Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Megan Schilling The power of the sun captured passively in solar arrays boosts energy independence and economic returns on the farm. While solar has been cost-prohibitive to farmers in the past, the rising cost of electricity and the dropping cost of solar installation has created a compelling crossroads. Now, the investment and payback make […]

By: Jodi Henke Building net worth in your farm business happens by retaining earnings in the business, contributing equity from off-farm income, or by inflation from the value of the farm assets. A few producers have even cited earnings from investments in things like a nye casino as part of their equity strategy. The retained […]

By: Jodi Henke Agriculture and our food supply heavily depend on bees for pollination. Tracking bee population trends is the goal of a research assistant professor at Kansas State University. Brian Spiesman says identifying bees can be very difficult without specialized training. He developed a website called “BeeMachine” that uses artificial intelligence to identify specific […]

By: Betsy Freese Robert Saik, ag futurist and CEO of AGvisorPRO, says he is building his next company based on the assumption that rural broadband will sweep across the world soon. “Whether it’s Bezos or Musk or Loon, somebody will crack the code and we will have connectivity on the farm to connect everything together, […]

By: Laurie Bedford Today’s tough economic climate means farmers likely will be hesitant to deploy new technologies. As farmers focus on near-term cash flow vs. maximizing profit long term, Aaron Rudberg predicts there may be a short-term slowdown in technology adoption. “We believe the top-performing farmers will continue to look for digital solutions that improve […]

By: Successful Farming Staff BASF has signed a global commercial agreement with Salient Predictions, Inc. (Salient) to provide customers with access to accurate long-range, seasonal weather forecasting data to further enable precise agronomic decisions. The decision to use Salient services was based on its demonstrated ability to provide the best long-range and seasonal weather forecasting, […]

By: Extreme Ag Team Record cold weather is impacting farm operations across the United States. XtremeAg’s Kevin Matthews, Kelly Garrett, and Matt Miles share how the weather is changing everything from planting dates to grain hauling. On February 16 at 6 a.m. it was -30° F., the coldest I’ve ever seen in my lifetime! The […]

By: Laurie Bedord Because plant breeding and seed product development is a long, expensive process, crop breeders want to find any problem a variety might have as soon as possible to get it out of the pipeline. In the past, measuring traits like plant height meant relying on humans to assess plants. Armed with a […]

By: Mark Moore For livestock operations, time is money. Each additional minute working with an animal, whether it’s checking vaccination or antibiotic treatments, reviewing withdrawal protocols, or balancing feed rations, can eat into the bottom line. When Gage Zellmer incorporated Performance Beef into his Atlantic, Iowa, operation, he was looking for a way to improve […]

By: Laurie Bedord Farmers have seen hundreds of technologies come and go that didn’t prove their worth. So when drones started circling over agriculture a few years ago, it wasn’t surprising the hype of their practicality was met with great skepticism. While some products were good, others were simply not suited for ag. By developing […]