Technology - General

Turn Daily Farm Work and Data Into a Custom Podcast With Help from AI

Fri, 08 May 2026 20:19:18 GMT

Instead of listening to music or making calls on his way to work, Mitchell Karstetter tunes into his favorite podcast. It’s not a celebrity or news pundit; it’s two digital hosts, powered by artificial intelligence, talking about data from his farm during harvest season.

“I like that it’s breaking down everything that we’re doing,” says Karstetter, the owner of RJK Farms. “It’s giving me real-time data that I can use to make decisions faster.”

A grower pulls up his HarvestReplay dashboard. HarvestReplay provides operational insights in the form of daily, updated intelligence briefing to inform real-time decision making, like where to shift a harvest crew or when to start them, based on a grower’s own data such as daily harvest labor and on-farm weather sensors.

(Innov8.ag)

Karstetter is using Innov8.ag’s HarvestReplay system to collect data and make decisions based on their workforce. Each day, it gathers data from the farm and then synthesizes and relays it to growers in the form of an audio podcast.

“ With HarvestReplay, they now have access to the kind of operational insight they have gotten used to having on the row crop side of their business,” says Steve Mantle, CEO and founder of Innov8.ag .

He says right now, this new technology is helping specialty crop growers due to the labor-centric nature of the business, but there are plans for growth into other areas of farming.

How HarvestReplay Scanners Provide Real-Time Insights

For the HarvestReplay to work, they need an automated labor and tracking system. FairPick and FairTrak , which have two ways to track how much a single employee has harvested throughout the day, are examples of these systems.. The first option is for employees to put their harvested product on a scale-like scanner, where it tracks work output, such as pounds per hour picked. The second option is to have their badge scanned by a phone-like handheld scanner to report their statistics. At RJK, they are currently using it on around 600 acres of apple and cherry trees. This allows farmers to track and follow worker’s efficiency and ultimately their productivity.

“It gives you something where you can go, ‘Why is this guy, who’s normally my best guy, not performing as well,’” Karstetter explains. “It helps you identify problems faster.”

Field laborers weigh their cherry bins using Innov8.ag’s FairPick harvest scales, ruggedized, legal-for-trade field scales that record every pick weight, time, GPS location and picker ID, creating automated, real-time harvest labor data used to inform HarvestReplay.

(Innov8.ag)

The HarvestReplay also tracks future weather conditions to help make important decisions, such as when the best times are to harvest or spray. It uses on-farm or state-operated weather sensors, such as AgWeatherNet .

It can also incorporate a grower’s harvest data from previous years to help provide insights into the farm’s historical trends. Adding it all together, AI hosts can then educate farmers on things like how early frost impacts crop volume and quality.

“It’s giving me insights into fields that were not as productive as I thought they were on cost, labor or efficiency,” says Ellie Norris, owner and CEO of Oregon’s Norris Blueberry Farms.

The Three-Tiered Power of HarvestReplay’s Data Ecosystem

The system produces three types of podcasts, depending on who’s listening and their role in the operation:

CFO/owner podcast focuses more on economics, such as comparing orders from different buyers.
The farm manager podcast can be either in English, Spanish and/or other languages. It discusses what happened on the farm and offers advice on decision-making for the upcoming day or season.
The crew lead’s podcast is typically in Spanish. This revolves around recommendations for improving operational efficiencies that affect the bottom-line economics of the farm.

It’s part of a bigger smart data interface. The podcast is only one-third of the HarvestReplay system:

Replay History looks to turn multi-year harvest and labor records into reports and goals. This shows the past performances and economics of previous harvest decisions.
Replay Live gives same-day feedback using GPS labor tracking. It can raise or flag issues such as congestion, slowdowns or misallocated crews so managers can adjust.
Replay Podcast is an AI-generated audio briefing built from the grower’s own harvest data.

“Farms don’t have data analysts, IT teams or CTOs,” says Mantle. “HarvestReplay handles the heavy lift of data aggregation and integration while keeping their data private and the decision-making customized to their operations.”

Leveraging Real-Time Data to Protect Farm Profitability

In 2025, there was a 46% increase in U.S. farms declaring bankruptcy from the previous year. HarvestReplay’s goal is to target areas where farms lose money such as labor, crop production and decision-making.

The system uses the data it collects to recommend changes in order to provide a path for growers to save money. Karstetter shares an example of quickly using the HarvestReplay’s information to switch things up.

“We can go into a block and see that some cherries have been on the smaller side, so we need to prune heavier,” Karstetter explains.

It also allows him and his managers to make decisions on the crews that are working. Karstetter says that in the latest podcast entry, it shared that one group was being more productive than the other. Now he can use this information to see what one group is doing differently and how it sets them apart.

“It’s giving you a kind of like a real-time look at what you’re doing and where you’re at,” Karstetter says. “We really don’t have that unless you sit down and input all this stuff manually.”

How Soil Mapping Tech Can Save Water in Orchards

Wed, 06 May 2026 14:22:22 GMT

An all-terrain robot decked out with industry-changing technology autonomously navigates through an orchard using sensors to collect data tree by tree. Once in the hands of the grower, the information elevates water management based on need and timing.

“The goal is to improve the way [growers] use water so they don’t have to abandon agriculture in some areas,” says Elia Scudiero , associate professor of precision agriculture and the director of University of California, Riverside’s Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment .

How The Robotic System Predicts Moisture Tree-by-Tree

The robot travels through an orchard measuring the soil electrical conductivity, which shows how easily electricity flows through the soil based on moisture, salt, clay and other factors. The technology then pairs this data with fixed moisture sensors to predict the water content across an entire orchard.

“Using this method, growers will finally know how much water they have, and how much they need, and can water specific trees if they’re dry,” Scudiero says.

Currently, some growers determine when to irrigate by relying on soil moisture sensors in the ground. However, these sensors are only installed in a few locations, leaving farmers to guess the conditions of hundreds or thousands of trees.

“The information those sensors provide is very limited,” Scudiero says. “It really only tells you what’s happening in the immediate areas where they’re placed.”

Protect Tree Health Through Precise Moisture Management

California’s strict regulations for water use in agriculture call for precise and efficient management. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, passed in 2014, requires local agencies to reduce groundwater overdraft and achieve sustainable use by 2040.

“If water becomes limited, farmers have two choices,” Scudiero says. “They can retire orchards, or they can find ways to produce the same crops using less water.”

The right moisture level is vital for the plant’s health to avoid stress and vulnerabilities to pests and diseases. It’s a balance because having too much water can deprive the tree’s roots of oxygen.

Nutrient Efficiency Comes Into Play

Targeting water use and timing is also beneficial for nutrient management.

“If you apply only the amount of water the plants actually need, you reduce the risk of washing those nutrients away from the roots of the crops and into the environment,” Scudiero says.

The robot is currently being tested at UC Riverside’s research farm. The next step is to work with local farmers to expand testing before making it commercially available.

Why Traceability is Table Stakes in the Grain Business

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:48:45 GMT

With recently announced guidance from the Department of the Treasury, to support the documentation of agricultural production required to participate for Section 45Z tax credits, Bushel and Verity have integrated their on-farm data, sustainability modeling and compliance platform. Kimberly Bowron, president of Verity, and Jake Joraanstad, CEO of Bushel, explain what’s next for traceability in the grain business.

Lessons From The Field

Bowron says the pilot project at Gevo’s ethanol facility in Richardton, North Dakota, helps to illustrate the opportunities that are unfolding and how it will effect the entire supply chain. Its “farm-to-flight” program included 500,000 acres being loaded into the program with the farm-level attributes.
When it comes to farmer engagement in programs, she says it really boils down to three things:

Eliminate Duplicate Paperwork: Streamlining the administrative burden.
Data Sovereignty: Ensuring data is protected and ownership remains with the farmer.
Economic Clarity: Providing a clear, transparent financial upside.

“We’re learning that workflow is everything. And so if it feels like there’s extra admin work and uncertain payoff, participation sort of slows down. But if we can be clear about all of those things, then growers are very engaged,” she says. “I think another takeaway is just trust. Farmers really want to know exactly who’s seeing their data, so we like to be transparent about how that’s being used. And that transparency isn’t really optional for us. We want to be clear about the economic opportunity and the adoption.”

Bowron shares the supply sheds around the biofuels producer will be driven by the evolution of these programs, the value presented to the farmers, and how market-based opportunities continue to expand including carbon intensity, scope 3 emissions and more. But the common undercurrent empowering the conversation of what’s possible is transparency.

Joraanstad says traceability was once a long time ‘scary’ word in the grain business because of the difficulty in delivering the full origination of a kernel of corn through the supply chain.

“It just wasn’t practical,” he says. “But if you’re a biofuels plant in the future, if you can’t do this then you’re going to be losing to those who can.”

It’s the intersection of the real dollars of cents potential of tax deducations such as 45Z plus the technology advancing the digitization of records putting this new mandate on how to stay competitive and profitable.

“This has been a long time coming,” Joraanstad says. “But the truth is that all of the previous discussion around what data is required, there was a lot of voluntary effort, and let’s call it the first version of all of this effort.”

For the biofuels producers, Bowron says the digitization not only provides participation for the carbon credits or tax deductions but also the specialized markets.

“Verity’s real role is to take all that farm-level data, translate that into a field CI (Carbon Intensity), and then take that CI and attach it to a gallon in an ethanol plant,” Bowron says. So that you have a CI that attaches to that gallon. We also think about this in terms of different attributes, like practice attributes. ‘This gallon can go to Canada because it’s got all those attributes; this gallon can go to California.’”

While the 45Z guidance is helping proving an outline for the potential, it’s a whole new chapter. And one that is still being written. The final rule isn’t expected to be released before June.

“We’re still wanting some better final answers as we’re going through this,” Jooranstad says. “But now all of us can act with some confidence that that’s true and this is a requirement and it’s not just a hope and a dream.”

Both industry leaders says it’s important to note how 45Z works, especially that it’s the biofuel producer receiving the tax credit.

“This isn’t like an EQIP program. There’s no direct USDA payments that are happening. And for an ethanol plant, it’s actually a lot of work,” Bowron says. “They can’t sell the value of that tax credit for the headline price.”

The ‘hidden costs’ for ethanol plants include:

Discounted Value: Credits are often sold at 90-95% of face value.
Overhead: Costs include broker fees, legal counsel, and insurance wraps for audit protection.
Delayed Realization: Benefits are filed with taxes and often not realized until a year later.

Hear more from these industry voices in the latest Scoop Podcast.

4 Ways to Use Artificial Intelligence to Give Your Farm A New Edge

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:01:00 GMT

Artificial Intelligence tools are at our fingertips and are amazingly efficient at what they do. Let me give you a few examples.

1. From Spreadsheets to Custom Apps

Our flagship Farm Profit Manager tool has always been Excel-based. It is easy to use, people like the format and it is visually appealing. Then Sam and Mack on the Ag View Solutions team spent a few days building an online app. The best part? We’ve made it completely free — with the help of AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. We can see the real value continues to be in the consulting relationship and the decisions it drives, not just the software. So we spent a few hundred dollars on something that would have cost tens of thousands — or even hundreds of thousands — with a traditional development team. Amazing, when you think about it.

Free Management Tool: Farm Profit Manager is now completely free! Click here for the online tool or spreadsheet.

2. The $20-a-Month Software Developer

A wide range of tools are available to make this happen — Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and Copilot are some of the major ones. Upload a spreadsheet and give it a prompt like: “I want you to build an amazing UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) for this tool. Make it a web-based app I can run on my phone or computer. Fix any errors and make sure it is polished.” Give it a few minutes and watch as it writes code and builds the app right in front of you. You may need a few tweaks, but the results will be remarkably good.

3. Automate the Mundane

Think of every mundane paperwork task you do and ask yourself if AI can do it better. I scanned all of my corn load tickets into a single file, uploaded it to Claude and told it to build me a spreadsheet of all loads to reconcile against my payouts. I proofread, made a few minor adjustments and reconciled 100 loads in 30 minutes — with a clean document to reference in the future. That would’ve taken me half a day in the office before.

4. Your Instant Digital Assistant

Connect Claude Cowork or Microsoft Copilot to your documents. Connect your documents into a smart filing system that can learn your operation and serve as your instant assistant.

A few other practical applications:

Build your own board of advisers
Finally build that farm website
Create a strategic plan for your farm (email me for the tool)

Pro Tip: Download a tool like Wispr Flow — just push a button, speak to your phone or computer, and it transcribes your prompt perfectly. Hit ‘go’ and watch Claude or any of these tools build amazing things.

The future is now — learn these tools, or your operation will get left behind.

Cultivating Trust: How the Agriculture Industry is Bridging the AI Adoption Gap

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:58:51 GMT

For California farmer Joe Del Bosque artificial intelligence was once a foreign concept. Today, he uses AI for autonomous weed control and water management.

According to McKinsey & Company analysis , AI can create economic value by improving labor and input costs as well as yield to the tune of $100 billion and by increasing sales and productivity by as much as $150 billion across the agriculture industry. However, most farmers continue to approach AI with a mixture of cautious optimism and skepticism.

“We have increasing costs all the time, we have challenges with pests and with the climate, so we’re looking for AI to help us,” says Del Bosque, who grows cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew and Galia melons on 2,000 acres.

It’s crucial for farmers and technology companies to come together to find solutions for some of agriculture’s most pressing concerns with AI, he adds.

Building Trust Through In-Field Results

In her work as chief product officer for Avalo, Inc , a crop development company creating climate-resilient crops, Rebecca White recognizes the investment price tag for technology is a significant barrier for producers. For example, autonomous and robotic systems can cost hundreds of thousands to a million dollars per unit, she says.

That financial scope can heighten caution around new technology – a point addressed at the recent World Agri-Tech event. As industry leaders emphasize, for trust to form, the technology must first prove its reliability in the field.

