s April surrender—except in the eyes of a core group of collaborators. On April 14, with newspapers blaring Lincoln and Grant’s upcoming D.C. attendance at Ford’s Theatre to watch Our American Cousin from the flag-draped presidential box, alongside their wives, Mary Todd Lincoln and Julia Grant, Booth rolled the dice.

Kidnapping was out. (Booth and his cohorts had seriously considered abducting 6’ 4” Lincoln during Our American Cousin and lowering him with ropes from the balcony-level box before dashing away with the chief of state in tow.) Murder of four targets was in:

From left, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, and William Seward all were targeted for death on April 14.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

Lincoln, the founder of USDA, was the consummate hardscrabble farm kid, scratching dirt in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, before a career in law.

Johnson, despite a childhood apprenticeship as a tailor, was a significant agriculture advocate and owned a 350-acre farm in Tennessee.

Seward, 5’6” with red hair and a gigantic intellect, was born on a New York farm and maintained a sharp awareness of crop management. In 1856, responding to the dire fertilizer needs of growers, Seward spearheaded the Guano Islands Act and enabled U.S. acquisition of almost 100 islands (including the Midway Atoll) between 1856 and 1903, all in the name of acquiring bird feces. Shaped by his farming background, Seward understood the value of land better than anyone of his era. Only 11 years after the Guano Islands Act, Seward made one of the greatest land purchases in world history, paying $7.2 million for Alaska—375 million acres of land. Pilloried by the public and mocked in the press, Seward presciently said the Alaska deal, at less than 2 cents per acre, would be the crowning achievement of his career, but it would “take the people a generation to find out.”

Mary Todd Lincoln, left, and Julia Grant. Julia was invited, but declined to attend Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

Grant grew grain in Missouri, eating debt almost up to the Civil War. In 1857, he wrote to his father: “For two years I have been compelled to farm without either [tills or seeds], confining my attention therefore principally to oats and corn: two crops which can never pay.” Grant sold out in 1860, never to farm again.

All four gentlemen—Lincoln, Johnson, Seward, and Grant—were slated to die on the night of April 14. Lincoln and Grant would be attacked together during an evening play; Johnson would be hit at the five-story Kirkwood House Hotel by conspirator George Atzerodt; and Seward would be killed at his three-story home facing Lafayette Square near Pennsylvania Avenue by Booth henchman Lewis Powell.

However, on the Friday afternoon of April 14, Grant slipped the noose. His spouse, Julia, got cold feet, ostensibly avoiding a night out with the mercurial Mary Todd Lincoln. Grant, at the behest of Julia, declined Lincoln’s invitation to watch Our American Cousin, and skipped town, much to Booth’s distress.

The single-shot pistol used by Booth in Lincoln’s assassination.

(Photo courtesy of National Park Service)

Into the evening, Booth palmed his weapon of choice, a firearm that would shake history. It was a single-shot .44-caliber pistol (5.87” long, half a pound in weight, easily concealed in a pocket or boot top) made by Henry Deringer, the renowned Philadelphia gunsmith. Typically, Deringer’s pistols sold in pairs for $25, including the bullet mold. Did Booth have a set? He possessed at least one, and it was all he would need.

Holding the wrought iron barrel with his left hand, skin stretched to reveal an initialed J.W.B. tattoo between thumb and forefinger, Booth carefully used his right hand to load the pistol with a single, round ball weighing nearly an ounce—a projectile he may have poured and formed himself, keenly aware the lead was intended to kill a president for the first time in American history. Percussion cap at the ready, Booth’s firepower needs were met.

As nightfall approached, Booth was already 0 for 1 in assassination success, thanks to Grant’s departure from D.C. Three targets remained.

A Maniac’s Passion
Alone in his second-story room at the Kirkwood House Hotel, Andrew Johnson was easy pickings. No security. No bodyguard. (Secret Service protection for vice presidents did not begin until 1951. Significantly, SS details for presidents began in 1901, following the assassination of William McKinley.)

George Atzerodt, 30, checked into the Kirkwood in his own name on the third floor, directly above Johnson. He was supposed to knock on the door of the VP’s two-room suite and deliver a shot to the head. Instead, Atzerodt lost his nerve and balked, bought a bottle of liquor, and spent the evening outdoors in a stupor.

By 10 p.m., Booth was 0 for 2. Seward and Lincoln were still on the board.

Assassins three, from left: David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Lewis Powell.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

A short walk from the Kirkwood, inside a red-brick mansion perched a stone’s throw from the White House, resting in a third-floor bedroom illuminated by gaslight, tended by his daughter, Fanny, 20, along with a veteran recovering from battlefield wounds as a nursing backup, Seward, 63, was suffering. Nine days prior, on April 5, in a gruesome, runaway carriage accident, he was thrown to the road and fractured an arm near the shoulder joint, and broke both sides of his jaw, followed by massive blood loss. Doctors sheathed Seward in a canvas-metal brace extending from face to shoulders.

His condition prompted immediate concern from a traveling Lincoln. Returning to D.C. after a triumphant trip to the recently captured Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., on April 9, the same day of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln made a direct visit to check on Seward—likely the most trusted cabinet member of the administration. The two men exchanged war updates and hopes for the country, and then Lincoln walked home to the White House. The pair of friends would never speak or see each other again.

Days after Lincoln’s visit, and simultaneous with Atzerodt’s assassination failure, young Lewis Powell stood on Lafayette Square, staring at the red mansion. Powell, 21, was pulled straight from Hollywood casting. Blessed with a movie star’s chiseled looks and 6’2” of height, he was the son of an Alabama-Florida cotton-growing preacher. Powell fought valiantly and was wounded at Gettysburg, later rode with the famed Mosby’s Rangers , and lost two brothers in the war.

Just past 10 p.m., carrying a purported bag of medicine, Powell rapped on the front door of Seward’s mansion. Wary at the late visit, Seward’s butler answered the door. Powell excitedly announced possession of critical meds sent by Seward’s doctor and claimed to be under direct orders to hand-deliver the cure-all to the secretary of state. The butler refused to buy the story; a heated argument ensued; Powell stormed into the house; bounded up the stairs; and began searching for his prey.

Running toward the commotion, Seward’s son, Frederick, met Powell on the third-floor landing. Powell pulled a .36 caliber Whitney revolver, leveled the pistol, and pulled the trigger. Misfire.

Enraged, he flipped the pistol and swiftly swung downward, fracturing Seward’s skull with several blows as the gun broke. Hearing the chaos, Fanny made a near-fatal error, opening the bedroom door to check on her brother, but inadvertently giving away Seward’s precise location. Powell swatted Fanny aside, knocked over the male nurse, and pulled a Bowie knife, slashing wildly at the helpless Seward. With a maniac’s passion, Powell repeatedly stabbed into Seward’s neck and chest. Two former farm boys—one turned politician and the other turned soldier—locked in a primal struggle.

Fanny Seward, left, alongside her father, William. Lewis Powell is pictured in cuffs, far right, awaiting execution. A year after her father’s near murder, Fanny, 21, died of tuberculosis in October 1865.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

On almost any other night under any other circumstances, the wounds would have been fatal. However, the canvas-metal brace was Seward’s salvation, deflecting the worst of the blade’s thrusts. Assuming the deed was done, Powell sprinted away from the horror, dropped the knife on the street, and disappeared in the darkness, shouting: I’m mad. I’m mad.

Inside the home, drenched in blood and barely clinging to life, Seward stirred: I am not dead. Send for a doctor. Send for the police. Close the house.

It was 10:15 p.m. Booth was 0 for 3. Time to pull the trigger himself.

Rathbone’s Regret
Leaving his horse behind Ford’s Theatre, Booth, wearing a long coat and spurred, calf-high boots, entered the playhouse with intimate knowledge of the structure’s layout, from creaks to cracks to corridors to stage passageways. Booth was a fixture at Ford’s Theatre and had free reign, often receiving fan mail at the Tenth Street address.

Roughly 1,700 people were in attendance, including Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, alongside their guest couple replacement, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris. Lincoln sat in a cushioned rocker nearest the presidential box door, Mary Todd to his right, Clara Harris next, and Rathbone last, furthest from the door on a walnut sofa.

Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris, who attended Ford’s Theatre with the Lincolns. Twenty years later, Rathbone went insane and murdered Clara.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

During Act 3, Scene 2, Booth made his move, stepping unchallenged into the presidential box, while jamming the door behind him. With all eyes glued to the stage, Booth leveled the pistol roughly 7”-10” behind Lincoln’s head and pulled the trigger, sending the Deringer’s .44 caliber ball tumbling through the left back side of the president’s skull at ear level. The bullet traversed Lincoln’s brain and lodged behind his right eye.

(Irony of ironies, Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln was saved from death either in 1863 or 1864 after falling off a train platform in Jersey City, N.J. His rescuer? Edwin Booth, older brother of John Wilkes Booth. Edwin, a staunch Unionist, lifted 19-year-old Robert Todd to safety just as railcar wheels rolled. Extraordinarily, Robert Todd would be present or within proximity of three presidential assassinations: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.)

