Pivotal Issues Blog

By Brad Haire The Panama Canal expansion, which has been touted for what it will do for global trade, opened officially June 26 when a Chinese megaship successfully eased through the manmade canal. Here are 4 things to keep in mind about this new passage for global agricultural trade: 1. The first vessel through was […]

By Tyler Harris Amit Jhala calls it the future of weed control. “Right now we aren’t seeing any brand-new herbicides with new modes of action. I don’t think we will it in the next five years or so,” says Jhala, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension weed management specialist. What growers do have coming to the market […]

By Tom Bechman One year ago by this time, there was lots of chatter about disease across most of the east-central Corn Belt. There are some reports this year, especially of northern corn leaf blight in some areas. But based on the Crop Watch ’16 field, located on the same farm and a mile away […]

By Farm Progress Kansas Farmer Hot, wet weather like Kansas has seen for the last month is good for plant growth. But it also helps pests flourish and evidence of that abounds in corn and alfalfa fields across Kansas. Kansas State University and Extension crop specialists are observing insect pests currently in Kansas, including potato leafhoppers, […]

By: Sonja Begemann Foreign government approvals hold up U.S.-approved technology Think back to the biotech revolution of the mid-90s to now. Today, more than 90% of corn and soybean acres are planted to biotech crops, many of which are stacked with multiple biotech traits. It’s hard to believe the technology didn’t exist for farmers for […]

By Robert Coats USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service 2016 U.S. harvested acreage projections released June 30 demonstrate the productive capacity of U.S. rice, cotton, and grain producers. Long-grain rice – second largest in current 11 years at 2.449 million acres (Chart 18). Soybeans – largest on record at 83.037 million acres (Chart 22). Cotton – fourth […]

By Bruce Anderson, Nebraska Extension Forage Specialist Rained-on hay plagues all of us eventually. This year maybe more than usual. The “windrow disease” that often follows presents lingering problems. Windrow disease—that’s the name I give to the striped appearance in fields where alfalfa windrows remained so long that regrowth was delayed. Usually it’s due to […]

By Paul Bergener Cost of production budgets with the ability to make changes on the fly will offer farmers flexibility when doing cash flow planning this winter. Historically, crop budgets have been a static publication that could be used to get a rough idea of costs on a farm, but could not be easily manipulated […]

By Tyne Morgan On the cusp of suburbia, in the middle of fertile farmland, you can find Christy Kirtley cutting hay and raising cattle. “For us to put fence posts through black dirt, I think they thought we were going crazy to be honest with you,” she says. That didn’t stop them from striving to […]

By Paul Bergener Combines may be the most expensive of all the machines used on many farms, and are used for fewer days than much of the machinery inventory. There is an active custom harvest industry that offers farmers another option for getting the work done instead of combine ownership. This big decision needs to […]