Bridging the Gap Between Data and Action

AI requires data – and lots of it. The council for Agricultural Science and Technology explains data is, “commonly fragmented, distributed, heterogeneous and incompatible,” which makes it challenging to use in a way that can be readily analyzed with AI.

The real value in data lies in how it’s returned to the producer, says Ryan Gilbert, a consultant with Deep Root Strategies LLC , a company that drives innovation in agriculture through adopting new forms of technology.

“The foundation [of success] is the data being generated by the companies selling the products and how they deliver that data to farmers to be able to use” Gilbert says. “The question is: What can AI do to actually increase the quality of the information and deliver it when the farmer wants it and in the format they want to achieve the outcomes they need to remain profitable?”

Unlocking AI’s Potential Through Teamwork

The next generation could play a role in building trust. At the Center for Digital Agriculture at the University of Illinois , Jessica Wedow says students are working on several projects that connect AI and agriculture. She says having one foot in each discipline could help form a stronger sense of trust.

If you’re able to involve students who have an understanding of the problems in agriculture and the need for the end users – the farmers and the growers – when building AI-enabled tools that’s a win-win, Wedow explains.

Fredy Diaz, deputy chief data officer for USDA, also believes collaboration, sharing research and insights, will strengthen the role of AI on the farm.

“It is all about teamwork; we’re really big on a partnership between government, industry and academia. It’s something we practice almost every day in my office,” Diaz says.

For example, USDA is working with students from various universities and Amazon Web Services to create technology that solves problems in real-world agriculture.

Case IH Debuts Its Nutri-Tiller 1000 Series For High-Precision Strip-Till

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:21:18 GMT

As strip tillage gains traction among corn growers seeking better seedbed quality and nutrient efficiency, Case IH is meeting the demand with its new Nutri-Tiller 1000 Series. Unveiled this week at Commodity Classic, the series launches with 6-, 8-, and 12-row three-point hitch–mounted models.

“We’ve got a limited number of machines for 2026,” notes Tony McClelland, Case IH global product manager. “We’ll have full production available for 2027, and we’ll actually start taking orders on the ’27 machines in May.”

Two Row-Unit Configurations

At the core of the Nutri-Tiller 1000 Series is a redesigned row unit engineered to help growers create the ideal environment for seed corn. “The magic and the story here is how the row unit is forming the strip — leaving the right width, the right berm height and shape, and clearing residue to help maximize seed-to-soil contact,” McClelland says.

The redesigned row unit is engineered to help growers create the ideal environment for maxium seed-to-soil contact for corn.

(Rhonda Brooks)

To accommodate varying field conditions, Case IH offers two distinct configurations:

Shank Row Unit: Designed for deeper fracture, creating what McClelland calls a “deeper flower pot for the crop.” It operates at speeds up to 7 mph.
Coulter-Only Row Unit: Provides a shallower “flower pot” and is built for higher-speed operations up to 10 mph.

Precise Nutrient Placement

The series emphasizes precise fertilizer banding within the future root zone, allowing for more efficient uptake and potentially reducing the volume of product required.

“We can do all forms of fertilizer, whether dry, liquid or gas for anhydrous ammonia,” McClelland says. “This machine has a Raven rate control module on it that we can use to control the various forms of fertilizer, whatever you happen to use.”

Beyond nutrient management, the tool promotes early emergence by fostering quicker soil warming and consistent moisture levels. CJ Parker, soil management marketing manager at Case IH, emphasizes the long-term benefits: “The Nutri-Tiller 1000 series is designed to deliver exceptional tillage results while championing long-term soil health and conservation. By minimizing compaction and leaving protective residue between the strips, it enhances the soil’s nutrient utilization — helping farmers protect their soil while supporting strong yield potential.”

High-Tech Efficiency

To maximize narrow work windows, the Nutri-Tiller 1000 features full in-cab control. Operators can adjust residue managers, row unit down pressure, strip keepers, and berm conditioning on the fly without manual field stops.

The series integrates into the Case IH technology ecosystem via FieldOps, simplifying guidance and prescription management.

Additionally, Active Implement Guidance ensures planting remains perfectly aligned within the strips. These tools, managed through the Pro 1200 display, help operators minimize overlap and optimize inputs on every pass.

The Technology Poised to Revolutionize Corn Yields — Just as Biotech Did in the 1980s

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:25:10 GMT

As Pioneer celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the company is looking both backward, measuring a century of yield progress, and forward. Looking ahead, Dean Podlich with Pioneer says one technology could revolutionize yield and corn production, almost as much as biotech did in the 1980s.

Gene editing, currently at the same inflection point where biotech traits once stood, is poised to revolutionize corn yields. While still early in development, the genetic engineering technique is poised to push the yield ceiling higher for farmers and influence productivity for decades.

A Century in Two Kernels of Corn

During a look back at 100 years of Pioneer at Commodity Classic this week, Podlich, who leads the digital seeds group within R&D at Corteva Agriscience, held up two types of kernels. One traced back to genetics from Raymond Baker that won the Banner Trophy, which was the state yield contest at the time, in 1927. The other was Pioneer P14-830, the hybrid grown by David Hula when he set a world corn yield record .

The 1927 genetics yielded 60 bu. per acre. The modern hybrid: 623 bu. per acre.

“You’re contrasting 100 years of progress between these two seeds,” Podlich says. “They basically look identical from the outside, but under the hood, these are very different genetics.”

To the naked eye, the two kernels appear to be the same. But when you think about the technology and innovation that helped drive a new world corn record, it’s complex.

“One has gone through 100 years of selection, 100 years of the breeding gauntlet, 100 years of drought selection, 100 years of improved agronomics,” Podlich says. One has some biotech traits to protect that yield. On the outside they look identical. Under the hood, in the DNA, this is what technology looks like from a seed industry standpoint. 60 bushels to 600 bushels through that technology.”

That radically different genetic makeup sets the stage for what Pioneer believes is next.

Gene Editing: The Next Big Yield Builder

Podlich draws a clear distinction between gene editing and the first generation of biotech traits.

“With biotech traits, we were bringing in DNA from another organism that helped protect that yield,” he says. “Gene editing is a native solution. It’s a modern breeding technique.”

Instead of introducing foreign DNA, gene editing works within the plant’s own genome. With tools such as CRISPR, breeders can make precise changes, edits that would have been technically impossible or extraordinarily slow using conventional breeding methods alone.

“By understanding the genome, we can start to bring together different genes in precise ways that we could never do before,” Podlich says. “Previously, genes were sort of scattered across the genome. We’re able to use some of the CRISPR technology to assemble them into a common region.”

He describes the concept as a multi-trait locus, essentially grouping valuable traits into one location in the genome.

“That simplifies the breeding process a lot more because we can stack them together and deliver them through the product,” he says.

Through this process, the company is combining resistance to multiple pathogens in one genetic package. The work is ongoing and early stage, but Podlich believes it represents the kind of step-change that could shape future yield protection.

“We’re very much at the early stages of this,” he says. “Where we are with gene editing today reminds me of where we were in 1980 with biotech. We know it’s going to be impactful. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to be used. But over the coming decades, it’s going to be a key part of how we get to that next level of productivity and protect that productivity moving forward.”

Five Minutes vs. a Full Year

The acceleration of genetic progress isn’t just about editing tools. It’s also about data.

Podlich points to the dramatic shift in sequencing and genotyping capacity over the past 25 years.

“In the late ’90s, we had what was quite a sophisticated molecular marker department,” he says. “But today, we can generate the same amount of genotyping data points every 5 minutes that we created in all of 1999.”

It’s that leap in speed that fundamentally changes breeding.

“It’s incredible how this technology has revolutionized what we can do in breeding and our understanding of the genome,” he says. “Sequencing technology has allowed us to generate so much more sequence data than we used to. And that allows us to really understand the interaction between the genome and the traits that farmers care about. It’s about how to increase yield and protect that yield.”

Data Also at the Root of Yield Gains

For David Bowen, a data lead in the digital seeds group within R&D at Corteva Agriscience, the story of yield advancement is, at its core, a story about data.

“When we look at 60-bushel-per-acre corn 100 years ago and the possibility of 600-bushel corn today, data has absolutely played a role,” Bowen says.

He points back to one of agriculture’s early data champions, and the founder of Pioneer, Henry A. Wallace. Bowen says Wallace was a statistician, agronomist and politician, who understood the power of side-by-side comparisons long before “data-driven” became a buzzword.

Wallace insisted on entering his hybrid corn in yield contests across Iowa, not just for bragging rights, but for proof. By planting hybrids next to farmers’ traditional open-pollinated varieties, he created real-world comparisons that generated measurable results. Some years hybrids won; some years they didn’t. But over time, the data showed a clear trend: the best hybrids consistently outperformed conventional varieties.

“That ability to show value with replicated, side-by-side data was critical,” Bowen says.

A century later, the tools have changed dramatically, but the principle remains the same.

Most agronomic data still originates in the field: yield, plant height, stand counts and other observable traits. But today’s datasets stretch far beyond what Wallace could have imagined. Researchers now capture detailed genetic information at the molecular level. Drones sweep fields collecting high-resolution imagery. Satellites deliver in-season insights on crop health and variability. Sensors stream environmental data in real time.

The opportunity, and the challenge, is pulling those streams together into one.

“We have data coming from so many different sources,” Bowen says. “Now the challenge is aggregating that information so we can make effective decisions.”

From Wallace’s handwritten yield notes to today’s cloud-based analytics platforms, Bowen says one thing hasn’t changed: better data, consistently applied, drives better decisions. And those decisions continue to push the ceiling on what farmers can grow.

No Ceiling in Sight for Corn Yields

When asked about the top-end potential for corn yield, Podlich didn’t want to put a number on it. Instead, he referenced David Hula’s 623-bu. record with P14-830.

“Just 10 years ago, no one would have believed that we could get to 600 bushels,” Podlich adds. “I’m not a brave person who would predict how high we would get.”

Instead of naming a ceiling, he pointed to a symbol embedded in Pioneer’s logo, the infinity sign in the center of the trapezoid.

“That infinity symbol represents endless progress,” he says. “It was deliberate from our founders that we want to continue to drive that yield. We’ll sort of see where we get to. But as we continue to use these technologies, I’m sure it’s going to increase. Because genetic improvement and the interaction with management is not going to stop.”

He says improved genetics paired with improved management has defined the last century. The jump from roughly 25 bu. per acre 100 years ago to around 180 bushels on average today didn’t happen from genetics alone.

“You think of increased use of hybrids. You think about mechanization on the farm. You start to use synthetic nitrogen. You look at biotech traits and precision ag of today,” Podlich says. “All of those things cumulatively allow us to move from 25 bushels to 180.”

He says it’s improved genetics with improved management practices that have already led to and will continue to drive higher yields.

Exclusive: In the Eye of the Cycle, John Deere Charts a Path Through Ag’s Slump

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:36:50 GMT

After months of workforce reductions and sliding equipment sales, John Deere is reversing course, announcing it will bring 140 employees back to its Waterloo, Iowa, operations as demand ticks higher for its 8R and 9R tractors.

The recall comes even as Deere forecasts the North American ag equipment market will decline another 15% to 20% in 2026, underscoring the push-and-pull shaping today’s farm economy. Large equipment sales remain under pressure from lower commodity prices and tighter margins, yet pockets of global demand are forcing Deere to recalibrate production in real time.

In an exclusive interview with Farm Journal this week, Deere & Company President Deanna Kovar laid out how the company is navigating that tension: tightening its long-standing build-for-retail manufacturing model, adjusting output month to month and working to protect farmers’ equipment equity during a downturn.

At the same time, Deere is attacking costs where it can, reducing prices on 187,000 parts over the past two years and preparing to roll out a new lower-priced tier of replacement parts later this summer. The company is also testing a tractor powered by E-98 ethanol, technology that could eventually eliminate the need for Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) altogether while driving even more demand for the crops farmers already grow.

For Kovar, who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm before spending 26 years rising through Deere’s ranks, the stakes are personal. Now, just months into her role leading Deere’s Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, she is steering the company through one of the sharpest equipment pullbacks in recent memory, while positioning it for what comes next.

A Cyclical Business in a Prolonged Downturn

The ag equipment cycle has clearly turned. Industry data show steep drops in large equipment sales, and Deere’s internal outlook aligns with the broader trend.

“Deere is 188 years old, so we know we’re part of a cyclical business of ag equipment, but definitely we’re seeing similar numbers. Our expectations that we shared in our last quarterly earnings was that the North American equipment market would be down 15% to 20% again in 2026. We recognize the ag economy is in a tough spot at the moment, and we’re working hard to make sure we can help farmers become more productive and more profitable through using our equipment and technology solutions, but it’s tough out there.”

She says the Association of Equipment Manufacturers figures for 2025, which show sales of 4WD tractors fell nearly 42% and combine sales are down 36%, align with what Deere is seeing.

The significant slump in sales doesn’t come as a surprise to row crop farmers who’ve seen several consecutive years of declining net farm income following a record high in 2022. USDA’s first official forecast for 2026 suggests continued pressure and another year of declining net farm income, with not much relief on input prices and stagnant commodity prices. Kovar says Deere understands the financial strains producers are seeing.

“Overall, the outlook for 2026 is that farmers are going to continue to be under pressure from a commodity price standpoint,” she says. “We’re certainly seeing input costs somewhat flatten for producers, and, of course, many producers are grateful for the government payments that will help them start 2026 maybe in a better place than they would have without it. Certainly great yields last fall were a good positive thing for producers, but it’s still putting a lot of pressure on commodity prices today.”

For Deere, that pressure translates directly into lower equipment demand and tough decisions inside its factories.

Manufacturing Adjustments: Building for Retail in Real Time

Over the past year, Deere announced workforce reductions across multiple Midwestern facilities. Since 2024, it’s reported John Deere laid off over 2,000 employees in the U.S., with those jobs primarily located in Iowa and Illinois. Recently, it reversed course in a couple locations, announcing it would bring some of those employees back.