History never moves in straight lines: Robert Todd Lincoln and Edwin Booth, the odd couple.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

As Rathbone rose from the sofa in response, Booth pulled a horn-handled dagger and slashed through Rathbone’s upper arm, severing an artery. Booth then vaulted over the box railing to the stage below before a stunned audience, breaking his left fibula (accounts vary; possibly Booth broke the leg later on horseback) before escaping out the back of Ford’s Theatre and riding out of D.C. over the Navy Yard Bridge across the Anacostia River into Maryland.

Mortally wounded and unconscious, Lincoln was hustled across the street to a boarding house and lingered for nine hours, officially dying the following morning on April 15. (Rathbone was consumed with guilt and depression over his inability to stop Booth. In 1883, he went crazy and attempted to attack his three children. When Clara intervened, Rathbone shot her three times and stabbed her repeatedly in the heart. Rathbone then attempted suicide, stabbing himself five times in the chest. He spent the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum, dying in 1911.)

Riding into the night, Booth linked up with accomplice David Herold, a 23-year-old who knew the countryside and would guide the escape. Where would Booth go? To a farm, of course. Booth would bounce from farm to farm, one step ahead of thousands of federal soldiers on his trail in a colossal 12-day manhunt.

In D.C., as the War Department began flushing out Booth’s cronies to uncover the machinations of the conspiracy, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton dropped a $100,000 reward, and gave explicit instruction to all soldiers in pursuit: Bring me Booth on two legs. I want him alive.

However, among the soldiers spreading across the countryside was an insane sergeant who only took orders from on high. Boston Corbett, who had once snipped off his privates and then attended a prayer meeting, had Booth in his sights.

Avenging Angel
The escape was a dizzying blitz of farm visits.

Booth and Herold reached the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd at 4 a.m., where the doc splinted Booth’s broken leg. The pair of fugitives next rode to Samuel Cox’s farm for aid, and then hid in a pine thicket for several days, assisted by another farmer, Thomas Jones, who took Booth and Herold to his house before giving them a boat to cross the Potomac.

Photographed just after the rope drop, four conspirators dangle on the gallows: Mary Surratt, the first woman ever executed by the federal government, along with Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold.

(Photo courtesy of Library of Congress)

On April 21, their river crossing attempt failed. They landed nine miles away, still in Maryland, and took shelter at the farm of John J. Hughes. The next night, they succeeded in crossing the Potomac, landing in Virginia, where they went to the farm of Elizabeth Quesenberry, who offered food but no help. Afterward, Booth and Herold hired a farmer, William Bryant, to take them to Richard Stuart’s farmhouse, and from there were unwelcomed at the home of another farmer, Randolph Peyton. After 11 days on the run, desperate for cover, only 70 miles south of Ford’s Theatre, Booth stopped at a 500-acre operation in Port Royal, Virginia. It was April 25: He gambled on the Garrett farm and rolled snake-eyes.

One night later, asleep in the Garrett’s tobacco barn, Booth and Herold were cornered by 20 U.S. cavalrymen. Herold exited the barn and surrendered. (Two-and-a-half months later, Herold, along with Powell and Atzerodt, felt the dangling crack of rope on neck. They were hanged in unison on July 7.) Booth vowed a fight to the death as federal soldiers set fire to the barn.

While flames rose and threw light across the barn’s interior, a diminutive eunuch crept along the perimeter and peered into the barn. Sergeant Boston Corbett, Lincoln’s 5’4” avenging angel, stuck a pistol between a crack in the planks and aimed a .44 Colt revolver at an illuminated Booth.

The Cruelest Cut
Mercury to drive a man mad.

Born in 1832, Thomas Corbett ranks among the most peculiar and enigmatic Americans on record. At 7, Corbett moved from London to New York, later apprenticing as a hat maker, a trade synonymous with mercury poisoning, resulting in a lifetime of “hatters’ shakes,” as well as hallucinations and psychosis.

Boston Corbett, among the most bizarre characters in American history.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

Corbett married, lost his wife and stillborn daughter in childbirth, found solace in the bottle, and moved to Boston, where he continued work (and mercury ingestion) as a hatter. After hearing an evangelist’s sermon, Corbett gave up drinking and devoted himself to piety, growing his hair apostle-style, and preaching on street corners.

However, Corbett careened beyond religious devotion into zealotry. In 1858, walking home after a church service, he was propositioned by prostitutes. Offended or tempted, Corbett took solace in the New Testament, opening the Gospel of Matthew, and read chapters 18 and 19. He took Matthew 18:8 to heart: Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

Matthew 19:12 cut even deeper: For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.

Corbett interpreted chapters 18 and 19 as a directive. He sliced off his testicles, went to church, took a walk, and ate a big supper, all before seeing a doctor. From a subsequent Massachusetts General Hospital report: … he took a pair of scissors & made an opening an inch long in the lower part of the scrotum. He then drew down the testes & cut them both off. He then went to a prayer meeting walked about some & ate a hearty dinner. There was not much external hemorrhage, but a clot had filled the opening so that the blood was confined in the scrotum which swelled immensely & was black. He called on Dr. Hodges (R. M.) who laid it open & removed the blood; he tied the cord & sent him here.

In tandem with emasculation and a month’s hospital stay, Corbett changed his first name to “Boston” as a benchmark of seismic life change. At the Civil War’s outbreak, he joined the Union Army and began berating officers who took the Lord’s name in vain, resulting in a court martial and sentence of execution for insubordination. Instead, likely related to his mental condition, the sentence was commuted, and he was tossed out of the Army.

Corbett re-enlisted, fought valiantly in combat, and was captured by Confederates in June 1864, before imprisonment in Georgia’s infamous Andersonville POW camp under the control of Commander Henry Wirz, where 33,000 Union soldiers were crammed in 26.5 acres. In a prisoner exchange, Corbett was released from Andersonville in November 1864. (After the war, he would testify in court against Wirz, who was executed for war crimes.)

Corbett spent weeks in recovery from extreme malnourishment at Andersonville and then rejoined his regiment, months later landing in the thick of the manhunt for Lincoln’s killer, then onto the Garrett farm, and despite the infinitesimally incredible odds—to within 12’ of Booth.

On April 26, 1865, at 2 a.m., as Booth held a carbine and refused to surrender, Corbett fired his pistol through the barn slats and hit Booth in the neck, severing his spinal cord and shattering the fourth and fifth vertebrae. Three hours later, essentially paralyzed, Booth, at 26, died on the front porch of the Garrett home, taking a trove of secrets to the grave. He was sewn into a horse blanket, dropped on a wooden plank, and carted away from the hapless Garrett farm.

The spot outside Port Royal, Virginia, where the Garrett farmhouse and tobacco barn once stood.

(Photos public domain)

Despite defying capture-alive-at-all-costs orders, Corbett was firm in his action: “Providence directed me.” Initially arrested for disobeying orders, Corbett was released and given a $1,600 portion of the Booth reward money. He went west, homesteading on 80 acres in Cloud County, Kansas, where he lived in a one-room, rock-wall dugout. In 1886, despite extreme paranoia and unpredictability, he was granted a doorman’s post at the Kansas House of Representatives, but after pulling a gun and threatening colleagues, Corbett was committed to the Topeka Insane Asylum in 1887. A year later, he escaped on a pony, rode south to Wilson County, and caught a train to parts unknown. Corbett faded into history, leaving behind no confirmed record of his whereabouts or death.

Soldiers and Sardines
The cruelest twist of the Civil War and one of the greatest indignities inflicted on American prisoners of war was yet to come.

Almost three weeks past Appomattox, 1,000-plus young Union soldiers died a terrifying death, just days away from a return to their fields and homes.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

While Booth was on the lam, hiding on rural farms, thousands of malnourished farm boy POWs were moving across the South by foot, wagon, and rail, desperate for a golden ticket home. In the closing months of the war, North-South prisoner exchanges picked up in pace, and by mid-April, Union prisoners needed transportation home. For many soldiers housed in roughly 16 Confederate prison camps in the Deep South, the quickest way home was by steamship up the Mississippi River. Therefore, camps such as Andersonville, Ga., and Cahaba, Ala., sent their POW inmates west to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to catch a ride upriver.

Below the Vicksburg bluffs, an armada of private steamships waited as POWs arrived in town, all fares paid courtesy of the Union Army: $2.75 per soldier and $8 per officer. The substantial money, intended to incentivize captains to provide a quick return home for Union troops, instead turned into a pay-and-pack recipe of horror. As in, an unscrupulous captain might view soldiers as sardines.

Across farms and homes in Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, and other Union states, thousands of expectant families waited for the promised return of sons, brothers, and husbands. But 1,200 of these families, in the Civil War’s last bloody rattle, unknowingly were about to lose their scions—young men who had survived combat, wounds, disease, emotional trauma, imprisonment, and starvation. They would not survive betrayal.

