As planting season ramps up, uncertainty around the season does as well. Wyffels Hybrids has introduced a free, online tool that can help take some of the guess-work out of spring field work.
AMES, Iowa — Drones are beginning to play a role in Iowa agriculture, particularly for crop monitoring and pesticide application, but most farmers remain uncertain about the technology’s advantages and limitations, according to results from the 2025 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, an annual s…
- Katelyn Winberg
Gene-edited crops reach farmers’ fields faster than regulators around the world can agree on how to oversee them, and the resulting divide is shaping where agricultural innovation takes place.
- Crystal Reed
The markets are eyeing the forecast to see whether planting progress will push forward or not.
- Kathryn Markham USDA ARS
When it comes to irrigation, one of the greatest dangers is salt – the tiny molecule that can wreak havoc on the plants’ ability to function. Yet some plants, in all their complexity, have developed tools that can help them resist even that challenge. Now, U.S. Department of Agriculture Agri…
System gives early warning of streamflow drought conditions
- Katelyn Winberg
"Sixty to 65% of the yield we lose in a season comes from stress," South Dakota native Jason Schley told the crowd at Commodity Classic. "Our industry is so focused on offense, but the biggest bang for your dollar is defense."
- Kristen Sindelar
Ever feel like you’re a pawn when trying to decrypt all the different agricultural programs and incentives? Sometimes it seems like just when you're about to make a move, the rules of the game change. Instead of landing on “payday,” you’re sent back to square one.
- Kristen Sindelar
Having the capability to broadcast residual herbicides while simultaneously spot spraying non-residual herbicides can increase yields by as much as 18 bushels per acre.
- Janelle Atyeo
“It would be very challenging if this were year one.”
- Katelyn Winberg
Commodity Classic’s general session drew record attendance Feb. 26 in San Antonio, Texas, as agricultural leaders gathered to discuss policy priorities, technology and market opportunities.
- Eric Yu and Ryan Miller University of Minnesota
Most spray solutions are more than 95 percent water, yet water quality is rarely considered when herbicide performance comes up short. The pH of that water and the minerals dissolved in it can directly influence how well an herbicide works once it is sprayed. Certain dissolved cations, such …
- Kristen Sindelar
One company is eliminating guesswork around fungicide application through its biosensing capability that is rooted in the plant’s physiology.
- By Stan Wise, South Dakota Soil Health Coalition
By now, most people working in agriculture have heard that growing a cover crop after a cash crop is harvested can make a big difference in soil health. Healthy soil pays off in a number of ways, including reduced input costs and increased operational resilience, but farmers have to get crea…
- By Sara Bauder, SDSU Extension
Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new information regarding over-the-top dicamba applications to soybean and cotton, with the main changes focusing on maximum application rates and temperature cut-offs.
- Abigail Peterson Illinois Soybean Association
Planting winter wheat on ground in Bureau County represented a notable departure from the long-standing corn-soybean rotation that has traditionally defined much of north-central Illinois agriculture. Incorporating wheat into that system was not something that was initially expected to be wi…
- By Marie Flanagan of North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE)
Herbicide-resistant weeds are becoming a significant challenge for farmers in the semiarid Central Great Plains, particularly in wheat-sorghum-fallow rotations. Weeds like kochia and Palmer amaranth are becoming increasingly difficult to control each year, and the number of herbicide options…
- Crystal Reed
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Conservation practices affect different farms in unique ways and make different demands of the farmer depending on their operation.
- By Sarah Jackson, University of Minnesota Extension
Oats were once a major Minnesota crop, with about 4 million acres planted annually on average until the early 1960s. But in 2025, oats accounted for only 195,000 planted acres in Minnesota, and those oats were used mostly for livestock feed and straw bedding. Meanwhile, corn planted in 2025 …
South Dakota State University Extension and Premier Crop Systems are recruiting corn farmers to participate in nitrogen fertilizer trials.
Farmers gather in Rochester to discuss strategies for diversifying cropping systems
- Kristen Sindelar
Run into a farmer at the local coffee shop or parts counter, and conversation invariably turns to the weather. But in 2025, discussions gravitated to the surmounting problem in fields: fungal disease.
- Katelyn Winberg
Researchers across the Upper Midwest are keeping a close eye on soybean tentiform leafminer, an insect that’s recently been confirmed in soybean fields across several states – including Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas. So far it has not been detected in Wisconsin.
- Katelyn Winberg
As farmers look ahead to the 2026 growing season, tight margins and lingering uncertainty continue to shape planning decisions across the tri-state region.
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