Back in January, Deere also announced it was returning 99 workers to the job in Iowa, impacting both its Davenport Works and Dubuque facilities. But Deere said this week it’s also bringing back jobs at its Waterloo facility.

“We’re constantly evaluating what we think the market will be. And it’s not an annual thing. It’s a month to month, a quarter-to-quarter opportunity. And yes, we just announced 140 workers to come back to our Waterloo operations. This is the operations where we make the drive trains for 8R tractors, where we pour the castings for the new high horsepower 9R tractors, where engines are made, and where we put tractors final assembly together. So we’re always happy when we can bring workers back into our factory. And it’s because we’re starting to see a little tick up in demand for those tractors,” she says.

Kovar says it’s not necessarily just a North American phenomenon. The uptick in demand is coming globally.

“We are seeing some signs that there could be some opportunities, but much of this is going to be iterative over time. It won’t be from a very low point to a very high point. We expect over time that we can start to see things normal,” she adds.

Kovar emphasizes Deere’s long-standing “build-for-retail” philosophy, avoiding overproduction that would flood dealer lots and depress used values.

“We’ve been in business for 188 years, so we’re always making sure that we’re being as efficient and effective as we can at building the quality products that farmers come to rely on. So we’re all always adjusting how we manufacture, how we make sure we have the quality checks and the automation to make sure we’re making every tractor as good as we can,” says Kovar.

She says the company is also working to forecast demand expectations and where that additional demand could surface. But she says for the past 25 years, the company has been focused on a build-to-order mentality, especially in the larger ag equipment space.

“We are a build for retail mentality,” says Kovar. “We don’t want to build it unless somebody wants it. So this has been something we’ve been working on for 20 years, and we will continue to be focused on really understanding the demand in the market and making sure we’re setting up schedules and plans to build for that amount.”

Equipment Prices: It’s About the Trade Differential

Few issues generate more coffee-shop debate than equipment prices. Farmers have seen machinery values dramatically climb over the past five years. Kovar points out that looking at sticker price alone misses the bigger financial picture.

“We’re always looking at making sure we’re delivering value for farmers when they buy our equipment, when they buy our technology,” Kovar says. “When we think about the price of equipment it’s really important we understand that farmers, when they buy a new piece of equipment, it’s really about the trade differential from the product they’re trading in to the one they’re buying, and if we were to lower the price of equipment, it would lower the trade-in value of their used equipment as well. We’re always very mindful of the equity farmers have in their equipment fleet and the fact it’s a huge part of their balance sheet.”

Not only does Deere need to be careful that changes don’t impact the trade differential, but she says the company is also focused on making sure there’s a balance between products being affordable and creating the value farmers expect.

That balance, of affordability versus protecting used values, according to Kovar, shapes Deere’s pricing philosophy in a down cycle.

Lowering the Cost of Technology and Parts

While base machine pricing remains complex, Deere is targeting affordability in other ways. The first, she says, is on the technology side, and lowering the upfront cost.

“We’re lowering the barrier to entry to amazing technologies like ExactShot fertilizer systems, See & Spray sprayer systems and a combine automation system so that more farmers can afford to get into the technology. These technologies are saving inputs, ensuring we’re getting all of the grain out of the field and increasing yields. That strategy to lower the upfront cost of those technologies, and help the customer pay for it as they get the value from it, is a huge step forward in allowing affordability of the technology.”

On repairs and parts, she points to self-service tools and direct price reductions. She says the company is constantly looking at the cost of parts for their equipment.

“Over the last two years, we’ve reduced the price on over 187,000 part numbers in the John Deere system. Later this summer, we’re going to be announcing a new tier of parts from John Deare that will allow us to give customers choice when they buy parts from us as to whether they want the traditional OEM, that likely has a longer life, or if they want to look at a lower cost option,” Kovar says.

Deciding between the two parts tiers depends on:

How much a farmer uses the machine
Equipment age
How long a farmer intends to keep that piece of equipment

Retrofit Kits: Precision Without the New Iron Price Tag

As new equipment sales slow and more farmers turn to the used market, Deere sees retrofit technology as a critical bridge, allowing producers to upgrade performance without taking on the cost of a brand-new machine.

Kovar says retrofit kits are designed to separate technology adoption from iron replacement.

“I think the beauty of retrofit kits is you don’t have to buy a brand new piece of equipment to get brand new technologies. Just last year we launched what we call our precision ag essentials kit, which is the foundation of our technology stack. It’s where farmers start to go from no precision to a more precision mentality, and this ability allows them to put a John Deere GPS receiver, a display and a modem on any piece of equipment, Deere or non Deere,” Kovar says.

The strategy fits squarely into Deere’s broader push to lower the barrier to entry for precision ag. By allowing a GPS receiver, display and modem to be installed on any brand of older equipment, the company is effectively expanding the addressable market for advanced automation and data tools.

“We’re seeing people put these kits on 20-year-old tractors and then being able to do things like AutoTrac, AutoPath and turn automation, section control, the things that can save 10% of inputs and make sure your stand is better in the spring and your weeds are deader during the season,” Kovar says. “This is a huge opportunity for every farmer to get more into precision. Once you get into that base of the technology stack, the sky’s the limit to be able to go to other products like ExactEmerge or See and Spray — these technologies that really drive savings to the bottom line for farmers.”

In a downturn defined by lower commodity prices and cautious equipment purchases, Deere is betting the future of precision ag won’t be limited to the newest machines on the lot, but will increasingly ride on tractors that have already been in the field for decades.

Right to Repair, EPA and DEF: Seeking Clarity

Right-to-repair and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) rules have been flash points between manufacturers and producers with two major announcements from EPA.

In early February 2026, EPA made a right-to-repair guidance announcement guidance and actions supporting the right to repair for farmers and equipment owners, specifically addressing issues with Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) systems and emission controls. The guidance clarifies the Clean Air Act allows for temporary overrides of emission systems during repairs, prohibits manufacturers from restricting access to tools or software, and enables repairs in the field.

The following day, EPA announced the agency is demanding detailed failure data from major diesel engine manufacturers as it considers additional rules aimed at reducing DEF-related shutdowns and derates that have plagued farmers, truckers and equipment operators for years.

“I think if you step back and think about what EPA’s done over about the last nine months, there’s been two important messages. One was last summer when they gave voluntary guidance that said we should extend the time from when a customer might have an issue with their DEF systems and not cause them to go into an inducement or a derate within two hours, which was the original rule. We’re very glad EPA has come out and said we can extend that time to give farmers more time to maybe finish the field, finish the day before they have to execute a derate or go through a regen on their DEF,” Kovar says.

She calls it a huge opportunity for Deere and one to which the company is already responding.

“We’re in the process of making sure we can extent that time on all the equipment we’re producing. We’ll do that over the coming months and years to help make sure we’re extending that time and not putting people in jeopardy of having a shutdown opportunity,” Kovar says.

On off-road right-to-repair clarity, Kovar says EPA’s right-to-repair guidance announced in February directly responds to a formal request the company made to the agency in June 2025 .

“[EPS] had already shared that on-road equipment didn’t have to go to the original equipment manufacturer or an authorized repair shop to turn your tractor or your truck back on after you had a deratement issue. We said, ‘Hey, we have tools that a farmer can do this on their own, but the way we read your rules, we believe we need you to tell us it’s OK.’ We’re grateful that last week EPA came out and said, yes, it is OK for off-road equipment for farmers to fix their own issues. We’re in the process of making sure John Deere Operations Center ProService, which is our self-repair tool any farmer can access, by early March, mid-March, we want to have the ability for a farmer to, if they run into a deratement issue on their tractor or combine or whatever, use Operation Center Pro Service to get their tractors back up.”

If DEF Goes Away, It’s Not a Quick Switch

With political discussions swirling around eliminating certain environmental regulations, and President Trump specifically stating he wants to see those regulations removed on equipment , some farmers wonder whether equipment could quickly be built without DEF systems.

When Trump was in a roundtable with farmers in December, he claimed removing those requirements on equipment would prevent breakdowns and make equipment cheaper. During the one-on-one interview with Kovar, Farm Journal asked if removing DEF on equipment would bring down prices.

“We have to really understand what they mean and how they want to go about it before we can really answer, does it make equipment cheaper? I think we’ve spent 15 years perfecting the system we have today, so we’ll have to continue to understand how far back do we think we’re going to go, how long would it take us, because we don’t have all of the technologies that don’t have DEF today,” Kovar explains. “If it were called tomorrow, we couldn’t start building tractors without it the next day.”

Removing DEF is not as simple as flipping a switch on the assembly line. Instead, she says Deere is focused on making sure farmers have the ability to repair their own equipment if it would go into derate. She thinks that’s a huge step forward in solving some of the issues that farmers have had with DEF.

Deere Tests an E-98 Ethanol Tractor

Even as debate continues in Washington over DEF requirements, Deere is exploring a future that could bypass the issue entirely.

While the company says it remains engaged with EPA on next steps surrounding DEF and emissions policy, Deere is also investing in an alternative fuel platform, an ethanol-powered tractor designed to run on E-98. The tractor will debut at Commodity Classic in two weeks.

“We’re not just thinking also about diesel, right, we also considering how might we fix this problem another way. And that’s an ethanol tractor we’ve been using across Iowa and other places. It’s early for us, but the idea that we could use E-98 to run a tractor, it’s so clean you don’t need diesel exhaust fluid to run it. We’re early in trying to pioneer what is an alternative to diesel that would allow a farmer to grow the fuel they put in their tractor to grow next year’s crop. It’s something we think we need to continue to talk about. There is a ton of infrastructure that would need to follow to allow an E-98-type fuel to flow and be on farm, but we think it’s an opportunity in the long run to help agriculture grow the fuel they use to grow the food we all eat.”

Deere confirms the early results are promising.

According to Deere, the limiting factor isn’t the engine technology itself, it’s the infrastructure needed to support it.

“Do we have the fuels available? Do we have the on-farm ability? Are the fuel companies ready to deliver it to the farm? At this point, there is a much bigger system challenge that will have to work,” Kovar says.

Advocating for Demand: Ethanol, Exports and E-15

Turning the ag economy around, in Kovar’s view, is about demand, both domestic and global. Not only is Deere working on equipment that could run with higher blends of ethanol, but Deere is also advocating for more demand.

“Certainly, we’re focused on helping farmers grow more with less. At the same time, we’re focused on helping to make sure there are markets for the crops our producers sell. We certainly spend a lot of time advocating for agriculture and for producers to have access to markets. We’re grateful for all of the trade deals that have happened here recently. We’re hopeful they start to materialize, and we see more and more grains flowing outside of the U.S. in exports. We also know we’ve got a huge opportunity here in the U.S. to drive ethanol and renewable fuels,” Kovar says. “We’re focused on making sure we’re using our voice at Deere to advocate for agriculture to not only feed the world, but fuel it. It starts with E-15, which we are hopeful we can get across the finish line at some point very soon. But it can’t end there. We have to continue to advocate for renewable diesels and an ethanol future, so we have to make sure farmers can sell their grains at a price that’s profitable, and it’s all about creating demand.”

The Next Five Years: From Data Collection to Real-Time Decisions

For Deere, which sees itself as a technology company, Kovar says she also sees Deere as a smart industrial company. With a focus on technology, she thinks the future isn’t about a single breakthrough machine, but rather about what happens behind the scenes in the data.

When asked what the biggest shift will be over the next five years, Kovar points to the evolution of information rooted in data.

“I think if you look back over those 25 years of technology, data has been such an important part of it. It started with yield maps, yield monitoring and binders on a shelf and has evolved over time to a cloud-based system. Everything’s connected. With Deere, it’s about John Deere Operation Center and how farmers can leverage that data, share it with partners, with their seed dealer, with their ag retailer, with the banker and with their landlords and have this really cohesive opportunity to bring all of the data they have in agriculture into one place,” Kovar says.

Personally, she sees the next step involving Deere helping farmers move beyond timely insights to timely decision-making.

“How do we help [farmers] get insights, timely information, that helps them make the best decision they can make in that moment on their unique piece of land in the middle of wherever they are farming and really give them confidence the data can help them drive to even better decisions,” she adds. “If we’re going to help them be more productive and be more profitable, it really starts with all the decisions they make. I think this next three to five years is a huge opportunity for us to make sure we are connecting all of their data in one place and helping them make really important decisions in real time that help them become more.”

Instead of one sweeping, industry-altering change, Kovar sees steady gains driven by machine learning, automation and in-the-moment decision-making, sometimes by the operator and sometimes by the equipment itself.

“I think that’s a huge part of the next three to five years, and those decisions happen because they’ve consciously made them or the machines are making them. If you think about See and Spray, it is deciding whether that’s a weed or a plant and only spraying the weed to save 50% to 60% of the herbicides,” Kovar says. “Those kind of in-the-moment decisions are a huge opportunity over the next 3 to 5 years as computer vision and machine learning compute and all of these things continue to accelerate at a pace that is very hard to keep up with.”

For Deere, the future isn’t just bigger iron or even more automation, it’s about connecting every data point on the farm and turning it into actionable insight, fast enough to matter in the field.

Watch the full interview here:

New Seed Tender Built for Narrow Planting Windows

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:55:50 GMT

Spring planting windows aren’t getting any wider—and labor isn’t getting any easier to find. That’s the reality the new 60-Series Seed Runner from Unverferth Manufacturing is built to address.

“The planting window can be very narrow some years, so our goal with this seed tender is to give farmers more operational efficiency so they can get the job done faster and with less downtime,” says Andy Unverferth, director of marketing for the company.

Smarter Technology, Faster Turnarounds

The new 4960, 3960, 3760 and 2760 models boast hopper capacities of 500, 400, 375 and 275 seed units and bring operational efficiency to the next level with the innovative CAN bus communication system, electronically carbureted Honda engine and redesigned hydraulic system, Unverferth reports.

