Field Posts

The May WASDE dropped Tuesday, May 12th, offering some bullish surprises for the wheat market, and giving the whole grain complex a boost in advance of President Trump’s long-awaited trip to visit American agriculture’s most important trading partner — China.  With both news and the latest report driving markets this week, we’re joined once again by DTN Lead Markets Analyst Rhett Montgomery who he...

The winners of the National Wheat Yield Contest, hosted by the National Wheat Foundation, represent some of the best wheat growers in the country. And today, we're ducking behind the curtain to learn the secrets of growing bin-busting crops.  DTN Crops Editor Jason Jenkins takes the reins to lead us through a conversation with Greg Anthis, a wheat grower and agronomist from Wheatland, Indiana...

With challenging conditions across much of the ag economy, cattle markets are a bright spot in the first few months of 2026.  Despite high prices, consumers are continuing to buy beef, even in advance of what is usually the peak demand period for the year. Add that to the fact that the Southern border has been closed for nearly twelve months with no signs of reopening anytime soon, and you'll...

The April WASDE dropped Thursday, April 9th, representing the third big update from USDA in two weeks following the Prospective Planting and U.S. Grain Stocks reports. Though expectations from analysts were relatively low, wider uncertainty in the markets related to the ongoing US-Iran conflict and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz have left farmers hungry for any clarity on what might be in st...

Lamenting the “hollowing of rural America” has become standard fare across certain types of media and policy leaders, but for those who live, work, and raise their crops and family in and around small towns, rural America feels far from hollow.  While these communities still face their fair share of challenges, these places are chock full of resilient, vibrant businesses, organizations, and famili...

Three different dicamba herbicide products are making a comeback in 2026 with new labels and new rules for use from EPA.  Whether farmers are aiming to use BASF’s Engenia, Syngenta’s Tavium, or Bayer's newly-renamed Stryax products, there are some changes that farmers and their applicators need to be aware of.  That’s why today, DTN Crops Editor Jason Jenkins is here to walk us through the ve...

We’ve been keeping up with weather and crop conditions in Latin America from afar this winter, but any farmer will tell you that the national data doesn’t tell you as much as seeing a crop with your own eyes.  That’s one of the key reasons that DTN Progressive Farmer Editor in Chief Greg Horstmeier journeyed down to Brazil earlier this month, eager to put boots on the ground and bring us the lates...

As compared to the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine years ago, the earliest days of the war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran did not seem likely to affect U.S. ag markets.  Then the Iranian regime announced its intent to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint in global fertilizer supply chains through which as much as 80% of the world’s nitrogen fertilizer travels. Concerns...

The March WASDE dropped Tuesday, March 10th, though its arrival was in part overshadowed by market concerns about an evolving conflict in the Middle East which has snarled energy and fertilizer supply chains that pass through the Strait of Hormuz.  As farmers, market analysts, and the USDA itself struggle to parse what the latest outbreak of fighting might mean for planting decisions and global su...

The 2026 Commodity Classic event attracted more than 12,000 farmers to sunny San Antonio for multiple days of trade shows, marketing workshops and big announcements from across the industry.  Even U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was in attendance, outlining the department’s key priorities for the year, including trade progress, and elevating their new “One farmer, one file” initiative...

With at least one major winter storm in the rearview, temperatures are ticking up and the countdown to planting is on.  But with soil moisture deficits remaining across much of the U.S., key growing regions, and warm, dry temperatures causing early season fire risks in some parts of the Southern Plains, farmers are hoping that there will be more rain in the forecast before things dry out for sprin...

Despite the fact that she’s in the middle of calving season herself, DTN’s Senior Livestock Editor Jennifer Carrico has been simultaneously staying on top of an avalanche of stories affecting U.S. cattle markets here in 2026.  Today, she joins us with an update on all the latest, from cattle health to consumer demand and weather.  We kick off the conversation with news on ongoing efforts to preven...

Though employees and services from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have not been disrupted by the recently ended partial government shutdown, plenty of uncertainty remains when it comes to ag policy in the new year.  As challenging market conditions continue, farmers and their advocates are increasingly looking to Washington for help opening markets, increasing demand, and bridging the gap unti...