Human Cargo
She was almost the length of a football field. She was Sultana. Almost three weeks beyond Appomattox, her demise would drag over 1,000 young servicemen to a horrid end, and a hefty percentage of the dead would be farm boys, days away from a return to their fields.

At 260’ long and 42’ wide, Sultana cut current at 10 miles per hour and carried a 376-passsenger capacity with operating room for 80 crew members. Captained by 34-year-old James Cass Mason of St. Louis, Sultana chugged up and down the Mississippi River, typically running cotton, sugar, and hogs.

Thomas W. Bankes photographed Sultana when the ship stopped in Helena, Arkansas, only one day prior to disaster.

(Photo courtesy of Library of Congress)

Piloting Sultana into Vicksburg from New Orleans on April 23, Mason came to collect a plum offer from Reuben Hatch, regional chief quartermaster for the Union Army. Hatch wanted to wet his beak: He could funnel 1,000 POW parolees onto Sultana if Mason returned a kickback under the table. Deal.

However, one of Sultana’s four boilers was faulty and needed immediate, proper repair. Overwhelmed by profit potential, Mason relied on a minor boiler patch, essentially turning Sultana into a time bomb. On April 24, Hatch provided human cargo for Sultana—but whether by graft or incompetence, Hatch doubled his POW offering.

It was madness. Roughly 2,137 people (including 50 women and children) were stuffed onto the ship, according to the Sultana Association : “1,960 ex-prisoners, 22 guards, 85 crew members, and 70 paying passengers.”

By sheer weight of humanity, the upper decks sagged, forcing the crew to brace with beams. Never before (or since), had so many passengers packed a boat on the Mississippi River. Churning into swollen spring current, bound for Cairo, Illinois, Sultana left Vicksburg with bodies crammed in every nook and cranny—gaunt soldiers who had braved the firestorms of Shiloh and Chickamauga, and survived the hell of Andersonville. Spread across the decks, they talked of home and farming. Maybe, just maybe, a few dared to hope, they might be home in time to plant.

No More Tears
Dragging heavy camera equipment, anxious to snap a picture of a bulging Sultana on the morning of April 26, Thomas Bankes hustled to banks of the Mississippi River in Helena, Ark., roughly 175 miles north of Vicksburg.

Eighty-four days after the murder of Lincoln, four assassin/conspirators were jerked to eternity on July 7, 1865.

(Photo courtesy of Library of Congress)

As Bankes got into position, cheerful soldiers rushed starboard in excitement, anxious for inclusion in the photo. Sultana listed. The ship’s crew began barking direction, ordering men away from the side to restore balance on the top-heavy steamboat. It was a pregnant moment for Captain Cass and a final warning.

He carried on upriver.

At 2 a.m. the following morning, 7 miles north of Memphis near Marion, Arkansas, Sultana’s boilers exploded, tearing the ship apart. By blast, fire, and drowning, 1,169 passengers died—the single deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history.

It was April 27, 1865, one day after the death of Booth. In a sense, the country’s sympathies were bled out, i.e., no more tears left to cry. News coverage was relatively scant, still dominated by events of the preceding weeks. Time to move on.

Lincon and Booth, farm boy to farm boy, and a story deeply connected by American agriculture.

(Photos courtesy of Library of Congress)

The crescendo of events was historically surreal. April 9, Confederate surrender and Union celebration; April 14, murder of Lincoln, attempted assassinations of Seward and Johnson, and intended killing of Grant; April 15, Lincoln’s death; April 19, Lincoln’s funeral. April 26: Booth’s death. April 27, the forgotten loss of 1,000-plus soldiers.

Beneath outer layers, each event linked directly to U.S. agriculture—as does every narrative of U.S. history. The tapestry in undeniable: Farming is the fabric of the American story.

For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

Family Farm Wins Historic Case After Feds Violate Constitution and Ruin Business

County Shuts Down 15-Yr-Old’s Bait Stand on Family Farm, Threatens Daily Fines

City Gov to Seize 175-Year-Old Farm by Eminent Domain, Replace with Affordable Housing

Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust

Farmer Unearths Lost Treasure, Solves WW2 Mystery

20 Phrases Every Farmer Actually Mutters About Rain

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:35:40 GMT

If there’s one topic that unites farmers across all sectors of ag, it’s rain. It’s more than just weather on the farm, it determines your profits, your schedule and your mood all wrapped into one frustrating package. And it doesn’t matter if it’s planting season, mid-summer or the final push before harvest, our entire lives revolve around what’s happening in the sky.

If two or more farmers are talking, you can bet rain will come up in the conversation within the first five minutes. Here’s a look at some of the most common phrases you’ll hear when farmers start talking about rain:

“We could use some rain.”
This is the go-to phrase farmers have said since the beginning of time. It’s a simple, familiar line heard everywhere from church parking lots to town meetings, starting at planting and sticking around through the end of harvest.
“It would be nice if it stopped raining.”
Ah, the full-circle moment. Just two weeks ago we were begging for a slight shower. Now it’s been raining cats and dogs for four straight days.
“How much rain did you get?”
This is more than small talk; it’s actually a competition between farmers, and there is a winner and a loser.
“How much rain did so-and-so get?”
Because we all know that one farmer magically got all the rain, again.
“Did you see the forecast for the week?”
This is a question that leads farmers to check five weather apps that all have five different answers.
“That cloud is looking pretty dark.”
If this phrase is said on any farm, everyone will turn to look and offer their opinion on if it’s actually going to rain or not.
“It always seems to miss us.”
Every time the radar shows a line of storms, somehow it splits, shifts or drifts just enough to leave you high and dry.
“We needed that.”
This is often said with a kind of relief that comes after waiting days or weeks, when even a small rain feels like a lifeline.
“It was just enough to settle the dust.”
This is farmer speak for: it looked better than it was, but we’ll still take it.
“The radar made it look like we’d get rain, but we didn’t get a drop.”
All the signs pointed to a downpour, but somehow the sky held back.
“It split and went north again.”
Of course it did. It always does. It never rains where it’s supposed to.
“The neighbor got an inch, and we got nothing.”
This can go one of two ways: You’re ticked that you didn’t get the rain, or you’re thankful that you didn’t get more of it.
“It’s too wet to get anything done now.”
Welcome to farming: Nothing goes according to plan, and every drought seems to end with a downpour.
“Hopefully it holds off ‘til we get this hay in.”
A tempting statement that all but guarantees a pop-up thunderstorm. Mother Nature never checks your schedule.
“At least we get a break.”
This is said when the rain slows work down but gives everyone a moment to catch their breath.
“We’re overdue.”
This is usually muttered out of practicality and frustration, recognizing that the dry spell has gone on longer than expected and something has to give soon.
“It was just enough to green things up.”
It wasn’t a drought-buster, but it was good enough to make everything look better.
“How long do you think this dry stretch will last?”
Asked like someone might have insider info. Nobody does, but that won’t stop the theories, calendar comparisons or 2012 references.
“You could see the rain line from here.”
Another version of “we missed it,” but with more drama and eyewitness testimony.
“I could be a meteorologist.”
Said when the forecast flips unexpectedly, reminding everyone that sometimes even the experts are just guessing.

Whether it’s not enough, way too much or the perfect amount, rain brings out every emotion in a farmer’s toolkit — hope, stress, gratitude, frustration, envy and relief. And no matter what the forecast says, one thing is always true: If you’re a farmer, you’ll never stop talking about rain.

July Weather Outlook: Goodbye Rain, Hello Heat

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:10:21 GMT

The Pacific Jet Stream has been going strong since early spring, sending heavy rains down through the Ohio River Valley, delaying farmers’ planting efforts there, then more recently, moving large amounts of moisture into the central Corn Belt.

“Nobody would have thought three months ago that we were going to have this much rain occurring across key crop areas, especially in the southern half of the Plains and in the Delta and Tennessee River Basin,” says Drew Lerner, president and senior agricultural meteorologist of World Weather.

But be advised, the engine driving that jet stream is about to turn off, says John Hoomenuk of EmpireWeather.com . He anticipates that by early July, some farmers will see those heavy rain events turn into a trickle.

Weather outlook for early July.

(BAM Weather)

Weather Brewing For July

“As we get into the second week of July or so, we’ll see the ridge push a little further north, and we’ll see some drier forecasts starting to appear, starting in Kansas and Nebraska, and then spreading a little bit into southwestern and central Iowa at times as well,” Hoomenuk says.

“That’s really caught our attention, because we just haven’t seen that [pattern] so far this year, and it’s a pretty big change compared to where we’ve been,” he adds.

As July goes on and August nears, Hoomenuk says the weather data indicate the jet stream will go up into Canada and drop into the Great Lakes.

If that occurs, he says farmers in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio are likely to get some precipitation dropping on the east side of the ridge. But across the Central Plains, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakotas, and maybe even into parts of Iowa, farmers will see their conditions trend a little drier.

