How to read a commodity market report like an analyst
A working guide to WASDE-style reports, futures vocabulary, and the few lines that actually change decisions at the farm gate.
Isabel Duarte · October 22, 2026Farm Press Theme
Succession strategy: passing the farm without passing on conflict
The hardest transition on most farms is not the paperwork. It is the conversation nobody scheduled.
Tanya Brooks · October 21, 2026
Farm Management 101: Budgeting Basics Every Operator Needs
A budget is your farm plan written in numbers. Learn the enterprise, cash flow, and whole farm budgets every operator needs to keep a farm pointed at profit.
Isabel Duarte · October 4, 2026
From Ag Degree to Boardroom: Career Paths Beyond the Farm Gate
An agribusiness degree opens doors in lending, policy, food companies and development work. Here is how those paths actually differ, and what each one asks of you.
Isabel Duarte · October 2, 2026
The layers of agribusiness: where margin is made and lost
A plain-English map of the value chain, from input suppliers to the retail shelf, and what each tier does to the money.
Isabel Duarte · October 1, 2026
Is an Agribusiness Degree Worth It? Courses, Costs and Outcomes
The honest answer depends on whether your goal is running an operation or working in the business around it.
Isabel Duarte · September 29, 2026Structural change in agriculture: the seven forces to plan around
A Kansas City Fed summit gathered farm and agribusiness executives to map the forces reshaping the next decade. Here is a reference guide to those forces and what each one means for a farm business.
Isabel Duarte · September 26, 2026Precision agriculture adoption: what USDA's numbers actually show
Isabel Duarte · August 28, 2026
Ag equipment sales downturn deepens into a third year
U.S. farm machinery sales fell 13 percent to 217,279 units in 2025, per University of Illinois farmdoc daily, and dealers enter 2026 with too much used inventory and cautious buyers.
Isabel Duarte · February 27, 2026Strategy
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Crop rotation planning: sequencing crops for yield, soil and margin
A rotation is a business commitment made years before the crop is planted. Here is how to sequence it.
Tanya Brooks · September 15, 2026
How to read USDA crop reports without overreacting
Tanya Brooks · August 26, 2026
How prevented planting payments are calculated under crop insurance
The federal program pays a share of a crop's guarantee when planting deadlines pass unmet. The percentage, the dates, and the acreage minimum are set in the policy well before a wet spring makes them relevant.
Tanya Brooks · August 21, 2026
What basis means for the price your elevator actually pays
Tanya Brooks · August 19, 2026Food
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How food delivery changed the small farm business model
Third-party apps, ghost kitchens, and delivery fees now sit between growers and the customers who search for food near them.
Gabriela Montoya · September 25, 2026
What the FDA's pushed-back food traceability deadline means now
The Food Traceability Rule's compliance date moved to July 20, 2028. Here's what that changes — and doesn't — for farms on the Food Traceability List.
Gabriela Montoya · August 15, 2026How specialty crop labor shapes fresh food prices
Fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts are hand-picked by a workforce that is mostly seasonal and foreign-born, and labor costs now set the floor under much of the produce aisle.
Gabriela Montoya · August 1, 2026Dairy processing consolidation enters a building phase
The same consolidation that emptied rural creameries is now producing giant specialized plants, and the new capacity map redraws where milk is worth the most.
Gabriela Montoya · July 9, 2026Industry News
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The ethanol economy: how corn becomes fuel and feed
Fermentation, distillation, and the co-products that make the plant pencil — plus the policy rules that decide how much ethanol the market takes.
Gabriela Montoya · September 20, 2026
USDA's August 2025 WASDE sized a big corn crop
The first survey-based forecast of the 2025/26 season landed near record territory for corn — the operator consequence runs through basis and storage math.
Isabel Duarte · August 24, 2026What grain basis measures, and why it swings by region
Basis is the cash price minus the futures price, and it moved sharply in 2024-2025 — here is what sets it and how to read it.
Isabel Duarte · August 17, 2026Agtech funding in 2026 holds steady, unevenly distributed
Agtech venture funding topped $2 billion in Q2 2026 after 163 startups raised $1.89 billion in Q1, per industry round-ups — flat overall, with the story in where the dollars landed.
Isabel Duarte · August 5, 2026Business News
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Cooperatives 101: Why farmers pool buying and selling power
Member-owned co-ops set input prices, move grain, and answer to one member, one vote — with real governance trade-offs.
Tanya Brooks · September 28, 2026
How to read a farm equipment auction sheet before you bid
Hours, condition notes, and buyer's fees tell you most of what you need to set a ceiling price before the auctioneer starts.
Tanya Brooks · September 18, 2026Can farmers trust AI yield predictions? Trust is the real test
A predictive agriculture system only changes outcomes when the farmer understands it, believes it, and acts on it — and that is a governance question, not a software one.
Isabel Duarte · September 13, 2026What a Farm Storage Facility Loan costs, and who qualifies
USDA caps the facility loan at $500,000 with 15 percent down and terms of three to 12 years. Here is what the rules require, what August 2026 rates were, and how the storage cost compares.
Tanya Brooks · August 12, 2026