A highly unusual winter storm swept across the United States on Jan. 24-25, plunging parts of the midwest into long stretches of below zero temperatures while dumping feet of snow from Kansas and Missouri all the way into the Northeast. Sleet and ice clogged up conditions from Texas to the Carolinas, and despite the extreme conditions, the precipitation was welcome as drought conditions have conti...

CES, the former Consumer Electronics Show, is hosted every year in Las Vegas, Nevada, attracting the latest and greatest in futuristic tech for consumers, businesses, and everyone in between.  It was just a few years ago, in 2019, when John Deere became one of the first major ag companies to exhibit at the show, and since then agricultural equipment and tech companies have become a mainstay. DTN P...

With a long year of uncertainty in the rearview — farmers are coming into 2026 with hope for more stability in terms of global trade, prices, and growing conditions. While the outlook for some of these factors remains unclear, global fertilizer markets, for one, show signs of stability going into the new year.  To help us understand the fertilizer forecast, we’re joined this week by DTN Fertilizer...

The January WASDE dropped Monday, January 12th, shocking market watchers with an updated U.S. corn crop that’s now a record by an even wider margin. Almost no one expected USDA to add 1.3 million harvested corn acres to the mix on top of a half bushel boost to the national average corn yield, bringing the estimated 2025 U.S. corn crop to over 17 billion bushels.  To help us put this, and all the o...

DTN’s 2025 Virtual Ag Summit has just wrapped up, with farmers from across the country convening to discuss what to expect, and how to prepare, for an uncertain year ahead.  The event also gave DTN Progressive Farmer’s Senior Editor Dan Miller a chance to show off some of the stellar producers honored in the 2026 class of America’s Best Young Farmers and Ranchers . Today, we’ll drop in on the conv...

Every year, the staff of DTN Progressive Farmer spend time reflecting on the news that was and evaluating which stories did the most to shape producers’ experience in the field, in the markets, and beyond.  Given the non-stop flood of news this year, competition to make the list of the Top 10 Ag Stories of 2025 was particularly stiff.  To walk us through the top stories, we’re joined today by DTN...

The U.S. tax code doesn’t often go through big changes, but with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, or OBBBA, earlier this year, there are plenty of changes to keep an eye out for as 2026 comes into view. To help us understand what’s new and what matters most, DTN’s Taxlink columnist and CliftonLarsonAllen principle Rod Mauszycki joins us for an update on what’s new, what he’s talking abou...

The December WASDE dropped Tuesday, December 9th, bringing home what’s been a tumultuous year of grain market news in the U.S. and beyond.  Though the Department of Agriculture is still catching up on some reporting that was disrupted during the government shutdown, the coming of this relatively quiet report — which anticipates a more active January WASDE — marks a much-anticipated return to norma...

The 2025 DTN’s Ag Summit has just wrapped up, with farmers from across the country convening virtually to discuss the year that was, the year ahead, and the key issues affecting their operations.  Forecasts for weather and market in the year to come were, as always, a top issue, and today on the podcast we’re dropping in to hear the latest.  Today, we’ll listen in on DTN Ag Meteorologist John Bara...

Another harvest season is just about wrapped, which means that the annual DTN Ag Summit event is upon us once again — coming up on December 3rd and 4th.  This year’s program aims to help farmers prepare for success as they navigate lukewarm markets, and plenty of open questions around everything from farm policy to the global trade landscape.  Today, DTN Farm Business Editor Katie Dehlinger joins...

The November WASDE dropped Friday, November 14th, marking a return to normalcy as the longest government shutdown in history came to an end and USDA began to process and release more than a month of unpublished data. Surprises abounded, and markets oscillated between responding to new and confirmed information and reacting to the latest comments and updates from the Trump Administration in the hou...

The U.S. federal government began a partial shutdown starting Wednesday October 1st, and after 43 long days it finally came to end on November 12th. A resumption of funding means that many furloughed USDA employees will be getting back to work, and farmers and ranchers across the country can finally expect some forward movement on issues from biofuels to possible trade aid.  To help guide us throu...