“I think that’s not a huge concern just yet, but it’s a pretty big change up compared to where we’ve been the last couple of weeks,” Hoomenuk told AgriTalk host, Chip Flory, on Tuesday.

Drought Risks Remain In Place

The outlook for drier weather in July is not a surprise, based on the patterns some meteorologists saw shaping up last winter.

“The central United States is at about a 60% drought risk. Some of the best weather forecast models we have out there are trying to put the epicenter of that drought somewhere between Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and southern Minnesota by the time we get into July and August,” says Eric Snodgrass, principal atmospheric scientist for Nutrien.

Much of the western U.S. has been enduring dry, hot conditions already this year. Much of the central Midwest is about to experience the same.

(The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

“When you think about those particular states, developing drought from spring to summer in any year is somewhere in the neighborhood of 28% to 38%,” he says. “Essentially, the risk is doubled this year.”

Snodgrass explains the canary in the coal mine for a drought will come from a combination of the Gulf of Alaska ocean temperatures and the Bermuda high, which is an area of high pressure that can influence weather patterns and tropical systems. If the Gulf of Alaska ocean temperatures begin dropping this summer, that’s a sign moisture will be lacking.

The silver lining, Hoomenuk says, is many farmers have either had excess or sufficient moisture this spring, so no alarm bells have been ringing yet for corn and soybean crops that are now in rapid growth.

His concern is the current weather patterns will stagnate, causing temperatures to rise.

“Most of the long-range data we’re seeing, if you look at July as a whole, is showing some pretty substantial [temperature] numbers in the Central Plains. We’re talking somewhere between four and five degrees above normal in some areas of Kansas and Nebraska, two or three degrees above normal for the month on average, surrounding that in parts of southwestern Iowa and the Dakotas,” he says.

As for states further east, such as Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, Hoomenuk says farmers there will likely see temperatures “closer to normal” for July, based on data he’s reviewed.

“The thing I keep seeing is temperatures looking to be about normal, maybe slightly warmer than normal – just a couple days of heat followed by a cool down and some rain, which is is pretty ideal,” he says. “It doesn’t seem like we’ll get into that long-term heat there in those eastern regions of the U.S, so the concern level out there is pretty low right now heading into July.”

Your next read: Crop Quality in the Midwest: Most States Soar, Some Flounder

Renegade Colorado Farmer Pushes Deeper into Unconventional Agriculture

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:01:50 GMT

Who plants at least 12 different crops a season, slashes nitrogen applications by over half, aims to seed 3”-row grain in 2025, grows rice in bone-dry conditions, and steadily uncovers unique market demand? Roy the renegade.

Roy Pfaltzgraff’s row crop operation, a hive of unconventional research, is set to push even further to the blade’s edge.

“We’re going to build an online community, Seeding Circles, that teaches farmers where and how to find markets, and brings buyers to growers,” Pfaltzgraff says. “I want to show people a way to recruit food companies and know what’s being asked for.”

Survivability
Outside Haxtun, under the armpit of the Cornhusker line, Pfaltzgraff works 2,000 dryland acres in northeast Colorado. Split between Phillips County’s low hills and flats, his fields (60% sand, 20% clay, and 20% loam) sometimes see below 6” of moisture during the worst growing season, but average 13” of precipitation per year.

Pfaltzgraff operates a farm in flux—steady adaptation. Whether double-cropping, applying table sugar in-furrow, drastically reducing herbicide applications, or trialing crops when the nearest likeminded producer is 1,000 miles distant, Pfaltzgraff is the epitome of outside-the-box.

In the rows, during field days, at speaking events, or by email—Pfaltzgraff gets the same question from farmers: How do you find markets?

(Photo by Haxtun Heritage Mills)

Walk his rows and expect to see black beans, buckwheat, black-eyed peas, clover, camelina, non-GMO corn, open pollination corn, chickpeas, flax, milo (both red and food grade white), oats, pinto beans, and sunflowers. (Sesame is on the crop roster for the first time in 2025, and Pfaltzgraff intends to grow mushrooms in containers.)

“Every farmer I interact with is concerned about survivability. That means having something to pass to the next generation,” he says. “That can only happen if there’s genuine profitability, soil health, and market opportunities. Our on-farm research is geared toward those needs.”

In the Crosshairs
In 2025, Pfaltzgraff intends to begin installation of a full-time, on-farm education center. Annually, he has six to eight research projects across his operation.

· Rebuilding an air seeder to test 3” row spacing in cereal grains and edible beans—super-narrow to conserve moisture and suppress weeds. (Drilling corn, grain sorghum, and sunflowers on 12” centers has been standard for Pfaltzgraff for several years.)

“We’re going to build an online community, Seeding Circles, that teaches farmers where and how to find markets, and brings buyers to growers,” Pfaltzgraff says.

(Photo by Emily Kamala)

· Colorado rice—unheard of in the region—is under trial. In 2024, Pfaltzgraff’s rice cultivation ended with freezing damage in the boot stage. “This year we’ll get it in the ground earlier, somewhere in early to mid-April. We’ve tracked down a landrace variety that may work very well out here, and that comes from research by USA Rice Federation.”

· Pfaltzgraff has transformed his headlands—areas of persistent weed and compaction issues—into 158 acres of pollinator strips. Essentially, the first 90’ of headlands in each field are a pollinator haven. “There were bad grasshopper issues around this year, but not in our fields. The grasshoppers stayed in the strips, and that triggered praying mantis to come in and eat. Control by nature. It made my dad ask, ‘What else have we screwed up with old farming methods?”

· An agrivoltaic system, providing a shelter belt and solar power, is gathering data. The buffer has reduced moisture consumption by significant levels: 30% roughly 120’ downwind, and 50% closer to the main body. “It’s really interesting research,” Pfaltzgraff notes. “We’re looking for a computer processing company to come in and build an off-grid server farm run by solar on our farm.”

· Two flux towers in separate fields monitor soil respiration every 15 minutes, measuring gas exchange between soil/vegetation and the atmosphere. “It provides carbon data for different crops and that’s run by retired USDA researcher Jerry Hatfield,” Pfaltzgraff says.

· Pfaltzgraff has applied for a grant to fund research on glyphosate remediation. “Our grain picks it up at 42 parts per billion, but glyphosate isn’t applied to the crop. We’ve all seen the stories about glyphosate found in rainwater, but in parts per trillion. Therefore, it’s gotta be residual in our soils. When we test it, the soil has 47 parts per billion as residue. I’m pissed as a famer because I’m told that doesn’t happen; I’m told glyphosate goes away.Now people are blaming the rain? No, I believe it must be remediated and that is through improved soil health.”

“Those who support glyphosate don’t want to talk about this, and those who oppose glyphosate don’t want to know about remediation because they don’t want it used ever again,” he adds. “I want to do the research and let everyone take their shots. I know it might put a target on my back, but we have to do what’s right for the soil.”

Seeding Circles
In the rows, during field days, at speaking events, or by email—Pfaltzgraff gets the same question from farmers: How do you find markets?

The answer is part of Pfaltzgraff’s effort, alongside his fiancée, Emily Kamala, to create Seeding Circles . “We’re creating a national resource with farmers across the country to bring in outside experts and to recruit food companies to come and tell farmers specifically what they’re looking for,” Kamala says. “Seeding Circles is a hub of support, pricing, profit, marketing, and agronomics. It’s a place to learn about new markets and diversification. We need a community to show people where and how to find markets, and to provide a base of farmers available to buyers.”

Annually, Pfaltzgraff has six to eight research projects across his operation, including an agrivoltaic system.

(Photo by Emily Kamala)

“We want to create pockets of local food,” Pfaltzgraff adds. “Local food nationwide is how to counter the industrial scale food industry. All the time, I hear farmers say, ‘I have no local market.’ My response? ‘Your community doesn’t eat?’ If you are farming, then you are raising food—either for humans or animals. Disease and health issues are getting more important to the public by the day, and the problems can be fixed by relying on farmers. I believe we feed a nation by feeding our community.”

On the back of every bag of grain sold by Pfaltzgraff’s Haxtun Heritage Mills , a QR code tells consumers where the product was grown by field, and when it was seeded, harvested, and cleaned—to the day it went into the bag.

“Farmers have been marginalized by the big food companies who say real traceability is impossible. That’s not true. It’s absolutely possible if big food buys direct from farmers and gets past only buying from grain brokers. I’m saying this can be done, but we have to make sure the farmer is part of the story. Those are all pieces of a puzzle coming together in Seeding Circles.”

Roy Pfaltzgraff, left, works 2,000 dryland acres in northeast Colorado, outside Haxtun.

(Photo by Emily Kamala)

Riding shotgun with Pfaltzgraff’s concern over food sourcing is his alarm over rural decline. “Right now, and we all know it, the biggest export of rural communities is our children. I want to help reverse that trend. Maybe you know your kids are not interested in farming—but they may be interested in running a milling company or being in an ag-related enterprise. It’s a shame not to create opportunity and give them the option. That’s ties in directly to Seeding Circles.”

