Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Sara Schafer As Top Producer Editor, the favorite part of my job is visiting farmers across the country. I love being able to see impressive operations up close and hear the pride in farmers’ voices as they tell me about their operations. Last week I traveled to central Illinois (Louisville, to be exact) to […]

By: Shawn Williamson Recently, a farmer and client of mine passed away. He was a successful farmer with several hundred acres, worth millions of dollars. The thing that struck me as unusual and important was the fact that the farm was only half of his wealth. The other half consisted of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, […]

By: Sonja Begemann While the west suffers through drought, farmers across parts of the Midwest deal with ponding, excess moisture and excess humidity. Whether you’re in droughty conditions or moist you need to scout for disease based on what environmental risks you have. “Watch for pythium, fusarium and even Rhizoctonia,” says Dean Grossnickle, Syngenta agronomic […]

By: Successful Farming Every farmer understands that applying pesticides on a windy day is a bad idea, but applying on a still day may be just as bad. Lack of wind can turn into a big problem in some circumstances. If you see a thin layer of fog in the calm, cool early morning hours, […]

By: Sarah Beth Aubrey If you’re wondering how best to incorporate young people into your farming operation—just ask them. At this year’s Top Producer Seminar, I hosted a panel with young farmers Zoey Brooks of Waupaca, Wis.; Clayton Phelps of Groveland, N.Y.; and Julie Linder, from Norwalk, Ohio. Off-Farm Experience. Should young farmers work off […]

By: Gil Gullickson The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued a report on what it says are almost 28,000 U.S. farmers who received taxpayer-funded federal farm subsidies or disaster relief payments for 32 straight years. That’s according to a new EWG analysis of USDA data. It says these payments tallied around $19.2 billion of federal […]

By: Sonja Begemann Farmers across the U.S. are out scouting, and in some cases spotty soybean fields are leaving them wondering if there are enough plants out there to grow a crop. Cutworms, weather, whatever, scout to determine what’s going on—and save time by calculating soybean populations with a hula hoop. Replant is a tricky […]

By: Natalina Sents John Deere has introduced the new 5075GL specialty tractor for farmers working in orchards and vineyards. The new narrow, low-profile machine is ideal for navigating tight spaces in dense, high value crop fields. Growers will appreciate the small stature of the specialty tractor but can still enjoy enough power to pull flail […]

By: Robert M. Harveson Rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia helianthi, is not a disease that we see every year. However, if it occurs early in the season, it can pose severe disease problem of sunflowers in Nebraska, particularly in irrigated fields. Signs of rust observed this spring in volunteer sunflowers at the Panhandle Research […]

By: Darrell Smith “Farmers will have to become more efficient than ever to meet goals like the 45% reduction in nitrogen loss called for in Illinois’ nitrogen reduction strategy,” Ferrie adds. The purpose of the strategy is to reduce nitrate pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and other water bodies. States are adopting their […]