Key upgrades to the 60-Series include:

CAN bus communication system for integrated machine control electronically carbureted engine with a 15% increase in fuel efficiency and redesigned hydraulic system that allows operators to run multiple hydraulic functions simultaneously with seamless precision.
An auto-tension belt conveyor uses a spring-loaded tensioner that automatically keeps the belt in proper tension for reduced maintenance requirements and has a convenient gauge for quick tension reference.
A standard five-function wireless remote controls the conveyor on/off, conveyor raise/lower, hopper door open/close, engine start/stop and engine throttle. The remote features a weight readout for units equipped with scales, controls the conveyor speed, turns the LED work lights on/off, and operates optional accessories such as the talc and graphite applicator, hydraulic jack, hydraulic roll-tarp, and tank shaker kit.
A new DG3520 scale package is standard on DXL and XL models (optional on 3760 and 2760 models) and features a split-screen display, automatic conveyor shutoff for unloading a predetermined weight of seed, field calc function and Bluetooth connectivity so the user can operate limited wireless remote functions from a mobile device if the remote is misplaced.
Hopper access doors allow the operator to easily reach inside of the hopper for complete cleanout at the end of the season or between seed varieties.
New limited Midnight Edition Seed Runner tenders are available for DXL and XL models and feature a midnight metallic gray paint scheme, specialized decal package, aluminum wheels and upgraded standard features.

When it comes to raw speed, Unverferth says the unload rates on the 8-inch conveyor are about 45 bushels per minute. “So there is a faster filling process to get the planter going again,” he adds.

Available For The 2027 Planting Season

Unverferth says dealers can start entering orders this coming May for the new tender, which will be available for the 2027 planting season.

Available options and accessories for the new 60-Series Seed Runner seed tenders include new six- and seven-function wireless remote kits, talc and graphite applicator, hydraulic jack kit, new hydraulic roll-tarp operation, and tank shaker kit.

For more information about the new 60-Series Unverferth Seed Runner tenders, farmers can check with their nearest Unverferth seed tender dealer or visit UMequip.com.

44 Million Acres: The New Frontier of Farm Consolidation and Growth

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:46:41 GMT

At the 2026 Top Producer Summit , Farm Journal Intelligence unveiled new farmland insights derived from predictive modeling and deep-data analysis. The research focused on the shifting landscape of land acquisition, identifying which operations are at risk of consolidation, who is positioned for growth and where the most significant opportunities lie.

Here are the six primary findings for farm businesses:

1. Scale Does Not Immune Operations from Consolidation.

(Farm Journal)

While smaller operations face the highest risk — with 58% of small farms “at risk” for sale or acquisition before 2030 — size is not a complete safeguard. Research shows the risk of consolidation or ownership transfer never drops below 27%, even for the largest operations. Furthermore, crop diversity made minimal impact on these odds; the likelihood of transition remains constant whether a farm produces one crop or more than 11.

2. Geography Trumps Diversification.

(Farm Journal)

Regional location is increasingly becoming a primary driver of financial success, often outweighing the benefits of operational diversification. As regional market divides grow, farmers and ranchers are finding that local market conditions and individual circumstances dictate their trajectory more. State-level or even county-level effects are more indicative of their situation than national trends.

3. The 44-Million-Acre Transition.

(Farm Journal)

Nearly 15% of American cropland is projected to change hands within the next three years, driven by generational transfers, continued consolidation and economic pressures. Farm Journal data identifies the Midwest as the epicenter of this shift, with roughly 12 million acres likely to transition. Nationwide, that total reaches a staggering 44 million acres.

4. Mapping the “Sweet Spot” for Expansion.

(Farm Journal)

By plotting cost per cropland acre against the volume of land likely to transition, clear opportunities for expansion emerge. For producers looking to grow their footprint, the most viable opportunities are currently concentrated in Kansas, Texas, North Dakota, Missouri, and Oklahoma, according to this research.

5. Integrity Is the Top Currency in Rental Markets.

(Farm Journal)

When more than 400 landowners were surveyed about tenant selection, integrity ranked as the most critical factor. Interestingly, age was reported as the least important factor. For producers looking to secure rented ground, a reputation for character and experience outweighs both seniority and youth.

6. The “Willingness” Factor in Technology.

(Farm Journal)

Producers most inclined to expand share a common trait: a higher comfort level and rate of adoption with technology. Crucially, this is not necessarily tied to technical skill or existing expertise, but rather to mindset and action. The most growth-oriented producers are defined by their willingness to try new technologies rather than their current mastery of them.

Download the Full Report

EPA Backs Farmers, Affirms Right to Repair Equipment

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:40:39 GMT

EPA issued new right-to-repair guidance on Monday, clarifying how the Clean Air Act applies to non-road diesel equipment. It’s a move EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says is intended to end years of confusion and misuse of the law that has limited farmers’ ability to fix their own machinery.

“Unfortunately, equipment manufacturers have misused the Clean Air Act by falsely claiming that environmental laws prevented them from making essential repair tools or software available to all Americans,” he says. “Because of this misinterpretation of the law, manufacturers have limited the ability of farmers and independent repair shops to repair equipment.”

How Much Will Right to Repair Save the Average Farm?

According to Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration (SBA) administrator, the savings could be $48 billion across agriculture. For an individual farm, that could mean:

$33,000 in savings per repair
$3,000 to $4,000 in potential yield losses avoided due to reduced downtime
10% reduction in annual operating costs
Up to 80% reduction in repair costs annually

Loeffler says savings come from avoiding dealer-only repairs, reducing downtime during critical fieldwork windows, and eliminating transportation and labor delays tied to authorized service requirements.

The news came as a joint announcement on Feb. 2 with Loeffler as well as USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.

“Today we are issuing guidance out of the Trump EPA to make abundantly clear that if you own your farm and other non-road diesel equipment, you have the right to fix it,” Zeldin says. “This might seem like a no-brainer, but ask any American farmer and they will tell you about the headaches and costly hassles that they have been forced to endure at the hands of equipment manufacturers.”

Zeldin says manufacturers have relied on what he calls a false interpretation of the Clean Air Act to restrict access to repair tools, software and diagnostic systems. He says today’s announcement will make that new guidance clear.

What EPA’s Announcement Didn’t Include? A Complete Rollback of DEF

Following today’s right-to-repair announcement, Farm Journal asked EPA why the administration isn’t also removing Diesel Exhaust Fluid, or DEF, requirements for farm equipment. Farmers have long cited DEF as a major contributor to rising equipment costs, particularly compared with competitors in Brazil, for example. In summer 2025, EPA issued guidance relaxing DEF “inducement” requirements, and today’s announcement focuses on allowing farmers to temporarily override DEF when making repairs.

In response, EPA says the agency is actively building on last summer’s DEF guidance.

“As Administrator Zeldin mentioned on today’s press call, EPA is actively working to build upon the DEF guidance the agency issued this summer,” the press office wrote. “EPA understands DEF is a major issue facing farmers, truck drivers and equipment operators. The agency will be making an announcement on DEF in the near future.”

This indicates that while today’s right-to-repair guidance stops short of changing DEF rules, additional updates could be coming soon.

Downtime, Dealer Dependence and Lost Productivity

Zeldin says farmers are often forced to rely exclusively on authorized dealerships for repairs, even during critical times like during planting and harvest when downtime costs farmers time and money.

“Instead of a farmer being able to fix their own equipment in the field or bring it down the road to their local repair shop, farmers have been forced to rely solely on authorized dealers for essential repairs, which are not always close by,” he says. “For farmers, timing is everything. When equipment breaks down during planting or harvesting, delays can result in thousands of dollars in lost productivity.”

He adds that the financial burden goes beyond inconvenience.

“Being forced to haul machinery to a certified dealership, pay higher prices for repairs and wait in line; it’s not just inconvenient,” Zeldin says. “It can prove to be very economically damaging.”

The Future of DEF: Is an Emissions Rollback Coming?

This latest right-to-repair announcement builds on action taken by the Trump administration in August 2025, when EPA issued guidance addressing diesel exhaust fluid, or DEF, system failures in farm equipment. The 2025 guidance aimed to address widespread frustration among farmers with Tier 4 emissions technology, while maintaining long-term environmental protections.

Prior to that announcement, in early June, John Deere sent a letter to EPA, asking the agency to clarify that temporary emissions overrides are allowed. In response, EPA issued guidance on Aug. 12 and later urged DEF system software updates to prevent sudden shutdowns, helping farmers and equipment operators make repairs without losing productivity or safety.

The new right-to-repair guidance announced today by EPA, USDA and SBA aims to extend this administration’s approach by clarifying farmers’ ability to make essential repairs themselves, which they claim will further improve reliability, efficiency and cost savings on the farm.

If you go back to the Trump administration’s original announcement last summer, EPA said it would allow manufacturers to update DEF system software to prevent abrupt power loss in tractors, trucks and other diesel machinery. The goal was to reduce “red tape” and prevent equipment shutdowns during critical planting and harvest periods, while still maintaining emissions controls.

Key aspects of the 2025 DEF guidance included:

Reduced Derating: Instead of immediate, severe speed and power reductions when DEF levels are low or sensors fail, engines could now slow down more gradually, reducing disruption in the field.
“Soft” Power Loss for New Models: For 2027 and later models, engines were required not to shut down or lose power abruptly if DEF ran out.
Software Fixes for Existing Equipment: Manufacturers could issue software updates to ensure older machinery properly handled low-DEF scenarios.
No Deleting Permitted: Emissions equipment could not be removed, and the guidance did not legalize deleting any system.

EPA says the announcement meant tractors and machinery were less likely to experience sudden, catastrophic power loss, which would reduce downtime.

USDA: Right to Repair Is Important for Everyday Farm Operations

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says the administration has been working on the guidance for months because of its importance to everyday farm operations.

“We have been working on today’s guidance now for a while because we know how much it means for the everyday farmer,” Rollins says. “The right to repair isn’t just a slogan. It’s a common-sense extension of the God-given right to private property.”

Rollins ties equipment downtime directly to food production and national security.

“Every single day our farmers feed us, they fuel us, they clothe us,” she says. “But when that equipment breaks down and remains out of operation, it means crops aren’t planted or harvested, mouths aren’t fed, and America’s economic growth and national security are put at risk.”

She says farmers overwhelmingly agree they should be able to repair their own equipment, an issue USDA has been hearing since President Trump took office more than a year ago.

“Farmers shouldn’t be forced to haul their equipment to specialized and costly repair shops when they could be making those repairs on their own,” Rollins says. “An overwhelming majority of farmers, north of 95%, agree with that statement.”

What Does the New EPA Right to Repair Guidance Allow?

Zeldin stresses the guidance does not weaken emissions standards or change the Clean Air Act.

“It does not change the law, and it does not reduce compliance obligations,” he says. “What it does do is stop the law from being misused to block common-sense repairs.”

The guidance clarifies that equipment owners may temporarily override emissions systems — including diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) systems — when necessary to complete a repair, as long as the equipment is returned to compliance.

“At times, a tractor might just stop working altogether in the middle of harvest because of a DEF issue,” Zeldin says. “This allows farmers to fix broken DEF systems right there at home or in the field.”

SBA: ‘Huge Relief’ with Measurable Savings

Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler says the guidance delivers significant, quantifiable savings for farmers.

“I’m the product of one of the 1.9 million farms in this great nation that feed, fuel and clothe our country,” Loeffler says. “Diesel exhaust fluid and now right to repair — these are huge-relief, common-sense reforms.”

Loeffler says SBA economists worked to quantify the impact farm by farm.

“In the aggregate, this is about a $48 billion savings,” she says. “It’s about $33,000 per repair.”

She adds that downtime drives additional losses.

“The loss of yield could be up to $3,000 to $4,000 for the average farm,” Loeffler says. “That’s time spent leaving the field, missing a window of dry weather and dealing with delays in parts and labor.”

According to Loeffler, the guidance could reduce annual operating costs by roughly 10% and cut repair costs dramatically.

“This could potentially reach an 80% annual reduction in the cost of repairs,” she says. “And we know those repairs are getting even more expensive.”

John Deere Say’s EPA’s Guidance Responds to Formal Request

John Deere says the EPA’s right-to-repair guidance directly responds to a formal request the company made to the agency in June 2025 .

In a statement, John Deere says it sought updated guidance from EPA to expand repair options for customers and independent technicians while still ensuring compliance with federal emissions requirements.

“John Deere appreciates today’s action by EPA Administrator Zeldin, which responds directly to a formal request made by the company in June 2025,” the company says. “John Deere sought this updated guidance from the EPA with the intent to further increase customers’ and independent repair technicians’ repair capabilities while ensuring compliance with EPA requirements and guidance.”

The company says its request aligns with its long-standing position that customers should have flexibility in how their equipment is repaired.

“John Deere’s request to the EPA is consistent with the company’s longstanding commitment to supporting customer choice on how equipment is repaired — whether through their trusted John Deere dealer, with a local service provider, or by doing the work themselves,” the statement says.

John Deere adds that in light of the updated EPA guidance, it plans to roll out new repair functionality for customers.

“The temporary inducement override capability will soon be made available to John Deere customers through Operations Center™ PRO Service,” the company says, describing the platform as an enhanced digital repair tool that provides diagnostic, repair and reprogramming capabilities.

The company says additional information about the tool is available through its website.

Trump Administration Frames Announcement as Farmer Choice and Independence

All three officials frame the announcement as centered on farmer independence.

“This is about fairness, competition and independence,” Zeldin says. “Farmers should be able to choose where and how their equipment is repaired.”

“In America, the timely, affordable maintenance of agricultural equipment should not be a luxury,” Rollins says. “It should be a given.”

“And coming from a multigenerational farm family, this issue is very personal,” Loeffler says. “We’re going to continue to make sure farmers get the regulatory relief they deserve.”

Is The Death of DEF Coming Soon?

While today’s announcement is another step in reducing regulations and emissions standards, EPA didn’t go as far as to eliminate DEF requirements on farm equipment, but told Farm Journal an announcement on that is coming soon.