“If you sell strictly to the commodity market, then you can’t tell the history of your family and it gets lost. But if you bring in local food as part of the picture, including direct markets and extra markets, you bring that back. Pride of product.”

Risk and Reward
Pfaltzgraff doesn’t sugarcoat. Extreme crop diversity comes at a high cost.

In 2022, his crops drank a mere 6” of precipitation for the entire growing season. In 2023 and 2024, his rows were pounded with significant hail damage. With so many different crops in his fields, he can only get insurance on roughly half of what he grows.

“In 2022, it was so dry that we only harvested half of our crops, and our neighbors harvested none. However, they were better off because they had crop insurance on everything. Advancement comes at a cost.”

Roy Pfaltzgraff’s operation in Colorado: “Every farmer I interact with is concerned about survivability … That can only happen if there’s genuine profitability, soil health, and market opportunities.”

(Photo by Haxtun Heritage Mills)

After six years of growing black-eyed peas, Pfaltzgraff got RMA to sign off on the legume. However, he’s been waiting on insurance for seven other crops. “It’s a sticky spot. We’re told these crops won’t grow in Colorado, but we have the proof over and over in our field. If we want them insured, we have to get experts to write letters assuring the crops will grow, but RMA still maintains the right to refuse the letter.”

Pfaltzgraff does not fit in the standard farming model sought by insurers and bankers.

“Our situation is tough. We provided yield data that averaged 1,000 lb. per acre on a crop, and they said we had no market. We then provided financial data that shows we make $400 per acre net on dryland. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for this part of world. It’s great in the years you get some rain and little hail, but if either of those changes the insurance world rewards the old practices and the lender starts breathing down your neck. That’s got to change if we want healthy soils for the future.”

As always, Pfaltzgraff adjusts on the fly. “I don’t fit into their tables of risk so I’m being asked to innovate. You sure about that?”

For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

Novel Approach Makes Previously Untapped Phosphorus Available To Crops

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:38:02 GMT

With its new enzyme mode of action, Phosforce from Koch Agronomic Services is a novel phosphorus nutrient use efficiency product. It aims to make more phosphorus available to the plant during critical growth periods.

“Phosforce builds on our expertise with enzymes, but our previous work focused on nitrogen enzymes. It’s a new concept to bring to phosphorus,” says Tim Laatsch, director of agronomy for Koch Agronomic Services. “It is novel and differentiated in how it leverages natural biology to unlock the soil phosphorus.”

The enzyme in Phosforce is already in the soil but available in limited supply, and application accelerates the biochemical reactions in the soil to tap an previous unused pool of soil phosphorus.

“Phosforce highlights the untapped resource of organic phosphorus that is already in the soil. Only recently has organic phosphorus come to the forefront and we’ve started to understand how much organic phosphorus is in soils,” Laatsch says. “For example, I saw a study with a wide range of soils across Illinois and the samples ranged from 25 lb to 400 lb of organic phosphorus that we could potentially access.”

While phosphorus is relatively immobile in the soil, it’s even harder for the plant to use in cool and wet soil conditions. Making phosphorus available for plant uptake leads to healthy root development, improved vigor, and nutritional balance to overcome early environmental stress.

“In the early growing season, the plants need phosphorus to set a strong root foundation and grow rapidly,” Laatsch says. “Providing access to soil organic phosphorus is important especially during the window of time when the plant needs it the most.”
Laatsch says this is not to be confused with biological products on the market.

“This is a biochemical solution with concentrated enzymes. The end product works by adding enzymes to the soil, but we aren’t reliant on a microbe to survive in the package and then combine with the native biology,” Laatsch says. “We are starting to learn a lot more to unlock the organic phosphorus and be able to access it. You can think of it like phosphorus in your savings account. You can use the enzyme to unlock the savings account and make a withdrawal.”

The application rate for most row crops is 8 fl. oz per acre. Certain crops have higher recommended rates such as potatoes at 20 fl. oz per acre. Phosforce can be applied in furrow, banded (such as a 2x2 placement), at sidedress, in a broadcast application, or with fertigation. It’s active in the soil for up to eight weeks.

Applying additional amounts of the enzyme found in Phosforce augments a traditional phosphorus fertilizer program rather than replaces other phosphorus application rates.
“It doesn’t have to ride with a phosphorus fertilizer—it can go with UAN, ATS blends, and doesn’t necessarily have to ride with a starter,” Laatsch says. “It’s stable in fertilizer blends for three weeks. And it has a two year shelf life.”

Koch Agronomic Services has 10 years of product research data across 150 trials. Those show an average of 5.2 bu. yield response and an overall 81% numeric win rate.
“This product delivers consistent performance,” Laatsch says.

It’s labeled for all crops: row crops, specialty crops like potatoes, tree nuts, vines, turf, and ornamentals.

“All crops need phosphorus when they start growing,” Laatsch says. “So this product unlocks the organic phosphorus using its new mode of action, and it fits well into our nutrient enhancement product lineup.”

The product is available through major U.S. distributors for the 2025 growing season and can be purchased through that channel.

Ag Experts: The Election is Big, New Farm Bill is Bigger

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 14:50:00 GMT

The start of a new school year and the warm glow of Friday Night Lights signals the end of summer and the start of fall.

Those same indicators also portend – every four years, anyways – the impending presidential election season . And while presidential politics are certainly influential within the agriculture industry at large, our nation’s farmers currently have a much more pressing need in today’s faltering farm economy: passage of a new Farm Bill.

There hasn’t been a five-year Farm Bill since 2018, and that legislative extension is about to be sidelined by its own expiration.

When can farmers expect a new Farm Bill?
Back in June, Farm Journal asked its Ag Economists Monthly Monitor panel when they expected passage of a new Farm Bill. A combined 68% of the 70 experts surveyed indicated it could be passed in 2025, while just 19% said it could happen before the end of the year. Perhaps the worst-case scenario – nothing on the books until 2026 – is the prediction of 13% of those surveyed.

Farm leaders are beginning to grow impatient, pacing their respective sidelines like the hot seated, anxious head coach trying to rally the troops for that one last, potentially magical two-minute drill that would get this Farm Bill into the end zone. That would signify a big win for farmers, as well as the companies that help them get a quality crop into and out of the ground each year.

As of today, however, it feels like more of a Hail Mary than a one-yard Tush Push to get it over the goal line.

Making the Case
“We need a proper Farm Bill,” states Kurt Coffey, Case IH, vice president – North America. “We need to work beyond an extension and get a farm bill.

“Whether that happens later in the year, during the lame duck period – depending on who’s elected, or next year – the extension for funding that safety net goes through the end of 2024.” he adds. “So, whether we get an extension, the safety net side of crop insurance and the other things that come with it, we need to have that grassroots mobilization.”

Paul Neiffer – The Farm CPA – also strongly supports American agriculture getting the certainty that a new Farm Bill would provide . The agricultural economy is seemingly in a recession, and without an updated Farm Bill, farmers may struggle even more with net farm income expected to be substantially lower in 2025, and existing crop insurance no longer able to provide sufficient relief.

Then, if the upcoming election alters the political landscape in Congress – some are predicting control of the Senate and House could potentially flip-flop – Neiffer thinks that could cause further delay and legislative gridlock.

This whole deal could end up looking like yet another extension of the 2018 Farm Bill coming down on October 1, and then one more in 2025, which nobody really wants, Neiffer believes.

“It’s going to be a struggle,” Neiffer told AgriTalk’s Chip Flory recently. “You know, right now a lot of farmers are still okay for this year, in that we have a higher crop insurance price. But you know, when we go into next year and let’s say the projected price on corn is $3.50 and soybeans are $9. Crop insurance is not going to help us next year.”

Neiffer also shared a troubling development that he’s heard. USDA is reportedly asking some farmers to repay ERP (Emergency Relief Program) payments due to issues with crop insurance coverage on certain acres. This has created additional financial stress for farmers who received these payments based on previous calculations.

“Because once you fail to insure one acre – we’re talking one acre – but once you fail to insure one acre, they go back and recalculate your payment,” he explains. “Now instead of qualifying for the 10% loss coverage, you now must qualify for the 30% loss coverage. So therefore, you don’t qualify for any payment. You have got to pay the full amount back.

“In parts of the Midwest, that is a huge, huge deal,” Neiffer adds, noting he has heard this directly from a handful of farmers and crop insurance agents.

No matter your view of things: analyst, farmer, equipment manufacturer, or even ag retail business leader, we can all agree on one thing. America needs a new Farm Bill, sooner rather than later.

“There needs to be resolution,” Landus CEO Matt Carstens recently told CNBC’s The Exchange. “Farmers are anxious for that and getting it right, and ensuring that it happens is as important as anything right now.”

Your Next Read: Crop Insurance Provides Price Security For U.S. Farmers That’s Not Available To Counterparts In Other Countries

Ferrie: Corn Is Going Into The Home Stretch, Do You Need To Make A Second Fungicide Application?

