Pivotal Issues Blog

By: DakotaFarmer There is a quick-start instruction manual for farmers who want to start growing cover crops. The Midwest Cover Crops Council (MCCC) is offering free downloadable PDFs explaining how and why to add cover crops to a corn-soybean rotation. Charles Ellis, a University of Missouri Extension field specialist in agricultural engineering who also serves […]

By: Steve Groff Although I try not to pitch cover crops as a magic bullet for cost saving, the truth is that the answer to the question, “Do cover crops pay?” is a resounding “Yes!” Often, we tend to focus on where they pay off in profit with increased yields. But one of the most overlooked […]

By: Chris Torres A look at the most recent Crop Progress Report for Pennsylvania shows that marestail, or horseweed, has started to emerge in some fields across the state and in other parts of the Mid-Atlantic. Controlling this weed can be very challenging, as most farmers already know, but the sooner you try to control it […]

By: Tom J Bechman If you want to grow as many bushels of corn per acre as possible, a good place to start is looking for symptoms of nutrient deficiencies. Dave Nanda says once you know how to recognize deficiency symptoms, you can determine if you need to make management adjustments. Nanda is director of […]

By Natalina Sents Montana rancher Whitney Klasna may not exactly be famous, but her cows are. A video she shot while doing chores in January 2016 has been seen hundreds of millions of times. Shortly after posting her “Crossfit Cow” to social media, the clip of a cow playfully rolling a 1,100 pound straw bale […]

By Laurie Bedord In today’s grain market, farmers can’t afford to lose even a single bushel of stored grain. Yet, keeping a crop healthy when it’s stored longer and in larger bins continues to be a problem that plagues the industry: About $12 billion in grain is lost to spoilage every year. While temperature cables […]

While technology has given machines incredible abilities, trust comes in the form of knowing the limitations of a system. “In the case of an algorithm driving a crop modeling decision, trust comes in knowing the limitations of the parameters of that algorithm,” says Joel Wipperfurth, director of e-business for WinField United. Read More

By Zippy Duvall Take a drive through Hamilton County, Kansas, population 2,500, and you know you are in the heart of rural America. Hamilton County has an abundance of many things – wheat, sorghum, and dairy, for starters – but broadband isn’t one of them. That’s a scary prospect when participation in the modern economy […]

By Jodi Henke Farmers who don’t have a veterinarian close by can have difficulty getting quick information and resources for their animal health and management issues. A team of Prairie View A&M University researchers in Texas has developed a smart device app to help farmers get improved access to veterinary care, especially in remote areas. […]

By Jodi Henke magine a robot killing Palmer Amaranth in your field with a rotating cylinder about the size of a rolling pin in your kitchen and applies herbicide like a honey dripper. A University of Nebraska professor of chemical and biological engineering is working on it. Henk Viljoen’s goal is to spot-treat weeds in […]