Industry analysts say a rollback of federal emissions requirements on machinery could send shockwaves through both the new and used equipment markets, though exactly how depends on how far any policy would go and how manufacturers respond.

Greg Peterson, widely known as “Machinery Pete,” says the biggest immediate impact would be on used equipment values, particularly older, pre-emissions models that farmers already favor.

Emissions Rollback Could Reshape Machinery Markets, Analysts Say

Peterson points to years of auction data showing strong demand, as well as rising prices for good-condition pre-DEF tractors and combines, even during tight grain markets. If emissions rules were suddenly relaxed, he says the industry would be entering uncharted territory.

“The wild card is what happens to that one-, two-, three-, four-, five- and six-year-old equipment that’s already out there,” Peterson says. “It would be unprecedented.”

Opportunity and Uncertainty for Dealers and OEMs

While that uncertainty could create short-term friction, Peterson also sees opportunity. If manufacturers were allowed to build simpler machines again, it could align more closely with what many farmers are already voting for with their checkbooks.

“That’s what farmers want,” Peterson says, noting the continued premium buyers are willing to pay for older machines without complex emissions systems.

He adds that such a shift could be “an unbelievable opportunity” for both manufacturers and dealers, depending on how quickly and cleanly changes could be implemented at the factory level.

Manufacturers Unlikely to Fully Abandon Emissions Systems

Casey Seymour, host of the ‘ Moving Iron ’ podcast, agrees the used equipment market could benefit, but he’s skeptical manufacturers would abandon emissions technology altogether.

Seymour says the bigger issue for OEMs is regulatory whiplash. Environmental rules can change dramatically from one administration to the next, making it risky to retool factories for non-emissions machines only to reverse course a few years later.

“I don’t see a manufacturer of any color completely stepping back and saying we’re not going to worry about this anymore,” Seymour says.

Flexibility Could Boost Used Equipment Values

Instead, if EPA would decide to roll back emissions standards, Seymour envisions machines leaving the factory “emissions-ready,” giving farmers flexibility down the road. If deleting emissions systems became legal, equipment could be modified and resold without violating regulations, opening new possibilities in the secondary market.

That shift, Seymour says, could actually strengthen used equipment values. Demand for legally modified machines could rise, and farmers would no longer need to remove emissions components illegally.

Both analysts agree the used market would likely react first to any regulatory change, while new equipment pricing may remain largely unchanged unless manufacturers gain long-term certainty on emissions policy.

Talc And Graphite With 'Added Benefits'?

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 21:38:52 GMT

Talc and graphite are usually treated as a necessary cost in the planting process—a basic fluency agent you buy every year to keep seed flowing, prevent bridging and skips and protect singulation. But what if that same line item could work harder for you—supporting early plant health and yield instead of just smooth meter performance? That’s the door talc replacement products are starting to open, according to Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR) .

On a recent episode of Beck’s The Dig podcast, hosts Collin Scherer and Tyler Schindler, walked through why this seemingly small decision at the planter matters.

They contend that value‑added planter box additives are designed to do what your standard talc or graphite does for seed flow—and then layers agronomic benefits on top.

“Most growers already use a fluency agent. So what if that same line item could give you a yield bump?” Scherer said.

Over multiple years of testing, Beck’s researchers have looked at four talc/graphite replacement products that maintain seed flow but also carry biologicals and micronutrients to the furrow. The data, Scherer and Schindler say, shows positive financial returns.

“Stride Bio is now PFR-approved, with the three-year average ROI of $9.04 on corn and 13.99 on soybeans,” Scherer reported.

Other products — including GroPak AI, EnzUp SeedFlow Zn and BioWake — have also tested well.

“They’re not quite PFR-proven yet, but they’re close,” Schindler said.

A number of fluency products offer value-add potential to the planting process, according to recent research.

(Beck’s Hybrids)

The advantage goes beyond the spreadsheet. These products still do the basic job corn and soybean growers expect from a fluency agent and more.

Scherer said that the “more” often shows up as better early vigor, improved nutrient availability in cool soils, and a stronger start for both corn and soybeans.

For farmers already feeling like their planting process is overcomplicated, there’s also a practicality angle. Many of the same early-season benefits growers chase with in‑furrow systems can be captured at the seed level, Schindler noted.

“If you’re looking to simplify your planter setup, these options can deliver similar early-season benefits to intro applications without the plumbing,” he said.

The broader message from Beck’s is that in a year when cutting inputs is tempting, you can’t afford to cut the wrong ones—or leave easy ROI on the table.

“Cutting inputs shouldn’t mean cutting corners. These strategies give you a path to higher ROIs without adding costs,” Scherer said. During the podcast, He and Schindler discussed two additional ways farmers might be able to reduce input costs this season. You can hear their ideas and recommendations here .

Faster Tillage, Smarter Spraying: John Deere Expands Its Machinery Lineup

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 13:58:58 GMT

Farmers looking to conquer heavy residue and tight tillage windows have new ways to tackle both challenges with John Deere’s expanded High-Speed Disk (HSD) lineup. For 2027, the company is offering four new HSD two-section models, which build on initial introductions in 2025. The latest models will be available in 15’, 19’, 22’ and 25’ widths.

As Michael Porter explains, the disks are purpose-built for the slowest, most time-consuming job on row-crop farms: deep ripping.

The high-speed tillage tools combine multiple operations into a single pass — residue sizing, burial, compaction removal and field leveling — delivering both agronomic and economic benefits, especially when paired with autonomous operation, explains Porter, John Deere marketing manager for large tractors and tillage.

Autonomy Creates New Efficiencies

For 2026, autonomy ready capability is available on the 2730 combination ripper and the 64’ and 69’ 2230 field cultivator models, giving farmers more options to integrate autonomous tillage into their operations. Porter says the autonomy factor could create a whole new level of efficiency for row crop growers short on time and manpower.

“Think about having an operator sit in that machine for 12 hours a day and maybe only getting one or two fields done. Now they can go haul grain … and when they get done, there’s a good chance 60%, 70%, 80% of their fields have already been ripped, and they just need to finish up the last few,” Porter says.

The company’s so-called “combination ripper” is equipped with lights, cameras and a StarFire receiver mast to enable safe, precise autonomous operation. “With autonomy, we need to know where this tool is at all times,” Porter notes.

Farmers with 2016 or newer 2730 combination rippers can update to autonomy-ready through a John Deere Precision Upgrade kit. The kits provide a cost-effective way to enhance existing machines delivering greater flexibility, Deere reports. Combination ripper upgrade kits will be available for order starting in summer 2026, while field cultivator kits are available today.

(Rhonda Brooks)

Sixteen cameras provide 360-degree perception, essentially replacing the operator’s eyes. In autonomous mode, the system detects obstacles, evaluates whether it can proceed, and either continues on its own or alerts the operator through Operations Center mobile with customizable, high-priority notifications.

When it comes to ROI, the payoff comes from both direct labor savings and the ability to reallocate time during harvest.

“In general, we see some customers who have run 5,000, 7,000 acres in a year, at a $40,000 to $50,000 cost to them, and this pays off. Those growers are saying, ‘Hey, I would have had to pay someone X amount of dollars for all those hours sitting in the cab,’” Porter says.

See & Spray Upgrades

Farmers staring down ugly weed pressure and weak commodity prices are demanding more from every input dollar. With that in mind, John Deere is betting its model year 2027 upgrades will prove See & Spray is not just cool tech. Instead, the company is positioning it as a fundamental tool designed to deliver better weed control, increased flexibility and a faster payback for farmers across a broader range of crops.

Historically, See & Spray was a tool for use in corn, soybeans and cotton. For 2027, John Deere is moving into the small grains market.

“We are jumping headfirst into wheat, canola, barley and a handful of other crops,” Ladd says, noting peanuts and sugar beets are also joining the list.

Last year, See & Spray covered over 5 million U.S. acres and delivered nearly a 50% reduction in non-residual herbicide use. For farmers on the fence about investing in the technology, the value proposition is moving away from saving dollars and toward improving the bottom line. For many growers, the company says, a two- to three-year ROI is available with the technology.

“We understand the increasing pressures farmers are facing, driving them to find solutions that allow them more flexibility and the opportunity to do more with less,” says Josh Ladd, marketing manager for application equipment at John Deere. “That is why we have updated See & Spray to directly address those challenges by helping farmers apply exactly what’s needed, where it’s needed, and across more acres and more crops.”

Computing Power Gets Updated

On a recent walk-around of a 2027 machine at the company’s Austin, Texas, R&D center, Ladd starts with what you can’t see from the outside: the machine’s computing backbone. Earlier generations of See & Spray relied on as many as 10 processors. The new models consolidate that power into just three vision processing units (VPUs) mounted on the center frame.

“We’re able to do that and not make any sacrifices on overall computing power, and there is less weight involved,” Ladd says. “We can only put so much stuff on this machine’s boom before we start to worry about boom durability, compaction and consistency of performance.”

Nozzle technology is also becoming more cost-effective. While the ExactApply (30Hz pulsing) remains the standard for dual-product systems, John Deere is introducing Individual Nozzle Control Pro as a factory option for 2027 single-tank machines.

“For customers who want 15Hz pulsing instead of 30Hz, or are comfortable with a five-nozzle turret, it’s a more accessible option,” Ladd explains. This gives farmers and customer applicators another entry point into row-by-row nozzle control from the factory, he added.

Additional Enhancements

New center-frame camera placement, on the front of the sprayer, to reduce dust interference and enhance detection accuracy for more-consistent application quality. For operators with MY18 to MY26, these cameras will be available through a Precision Upgrade kit.
Higher operating speeds in targeted modes — up to 16 mph depending on crop and configuration, allowing more acres to be covered when application windows are tight.
Optional full boom lighting enables targeted fallow application at night to extend productive hours.

The expanded See & Spray capabilities will be available on MY27 John Deere 408R, 410R, 412R, 612R and 616R sprayers. In addition, all Hagie sprayers – STS12, STS16, and STS20 – will now feature See & Spray Premium as a factory-installed option.

Alongside the expanded See & Spray capabilities, John Deere is introducing several MY27 sprayer enhancements designed to improve overall productivity, operator awareness and in-field efficiency across a wider range of applications.

Updated Name for DA Series Applicators

To better align their applicator portfolio with the broader tillage portfolio, John Deere is updating the naming of its DA Series Applicators, formerly known as the 2510H. While the name might be new, farmers can continue relying on the same proven performance they are used to across multiple seasons.

“With the MY27 updates, we continue to deliver proven durability, increased flexibility and technology-ready solutions that help farmers maximize productivity,” Porter says.

To learn more about the updates to the John Deere application portfolio, visit JohnDeere.com or contact your local John Deere dealer.

Companies Team Up To Accelerate Ag Innovation With Artificial Intelligence

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:19:57 GMT

SAP SE and Syngenta have announced a multi-year strategic technology partnership designed to bring AI-driven innovation directly to the agricultural sector. For farmers, this means a more modern, data-driven approach to the products and services they rely on daily, from manufacturing and supply chain management to field-level support.

As farmers navigate the complexities of climate variability and global market uncertainty, the partnership aims to bolster the tools available to meet the challenge of feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050, Syngenta reports. By integrating AI across Syngenta’s operations, the collaboration is positioned to unlock faster innovation and stronger operational resilience that scales to meet the needs of agricultural producers.

“AI is the catalyst for agricultural transformation and has quickly become a core competitive edge for Syngenta,” said Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer, Syngenta Group, in a prepared statement. “Our partnership with SAP is transforming how we run the enterprise, modernizing core operations and unlocking new ways to work — a testament to our commitment to becoming an agriculture company with AI at its core.”

“Syngenta’s transformation sets a benchmark for digital innovation in agriculture,” said Philipp Herzig, chief technology officer at SAP SE, in a statement. “Together, we’re demonstrating how cloud and AI technologies can drive sustainable growth and efficiency in one of the world’s most critical industries. This partnership will help Syngenta future-proof its operations to feed the world responsibly.”

The transformation begins with SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions, modernizing Syngenta’s value chain to ensure the company remains agile and responsive to market shifts. For U.S. farmers, this translates to a more reliable partner capable of weathering volatility and delivering consistent results, Syngenta says.

Through the SAP Business Data Cloud, Syngenta is establishing a unified and secure data foundation essential for real-time decision-making. Combined with SAP Business AI and tools like the Joule Copilot , the company intends to drive operational efficiency and accelerate the development of new technologies. Importantly, this initiative focuses on delivering superior products and services while ensuring farmers maintain control and privacy over their proprietary information.

Closing the Transparency Gap: Ag Data Group Updates Its Model Agreement

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:20:43 GMT

Technology moves fast. For example, five years ago, we were just seeing commercially available selective spraying machines in the U.S., now a handful of companies have hundreds of machines across the country.

Changes in the industry were recognized by Ag Data Transparent, an industry group founded 10 years ago with the goal of bringing greater transparency for farmers and the industry in how data is used, collected and stored.

As such, five years after ADT wrote and distributed its first Model Ag Data Use Agreement, they updated it late in 2025. It’s now available on their website for no fee.

“A lot of companies would come to us and say: ‘We want to do things right, how do we do it? What’s the best way to go about collecting data from farmers?’” says Todd Janzen, administrator for the Ag Data Transparent project. “We created this model agreement that they could use as their primary contract with farmers.”

He says in the past five years, it’s been downloaded hundreds of times.

The committee that recently worked to update it included:

a new category for sustainability data (carbon, conservation programs, and climate data)
a new category for usage data and how a farmer is using a platform
addressing artificial intelligence, adding derived data, which would be new data sets that are created based upon use of the ag data itself

“The agreement tries to be much more specific than others you see outside our industry,” Janzen says. “Also, it starts with a basic framework that a farmer owns the data.”

Reflecting on the origin of the model agreement, Janzen remembers a time with many ag startups all collecting data individually. Since then, there’s been a shift, mostly due to consolidation but also businesses closing, where there are fewer players today.