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:16:30 GMT

Ken Ferrie is hearing from farmers across the Midwest who are trying to decide whether to make a second fungicide application to hybrids affected by heavy disease pressure. In southern Indiana, he is seeing many fields of corn at R5 that are fighting tar spot, which is particularly concerning because of how quickly the disease can take down a corn crop.

“There, many fields have been sprayed twice, and farmers are entertaining a third application,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist, based in Heyworth, Ill.

At this point in the season, Ferrie recommends corn growers scout fields with tar spot to identify where it is located on the plants. Look to see if the disease is moving around and can be found higher in the plants, and not just along the base of the stalks.

“With corn prices expected to lead with a three in the front, it does make it hard for growers to decide what to do next,” Ferrie acknowledges. “We have corn stretched out here in Illinois from R3.5 to R5, and at R5 we still have 30 days to go in this growing season.”

Another consideration farmers need to think through is how long they will need tar spot infected corn to stand in the field before harvesting it.

“Many of you guys have indicated you’re going to let corn dry in the field, and you don’t care if that takes until December,” he says. “In corn with tar spot in the midway up in the plants at R4 and with the plan to dry corn in the field, you may need to help that crop out with a second fungicide pass.”

Don’t Over-Estimate Yield Counts

2024 will go down as the year of the aphid for many growers. Some hybrids are giving up 15 to 35 bushels per acre to the pest, which is adding insult to injury by contributing to green snap.

“In some fields, aphids have caused the plants to abort one-third to all of the ear. Green snap below the ear means a complete loss, and green snap above the ears is resulting in about a third of an ear, which is probably going to go through the stripper plates,” Ferrie says.

As you do yield checks in these fields, he says to start with all the non-affected corn ears and calculate the yield on them first. Then, make a yield estimate on the poor ears, divide this number by 90, and then add that number to your unaffected ear yield estimate to arrive at your final yield estimate.

“These aphid-affected plants often have uniform stalk diameters, which can be missed when you’re checking your ear counts out there,” Ferrie cautions. “Growers who disregard poor ears and calculate the yield on good ears and use uniform plants as their ear count are going to over-estimate yields.”

Ferrie notes that the impact of aphids is worse on some hybrids than on others, but to not simply resort to pulling those hybrids out of your lineup for 2025, because many of them are high-yielding.

“We just need to be aware if aphids are an issue in certain hybrids as we plan for next season,” he says. “For now, those affected hybrids need to be watched for harvest loss this fall. Don’t let them get through the stripper plate, and get as much corn off aborted tips as possible,” he adds.

Listen here for this week’s complete Boots In The Field podcast: https://www.croptechinc.com/bifr-8-19-2024/

Russell Hedrick Aims To End Fertilizer Guesswork

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:34:36 GMT

At 15 cents to 25 cents per acre cost, can a farmer save $5 to $10 per acre in foliar sprays? Absolutely, says Russell Hedrick, pointing to proof in his own fields and the use of an artificial intelligence tool.

“Underapplying or overapplying nutrients are equally bad,” Hedrick explains. “I want to give a plant the exact amount of product needed for balance with the cheapest digital technology possible.”

That tech, according to Hedrick, is Foliar Scripts. “The fertilizer guesswork is over in my fields,” he says. “We get it right down to the ounce.”

Goodbye Guesswork

Hedrick keeps a foot in both high yield and profit-per-acre management on his corn and soybean operation in Catawba County—classic foothill country in western North Carolina, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Piedmont Plateau.

“I see so many examples of guys spending dollars to save pennies—this is the opposite” Hedrick says.

( Photo by JRH Grain Farms)

In 2019, frustrated by the loss of dollars through inexact foliar applications, Hedrick began compiling a spreadsheet detailing fertilizer use to the drop. “Guys can pull a tissue sample and get back fertilizer recommendations of 10 ounces to a gallon. What’s right? Or they’re stuck with a product that says to use 1 quart up to 6 quarts. Which one? That guesswork is where everyone suffers major losses.”

“Farmers already get a recommendation and a way to manage fertility with soil tests,” he adds. “It’s time to bring tissue sampling up to the same standards.”

Hedrick took his brainchild to AgWise, and the digital ag data platform ran with the ball, building Foliar Scripts . The recommendation tool allows growers to map what nutrients are being supplied by the soil and enables correction of in-season deficiencies. From year to year, Foliar Scripts also maps potential problem spots and stores data in a single location.

“Let’s say you have a foliar script and a 24% potassium acetate. Log in and it’ll show you are deficient by x amount and that you need to spray exactly 18 ounces,” Hedrick details. “You spend 25 cents per acre to run the program and save anywhere from 80 cents per acre on the low side to $16 per acre on the high side.”

“The program is not brand specific and has dropdowns to make sure guys anywhere in the country can pick the exact products that are local to them,” he adds.

Sarah Martello , CEO of AgWise, echoes Hedrick. “It’s so easy and as simple as doing nutrient tests. It’s a huge opportunity for farmers to use only what is needed and save money at the same time.”

“Here’s reality,” Hedrick continues. “One quart of a particular foliar product may cost the producer $2 per acre, but 2 gallons may cost you $20 per acre. There’s $18 per acre the farmer has no management decisions on how to make the educated, scientific application. That’s where AgWise comes in and works with foliar scripts where now a grower can use a soil sample, correct their soil, and then if they have deficiencies in the plant, or an imbalance, they can come back in-season and pull a tissue sample. It costs 13 cents for a 40-acre sample and 26 cents for a 20-acre sample.”

Calculus Change

AgWise partners with numerous commercial labs that send the company tissue information from a given grower. AgWise then generates a precise recommendation report to be used by the grower. “Do your tissue sample and put this as an add-on to your test. It costs the lab absolutely nothing. And if your lab doesn’t offer this yet, you can still go online and sign up,” Hedrick says. “Just enter the numbers and the script generates off that—so user-friendly.”

“I want to give a plant the exact amount of product needed for balance with the cheapest digital technology possible,” Hedrick explains.

(Photo by JRH Grain Farms)

Hedrick’s yields are proof positive of Foliar Scripts , Martello notes. “Precise recommendations save farmers a lot of money. This is great now, but it’s going to become amazing when we continue adding data into the system.”

Precise nutrient applications have paid huge dividends on Hedrick’s operation. “I see so many examples of guys spending dollars to save pennies—this is the opposite” he says. “At 25 cents per acre, there’s no way I can afford not to use this.”

In 2012, Hedrick began farming solo and was blessed with strong commodity prices. Two years later, prices dropped, but inputs were relatively low. In 2024, the calculus has changed, and Hedrick leans on the fractional cost of digital data.

“We’re at a point where prices are down and inputs are generally up. Since 2021, we’ve seen fertilizer jump 300 percent and chemistry 200 percent. Now is the time to pay 25 or 50 cents per acre to track inputs and reduce them by 25 percent, just for example. However, that 25% savings now is 200% greater than savings 10 years ago,” he concludes. “That’s how we can still make money in farming right now.”

Do Any Airlines Use Sustainable Aviation Fuel?

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 20:44:11 GMT

A new Government Accountability Office report says the Transportation, Energy and Agriculture Departments should do a better job of measuring the progress of their work to spur the production of 3 billion gallons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) by 2030.

SAF is alternative jet fuel made from renewable and waste feedstocks that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a lifecycle basis. SAF production and use in the U.S. has increased in recent years; this fuel is now used by airlines at two major commercial airports in California.

While U.S. production reached 15.8 million gallons in 2022, it accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the total jet fuel used by major U.S. airlines (see table). This also falls well below the previous Federal Aviation Administration goal for U.S. airlines to use 1 billion gallons of SAF per year by 2018.

Challenge Roadmap

Transportation and ag concurred. Energy indicated the recommendation is completed and that planned roadmap activities will enable progress to be measured.

As discussed in the report, GAO disagrees that the recommendation is completed.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Spreading in the Wind - G4

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 19:58:41 GMT

The product and support teams at New Leader Manufacturing, the manufacturer of New Leader® spreaders, have been fighting a persistent spreader misconception for most of their professional lives.

“There’s a belief in the industry that you can’t use your broadcast spinner spreader in the wind,” explains Mike Nelms, Product Support Manager at NLM. “And it’s unfortunate this belief exists because it’s simply not true. We see operators put their machines away or use an inferior method when their New Leader broadcast spinner spreader is perfectly acceptable. This misconception is not only hurting people’s productivity, it’s hurting their profitability as well.”

New Leader broadcast spreaders are known for their high capacity, high output features; out-performing competitive spreaders and air machines in acres per day while offering one of the lowest cost per acre capabilities. While New Leader spreaders have been around since 1939, they became a leader in the industry with the release of their G4 spinner technology in 2000.

“Our G4 spinner technology revolutionized the application industry,” explains John Rathjen, Director of Product Development at NLM. “At that time, spinner spreaders were not known for their accuracy or reliability. We changed that with the G4. Instead of lofting product off the disc like the competition, we designed our spinner so the nutrients left our disc piercing the wind.”

