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, 2026How 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, 2026
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
Can 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, 2026
Precision agriculture adoption: what USDA's numbers actually show
Isabel Duarte · August 28, 2026
What the FAA requires before a drone can spray your fields
Isabel Duarte · August 10, 2026What 100% bonus depreciation means for your next equipment purchase
Isabel Duarte · August 9, 2026Seven working steps for farm succession planning
With the average U.S. producer at 58.1 years old and most farmland on the edge of a generational transfer, a documented succession process is the difference between a plan and an auction.
Tanya Brooks · July 23, 2026
Grain export infrastructure shows its age in 2026
Barge grain movements rose in 2025 even as the Upper Mississippi lock system awaited its first new chamber in decades, and USDA projects diverging corn and soybean export paths for 2025/26.
Gabriela Montoya · May 6, 2026Strategy
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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, 2026
Ranking farm capital expenditures when cash is scarce
With USDA ERS forecasting 2026 net farm income at $153.4 billion, most operations face a capital queue — a documented ranking method beats first-come-first-served spending.
Tanya Brooks · July 27, 2026Food
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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, 2026
How 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, 2026What a food recall actually costs the industry
Direct recall costs, lost sales, litigation, and long-term brand damage add up to billions a year across the food system, and the economics push safety investment upstream.
Gabriela Montoya · June 16, 2026Industry News
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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, 2026
What 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, 2026Ag trade policy in 2026: tariffs, payments and open questions
The $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program closed enrollment April 17, 2026, per USDA, and state-level tariff relief programs followed — the documented money now offsetting trade-disruption losses.
Gabriela Montoya · July 14, 2026Business News
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What 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
Women-owned farm businesses keep growing, census data shows
Women were 1.22 million of 3.4 million US producers, 36 percent, in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, and 58 percent of farms count at least one woman in decision-making.
Tanya Brooks · August 10, 2026Precision livestock adoption grows, USDA finds real returns
Robotic milking raised dairy net returns 13 percent on average, per USDA ERS report ERR-356 released January 22, 2026, and adoption data shows where the gains concentrate.
Tanya Brooks · July 18, 2026Why organic price premiums are narrowing for crop farmers
Organic corn traded near $6.50-$7.00 per bushel at the start of the 2025 harvest, per Brownfield reporting, well below the $9.98 average and $5.14 premium of recent USDA-cited data.
Tanya Brooks · June 25, 2026