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Specialty growers are adapting to extreme heat the usual way: earlier mornings, more shade and a weather forecast that gets stared at like it owes someone money. Heat harvest: Annie Woods, Kentucky specialty farmer, has been shifting squash and zucchini harvest into cooler morning and evening windows on her 50-acre farm. Shade tents help at farmers markets, but shade is not a business plan. It is a survival tactic with tent stakes. Crop chaos: Extreme heat does not arrive alo

The weekly beef export sales sheet showed up with a number so big it needed its own squeeze chute. Big beef number: Net U.S. beef export sales for 2026 delivery hit 126,062 metric tons for the week ended June 25. That was a marketing-year high and almost 500% above the previous week. In a normal market, that would be the kind of demand signal that makes everyone stand up a little straighter. Paperwork pasture: Then the fine print walked in. Much of the jump appeared to come f

U.S. growers can do a lot of things well. Apparently, buying seed and chemistry cheaply is not one of them. Sticker shock: A new corn-grower analysis called Productive but Priced Out puts hard numbers behind a complaint producers have been making for years: the checkout lane looks different depending on which side of the equator you farm. The comparison looked at seed and crop protection costs in the U.S. and Brazil, which is a tidy way to ruin a perfectly good morning coffee

USDA’s reorganization plan has reached the “please explain this to a judge” stage of government efficiency, which is always a comforting place for food, farms and rural programs to be. The plan: The department says its reorganization is meant to improve efficiency, streamline services and better support producers and the public. The lawsuit: A coalition of unions and nonprofits argues the plan is unlawful because Congress barred USDA from spending fiscal 2026 funds on reorgan

France’s poultry sector just got a terrible reminder that climate adaptation is not a buzzword. It is a barn-level emergency with feathers. Heat lamp, but worse: A late June heatwave killed hundreds of thousands of poultry and overwhelmed carcass collection in major production regions. That is the kind of sentence no farm manager wants to read before coffee. Record roast: The weather was not just uncomfortable. Some areas saw hottest days since national records began in 1947,

Oregon farmers and ranchers may soon have to explain everyday animal care to voters, lawyers and anyone else who has never castrated a calf before breakfast. Signature shuffle: Supporters of Initiative Petition 28, also called the PEACE Act, submitted 142,784 signatures, more than the 117,173 needed before verification. If enough signatures survive the sorting pen, the measure could reach Oregon voters this November. The bill: The draft ballot title says the measure would cri

Tariff twist: Bayer is asking Washington to place duties on Chinese-made glyphosate, turning the Roundup universe from courtroom drama into trade-policy herbicide theater. Farmers, famously relaxed about higher input costs, are not exactly throwing a parade. Farm backlash: Corn and soybean groups are pushing back, warning that Bayer’s petition could make a key weed-control tool more expensive. Hoosier Ag Today reported the petition has sparked farmer backlash after Monsanto C

Cattle crunch: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the SPUR program, short for Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers, with up to $500M aimed at small and mid-size beef processors. That is a big policy steak, even if everyone is still chewing carefully. The problem: Eligible U.S.-owned processors can receive temporary payments to help offset rising cattle acquisition costs while cattle supplies remain historically tight. When cattle cost more and pla

Grant spreader: USDA has rolled out a new $500M fertilizer grant program called FIELDS, aimed at shovel-ready projects that can expand domestic fertilizer manufacturing. Apparently the new farm-policy love language is “please build the nutrient supply chain before everyone’s margins faint.” Import relief: That comes after President Donald J. Trump temporarily suspended certain countervailing duties on phosphate imports from Morocco. The White House framed the move as emergenc

Conservation just walked into the farm office carrying a calculator and a smug little grin. Minnesota farms enrolled in the state’s water quality certification program posted stronger financial numbers again, which is deeply inconvenient for anyone who enjoys pretending conservation is only a cost center. By the numbers: Certified farms averaged just over $197,500 in 2025 net farm income, compared with about $129,400 for non-certified farms. That is not pocket lint. That is a