“Ag Data Transparent was created to first establish a set of core principles around what are the best practices for how data should be collected from farms,” Janzen says. “And then secondly, to do a certification or verification of which companies were adhering to those principles, by going through this voluntary certification process.”

Nevertheless, tools to help farmers ensure transparency are important, he says.

“What I understand, there still is a great deal of concern from farmers about what happens to all this data, and with advent of AI it started to reinvigorate a lot of these discussions about data and what does it mean for these AI models to use data, to train themselves,” Janzen explains.

Maximize Yields and Savings with Proven Nutrient Strategies

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:08:37 GMT

The outlook for fertilizer costs versus commodity prices for next season is a tough one for corn and soybean growers across the country.
With that fact in mind, we have compiled a number of our “best of” nutrient stories from 2025 for your consideration.

Our hope is one or more of the following five articles will help you reduce expenses, reallocate resources and build a solid fertility program for the 2026 that works well for your crops and gives you some peace of mind in the process.

26 Ways To Cut Costs Without Sacrificing Yields
If you made deep cuts to your fertility program this season, are you considering whether you can cut even deeper next year?

If so, be sure to check out this article: 26 Ideas To Cut Fertilizer Costs In 2026 . It offers a variety of suggestions from agronomists and other farmers on where you might be able to reduce product use and reallocate resources.

While there are no easy answers to address the cost of fertilizer and other inputs, having conversations with your suppliers and financial providers now can help you leverage your buying power and minimize potential impacts from marketplace uncertainties. For more insights, check out this article: Navigate 2026 Input Costs with A Proactive Strategy .

Reallocate Nutrients And Still Support Yields
Farmers know that nitrogen is the main gas that fuels corn yields. Other macronutrients and micronutrients such as zinc, iron, and manganese also contribute to yield performance. Be sure to check out our article 300-Bu. Corn Has a Big Appetite for N, P and K to learn more.

If you’re looking specifically at how to make phosphorus more efficient, be sure to check out our Farm Journal Test Plot article on the topic: 7 Tips To Make Your Phosphorus Work For You

Every agronomist says to soil test your fields to make sure they are up to the challenge of delivering profitable yields in the most cost-effective way possible. While you’ve probably heard that advice a thousand times, it’s still valuable.That’s where this article comes into play, which features national corn yield champions’ perspective: In This High-Stakes Farming Economy, Some Practices Still Deliver ROI

For even more ideas on how to create a fertility plan best-suited to your needs, check out:

The 4Rs of Fertility
Focus on fertility to prevent pollution and boost profits.

The Challenge of Nitrogen
In your quest for high yields, nothing is more crucial, or more difficult, than managing corn’s most important nutrient.

A Moving Target
Preventing corn from going hungry requires balancing nitrogen and other factors, from year to year and field to field.

The Great Escape
Stabilizers and controlled-release products help keep the Houdini of nutrients where your crop needs it.

In the “Lime” Light
Correct acidity to create diverse microbial populations, which decompose residue and release soil nutrients.

Potassium Insight
Drought emphasizes the value of this vital nutrient.

Field Trends 2025 Reveal How Row Crop Growers Are Rethinking Autonomy

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:04:04 GMT

For many row crop growers, 2025 wasn’t about chasing the latest technology; it was about getting more done with fewer passes, fewer inputs and fewer people. According to Arthur Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Hylio, that reality accelerated the adoption of precision tools that allowed growers to shift from blanket applications toward targeted, in-season decision-making.

One of the most notable ag tech accomplishments of 2025 was the rapid uptake of precision tools across row crop operations, particularly spray drones and software-driven agronomic platforms. Erickson estimates the number of spray drones operating in the U.S. increased by at least 50% to 60% year-over-year, based on internal company data and broader market observations.

“Farmers were kind of put against the wall and had to adopt these things,” Erickson says. “Now that they’ve been forced to, they’re realizing this is just a good way of doing things — crisis or not.”

Even as traditional equipment sales softened, investment in precision software and agronomic tools increased, signaling a shift away from iron-heavy solutions toward data-driven management, he says.

Lessons Learned: Rethinking the Blanket Spray

For row crop growers, one of the biggest lessons of the season was abandoning the traditional “shock-and-awe” approach to crop treatment, Erickson says. Instead of relying on a handful of blanket applications with large boom sprayers, precision tools pushed growers toward targeted, data-backed interventions.

“With precision tools, it’s the opposite paradigm,” Erickson says. “The more you put into scouting and prescriptions, the more value you get out of it.”

That shift requires better scouting, higher-quality data and closer collaboration with agronomists, he says, but it also reduces wasted inputs and improves return on investment.

Arthur Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Hylio

(Photo courtesy of Hylio)

Looking Ahead: Flexibility Will Define the Year Ahead

As growers plan for the coming year, Erickson believes adaptability will be the defining trait of successful operations. With ongoing uncertainty around tariffs, fertilizer pricing and global markets, flexibility has become just as important as yield.

“Precision tools give you the fidelity to react,” Erickson says. “Instead of having just Plan A or Plan B, growers now have Plan A through Z.”

Because drones and similar technologies require far less capital investment than traditional machinery, growers can pivot midseason, targeting nutrient-deficient zones or adjusting application strategies, without committing to half-million-dollar equipment purchases.

Some recent academic research has raised questions about the economics of autonomy in row crop systems. A first-of-its-kind analysis of autonomous machinery on Midwest row crop farms found that, at current technology costs, autonomy doesn’t generally become cost-effective compared with traditional labor unless labor rates exceed roughly $44 per hour — a threshold most operations haven’t reached.

Erickson acknowledges that autonomy’s cost picture is still evolving but emphasizes growers are already seeing value beyond simple labor replacement.

“I think a lot of the value we’re seeing isn’t just labor substitution, it’s the flexibility and responsiveness precision tools give growers,” he says. “If you can reduce inputs, react to stress zones in real time and do targeted work when you need it, that adds up in ways that aren’t always captured in a straight labor versus machine rate comparison.”

Two Essential Factors For Preserving Corn & Soybean Quality In On-Farm Storage

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:17:52 GMT

As harvest finishes up, a high-stakes management process is getting underway inside countless on-farm grain bins. Farmers are working to keep corn and soybean crops in good condition until marketing opportunities hopefully improve.

Two key factors farmers will need to manage throughout the months ahead are temperature and moisture. Here is a number of recommendations Extension specialist offer to help growers in the process:

Temperature: A Guardian Of Grain Quality
Managing temperature in the bin is a cornerstone of effective grain storage. By carefully managing temperature levels, Ken Hellevang says farmers can significantly extend the quality of their stored grain and minimize the chance for incurring losses over winter.

“I like to say that for every 10 degrees that we cool the grain, we double the storage life,” notes Hellevang, emeritus professor of agriculture and biosystems engineering at North Dakota State University.

According to Iowa State University Extension , the ideal temperature range for storing grain during winter is between 30° F and 40° F.

If grain drops below 30° F, the risk of freezing and forming large chunks increases, which can cause problems when trying to empty the bin later, adds Reagan Tibbs , University of Illinois Commercial Agriculture Educator.

Monitoring and managing the grain temperature is a critical piece of grain storage, emphasizes Hellevang, who addressed the topic on a recent Crop Science Podcast Show .

He says maintaining an optimal temperature offers a couple of critical benefits:
1. Spoilage prevention: Hellevang says temperature variations within the grain mass can create convection currents, leading to moisture migration and spoilage. Consistent temperature control helps maintain grain quality by minimizing the risks associated with moisture buildup and heat retention.

2. Insect control: Most insect activity significantly decreases below 55°F, and insects typically enter dormancy at temperatures below 50°F, Hellevang says.

“For those farmers in the northern country, where we have cold temperatures, if we bring the temperature down to freezing or even a little below that, we can actually kill insects,” he adds.

Aeration should be done routinely throughout the winter to maintain cool and even temperatures in the bin, according to Iowa State University Extension . Uneven temperatures in the grain bin can occur when the grain mass isn’t cool enough going into winter, resulting in cooler grain along the bin walls and warmer grain in the core. This temperature difference can cause convection currents that deposit moisture on the grain surface, causing spoilage and crusting.

Other reasons for uneven temperatures in the bin include solar heating of grain under the roof and along the bin walls, as well as heating from insect and mold activity. Iowa State recommends leveling the grain surface to improve aeration and prevent issues caused by accumulated fines by spreading grain or coring the bin .

University of Minnesota Extension recommends covering fans when they are off to prevent severe weather and temperature changes from affecting the bin. Covers made of canvas, tarp, or even plywood can be used for this purpose.

Moisture Management Is Essential
Hellevang likes to remind farmers that there’s a difference between market moisture and storage moisture.

For corn, he says the market moisture is about 15.5%. But corn going into long-term storage, at or beyond 6 months, needs to be maintained at 13% to 14% moisture.

“We also need to be a little concerned about not getting grain too dry, because the drier it gets, the more brittle it becomes, and we see more breakage issues,” he says, adding: “The market really doesn’t reward you for bringing in 10% moisture corn. They’d like to be handling that 13%, 14% moisture corn.”

Hellevang adds that every region of the country is a “little different” on what they find are ideal moisture levels for grain in storage.

As part of maintaining ideal temperature and moisture levels, Tibbs tells farmers to keep an eye on potential moisture migration in the bin.

“What can happen is when the temperature difference between the outside and inside the grain bin exceeds 20° F, the moisture content in the bin can increase toward the top. That raises the risk of grain crusting, which can reduce grain quality and pose safety concerns when checking bins,” Tibbs explains.

Monitor Grain Throughout The Storage Period
Hellevang suggests checking stored grain every two weeks. While checking on the grain, measure and record the grain temperature and moisture content. Rising grain temperature may indicate insect or mold problems. Insect infestations can increase from being barely noticeable to major infestations in three to four weeks when the grain is warm, he adds.

Checking the grain moisture content is important because moisture measurements at harvest may have been in error due to moisture gradients in the kernel, grain temperature, and other factors. When checking the moisture content of stored grain, Hellevang advises following the manufacturer’s procedure for obtaining an accurate moisture measurement.

Your next read: Anhydrous Ammonia: One Small Mistake Can Have Life-Changing Consequences

Anhydrous Ammonia: One Small Mistake Can Have Life-Changing Consequences

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:07:50 GMT

When handling anhydrous ammonia (NH3), safety precautions aren’t simply a checklist to review and mark off your to-do list — they can help prevent a crisis. A recent incident shared by Chase Dewitz serves as a powerful reminder of the potential dangers of working with NH3 and the importance of staying vigilant about safety.

In late October, what began as routine equipment maintenance on the farm turned into a workplace accident that left one of Dewitz’s employees severely burned.

The incident unfolded at a fill site with a bulk tank of NH3 that had a faulty O-ring on the metering system and allowed product to leak, recalls Dewitz, who farms near Steele, N.D.

He and the employee discussed getting the O-ring replaced, but other priorities took precedent and that didn’t happen. Furthermore, on the day of the accident, the O-ring appeared to be functioning properly.

“I think what happened is the O-ring got wet from product, sweated, swelled, and seemed to kind of fix itself, because there was no leaking. He proceeded to take the chamber apart, loosening bolts, and when he reached a certain point, the O-ring failed and a fair amount of anhydrous blew out on him,” Dewitz says.

In a panic, the employee didn’t turn to the emergency water soak tank that was located less than 10 feet away and immerse himself in water. Instead, he went to the farm shop, which was more than 150 feet away. Fortunately, Dewitz says one of his other employees, who has some first aid training, was at the shop and able to step up and take charge of the situation.

“They got all his clothes removed and started pouring water over him, irrigating him, but he still had some significant burns,” Dewitz says.

Now, several weeks later, the injured employee is recovering in a Minneapolis-based burn facility after undergoing skin graft surgery — a stark reminder that short-sighted decisions can have life-altering consequences.

A Cautionary Reminder For Farmers This Fall
As fall anhydrous ammonia applications get underway, Dewitz says he wanted to share this story to remind farmers and farm employees to stay diligent with safety practices that can keep them safe while handling NH3.

“I think we’re going to see people who maybe haven’t used anhydrous for quite some time use it this fall, and they may have forgotten how much respect you need to have for this product,” he says. “My other concern is if farmers drag an old piece of equipment out of the shed that hasn’t been used for a number of years, and it isn’t up to the job.”

Fred Whitford says anhydrous ammonia training — and retraining — needs to be provided to all workers, whether part-time seasonal workers, newly hired recruits, tenured farming veterans, or even those who work behind customer counters at retail facilities.

“A constant focus on anhydrous ammonia safety helps ensure that everyone fully appreciates their role in protecting themselves, their coworkers, and the community,” says Whitford, director of Purdue Pesticide Programs.

“Three-fourths of your staff may have never been around anhydrous,” Dewitz adds.

Here are additional takeaways to keep in mind if you plan to use NH3 for 2026 crops:

Never underestimate the need to prep equipment adequately. A malfunctioning O-ring might seem trivial, but as this case demonstrates, overlooking small details can lead to significant consequences.

Always use protective equipment. Protective clothing, masks and gloves are not optional—they’re essential. As Dewitz notes, “A lot of protective equipment is available... people just fail to utilize it.”

Stay calm if an emergency does occur. That’s easier said than done in emotionally charged situations, but panic can amplify risks and accidents.

Take precautions when driving a tank of product to the field. Do not exceed 30 miles per hour, display a slow-moving vehicle emblem visible from the rear, and secure tanks with two independent chains in addition to the hitch pin or clip, advises the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

Your next read: She Found Her Fiancé Clinging to Life After a Major Anhydrous Leak and Then Miraculously Helped Save Him

New High-Yield, High-Protein Winter Wheat Variety Set for Farms in the Northern Plains

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:33:53 GMT

Winter wheat harvest — with its amber waves and sun-bleached grains — is a fixture in the Plains states of America. That iconic activity may peak as the combines pass each summer, but the work for big yields began a decade ago.

