Pivotal Issues Blog

By Terry Munz We haven’t had much rain this year. I grow a forage mix for the horse market—mainly grain and hay. I’m cutting it right now. I’m probably going to cut about half of what I planted. It’s pretty poor, even that. Last year wasn’t too bad, but for the last five years, it’s […]

By Dan Miller Rural crime costs farmers and their insurance companies more than $5 billion a year. Popular targets for theft are livestock, timber, saddles and tack, chemicals and fertilizer. Equipment tops the wish list for enterprising thieves. There is a rich market for stolen equipment in the United States, Mexico and even overseas in […]

By Paula Mohr Honey bee colonies for operations with five or more colonies in Minnesota as of January 1, 2016 totaled 37,000 colonies, according to the Minnesota Field Office of USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service. This is 32% above the 28,000 colonies on January 1, 2015. However, by the end of the first quarters in […]

By Jim Ochterski Old habits die hard. Sometimes they don’t ever die, even if they come at an obvious cost. Author Douglas Adams wrote three principles about new technologies that could fit most farm CEO’s looking into new management technologies for farm operations: Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and […]

By Aimee Cope Kubota Corporation said Friday that it plans to buy Great Plains Manufacturing Inc., of Salina, Kansas. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but once final, the purchase will include all five Great Plains divisions, including: Great Plains Ag, Land Pride, Great Plains International, Great Plains Trucking and Great Plains Acceptance […]

By Greg Peterson Everywhere I go, traveling through the U.S. and Canada covering the used farm equipment market, I run into amazing people and amazing stories. Hard working, creative folks who often times find a better way of doing something and quite often do special things for their friends, neighbors or customers. Guys like Joe […]

By Ben Potter Do you know what Uber, Snapchat, Dropbox, Pinterest and Climate Corporation all have in common? They’re all known as “unicorns” – start-up companies that are valued at more than $1 billion. Technically, Climate Corporation was purchased by Monsanto in 2013 for $930 million and therefore falls short of the exact definition, but […]

By Ben Potter There are apps aplenty in agriculture. Apps to help you scout fields and keep records. Apps to make smarter crop health or animal wellness decisions. Apps that optimize machinery and precision equipment. But Jaime Vos, AEM safety materials manager, is on the hunt for something a bit different. “When it comes to mobile […]

By Betsy Jibben As U.S. tractor sales have decreased overall, leasing has become a popular way for farmers to get their hands on a new piece of machinery without paying big bucks. Lower commodity prices and decreased income have a strain on farmer’s checkbooks and a drain on equipment makers. “2015 to me? I call […]

By Associated Press Ray Kopacz shouted over the rumbling of the cement truck one recent morning as workers patched up a break in the Stanfield Branch Furnish Ditch that cost farmers a full day’s worth of irrigation water. The Stanfield Irrigation District had just started pulling water from the Umatilla River on March 31 and […]