This piercing of the wind technology is what lets New Leader spreaders spread in windy conditions. “Because our equipment does not loft product up in the air or drop it to the ground, it’s less susceptible to negative impacts from the wind,” says Nelms. “Any broadcast application equipment, air machines included, can be impacted by the wind. But because our spreaders are designed to cut through the wind, not be carried by it, they are reliable in winds up to 25 mph.”

“If there’s one thing we want everyone to know,” Nelms continued, “it’s that the New Leader spreaders you see today aren’t the same ones you grew up with. Times have changed, technology has improved. If you follow the recommended guidelines, you can get the job done well even in traditionally windy conditions.”
See below for the spreading Do’s and Don’ts put together by the service and product teams at NLM. If you have any questions, contact your authorized New Leader dealer .

The Do’s:
• Verify the spreader is properly calibrated
• Verify wind gusts are +/- 5 mph to wind speed; anything greater, no broadcast application is recommended
• Drive perpendicular to the wind and maintain your AB line

The Don’ts:
• Drive parallel to the wind
• Veer off your AB line
• Fail to calibrate your machine or adjust the settings without recalibrating

In The Shop: Those Wonderful Chopping Corn Heads

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 21:09:02 GMT

I know you’re scrambling to finish harvest, but if you’ve got a chopping corn head that uses “lawn mowers” under the row units, be prepared to do some preventive maintenance before you put that corn head away for the winter.

Some of those chopping units have cutting heads/hubs that rotate around a small gearcase. There is a fairly small clearance between the spinning cutter hub and the stationary gearbox.

Sap from green stalks and weeds, dew from cool mornings, and general crop debris collects between the hub and gearbox during harvest. No problem, as long as the components are rotated daily.

But once the corn head is stored for the year, and especially if it’s stored sitting on the ground, corrosion and other issues can freeze up the cutting heads.

I just spent too many hours with a 10-pound sledge hammer freeing up frozen cutting heads on a 12-row corn head. To prevent that from happening, take time to liberally soak the narrow gap between the cutting head/hub and the lower gearcase with penetrating oil or oily protectant before storage.

You’ll thank yourself next fall.

In The Shop: How to Ruin a New U-Joint

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 19:02:39 GMT

If you are installing a new u-joint, here’s a quick way to dramatically reduce its lifespan: Over-tighten the bolts on the straps that hold the caps in place.

If you crank on those small bolts until they no longer turn, you risk distorting each cap so the needle bearings inside can’t rotate properly. Even if they can rotate, there’s so much pressure they build heat, cook-out the grease, and kill the u-joint.

Exact specifications vary according to the size of the u-joint, but those bolts should only be tightened to around 20- to 30 lb/ft. Less is better than more. Many of the bolts come with dabs of Loctite on them, so don’t be tempted to crank them a little tighter because the recommended torque “feels” too soft. If the instructions that came with the new u-joint don’t specify a torque value, Google-search the internet for that model number and come up with a value.

A final check when assembling a u-joint is that when you hold the driveshaft horizontal, the u-joint should “fall down.” If the u-joint doesn’t swivel freely either the caps are too tight, the snap rings are the wrong thickness, or the snap rings have been installed incorrectly.

In The Shop: Home-Made Wheel Torquing Stand

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:58:45 GMT

Torquing wheel bolts on tractors, combines or sprayers with deep-offset wheels is a two-man job: one man to operate the 3/4" or 1"-drive torque wrench to 700 or more lb/ft of torque, and another guy to hold the head of the wrench and keep the socket extension aligned with the bolt. Here’s how to build a torquing stand that allows one man to easily do the job.

Take a used disk blade, turn it so its concave side is facing down, then weld perpendicular to the center of its top side a 2" by 2" square metal tube ‘6 long. Starting 2 feet off the ground, weld perpendicular to one face of the 2 x 2 tube a 2" long piece of 3/4" re-bar or bar stock . Measure and weld additional pegs every 2" up the tube to at least a height of 5 feet. The result is a 6' tall stand with a peg sticking out every 2".

Place the stand beside the tire to be torqued, rest the extension bar of the torque wrench on the peg that matches the height of whichever bolt you need to torque, and one man can easily torque all the bolts by himself. For a custom touch, weld or bend the pegs at a slight uphill angle so the extension bar of the torque wrench is cradled in the angle between the square tube and the base of each peg. It’s also useful to trim one edge of the disk blade so it’s straight, to allow the stand to fit more closely to the tire despite sidewall “bulge.”

If you’re having trouble visualizing my description, think back to the adjustable uprights that held the high-jump and pole vault bars in high school, and you’ll have a pretty good visual of what I’m trying to describe. Tough to describe, simple to build, but a definite help this time of year when you’re moving wheels around.

In The Shop: To Oil Chains or to Not Oil Chains, That is the Question

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:57:21 GMT

Customers ask how often to oil chains on planters. Here’s my opinion, and reasoning: I recommend running planter drive chains “dry” during the actual planting season. If there’s a pause between corn and beans, or there’s an obvious rainy spell approaching, it’s good to have them lubed during that lay-off. But during actual, day-to-day planting, run them “dry.”

Then, before the planter is put into storage, I recommend first soaking them with a good penetrating oil like WD-40, then coating them with thick, sticky chain lube.

My reasoning is that planters operate at relatively slow speeds in clouds of dry, powdery dust from the soil. Planter chains wear relatively quickly no matter how they’re treated, and it’s easier to identify damaged “dry” chains than chains caked with hardened chain lube.

My experience has been that chains that were lubed frequently during planting then stored with a thick coating of dry-looking lubricant on their links develop more kinks and corrosion during winter storage than chains that were ran dry during planting season, then liberally lubed before storage. So, in my opinion, planter chains should be dry and shiny during planting season, but wet and slimy-looking during storage.

In The Shop: Temporary Fix for Oil Leaks...?

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:20:08 GMT

If you’ve got a slow oil leak on a gearbox, possibly even an engine crankcase or hydraulic reservoir, consider this temporary fix to get you by until you have time to fix it “right.”

Drain the oil from the component, then hook a shop vacuum cleaner up to a fill hole for the component. Temporarily seal any breathers or vents. Use contact cleaner, brake cleaner or solvent to clean all the oil from the leaky area. Turn on the shop vac, then spray more solvent on the leaky area. The vacuum in the component will suck solvent through the leak to remove any oily residue. Allow the solvent to air dry, then with the vacuum still running, smear a layer of RTV silicone sealant over the leaky area. Sometimes you can actually see the vacuum pull silicone sealant into the tiny holes that are causing the leak.

Disconnect the shop vac. Allow the sealant to cure for at least a half hour, then refill the component with oil. Compared to removing and disassembling a gearbox, oil tank or other component, it’s a “quick fix.”

NL345G4 Edge combination fertilizer-lime pull type spinner spreader

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 05:28:42 GMT

Ag retailers and custom applicators provide an essential service to the American grower. With the changing economic times, however, growers are faced with the challenge of doing more with less and stretching their dollars further than before. The NL345G4 Edge combination fertilizer-lime pull-type spinner spreader by New Leader gives growers the opportunity to invest in their application and save money in the long run.

Every year, growers can expect two to three visits from their ag retailer, co-op, or custom applicator, depending on the needs of their crops. With the average custom application rate of $6.00 and fertilizer costs reaching $480/ton, the cost to effectively fertilize a field is a significant investment, especially for those managing large acreages.

With growers needing to stretch their dollars further and increase their efficiencies more than ever before, some are looking to take their spreading in-house.

“What the NL345 lets growers do is invest in their spreading. They have control over the timing, frequency, and manner of application. And with the standard farm equipment loans available, they’re able to spend less year-over-year; increasing their profit margins and leaving themselves with a valuable piece of equipment that can be resold when they’re ready to upgrade,” says John Rathjen, Director of Product Development at New Leader.

And the year-over-year savings can be quite significant.

“For a grower managing 5,000 acres, by the end of Year 1, they can be ahead $25,000,” explains Rathjen. “By Year 3, that number increases to $64,000, and by Year 7 you can be just under $200,000 ahead. Those are significant savings when you’re working to improve your bottom line and set yourself up for long-term financial success.”

The NL345G4 Edge is a high capacity, high output combination fertilizer-lime pull type spinner spreader. It offers boundary spreading functionality, precise independent spinner control and monitoring, and scales for static in-field calibration.

The MultApplier insert allows for dual product spreading, independently or simultaneously, and at straight or variable rates. And the trailer features a heavy-duty mainframe with universal hitch, 4-wheel hydraulic braking system, walking suspension with 12” of travel, and high floatation tires for light footprint.

With ease of use features including simple startup calibration, and ease of maintenance features including centralized grease banks and 304-stainless steel components, this unit was built to hit the ground running. It’s easy to operate, accurate, and will work with existing controllers.