“Every variety that is made, this is the place where it starts from,” explains Sunish Sehgal , a professor and winter wheat breeder at South Dakota State University, as he points to parent wheat plants growing in a campus greenhouse. “To develop a new variety, we start by crossing two parents.”

Winter Wheat breeder Sunish Seghal checks a field of SD Vivian.

(Clinton Griffiths)

For the last decade, Sehgal has been working to launch next-generation winter wheat varieties for South Dakota farmers. Whether in the greenhouse or in the field, he makes 800 of these genetic crosses every year — hoping to make elite varieties even better.

“We have to continuously make new varieties in order to increase the profitability of our farmers and also to meet the challenges the farmer faces in today’s environment,” Sehgal says.

A Challenging Environment

In South Dakota’s temperamental weather, those challenges are seemingly endless. Sehgal points to new races of stripe rust constantly emerging, issues with head blight, tan spot and insect pressure like hessian fly — just to name a few. Add a variable climate on top, and it makes for a difficult puzzle to solve.

“We face drought every four out of five years,” Sehgal adds. “I need to look at all of these aspects to identify an individual [variety] which will actually survive in this environment, and thrive in this environment, while being profitable for the producers.”

After testing thousands of varieties and a decade of trials, a new variety is on its way. Next season, in 2026, South Dakota producers will be able to plant SD Vivan – a high-yielding, high-protein winter wheat with strong resistance to the state’s agronomic challenges.

“Usually, when the varieties are high-yielding, they tend to have lower protein,” Sehgal explains. “The unique thing about SD Vivian is that it is able to maintain its protein content, even at a higher yield.”

Growing the Future

He made his first crosses for this variety back in the greenhouse in 2015. Today, he’s investigating how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning might speed up his variety selection process. Until then, it’s a labor of love and determination to make a difference for farmers.

Sehgal makes 800 crosses a year in this greenhouse on SDSU campus.

(Clinton Griffiths)

“I’m honored to be able to be the part of the story where farmers, through their checkoff, fund the wheat breeding program,” Sehgal explains. “I am able to contribute and return them something back in the form of advanced genetics, which will make their farm more profitable and more sustainable.”

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

From Best Buy Toy to Pro Spray Drone: A Father-Son Duo Takes Flight In Missouri Cattle Country

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:41:27 GMT

Iowa State University freshman Rhett Keaton and his father, Vance, are launching a drone spraying side hustle.

The father-son duo started out just having some fun several years ago, buzzing around the house with a $20 drone from Best Buy that “drove mom crazy”. But now, they are getting serious about turning entertainment to revenue.

Vance, who runs 5K Cattle Company out of Anderson, Mo., ran out and purchased a DJI Agras T20P spray drone this spring, and both Keatons secured the Part 107 Commercial Pilot Certificate needed to operate on a farm. Combined with the private pesticide applicator’s license 5K Cattle Co. already held, the guys can now apply restricted-use pesticides to their own pasture ground.

University of Missouri Extension experts recently weighed in on the promise of drone usage in farming, and more specifically, in cattle operations. Field specialist Caleb O’Neal likens the technologies’ versatility and practicality to that of a UTV.

“Back in the 1980s, it would have been rare to see a UTV being used on a farm,” he says. “Visiting farms today, I’m hard-pressed to find an operation larger than 20 acres that doesn’t have some type of UTV that they utilize on a regular basis.”

And while the Keaton’s are banking on custom application services with a spray drone as their next play in ag, you don’t have to spray crops or weeds to use drones for the benefit of your farm or ranch, according to O’Neal.

Use of drones in agriculture is increasing as row crop and livestock producers find new ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

(Photo courtesy of Caleb O’Neal.)

“Livestock producers can monitor fences and availability of water and can make sure animals are where they should be without even opening a gate,” O’Neal explains. “Drone technology lets cattlemen quickly check estrus indication patches for optimized breeding timing, monitor cows during calving season, look for hidden newborn calves and look out for potential predators.

Getting back to the Keatons, the next step is for Rhett, who is majoring in ag systems technology in Ames this fall, to secure his Missouri commercial pesticide applicators license.

Once that happens, the pair can start marketing drone spraying services to neighboring farms. Their plan is to start locally with pasture and grassland applications before seeking out work on row crop farms to the north once foliar fungicide season hits.

Related - The Scoop Podcast: What’s Next For Ag Drone Application?

Even though the T20P is one of the smaller spray drones offered by DJI, Keaton says it’s proven to be the perfect fit so far. He also rents a neighbor’s spray drone, paying a per-acre fee, when he needs more than one bird to cover more ground.

“We do a lot of flying in and out of trees and stuff like that,” Keaton says. “Having that smaller drone with less capacity and a more efficient battery, I get about double the battery life as [the bigger drones] do. But I also have about half the tank.”

The reservoir on the T20P holds about 5.5 to 6 gallons of tank mix, so Keaton will usually need to land and refill his tank after about five or six minutes of spraying. He averages 23 acres per hour when everything is set up for a quick land-refill-takeoff cycle.

Keaton says Corteva’s DuraCor herbicide, an aerial application-approved formulation containing two Group 4 AIs, is the main product he’s been spraying from the drone thus far. The product label calls for 2 to 3 gallons of active ingredients (mixed with carrier water) applied per acre with coarse droplets.

A fellow rancher kicks the tires on Vance and Rhett Kaiser’s spray drone trailer at a field day event. The Kaisers operate 5K Cattle Company out of Anderson, Mo., and have plans to launch a spray drone custom application business in the near future.

(Rhett Keaton )

Keaton and Vance also picked up a nicely appointed spray drone trailer off — of all places — Facebook Marketplace. The whole setup – drone, trailer, extra batteries, etc. – cost about $30,000 all-in, Keaton says.

“We found one that was cheaper to buy than it was to build our own, especially with the generator — that is probably the most expensive part of that trailer,” he explains. “It already had the generator, pumps, the mix tanks and a thousand-gallon freshwater tank, and everything was lined up.”

With the spray drone in the air and the nice, shiny trailer parked edge-of-field as Keaton makes his passes, cleaning up weed escapes in fields that he says are “pretty clean” already, neighboring farmers often take notice and stop by to ask if he and his dad can come by and spray some of their ground, too. Their plan is to find the sweet spot between a $12 to $20 per acre fee to charge for their drone spraying services.

Speaking of sweet spots, O’Neal feels that spot spraying, guided by aerial imagery or even first-hand producer knowledge of where weed problems are significant and need to be addressed, is a good target for drone service providers like the Keatons.

“A pasture with a rash of blackberry weeds in isolated areas has great potential for a prescription herbicide application where only the problematic areas receive treatment via a spray drone, as opposed to a broadcast application where the entirety of the field is treated whether it needs it or not,” he says.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity [for it] around us. There’s a lot of guys with hay fields, and they do a lot of burn down applications. That’s one thing we are planning on hitting on,” Keaton says. “I think some guys would be interested in that. Especially if we have a wet spring and guys can’t get in the field.”

Missouri Extension field specialist O’Neal agrees with that assertion.

“In my neck of the woods in southwestern Missouri, the topography can be quite unforgiving, with some areas too harsh to allow access by ground spray rig or even an ATV,” O’Neal says. “With an aerial piece of equipment like a utility drone, landowners can now get herbicide applications on these problematic areas and put them into useful forage production.”

With a pilot year of flying his family’s acres fastened securely under his belt, Keaton says the arrow looks to be pointing up on spray drone technology in agriculture.

“Hopefully we can expand and get maybe another trailer or a bigger drone, it just depends kind of on what’s calling for us,” he says. “I’ve got to see exactly how much work is out there in this business and from there just make it all work out. Our foot is just in the door [right now].”

Your Next Read: Now is the Time for Beef Producers to Invest with Purpose

No More Waiting: Operator-Free Grain Cart System Improves Harvest Efficiency

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:48:39 GMT

At first blush, the benefits promised by new autonomous retrofit grain cart system, OutRun, seemed too good to be true to Ken Ferrie and his agronomic team.

The system, now commercially available, promises to help farmers increase harvest efficiencies while reducing labor needs in the process.

Ferrie and team’s skepticism quickly turned to appreciation as they put the system to work harvesting large-scale Farm Journal Test Plots in central Illinois.

“Once it’s in the field, it’s kind of like a dog with a shock collar,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. “It can’t leave the field, meaning that there’s a GPS fence around that field that keeps it from leaving that defined area.”

OutRun, developed by PTx Trimble (formed by AGCO and Trimble), enables a tractor and auger cart to team up and move autonomously to catch a combine on the go.

The system uses Starlink connectivity and PTx Trimble location technology, while the combine’s guidance and steering system remains unchanged. Field boundaries loaded into the OutRun system keep the cart/tractor team where it needs to be.

Less Manpower Potentially Required
Nebraska farmer Geoffrey Ruth says he is pumped about the practicality and ease-of-use of driverless grain cart automation. The opportunity to reduce manpower needs or redeploy a worker is especially appealing.

“We’re usually pretty short on labor at harvest time, so we’re looking to purchase one outright and take that operator and throw them in a semi to haul grain,” Ruth says in this recent article by Farm Journal’s Matthew Grassi: Smart Harvest: How One Farmer Is Hitting Harvest Windows, Helping Others With Grain Cart Tech

As Ruth and Ferrie quickly learned, the grain cart can be staged or called for unloading without the need for another driver.

Once full, the combine operator can then send the grain cart to a predefined truck unload zone for unloading. An operator is still needed, however, to unload the cart into a truck.

“Once you get a full tank, you call for the cart, and the cart will pull up beside the combine and unload on the go for you, or you could stage it at the end, so it’s waiting for you when you get there,” says Ferrie, whose agronomic team at Crop-Tech Consulting are running the system.

The truck driver can then disengage the cart, fill the truck and then reengage the cart so the combine operator can take control of the system again.

“Your combine operator can put the cart anywhere he wants it to go,” Ferrie says. “If you’ve got tile holes, terraces, or other places in the field you don’t want that cart to go, the combine operator can draw those areas on the screen and tell it, ‘these are no-go areas,’ so it doesn’t get itself into trouble.”

Ruth adds that the system also knows where the farmer already cut corn and will use that area as a path instead of mowing over crops that haven’t been harvested yet. It’s similar to how a drone already knows the safe path home when the pilot hits return to home on the controller.

OutRun is currently available for model year 2014 or newer John Deere 8R tractors with Infinitely Variable Transmission (IVT) and will be commercially available on Fendt models in 2026.

You can learn more about PTx Trimble’s OutRun system at www.OutRunAg.com

Don't End Up In The Ditch! Update Your GPS Guidance Lines For 2026

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:53:33 GMT

Farmers who use a local RTK network or state-run Real Time Network (RTN) — Iowa and Ohio both offer these signals — for auto steer and GPS guidance systems will need to recapture new GPS coordinates for field boundaries and A-B lines before spring planting.

That’s because The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) will soon replace two outdated reference frames, NAD 83 and NAVD 88, with a new corrections datum. The shift could knock your current A-B lines and GPS field boundaries off by anywhere from 1 to 4 meters, according to a pair of Iowa State University Extension precision ag specialists.

The Ohio State University Extension and FABE professor Dr. John Fulton issued a similar warning last fall at the Ohio Farm Science Review.

Iowa State University precision ag engineer Luke Fuhrer and digital Extension specialist Doug Houser say farmers using a major commercial satellite RTK network, such as those offered by John Deere and Trimble, should be OK for 2026.

Farmers who need to make quick updates to field boundaries or A-B lines, or check on the potential impact to existing telematics data this winter, are being told to use the free NGS Coordinate Conversion and Transformation Tool (NCAT) to shift their GPS coordinates from NAD 83/NAVD 88 to NATRF2022.

Fuhrer and Houser also want you to consider:

Physically recollecting GPS coordinates for field boundaries, control points or benchmarks using a system aligned to the new datum.
Recalculating your historical data using updated reference points or transformation software.

Example Scenario

(John Deere/Mel Koltai)

The Iowa State researchers share the following scenario as an example of a farmer who will need to make updates before spring planting:

“A farmer in eastern Iowa has been using a local RTK base station tied to NAD 83 to map field boundaries with sub-inch accuracy to avoid a neighbor’s fence line.

“After 2026, the new NATRF2022 datum will shift those GPS-defined boundaries by several feet. While the fence hasn’t moved, the guidance lines will now show up partially in the neighbor’s field. Without correction, auto-steer will drift across actual property lines.”

Before spring 2026, Fuhrer and Houser want this farmer to:

Back up all current GPS files and data.
Talk to his/her equipment dealer about firmware updates or new coordinate system support.
Use NCAT or dealer-provided tools to test a few key points and see how much they move.
Consider a quick resurvey for high-value areas.

For more info, check out the NGS “Get Prepared” resource here .

One Montana Farmer's Fight to Break the Generational Cycle of Failure

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 13:43:16 GMT

Ryan Lankford hasn’t just seen failure. He’s lived it.

“My father definitely tried to discourage me from farming, because it wasn’t good,” he says. “I mean, we went broke.”

“We grew up relatively poor,” he says. “We leased all of our land.”

The Lankford family had an allotment on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, the 1,014 square mile land shared by the A’aninin and Nakoda Tribes in north-central Montana.

Lankford compares the arrangement to the Homestead Act. But, it was designed for failure.

“The hard part for us as Indians is that the title was held in trust by the federal government, meaning that we really couldn’t borrow off of that title,” he says. “We had no leverage for capital, no leverage to expand and so it really limited us on resources and what we could do with our land.”

But as an Army veteran, Lankford knows how to launch an offensive. When he came back to the farm to make it his life, he did so with a mission – use every tool at his disposal to protect his farm, his Tribe and his family’s future.

Fighting for Land Ownership

As a member of the Tribe’s Agricultural Expert Committee, Ryan has helped to chip away at the generational curse of Tribal land ownership.