USDA just handed biofuels a carbon calculator, because apparently the road to regenerative agriculture runs through a spreadsheet wearing a safety vest. The department finalized its rule for regenerative agricultural biofuel feedstocks, laying out how carbon intensity should be quantified, reported and verified for domestic crops. Carbon math: The Federal Register version gives the program its official policy backbone. The practical goal is to create a more consistent way to

Congress is taking another swing at farm labor reform, which is brave, considering this policy field has eaten more good intentions than a combine with a loose bearing. Glenn “GT” Thompson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, is moving a fresh attempt to modernize agricultural labor law, with growers hoping this one does not immediately sink into Washington mud. The wrinkle: The Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act is built around the H-2A guestworker program, the le

New World screwworm is already a livestock nightmare, and now the worry is widening to the people working closest to animals. Farm workers in the Southwest may face higher exposure because they handle livestock, work outdoors and often live far from easy medical care. Agriculture: where even the bugs understand supply-chain pressure. Bug bite: The fly lays eggs in wounds as small as a tick bite, and the larvae feed on living tissue. Known Texas cases have involved animals, no

The Supreme Court just handed Bayer and Monsanto a major win, blocking thousands of lawsuits claiming Roundup should have carried a cancer warning. That sound you hear is every product-liability lawyer in America checking whether the legal weeds are still worth spraying. Court cropdust: The 7-2 ruling centered on whether federal pesticide law blocks state-level failure-to-warn claims when the EPA has not required the same label language. The case involved Roundup, one of agri

Washington just loaded the policy spreader and aimed it at everything: farm aid, biofuels, hemp and war spending. The administration’s supplemental request asks Congress for $87.6 billion tied to Iran-war costs, with $11.1 billion carved out for farmers. That includes $10 billion for 2026 row and specialty crops and $1.1 billion for Florida producers hit by winter storms. Very farm-to-funding. Very subtle. Very Washington. E15 encore: The package also tries to pry open year-r

USMCA is back in Washington’s policy pen, and the gate latch is making concerning noises. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would do better as a country without the trade agreement he signed during his first term. Ah yes, the classic Washington move: frame the family recipe, then ask whether dinner would be better without it. The setup: The agreement faces a required review beginning July 1. Farm and business groups are calling for a full 16-year renewal, while Trump conti

China just slammed Australian beef with a 55% tariff after Australia filled its 2026 imported beef safeguard quota. Nothing says “welcome to the cookout” like a trade barrier thick enough to need a steak knife. The cut: Australia reached 100% of its China beef quota, triggering the tariff for the rest of the calendar year. The additional duty starts after a supplier hits its annual safeguard threshold, which Australia did on June 18. Rare situation: Australia’s quota was 205,

Farmers got the diplomatic equivalent of a rain cloud that passes over the field without dropping much. A possible end to Iran fighting may calm some energy headlines, but it does not fix drought-hit wheat, missing soybean demand or weak competition across agriculture. That is nice, because agriculture famously loves problems that arrive in bulk. The wrinkle: North Carolina farmer Jeff Tyson, fourth-generation farmer, said costs have outrun sales as dry weather and policy sho

Some crop insurance fraud cases involve fuzzy paperwork. This one allegedly involved actual weather equipment getting the “oops, no rain here” treatment. The rain robbers story details how farmers in Colorado and Kansas manipulated precipitation gauges to make drought look worse and collect insurance payouts. Apparently, even raindrops need auditors. How it worked: Federal prosecutors said Patrick Esch, Colorado farmer, and Ed Dean Jagers, Colorado farmer, tampered with rain

USDA is sending a fresh coat of funding to agricultural research, and not the kind where a university building gets one new chair and a “please enjoy innovation” memo. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a $125 million annual investment for the Research Facilities Act program. Lab report: The program is aimed at the unglamorous stuff that makes discovery possible: better controlled environments, safer labs, u