“New Leader’s legacy has been built from decades of proven reliability,” says Rathjen. “From product performance all the way through to the training and service that follows. New Leader is a partner you can trust for profitable results.”

Click here for more information on the NL345G4 Edge.

Q&A: The Future of Certified Hemp Seed

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 03:47:08 GMT

Read more about Navigating the Hemp Gold Rush here.

We asked Tom Dermody, vice president of operations for Bija Hemp in Denver, Colo., some pressing questions about hemp seed regulation and availability:

Q: What are the steps that need to happen to get enough certified seed in the U.S.?

A: Under the 2014 Farm Bill, the Association of Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) didn’t believe there was enough commercial interest to convene the Variety Review Board. Following the 2018 Farm Bill, the process has begun, and we are eagerly awaiting updates and opportunities on this fundamental aspect of establishing the trials and certification process.

Meanwhile, land grant institutions need to start running variety trials so that seed breeders will feel comfortable with legal entitlement to breed. Once there’s demonstrated efficacy to a specific variety and region, seed can be scaled into a certified variety, like any other crop commodity.

Also, there needs to be a coordinated effort to align existing supply chain means with specific varieties of hemp. For example, fiber hemp varieties have more value in the south because there are abundant fiber outlets, whereas in the Midwest, grain will have a higher value because of existing grain processors.

Q: From a regulatory standpoint, where are we and where do we need to be?

A: Now that hemp has been defined as an agricultural commodity at the federal level, it should have access to the same services as any other commodity crop. However, the rulemaking process assigned to that statutory declaration is not yet finalized, which creates frictions and related risk.

Also read:

Hemp: Resources to Know Before You Grow

Growing Hemp for CBD, Seed or Fiber

Growing Hemp: The Risks and the Rewards

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:24:38 GMT

There are tremendous amount of opportunities for farmers, says Charles Wellso, the co-founder of Sanitas Peak Financial and an entrepreneur with investment experience in the hemp space.

“No one controls the genetics right now. There are a lot of opportunities in terms of developing strains,” Wellso says. “There are a lot of opportunities on the protein side, and also the fiber side in terms of developing genetics.”

With great opportunity comes a fair amount of risk as well.

“I think farmers take a tremendous amount of risk already trying to get the appropriate machinery,” he says. “Harvesting is particularly difficult, and we haven’t developed specialized harvest equipment. Again, where there’s an opportunity with genetics, there are also a lot of issues. The plant hasn’t been established throughout the United States, so it hasn’t been stress specialized to regions.”

Watch the video here:

Read more about hemp seed regulation and availability here .

Use these 4 tips to navigate the hemp gold rush .

Check out these tips to grow hemp .

Farmers can up their smarts on hemp production at Farm Journal Hemp College . During this one-day event, held June 19 in Lexington, Ky., industry experts will discuss the best agronomic practices for hemp production and will also touch upon marketing, legal considerations and policy news.

Educational sessions offered during this one-day event will address:

How to source high-quality seed
Hemp nutrient needs from A to Z
Pest, weed and disease management
Steps to developing a marketing plan
Legal considerations for hemp production
The registration cost for the Hemp College is $149 and includes a continental breakfast and full lunch.

Get more details and register here .

Tips to Grow Hemp

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:24:34 GMT

Do you know your state’s guidelines on which seeds are allowed? Do you have clean, weed-free fields with well-drained soils ready for herbicide-free farming? Bija Hemp, a certified seed provider in Denver, Colo., offers this advice for growing industrial hemp in the United States. Download the handout here :

Read more about hemp seed regulation and availability here .

Use these 4 tips to navigate the hemp gold rush .

Farmers can up their smarts on hemp production at Farm Journal Hemp College . During this one-day event, held June 19 in Lexington, Ky., industry experts will discuss the best agronomic practices for hemp production and will also touch upon marketing, legal considerations and policy news.

Educational sessions offered during this one-day event will address:

How to source high-quality seed
Hemp nutrient needs from A to Z
Pest, weed and disease management
Steps to developing a marketing plan
Legal considerations for hemp production
The registration cost for the Hemp College is $149 and includes a continental breakfast and full lunch.

Get more details and register here: https://www.regonline.com/hempcollege

In The Shop: Things You Should Never Throw Away

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:16:56 GMT

Hoarding is unacceptable behavior in a dealership shop. If each mechanic saves left over parts and salvaged treasures, before long the the shop and grounds look like a salvage yard. So the general rule is, if you won’t use it in 30 days, don’t keep it. But every mechanic has an illicit stash of salvaged treasures hidden somewhere in his toolbox, tool cabinet or under his work bench. My stash of “gotta keep” stuff includes:

-the screw-in plastic caps that come in the ports on hydraulic cylinders and valves. I’ve got a coffee can full of various sizes and designs. Very handy when capping off hydraulic lines to keep dirt out during repairs.

-hose clamps. A hose clamp has to be pretty well destroyed and unsalvageable before I’ll let it escape into a trash barrel.

-hydraulic fittings, include flat-face, flare and o-ring. I never junk a valve block, hydraulic cylinder or hydraulic line without scavenging every fitting. My collection of used hydraulic fittings resides in a cut-off 5-gallon bucket that’s got 3 inches of oil collected in the bottom, along with a hundred or more fittings of every size and design. I keep draining the oil, but every junk fitting I toss in there seems to add a couple ounces of oil.

-chunks of pipe, from 2" i.d. up to 5" i.d. I cut them off in lengths from 2" to 12", and use them for seal and bearing drivers.

-Empty 5-gallon buckets. Even though our mechanics use a bulk oil system, we still end up emptying about ten, 5-gallon oil buckets a week. The rule is, each of us is only supposed to keep 2 or 3 empty buckets around for draining oil, but I’ll be darned if I can bring myself to throw away perfectly good 5 gallon buckets. Especially after I saw empty 5 gallon buckets being sold at box stores to city folks for $3.50 each.

In The Shop: Duct Tape Do's and Don'ts

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:16:52 GMT

I’ve seen some amazing temporary repairs done with duct tape. I’ve also seen some “What were they thinking...?” repairs that reeked of desperation and lacked common sense. Here are some uses of duct tape of which I approve, and a few that concern me.

-I’ve seen and accepted placing duct tape over a hole in an auger housing in order to finish a field or the day. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but no harm in trying. A beverage can sliced open and laid across a small hole and held in place by duct tape has better longevity than duct tape alone.

-duct tape makes an acceptable “strap” to hold wiring harnesses and hydraulic hoses away from moving parts. Zip ties are a better choice because they don’t leave slimy, sticky residue when you eventually install proper hold-downs. If you ever do.

-A single wrap of duct tape around the center pipe that runs from side to side in a grain head’s reel, placed in the appropriate place (centered between two rows directly in front of the operator,) is a great driving aid. Instead of trying to gauge where the divider snout on the end of the platform is in relation to the edge of the uncut crop, the operator just keeps the strip of tape centered between the two rows in front of him.

-I’m not a fan of trying to fix weepy hydraulic hoses by weaving an entire roll of duct tape over the leaky area. It might slow the leak, but eventually the oil will defeat the duct tape’s adhesive and things will have to be fixed correctly. Duct taping a leaky hydraulic component makes a small mess into a bigger mess.

-When making repairs to electrical wiring, duct tape is better than nothing, but the next person to deal with that repaired area will cuss you. If you have the foresight to keep duct tape on the combine for repairs, have the foresight to include electrician’s tape in your repair kit.

-In many cases, zip ties trump duct tape for fastening things in place on combines. An assortment of 12" to 24" zip ties is a wonderful thing to keep on a combine during harvest.

My Grandson Learns About Aftermarket Parts

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 21:16:54 GMT

My pre-teen grandson is into off-road motorcycles. He’s learning to work on them, and one of the lessons he’s learned has been about “bolt-on parts.” He ordered on the internet a bunch of ignition, carburetor and exhaust parts guaranteed to make his dirt bike go faster and leap farther. He installed all the parts (might have had a few parts left over) and the bike ran like crap. His dad, a trained mechanic, tore all the accessory parts off, got the bike to run correctly, and laid down the law: “If it ain’t stock, don’t put it on the bike.”

I learned the same lesson back in high school--adding a carburetor or cam may make more horsepower, but the extra horsepower can take a toll on the transmission or rear end, and definitely reduces the lifespan of rear tires.

Anyway, I see the same thing with aftermarket agricultural parts. Whether it’s “chipping” an engine for more power or adding extra wheels and extensions to deal with wet fields, there are risks. The aftermarket components may work as promised, but can have side effects on other parts of the machine. Many farmers learned the risks of humongous grain tank extensions on combines. There have been a notable number of drive train problems associated with chipped engines.

I don’t mean to sound like a shill for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), but any time aftermarket parts alter weight, horsepower or drivetrain design, there is risk that some original part elsewhere on the machine will be overloaded, or over-stressed, and go ‘boing,” “bang” or “boom.” In my experience, boing, bang and boom are expensive.