“Now, our Tribe owns the land, and our ground goes out to bid first to the primary members of the tribe,” he says. “As a member I live here on my allotment, and I have the first right to go bid and negotiate with my Tribe without competition from the outside.”

Under the new arrangement, Lankford and his father have brokered nearly 10,000 acres.

“I was the first generation in my family to buy land,” he says. “That’s something I’m really proud of.”

He’s also tackling another land issue – how to manage absentee land ownership.

“There’s a lot of farm ground that’s being abandoned on our reservation, because it’s too hard financially to farm here,” he says. “We don’t have a lot of the same tools you do on the other side.”

His goal is to recover some of that abandoned and neglected land and seed it in native pasture ground in an effort to restore prairie lands to the region.

Fighting for Land Stewardship

He’s already managing diversified production on 10,000 acres, where he has a Red Angus herd of cattle and grows year-round wheat, canola, peas, lentils, chickpeas, flax and barley. He’s transitioned some of his acreage to Certified Organic to capitalize on the premium market.

His relationship with conservation on the land is intensely pragmatic. Lankford views it as another tool in his arsenal – one that helps him de-risk innovation and protect his bottom line.

“On the conservation side, what we try to do is make sure that we’re doing the best economically we can, because if we run out of money, we don’t get to play the game,” he says. “We can’t do a lot of the big experiences and trials, so we try practices out one at a time, like we might take a half section and do it and see what it works out.”

“And I think that’s our conservation journey -- seeing what works and what we can utilize on our farm.”

R.L. Lankford Farms manages diversified production including a Red Angus herd of cattle, year-round grain crops including wheat, canola, peas, lentils, chickpeas, flax and barley.

(America’s Conservation Ag Movement )

One lever that he’s used to accomplish that pragmatism is funding and technical assistance from USDA-NRCS .

In states like Montana, USDA-NRCS deploys Tribal Conservationists to tackle the unique land and management issues that tribes face.

Michael Kinsey, one of those tribal conservationists for Lankford’s area, uses his expertise to match a producer’s unique conservation goals to both funding and technical assistance opportunities within the federal agency.

“Like any big goal, there are several small steps that need to be taken to reach planned conservation outcomes,” said Kinsey. “We can help interested producers get started with smaller projects to test technology, different management strategies, incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and new conservation practices while building on what they already do.”

For Lankford, that looked like using the popular Conservation Stewardship Program to gain access to both guidance and funding to innovate use of existing technology. It wasn’t a silver bullet, but it was incentive enough for him to take the leap.

“We did variable rate fertilizer through the CSP, and it didn’t cover my cost of buying the tractor and buying the drill that did variable rate, but it gave me the motivation to expand our existing technology,” he says. “We did that on probably about 15% of our acres, and they helped me write a prescription.”

Fighting for Security

Lankford has seen what happens when there is no safety net for farmers. In 2024, he took national steps to start breaking down the barrier that agriculture’s intense amount of risk poses. His four-year term on the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) Board of Directors puts him at the center of the conversation around federal crop insurance administered by USDA.

“Our margins are so tight, and the risk is so great that we’re putting our whole lives into it,” he says. “I think that’s something other industries don’t understand—that there’s no safety net for us year to year.”

“We need that crop insurance to take as a marketability tool to our bankers and borrow money.”

Lankford has some very specific goals with his work in that space, which include protections for his fellow farmers against shallow losses as much as the catastrophic ones.

“Catastrophic insurance is a one-year fix to get your machinery lined up for the auction,” he says. “That’s not the fix. I think the fix for me is, how do we insure those shallow losses?”

“Because as a producer, I would rather pay a premium every year and not have any help, because that means I’m doing things right.”

Fighting for Family

Lankford is now in his forties, with six children who are into the normal things, such as basketball.

In your 40s, sometimes you take a hard look at your priorities. So, he went looking for a tool to help him tip the work-life scales more in his favor.

Now, when he leaves the farm in the hands of family and employees, oversight is readily available in the palm of his hands, courtesy of tractors with Starlink gauges.

“When I’m coaching junior high girls’ basketball, I can look at my phone and see if they are in the right field, applying the right things and if it’s timely and on-point,” he says.

He’s not the only one that is leveraging tools like precision ag technology to capture efficiency and work-life balance.

“Precision agricultural technologies afford farmers the opportunity to be more efficient through increased insights into their operation that assist and speed up the decision- making process while also bringing that precision into the field through the more precise placement of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides,” says Austin Gellings, senior director of agricultural services at Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), an organization that regularly publishes insights into equipment integration and adoption.

“This leads to less passes, less stops and, overall, more time.”

Lankford uses precision technology and Star Link internet on his equipment to capture efficiency on-farm, which allows him to manage labor even when he is off-farm.

(America’s Conservation Ag Movement )

For Lankford, that extra time in his day is time that he can spend with his family.

“That gives me the ability to live a life off the farm too.”

In his thirties, Lankford says he missed a lot of life. When he was off-farm, he was constantly worried about production. Now, though, he’s able to not only leave the farm for his family, but he can prioritize responsibilities that maximize his skills.

“And that’s one of the things that I see technology doing for me is giving me a way to say I don’t have to be married to the machine.”

Icing on that cake, for Lankford, is the ROI that his technology is unlocking.

“I need to make sure I am maximizing the capabilities of my equipment all the time and I think the technology is doing that,” he says. “It’s taking the operator error out of it so I can more closely pencil and get a better baseline of ROI.”

Gellings believes that the benefits of technology can reach all the way to the bottom line.

“In total, the increased efficiencies that an operation can realize through the use of precision ag technologies can often lead to less overall inputs with increased productivity, helping to both reduce cost and increase overall profits.”

Fighting for Legacy

In his tractor is when Lankford really starts to add up his ammunition and consider if it really is enough for him to leave the farm and the industry better for the next generation.

Is he doing enough?

He has a son and daughters coming up behind him, quicker than he’d like, and the work that he is doing today has stakes higher than they ever have before.

“There are times where I’m running this machine and we’re cutting 200-bushel and I think, ‘Man, it don’t get any better than this,’” he says. “But I’ve also ran this machine and cut seven bushel and thought, ‘Oh man, are my kids going to have what they need?’”

The stress is real. And Lankford knows that he’s not the only one who feels the tightness in the chest sometimes. He works with the Veterans Farmer Coalition to help ensure that his peers have the support they need.

But, that starts at home, so he’s working on taking care of his own mental health. He’s getting out of the sprayer more. He built a heated shop with an office that, critically, has a door. When things get tough, he shuts the door, leaves the building, leans on his kids, his wife or his church.

Because his kids need him to create an operation that they can take over someday. But, they also need a dad.

“It’s no better reward than working with your dad, I’ll tell you that right now,” he says. “There’s, not a person in your life that wants you to succeed more than your father.”

“I have that same feeling for my son -- that I want him to succeed.”

“If he wants to come back, he can come back,” he says. “But I want him to have the ability to say ‘I’m marketable--I can do anything I want to do, and if it happens to be farming, I’m going to be excellent.’”

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

Take It Outside: Onetime Indoor Ag Pioneers See Opportunity Out In The Field

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:16:33 GMT

For the past year, the team at Soil Action has been working toward building an artificial intelligence driven product to sense soil nutrition in real-time. Whereas other companies have attempted to revolutionize soil testing before, co-founders Jack Oslan and Nate Storey say the AI tools available today are making what was once difficult or nearly impossible, possible.

“Soils are unknown and misunderstood,” Storey says. “We can use AI to understand soil better, and our goal is to come up with the instruments to solve the problem.”

Soil Action’s solution in progress includes building models and training models pairing near infrared spectroscopy with AI. Its goal is to reengineer the traditional process of sampling, shipping, agronomic recommendations, prescription files and applications while making it all in real-time. They are doing on-farm demonstrations this fall.

Before founding Soil Action, these two businessmen first met 12 years ago co-founded indoor agriculture startup Plenty. Storey’s time at Plenty was applying his laser focus on yield with innovation in algorithmic nutrition.

“I went into indoor ag because it was an area with the largest opportunity to drive yield. I have a lot of interest in yield,” he says. “In indoor, you can control everything and measure it–everything can be known in those systems and control every part of the process: root zone temperature, gas composition, and more.”

Now, Storey and Oslan want to bring those learnings outside and into the field.

“We got really good at understanding how to take an algorithmic approach to yield. It’s about understanding the yield equation, breaking it apart, optimizing individual aspects, and restacking them,” Storey says. “In row crops, the soil is the most important part, and to solve the yield equation we have know the variables that correlate and then begin to manage.”

What Does The System Look Like?

Currently, the beta version product is housed in a 3”x6” steel tube which can be mounted on any style of implement or equipment to automatically take measurements 4” to 6” deep every 50’.

(Soil Action)

“The real end goal is to have every equipment cab be mounted with an AI enabled agent to give you real-time measurements of what’s going on in your field,” Storey says. “It’s an AI agent focused on optimizing yield.”

The first testing was conducted in northern Iowa.

“We’re building our models on data collected from the field, and we’re using deep learning to ingest all of the information and help understand correlations,” Oslan says. “We can see everything that’s there, but we don’t understand everything that is there. That’s a focus for our work right now.”

“Holy Grail of Soil Sampling”

When it’s ready to be commercially available, Soil Action aims to provide results measuring two forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Other crop nutrients will be added in the future.

“Every expert we talked to said we couldn’t use NIRS in soil sampling, but the physics said we could,” Oslan says. “We took two intensive weeks using sand and manipulating it for measurements with NIRS, and our deep learning models can untangle data in a way classical statistical methods cannot. Now, it’s about how fast we can solve for soil nutrients with these newer tools.”

Soil Action says it aims to provide the equipment to farmers for a hardware fee of $10,000 paired with a subscription for the analysis on an annual fee basis.

Tips And Tech Tools To Take The Sting Out Of Harvesting A Highly Variable Corn Crop

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 18:19:16 GMT

Are you harvesting high-moisture corn this fall, and did that same corn experience significant foliar disease pressure? If the variable conditions crop scouts noted on Farm Journal’s Pro Farmer Crop Tour hold true for most of the Corn Belt , then the answer to both of those questions is likely “yes” — and that means you will need to adjust your harvest workflow.

Here are some tips and technologies to help get this crop off as efficiently and stress-free as possible, and then keep it in good condition until you’re ready to sell it:

Plan For Success
The first shift you need to consider is the sequence in which you harvest your fields. If you have a field that was inundated with higher disease pressure than others, and the crop is still standing, you want to prioritize that one over fields where the visual symptoms of disease pressure are not as widespread.

Related: Maximize Soybean Yields — Harvesting This Week Could Be Key

“It’s just [a matter of] expediting the process and getting that infected field harvested quicker than what you had anticipated, which a lot of times comes with higher moisture corn,” says Tyler Kilfoil, digital bin manager, AGI.

Calibrate Yield Monitors

Yield monitor by Darrell Smith

(Darrell Smith)

Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie is worried some farmers might “get into depressed mode” and skip over yield monitor calibrations this fall. Even if yields appear to be below your expectations, Ferrie says these yield maps will be valuable in the years to come. So, get that yield monitor calibrated.

“Even if the yield [data] is depressing, get a good spatial calibration on that yield monitor for both beans and corn,” Ferrie says. “So, when we sit back and the combine is in the shed, we can go through all this data, and it’ll help us make some decisions.”

This year’s data could be particularly useful because it has been such a difficult year, agronomically speaking.

“There’ll be things that show up [in the data] that you don’t see every year, and those yield maps are going to be key,” he says. “That’s the data we need. [It’s] going to help you make decisions not only next year, but for years after.”

Combine Automation Can Help

Two men with a tablet in front of a John Deere vehicle.

(Premier Crop Systems)

Once you have a game plan for attacking your fall harvest and your yield monitor is set, there are new tools within some combines that can help manage variability from field to field.

If you’re running a new John Deere combine (model year 2025 and up), consider using Predictive Ground Speed Automation (PGSA) and Harvest Settings Automation this fall, says John Deere combine specialist Tim Ford.

Related: 5 Yield-Saving Combine Adjustments For Touch-And-Go Fall Harvest

PGSA is a sensing technology that serves as another set of eyes for the combine operator, scanning the crop continuously 28' ahead of the corn head. It reads crop height, biomass and can even detect downed crops. It will speed up where it sees lighter biomass and slow down and take its time in higher biomass.

Harvest Settings Automation works in a similar fashion. The operator sets acceptable levels of grain loss in the combine controller, and then sensors within the machine will read the crop ahead and adjust things like header height and speed to make sure the combine harvests within your set parameters.

“These two systems act as a teammate. We’re not taking the operator out of the cab. We’re using sensors, data and technology to take a heavy burden off the operator and put it on the automation,” Ford says.

Bin Ready? Set It And Forget It

Grain Bin By Lori Hays

(File Photo )

Once the crop is off, AGI’s Kilfoil says the next decision is figuring out what to do with it.

“If it was high moisture when you picked it, that involves getting it down to a proper storage [moisture] level, maybe even running it through an eco-dryer to pull the moisture out of the corn,” he says. “From there, the final landing place is in the bin.”

Once you have this highly variable crop dried down and nestled in the bin, you need visibility into how the grain itself takes to storage conditions, all while keeping a close eye on weather conditions outside the bin, too. That’s where a grain bin monitoring system with automation can pay off — freeing up your time and attention while the system does the checking for you. And it’s just safer than manually checking bins.

“Grain bin monitoring technology is your eyes inside your bank account,” Kilfoil says. “For guys who aren’t typically used to shelling higher moisture corn and storing higher moisture corn, a product like AGI’s Bin Manager lets you sleep in peace at night. It gives you eyes inside the bin, and it’s going to fully automate your system and help with that [storage] process and decision making.”

Your next read: How Pro Farmer 2025 Crop Estimates Compare and Contrast With USDA Expectations